четверг, 22 ноября 2012 г.

Games

Games

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16168-16181: A Catalytic Sensor for Measurement of Radical Density in CO2 Plasmas

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

A catalytic sensor for the measurement of radical density in weakly ionized CO2 plasmas, created in a low-pressure electrodeless discharge, is presented. The CO2 plasma was created in a 4 cm wide borosilicate glass tube inside a copper coil connected to a radio frequency generator operating at 27.12 MHz with a nominal power of 250 W. The dissociation fraction of the CO2 molecules was measured in the early afterglow at pressures ranging from 10 Pa to 100 Pa, and at distances of up to 35 cm along the gas stream from the glowing plasma. The radical density peaked (2 × 1020 m–3) at 80 Pa. The density quickly decreased with increasing distance from the glowing plasma despite a rather large drift velocity. The dissociation fraction showed similar behavior, except that the maximum was obtained at somewhat lower pressure. The results were explained by rather intense surface recombination of radicals.

IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 15575-15587: Genomic DNA Methylation Changes in NYGGF4-Overexpression 3T3-L1 Adipocytes

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

NYGGF4, an obesity-related gene, is proposed to be involved in the development of insulin resistance; however, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In the present analysis, NimbleGen tiling arrays were used to determine the patterns of genomic DNA methylation at CpG islands and promoters in NYGGF4-overexpression adipocytes. A total of 2352 CpG dinucleotides in 2018 genes and 3490 CpG dinucleotides in 3064 genes were found to be hypermethylated or hypomethylated, respectively, in NYGGF4-overexpression adipocytes. Furthermore, gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG) pathway analysis revealed enrichment of biological processes associated with energy metabolism and signal transduction events, including the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) signaling pathway, and mitogen-activated protein kinases(MAPK) and Ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA) signaling. These data demonstrate that differentially methylated genes are significantly overrepresented in NYGGF4-overexpression adipocytes, providing valuable clues for further exploration of the role of NYGGF4 in insulin sensitivity regulation.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16144-16167: Advancing Profiling Sensors with a Wireless Approach

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

The notion of a profiling sensor was first realized by a Near-Infrared (N-IR) retro-reflective prototype consisting of a vertical column of wired sparse detectors. This paper extends that prior work and presents a wireless version of a profiling sensor as a collection of sensor nodes. The sensor incorporates wireless sensing elements, a distributed data collection and aggregation scheme, and an enhanced classification technique. In this novel approach, a base station pre-processes the data collected from the sensor nodes and performs data re-alignment. A back-propagation neural network was also developed for the wireless version of the N-IR profiling sensor that classifies objects into the broad categories of human, animal or vehicle with an accuracy of approximately 94%. These enhancements improve deployment options as compared with the first generation of wired profiling sensors, possibly increasing the application scenarios for such sensors, including intelligent fence applications.

IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 15565-15574: An Inverse Relationship Links Temperature and Substrate Apparent Affinity in the Ion-Coupled Cotransporters rGAT1 and KAAT1

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

The effects of temperature on the operation of two ion-coupled cotransporters of the SLC6A family, namely rat GAT1 (SLC6A1) and KAAT1 (SLC6A19) from Manduca sexta, have been studied by electrophysiological means in Xenopus laevis oocytes expressing these proteins. The maximal transport-associated current (Imax) and the apparent substrate affinity (K05) were measured. In addition to the expected increase in transport rate (Q10 = 3–6), both transporters showed greater K05 values (i.e., a decrease in apparent affinity) at higher temperatures. The transport efficiency, estimated as Imax/K05, increased at negative potentials in both transporters, but did not show statistically significant differences with temperature. The observation that the apparent substrate affinity is inversely related to the transport rate suggests a kinetic regulation of this parameter. Furthermore, the present results indicate that the affinities estimated at room temperature for mammalian cotransporters may not be simply extrapolated to their physiological operating conditions.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16116-16143: A Wireless Sensor Enabled by Wireless Power

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Through harvesting energy by wireless charging and delivering data by wireless communication, this study proposes the concept of a wireless sensor enabled by wireless power (WPWS) and reports the fabrication of a prototype for functional tests. One WPWS node consists of wireless power module and sensor module with different chip-type sensors. Its main feature is the dual antenna structure. Following RFID system architecture, a power harvesting antenna was designed to gather power from a standard reader working in the 915 MHz band. Referring to the Modbus protocol, the other wireless communication antenna was integrated on a node to send sensor data in parallel. The dual antenna structure integrates both the advantages of an RFID system and a wireless sensor. Using a standard UHF RFID reader, WPWS can be enabled in a distributed area with a diameter up to 4 m. Working status is similar to that of a passive tag, except that a tag can only be queried statically, while the WPWS can send dynamic data from the sensors. The function is the same as a wireless sensor node. Different WPWSs equipped with temperature and humidity, optical and airflow velocity sensors are tested in this study. All sensors can send back detection data within 8 s. The accuracy is within 8% deviation compared with laboratory equipment. A wireless sensor network enabled by wireless power should be a totally wireless sensor network using WPWS. However, distributed WPWSs only can form a star topology, the simplest topology for constructing a sensor network. Because of shielding effects, it is difficult to apply other complex topologies. Despite this limitation, WPWS still can be used to extend sensor network applications in hazardous environments. Further research is needed to improve WPWS to realize a totally wireless sensor network.

IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 15536-15564: Cancer Cell Response to Anthracyclines Effects: Mysteries of the Hidden Proteins Associated with These Drugs

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

A comprehensive proteome map of T-lymphoblastic leukemia cells and its alterations after daunorubicin, doxorubicin and mitoxantrone treatments was monitored and evaluated either by paired comparison with relevant untreated control and using multivariate classification of treated and untreated samples. With the main focus on early time intervals when the influence of apoptosis is minimized, we found significantly different levels of proteins, which corresponded to 1%–2% of the total amount of protein spots detected. According to Gene Ontology classification of biological processes, the highest representation of identified proteins for all three drugs belong to metabolic processes of proteins and nucleic acids and cellular processes, mainly cytoskeleton organisation and ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. Importantly, we observed significant proportion of changes in proteins involved in the generation of precursor metabolites and energy typical for daunorubicin, transport proteins participating in response to doxorubicin and a group of proteins of immune system characterising response to mitoxantrone. Both a paired comparison and the multivariate evaluation of quantitative data revealed daunorubicin as a distinct member of the group of anthracycline/anthracenedione drugs. A combination of identified drug specific protein changes, which may help to explain anti-cancer activity, together with the benefit of blocking activation of adaptive cancer pathways, presents important approaches to improving treatment outcomes in cancer.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16099-16115: Automatic Method for Building Indoor Boundary Models from Dense Point Clouds Collected by Laser Scanners

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

In this paper we present a method that automatically yields Boundary Representation Models (B-rep) for indoors after processing dense point clouds collected by laser scanners from key locations through an existing facility. Our objective is particularly focused on providing single models which contain the shape, location and relationship of primitive structural elements of inhabited scenarios such as walls, ceilings and floors. We propose a discretization of the space in order to accurately segment the 3D data and generate complete B-rep models of indoors in which faces, edges and vertices are coherently connected. The approach has been tested in real scenarios with data coming from laser scanners yielding promising results. We have deeply evaluated the results by analyzing how reliably these elements can be detected and how accurately they are modeled.

IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 15523-15535: Ginsenoside Rh2 Induces Human Hepatoma Cell Apoptosisvia Bax/Bak Triggered Cytochrome C Release and Caspase-9/Caspase-8 Activation

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Ginsenoside Rh2 (G-Rh2) has been shown to induce apoptotic cell death in a variety of cancer cells. However, the details of the signal transduction cascade involved in G-Rh2-induced cell death is unclear. In this manuscript we elucidate the molecular mechanism of G-Rh2-induced apoptosis in human hepatoma SK-HEP-1 cells by demonstrating that G-Rh2 causes rapid and dramatic translocation of both Bak and Bax, which subsequently triggers mitochondrial cytochrome c release and consequent caspase activation. Interestingly, siRNA-based gene inactivation of caspase-8 effectively delays caspase-9 activation and apoptosis induced by G-Rh2, indicating that caspase-8 also plays an important role in the G-Rh2-induced apoptosis program. Taken together, our results indicate that G-Rh2 employs a multi pro-apoptotic pathway to execute cancer cell death, suggesting a potential role for G-Rh2 as a powerful chemotherapeutic agent.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16077-16098: Modeling and Performance Analysis of Movement-Based Group Location Management Using RFID Sensing in Public Transportation Systems

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Location management, which consists of location registration and paging, is essential to provide mobile communication services to mobile stations (MSs). Since MSs riding on a public transportation system (TS) generates significant location registration signaling loads simultaneously when a TS with riding MSs moves between location areas (LAs), group location management was proposed. Under the group location management, an MS performs group registration when it gets on a TS and performs group deregistration when it gets off a TS. Then, only a TS updates its current location when it changes LA, on behalf of all riding MSs. In this paper, movement-based group location management using radio frequency identification (RFID) is proposed, where the MS's getting on and getting off behaviors are detected using RFID and only location update of a TS is carried out if the number of crossed cells from the last updated cell exceeds a predefined movement threshold, on behalf of all riding MSs. Then, we develop an analytical model for the performance analysis of the movement-based group location management and analyze the effects of various parameters on the performance. The results show that the movement-based group location management has reduced signaling cost compared with movement-based individual location management, and optimal performance can be achieved by choosing appropriate movement threshold values.

IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 15510-15522: Microtubule Formation and Activities of Antioxidative Enzymes in PC12 Cells Exposed to Phosphatidylcholine Hydroperoxides

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Aging increases free radical generation and lipid oxidation and, thereby, mediates neurodegenerative diseases. As the brain is rich in lipids (polyunsaturated fatty acids), the antioxidative system plays an important role in protecting brain tissues from oxidative injury. The changes in microtubule formation and antioxidative enzyme activities have been investigated in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells exposed to various concentrations of phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxides (PCOOH). We measured three typical antioxidative enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and catalase (CAT). The microtubule assembly system was dependent on the antioxidative enzyme system in cells exposed to oxidative stress. The activities of the three enzymes increased in a PCOOH exposure-dependent manner. In particular, the changes in the activity as a result of PCOOH exposure were similar in the three antioxidative enzymes. This is the first report indicating the compatibility between the tubulin-microtubule and antioxidative enzyme systems in cells that deteriorate as a result of phospholipid hydroperoxide administration from an exterior source. The descending order of sensitivity of the three enzymes to PCOOH is also discussed.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16060-16076: Investigation of Volatiles Emitted from Freshly Cut Onions (Allium cepa L.) by Real Time Proton-Transfer Reaction-Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS)

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in cut onions (Allium cepa L.) were continuously measured by PTR-MS during the first 120 min after cutting. The headspace composition changed rapidly due to the very reactive volatile sulfurous compounds emitted from onion tissue after cell disruption. Mass spectral signals corresponding to propanethial S-oxide (the lachrymatory factor) and breakdown products of this compound dominated 0–10 min after cutting. Subsequently, propanethiol and dipropyl disulfide predominantly appeared, together with traces of thiosulfinates. The concentrations of these compounds reached a maximum at 60 min after cutting. Propanethiol was present in highest concentrations and had an odor activity value 20 times higher than dipropyl disulfide. Thus, propanethiol is suggested to be the main source of the characteristic onion odor. Monitoring the rapid changes of VOCs in the headspace of cut onion necessitates a high time resolution, and PTR-MS is demonstrated to be a very suitable method for monitoring the headspace of freshly cut onions directly after cutting without extraction or pre-concentration.

IJMS, Vol. 13, Pages 15496-15509: Identification of kakusei, a Nuclear Non-Coding RNA, as an Immediate Early Gene from the Honeybee, and Its Application for Neuroethological Study

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

The honeybee is a social insect that exhibits various social behaviors. To elucidate the neural basis of honeybee behavior, we detected neural activity in freely-moving honeybee workers using an immediate early gene (IEG) that is expressed in a neural activity-dependent manner. In European honeybees (Apis mellifera), we identified a novel nuclear non-coding RNA, termed kakusei, as the first insect IEG, and revealed the neural activity pattern in foragers. In addition, we isolated a homologue of kakusei, termed Acks, from the Japanese honeybee (Apis cerana), and detected active neurons in workers fighting with the giant hornet.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16046-16059: Implementation of Human-Machine Synchronization Control for Active Rehabilitation Using an Inertia Sensor

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

According to neuro-rehabilitation practice, active training is effective for mild stroke patients, which means these patients are able to recovery effective when they perform the training to overcome certain resistance by themselves. Therefore, for rehabilitation devices without backdrivability, implementation of human-machine synchronization is important and a precondition to perform active training. In this paper, a method to implement this precondition is proposed and applied in a user's performance of elbow flexions and extensions when he wore an upper limb exoskeleton rehabilitation device (ULERD), which is portable, wearable and non-backdrivable. In this method, an inertia sensor is adapted to detect the motion of the user's forearm. In order to get a smooth value of the velocity of the user's forearm, an adaptive weighted average filtering is applied. On the other hand, to obtain accurate tracking performance, a double close-loop control is proposed to realize real-time and stable tracking. Experiments have been conducted to prove that these methods are effective and feasible for active rehabilitation.

FantaMorph Deluxe 5.4.0 - Create fantastic face morph or face composite.. (Shareware)

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 03:44 AM PST



With FantaMorph Deluxe, creating fantastic image morphs and warp movies has never been easier and faster! You can do everything a professional animation director does to create amazing images and animations. FantaMorph supports most image formats including BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PSD, GIF, TGA, and even professional 32-bit with alpha formats. Exporting to Image Sequence, AVI, QuickTime (MPEG-4, 3GP, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV), Animated GIF, Flash, Standalone executable and other formats are supported. You can crop, rotate, flip, adjust color, add caption or some cool effects for the source images and the final movie, all with FantaMorph's built-in tools, without having to go to any additional software.

FantaMorph takes advantage of hardware acceleration, and the rendering speed easily goes up to several hundred FPS (Frames Per Second). The high speed makes it possible to play final effects in real time without exporting to a file. The new interface with skin is cool in looks, streamlined in function, and a joy to work with! The Pro/Deluxe edition supports creating multiple morph, which makes it a breeze to create long movies with multiple source images. You can also find some advanced tools like Feature Curve, Shape Curve, Track Curve, Camera, etc. in Pro/Deluxe to create professional, gorgeous and exciting morphing effects. There're many more exciting new features. Try it today and see the magic with your own eyes!

Three innovative add-ins, Face Extractor, Face Locator and Face Mixer, were added to the Deluxe edition. With these intelligent, powerful and novel tools, morphing faces or mixing multiple faces into one has never been easier and faster!

Version 5.4.0:

  • Fixed 13 bugs.
  • Improved Face Extractor.
  • Added Traditional Chinese language.


OS X 10.6 or later, Intel

Download Now

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

No-limit politics and Sacramento's newest casino

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:51 AM PST

The city green-lighted the relocation of a card room to north Sacramento's Red Lion Hotel last week.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

FantaMorph Pro 5.4.0 - Create fantastic face morph or face composite.. (Shareware)

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 03:15 AM PST



With FantaMorph Pro, creating fantastic image morphs and warp movies has never been easier and faster! You can do everything a professional animation director does to create amazing images and animations. FantaMorph supports most image formats including BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PSD, GIF, TGA, and even professional 32-bit with alpha formats. Exporting to Image Sequence, AVI, QuickTime (MPEG-4, 3GP, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV), Animated GIF, Flash, Standalone executable and other formats are supported. You can crop, rotate, flip, adjust color, add caption or some cool effects for the source images and the final movie, all with FantaMorph's built-in tools, without having to go to any additional software.

FantaMorph takes advantage of hardware acceleration, and the rendering speed easily goes up to several hundred FPS (Frames Per Second). The high speed makes it possible to play final effects in real time without exporting to a file. The new interface with skin is cool in looks, streamlined in function, and a joy to work with! The Pro/Deluxe edition supports creating multiple morph, which makes it a breeze to create long movies with multiple source images. You can also find some advanced tools like Feature Curve, Shape Curve, Track Curve, Camera, etc. in Pro/Deluxe to create professional, gorgeous and exciting morphing effects. There're many more exciting new features. Try it today and see the magic with your own eyes!

Version 5.4.0:

  • Fixed 13 bugs.
  • Improved Face Extractor.
  • Added Traditional Chinese language.

    OS X 10.6 or later, Intel

    Download Now

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic The Fighters coming to the West sooner than expected

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 02:55 AM PST

After yesterday's 3D Space Harrier revelation, there's more retro arcade goodness heading our way in the shape of Sega's Model 2 Collection, the first

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16037-16045: Identification of Cell-Surface Molecular Interactions under Living Conditions by Using the Enzyme-Mediated Activation of Radical Sources (EMARS) Method

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

Important biological events associated with plasma membranes, such as signal transduction, cell adhesion, and protein trafficking, are mediated through the membrane microdomains. We have developed a novel method termed enzyme-mediated activation of radical sources (EMARS) to identify coclustering molecules on the cell surface under living conditions, which features a radical formation from an aryl azide reagent by horseradish peroxidase (HRP). For identification of molecules labeled by the EMARS reaction, antibody array system and mass spectrometry-based proteomics approaches are available. Spatio- temporally-regulated interaction between b1 integrin and ErbB4 involved in fibronectin-dependent cell migration and therapeutic antibody-stimulated interaction between FGFR3 and CD20 were discovered using the EMARS method.

IJERPH, Vol. 9, Pages 4292-4310: Focused Study on the Quiet Side Effect in Dwellings Highly Exposed to Road Traffic Noise

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

This study provides additional evidence for the positive effect of the presence of a quiet façade at a dwelling and aims at unraveling potential mechanisms. Locations with dominant road traffic noise and high Lden-levels at the most exposed façade were selected. Dwellings both with and without a quiet façade were deliberately sought out. Face-to-face questionnaires (N = 100) were taken to study the influence of the presence of a quiet side in relation to noise annoyance and sleep disturbance. As a direct effect, the absence of a quiet façade in the dwelling (approached as a front-back façade noise level difference smaller than 10 dBA) leads to an important increase of at least moderately annoyed people (odds-ratio adjusted for noise sensitivity equals 3.3). In an indirect way, a bedroom located at the quiet side leads to an even stronger reduction of the self-reported noise annoyance (odds-ratio equal to 10.6 when adjusted for noise sensitivity and front façade Lden). The quiet side effect seems to be especially applicable for noise sensitive persons. A bedroom located at the quiet side also reduces noise-induced sleep disturbances. On a loud side, bedroom windows are more often closed, however, conflicting with the preference of dwellers.

Sensors, Vol. 12, Pages 16024-16036: Determination of the Shear Buckling Load of a Large Polymer Composite I-Section Using Strain and Displacement Sensors

Posted: 22 Nov 2012 12:00 AM PST

This paper presents a method and procedure of sensing and determining critical shear buckling load and corresponding deformations of a comparably large composite I-section using strain rosettes and displacement sensors. The tested specimen was a pultruded composite beam made of vinyl ester resin, E-glass and carbon fibers. Various coupon tests were performed before the shear buckling test to obtain fundamental material properties of the I-section. In order to sensitively detect shear buckling of the tested I-section, twenty strain rosettes and eight displacement sensors were applied and attached on the web and flange surfaces. An asymmetric four-point bending loading scheme was utilized for the test. The loading scheme resulted a high shear and almost zero moment condition at the center of the web panel. The web shear buckling load was determined after analyzing the obtained test data from strain rosettes and displacement sensors. Finite element analysis was also performed to verify the experimental results and to support the discussed experimental approach.
Автор: на

Комментариев нет:

Отправить комментарий

Подписаться на: Комментарии к сообщению (Atom)