Reference [5] presents the design of a new wireless sensor node referred to as GAIA Soil-Mote for precision horticulture applications which use precision agricultural instruments based on the SDI-12 standard developed for intelligent sensory instruments to monitor environmental data. The GAIA Soil-Mote mote is built around a communication infrastructure that uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard while its software implementation is based on TinyOS [7]. Using a two-phase methodology including (1) laboratory validation of the proposed hardware and software solution in terms of power consumption and autonomy and (2) implementation to monitor broccoli crop in Campo de Cartagena in south-east Spain, the sensor node was validated under real operating conditions which revealed a large potential market in the farming sector, especially for the development of precision agriculture applications.

The SquidBee [8] motes used in our experimentation also rely on the 802.15.4 standard for communication but use a different operating system. Reference [6] reveals the need for high temperature sensors capable of operating in harsh environments for disaster prevention from structural or system functional failures due to increasing temperatures and building upon the limitations of most of the existing temperature sensors proposes a novel passive wireless temperature sensor, suitable for working in harsh environments for high temperature rotating component monitoring. The proposed prototype sensor calibrated successfully up to 235��C proved the concept of temperature sensing through passive wireless communication.

References [9] and [10] address the issues of energy consumption in wireless sensor networks. In [9], the issue of energy consumption is revisited through a state-of-the art technology review of both fields of energy storage and energy harvesting for sensor nodes Brefeldin_A and energy harvesting is discussed with reference to photovoltaics, temperature gradients, fluid flow, pressure variations and vibration harvesting. A survey on energy consumption presented by [10] provides information pertaining to energy consumption in Rockwell’s WINS node and MEDUSA-II. The survey reveals for example that for WINS, tuning the radio receiver increases the power consumption from 383 mW to 752 mW while MEDUSA-II increases its power from 10 mW to 22 mW.

The same survey also shows that using the transmitter increases the power consumption from 771 mW to 1081 mW for WINS and from 19 mW to 27 mW for MEDUSA-II. This suggest that since the power limitation is such a constraint on WSN, it is appropriate to perform significant amounts of data processing and computation while the receiver is in active state, in order to reduce the amount of radio communication.Several solutions have been proposed by researchers and practitioners to address the WSN engineering issues.

Crown ethers are cyclic ethers built with several oxyethylene (-C-C-O-) units, whereas calixarenes are cyclic oligomers built with phenol units (Figure 1). They act as host molecules to encapsulate guest species in their cavities through non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen(H)-bond and/or van der Waals (vdW) forces. Applications of crown ethers and calixarenes as molecular receptors, metal cation extraction agents, fluoroionophores and phase transfer catalytic media have been previously described in a number of studies in the literature [1�C5].Figure 1.Schematic structures of dibenzo-18-crown-6-ether (DB18C6), benzo-18-crown-6-ether (B18C6), and calix[4]arene (C4A).

One of the important aspects of these host/guest molecular systems is their selectivity in the encapsulation of guest species.

There are two important factors controlling the selectivity: the size and the flexibility of the host cavity. If the size of the cavity of the host molecule matches that of the guest species, the host shows an efficient selectivity for the encapsulation of the particular species. For example, the 18-crown-6-ether (18C6) forms an exceptionally stable 1:1 complex with K+ [6,7] (compared to other alkali metal cations) because 18C6 forms a ring conformation of D3d symmetry and the size of its cavity is comparable to the size of the spherical K+. As regards to calixarenes, p-tert-butylcalix[8]arene was found to selectively extract C60 from the mixture containing C60 and C70 [8,9].

Another important point for the selectivity is the effect of solvent molecules.

In crown ethers, the preferential capture of K+ by 18C6 occurs in aqueous solution [10�C15], while in the gas phase, 18C6 as well as 12-crown-4 (12C4) and 15-crown-5 (15C5) shows the largest binding GSK-3 energy to Li+ (not with K+) among the alkali-metal cations [16�C20]. Previous studies suggested that the water solvation to the complexes enhances the binding energy with K+ [21,22]. Therefore, a stepwise study starting from the isolated molecule to micro-solvated complexes is essential to understand the mechanism of the encapsulation of crown ethers. Molecular clusters provide an Dacomitinib ideal environment for the precise study of the micro-solvated effects under solvent-controlled conditions.

Recently, such a study has been reported by Lisy and coworkers. [23�C25]. They investigated the structure of the 18C6-alkali metal cation (LI+, Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+, and Mn2+) complexes with solvent molecules (water and methanol) by IRPD spectroscopy and mass spectrometric techniques. Detailed investigation of the structure for the isolated and water-solvated crown ethers has been also carried out by Zwier and coworkers. [26�C28].

e adult moth were collected, and frozen immediately in liquid nitrogen. Total mRNA was extracted using Trizol reagent, and DNA contamination in the mRNA sam ples was digested with RNase free DNase I. The concentration of RNA was calculated by spectrophotometry. The first strand of cDNA was synthesized from 1 ug mRNA using M MLV Reverse Transcriptase following the man ufacturers instructions. Verification of the putative silkworm apoptosis related genes The PCR primers were designed based on the coding sequences of the putative silkworm apoptosis related genes identified by the bio informatics analysis. performed in a total reaction volume of 25 ul, containing normalized cDNA, 15 pmol of each primer, 2 mM MgCl2, 0. 25 mM dNTP, 1�� buffer, 2. 5 units of Taq DNA polymerase and distilled deionized H2O.

PCR was performed as follows, initial denaturation at 94 C for 3 min, followed by 25 cycles of 30 s each at 94 C, 1 min annealing, 1 3 min extension at 72 C, and a final extension at 72 C for 10 min. The amplification products Batimastat were analyzed on 1% agarose gels, and sequenced and confirmed by the Ying Jun Company and Bio engineering. Analysis of apoptosis related genes of different developmental stages More than 184201 ESTs from Bombyx mori are available in the NCBI database. To search transcripts for individual apoptosis related genes, a BlastN search was conducted against the silkworm EST database. The putative coding sequences were used as queries. A 95% or greater identity and minimum cut off E value were employed to discriminate between duplicated genes.

Microarray data analysis was performed as described by Xia and colleagues. Androgens have been shown to reverse muscle loss due to age, and to preserve muscle in persons with HIV infection and burns. In animal models, androgens also prevent or reduce atrophy due to disuse from spinal cord injury, immobilization, or unweighting. The molecular basis for these beneficial effects remains poorly understood. One major factor that contributes to muscle atrophy is accelerated catabolism of muscle proteins, which is lar gely attributable to the ubiquitin proteasome pathway and which has been linked to the muscle ubiquitin E3 ligases muscle atrophy F box and muscle Ring finger 1. Upregulation of MAFbx and MuRF1 has been attributed to activation of FOXO1.

Degradation by MAFbx of the muscle differen tiation factor MyoD or the translation initiation fac tor eIF3F have also been linked to muscle atrophy. In cardiac myocytes, MAFbx also reduces calcium dependent signaling through calcineurin and has been shown to reduce myocyte size. A role has been established in muscle atrophy for inhibi tors of protein synthesis acting both up and downstream of mTOR, a protein kinase that integrates signals regulat ing protein synthesis and cell size and has also been impli cated in muscle hypertrophy. Reductions in mTOR activity caused by dexamethasone or ethanol have been shown to be due to upregulation of REDD1. mTOR is also

control of humoral immune responses. It would be interesting to investigate whether their e pression is functionally linked to the recently observed aberrations in CD58 or 2M in DLBCLs that might be involved in differences in the capacity to escape host immune responses. RGS1 gene e pression is characteristic for GCB like DLBCLs. It is part of the IgM driven gene module. RGS1 affects chemokine receptor signalling contributing to its desensitization. However, the role of chemo kine signalling in lymphomagenesis is not yet fully understood. There are reports suggesting that NHLs e press functional chemokine receptors. These, at least in part, dictate tissue localisation and perhaps metastatic potential. However, other reports show that DLBCLs are less sensitive for the C CR4 ligands C CL12 and 13.

The gene e pression changes described above for CCR7 and C CL10 suggest a strong difference of DLBCLs regarding migratory potential and recruitment capacity of cells of the microenvironment but also spe cific chemokine responsiveness. Because CCR7 and Drug_discovery C CL10 play a pivotal role in the homing of tumour cells as shown by its role in chronic lymphatic leukemia or Hodgkin lymphoma this has to be investigated in the future in more detail. It would be interesting to estimate its role in differences in lymphoma dissemination in re lation to the clinical outcome. Strikingly, gene modules of IL21, CD40L or IgM, even though derived from different data sets, almost per fectly discriminate individual DLBCL. The higher a lymphoma e presses direct IgM targets the higher it also e presses IL21 or CD40L inducible genes and vice versa.

While some e planations can be taken into ac count, we would favour the following the aperture of global gene e pression changes obtained by computa tional biology is condensing pathway activities and sup ports the idea of parallel or equivalent functioning oncogenic activities in individual DLBCLs. We wanted to further e plore potential regulatory mechanisms driving differential e pression of gene mod ules. In order to define potential key molecular determi nants, signalling pathways involved in the regulation of a set of genes affected by in vitro interventions were spe cially inhibited using chemical inhibitors.

B cell receptor regulated genes are dominantly affected by ERK1 2 and PI3K activation Pathway activation by IL21, CD40L, IgM, BAFF or LPS reflects qualitative and quantitative differences mediated by the activation of the following pathways Jak STAT, NF ��B, JNK1 2, p38a, PI3K, Erk1 2 and Ca2 influ by immunoblotting, kinase activity measurement or flow cytometry. We summar ized the pathways activated in our model system in a scheme on Figure 6A. IgM treatment is associated with Ca2 mobilization. Furthermore Erk1 2, Akt and p38a phosphorylation or enhanced activity of JNK is observed. In addition, the canonical and non canonical NF��B pathways are activated to some e tent as revealed by I��B degradation and p100 to p52 processing. CD

org/licenses/by/3.0/).AbstractThe paper presents a set of tests carried out in order to evaluate the design characteristics and the operating performance of a set of six X-ray extrinsic optical fiber sensors. The extrinsic sensor we developed is intended to be used as a low energy X-ray detector for monitoring radiation levels in radiotherapy, industrial applications and for personnel dosimetry. The reproducibility of the manufacturing process and the characteristics of the sensors were assessed. The sensors dynamic range, linearity, sensitivity, and reproducibility are evaluated through radioluminescence measurements, X-ray fluorescence and X-ray imaging investigations. Their response to the operating conditions of the excitation source was estimated.

The effect of the sensors design and implementation, on the collecting efficiency of the radioluminescence signal was measured. The study indicated that the sensors are efficient only in the first 5 mm of the tip, and that a reflective coating can improve their response. Additional tests were done to investigate the concentricity of the sensors tip against the core of the optical fiber guiding the optical signal. The influence of the active material concentration on the sensor response to X-ray was studied. The tests were carried out by measuring the radioluminescence signal with an optical fiber spectrometer and with a Multi-Pixel Photon Counter.Keywords: fiber optic sensor, radiation monitoring in radiotherapy and industry, personnel dosimetry, radioluminescence, X-ray detector, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray tomography1.

?IntroductionFiber optic sensors designed for radiation dosimetry, detection or monitoring fall into two categories: intrinsic sensors and extrinsic sensors [1]. In the case of intrinsic sensors the optical fiber constitutes both the sensing medium and the propagation one. Effects such as the radiation induced luminescence (RIL), the radiation induced absorption (RIA) [2], the generation AV-951 of Cerenkov radiation in silica or plastic optical fibers exposed to charged particles [3,4], the change of the silica density [5,6] or the modification of the refractive index of silica under irradiation [7] were used to detect ionizing radiations. In extrinsic optical fiber sensors, the optical fiber is used only to transfer the optical signal from the radiation sensitive head towards the optical detector.

These sensors are based on: thermoluminescence [8], optically stimulated luminescence [9,10] and scintillation (employing organic or inorganic materials) [11�C13].A novel technique to produce an extrinsic, scintillation type, optical fiber X-ray sensor is briefly introduced. The sensor is intended to be used as a low energy X-ray detector for monitoring radiation levels in radiotherapy environments, industrial X-ray applications and for personnel dosimetry.

While dealing with 2D images, the advection factor Fadv is not considered as part of the front motion. Hence, the two main speed terms, i.e., Fprop and Fcurv, are employed to deal with SAR images, where Fprop is derived from the image intensity gradient, and Fcurv from the curvature flow.2.2. Fast level set methodsAs the level set method is formulated from numerical equations for interface propagation, the iteration periods of the standard algorithm for boundary expansion are invariably longer. Taking into consideration a single pixel and its neighboring pixels, one solution is obtained by updating the value of each pixel till the final boundary is reached. For such a solution, O(N2) operations per time step are needed. Assuming the total number of iterations to be N, no less than O(N3) iterations will be needed.

To overcome the problem of longer time requirement, fast level set methods such as narrow-band level set and fast marching method have been introduced.(1) Narrow-band level setLevel set computations are usually carried out using the narrow-band algorithm as described by Malladi et al. [8]. The narrow-band algorithm, however, limits the propagation front’s requirements to update the properties of the neighboring pixels around the zero level set. As shown in Figure 2, the entire two-dimensional grid of data is stored in a square array.Figure 2.Narrow-band of level set.A one-dimensional array is employed to keep track of the points in the narrow band. Assuming the number of points in the front to be k, the band width to be m, the number of iterations to be N, the operation count drops down to O(kmN).

In the worst possible situation, the narrow band method will at most reduce the total operation count to (N3). Even though this indicates a significant progress over the brute-force approach, it is still considered slow for (near) real-time image processing applications Cilengitide [9].(2) Fast marching level setIn a situation wherein the speed function depends only on the interface position, the speed function F (Equation 7) will be reduced to F = Fcurv. Furthermore, if Fcurv > 0, it would be sufficient to solve the stationary perspective boundary problem |T|F = 1, given that x:T(x) = 0 (where T is the time of arrival of
There is an increasing demand for cost-effective and long-term stable measuring systems for gas monitoring in the environment [1, 2]. Beside traditional monitoring tasks (e.g., in research, emission analysis and safety) carbon capture and storage (CCS) develops to an important new application field for subsurface gas monitoring [3-6].

The Shuttle Radar Technology Mission (SRTM) was used to gather data for digital elevation.New Millennium era: The new millennium era (Bailey et al., 2001) refers to highly advanced ��test-of concept�� satellites sent into orbit around the same time as EOS era, but the concepts 1|]# and ideas are different. These are basically satellites and sensors for the next generation. These include Earth Observing-1 carrying the first spaceborne hyperspectral data. The idea of Advanced Land Imager (ALI) as a cheaper, technologically better replacement for Landsat is also very attractive.Private industry era: The private industry era began at the end of the last millennium and beginning of this millennium (see Stoney, 2005).

This era consists of a number of innovations. First, collection of data in very high resolution (<10 meter).

This is typified by IKONOS and Quickbird satellites. Second, a revolutionary means of data collection. This is typified by Rapideye satellite constellation of 5 satellites, having almost daily coverage of any spot on earth at 6.5 meter resolution in 5 spectral bands including a red-edge band. Third, is the introduction of micro satellites, some under disaster monitoring constellation (DMC), which are designed and launched by surrey satellite technology Ltd. for Turkey, Nigeria, China, USGS, UK, and others. Fourth, is the innovation by Google Earth (http://earth.google.

com) in making rapid data access of VHRI for any part of the World through streaming technology that makes it easy for even a non-specialist to zoom and pan remote sensing data.Table 1.

Satellite sensor data characteristics1.2. Summary of sensors in environmental modelingA state-of-art of satellite sensors widely used in environmental applications and natural resources management are given in Table 1. These sensors provide data in a wide range of scales (or Entinostat pixel resolutions), radiometry, band numbers, and band widths and provides distinct advantage of consistency of data, synoptic coverage, global reach, cost per unit area, repeatability, precision, and accuracy. Added to this is the long-time series of archives and pathfinder datasets (e.g.

, Tucker, 2005, Agbu and James, 1994) that have global coverage. Much of this data is also free and accessible online.Many applications (e.g., Thenkabail et al., 2006) in environmental monitoring require frequent coverage of the same area. This can be maximized by using data from multiple sensors (Table 1). However, since data from these sensors are acquired Cilengitide in multiple resolution (spatial, spectral, radiometric), multiple bandwidth, and in varying conditions, they need to be harmonized and synthesized before being used (Thenkabail et al., 2004).

The process of Gd/SiO2 nanoparticles synthesis published recently by Santra et al. [24] was slightly modified in our work, i.e. without final amine-functionalization and using similar reagents: N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl] ethylenediamine for capturing of paramagnetic Gd3+ ions and 3-(trihydroxy-silyl)propyl methylphosphonate monosodium salt solution to produce highly water dispersible nanoparticles. All reagents were purchased from Aldrich, except NH4OH (Fluka).Approximate particle size of samples was determined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM, model FEI Quantum 200). For SEM analysis, samples were placed on conductive copper sticking tape. The structure of the samples was checked by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using X��PERT diffractometer from PANalytical and CoK�� radiation with qualitative analysis carried out by HighScore software and the JCPDS PDF-2 database.

For a quantitative analysis of the XRD patterns, we took HighScore plus with Rietveld structural models based on the ICSD database. 57Fe M?ssbauer spectra used for phase analysis were measured using 57Co/Rh source in standard transmission at room temperature and in a cryostat down to 28 K. Spectrum calibrations were done using ��-Fe standard. The computer processing of the spectra yielded intensities I of the components (atomic fraction of Fe atoms), their hyperfine inductions Bhf, isomer shifts ��, quadrupole splittings ��EQ, and quadrupole shifts ��Q. The magnetic measurements were carried out using vibrating sample magnetometer at room temperature in an external magnetic field up to 1 T.3.

?Results and DiscussionThe obtained Fe2O3/SiO2 and Fe2O3 powders were brownish-black and reddish-brown, respectively, while Gd/SiO2 nanoparticles were orange due to their doping by fluorescent dye, tris(2,2��-bipyridyl) dichlororuthenium(II) hexahydrate. Only Fe2O3 nanoparticles revealed the magnetic properties in water suspension when external magnetic field was applied (Figure 1.).Figure 1.Magnetic properties illustration of Fe2O3 nanoparticles dispersed in water.SEM analysis demonstrated that the nanoparticles of all prepared samples have particle sizes below 100 nm (Figure 2.). The particles were generally spherical in the shape. However it can be supposed that the size distribution for all samples is rather wide.Figure 2.SEM image of Fe2O3 (left) and GdIII/SiO2 (right).

According to XRD measurement (XRD patterns of all samples are shown in Figure 3.), GdIII/SiO2 nanoparticles were found to be completely Entinostat amorphous. The orthorhombic ��-Fe2O3 was observed as
The optical window is an important element in high-speed aircraft to receive the target signal. When light-rays pass through a window, refractive index distribution in the window is non-uniform due to the thermo-optic and elastic-optic effects. It is the major factor in the optical quality.

A data analysis algorithm has been developed and optimized to reconstruct ground acceleration from DTPS data. Numerical and experimental Bortezomib FDA studies of ground vibration have been conducted.2.?Theory and MethodAcoustic waves and ground vibration are generated while the vehicle is traveling on different road surfaces. They depend on the material properties of the road and vehicle. One of the most important issues for measuring ground vibration is to identify acoustic sources between the vehicle chas
Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs) are constituted by underwater sensor nodes and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) interconnected by a wireless acoustic underwater communication network.

UASNs can be used for many purposes including ocean sampling, environment monitoring, undersea explorations, distributed tactical surveillance and disaster prevention [1].

Co-ordination and sharing of information among sensor nodes and AUVs require secure communication [2]. Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries Since the acoustic channel Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries is an open medium, an attacker conveniently Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries equipped by an acoustic modem can easily eavesdrop on the messages traversing the network. This could be very dangerous, for example, in distributed tactical surveillance applications where messages must be secret. Furthermore, the attacker can also modify or inject fake messages so compromising the integrity of the system at both the application Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries and the network layer. The level of damage that may ensue depends on the specific case.

However, it may include an alteration of the positives/negatives rate, forms of denial of service deriving from the violation of the integrity Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries of the routing service [3], and even the Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries loss or the damage of AUVs and sensor nodes. All these considerations show the urgency of establishing secure channels among underwater AV-951 nodes.The unique characteristics of the underwater acoustic channel, and the differences between UASNs and their ground counterpart, namely Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) [4], require the development of efficient security mechanisms. Radio waves do not propagate well underwater due to the high energy absorption of water. Therefore, underwater communication is based on acoustic waves that are characterised by large propagation delays.

The propagation speed of sound in water is typically Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries 1,500 m/s, five orders of magnitude lower than light speed.

In addition, acoustic links have low bandwidth and low quality due to the chemical-physical properties Dacomitinib of the water medium such as temperature, selleck compound seriously salinity, density and spatio-temporal variations. Furthermore, underwater hardware is more expensive than WSNs nodes, and thus underwater nodes are sparsely deployed. It follows that underwater communication have more stringent power requirements than terrestrial systems because acoustic communication are more energy expensive, distances between underwater nodes are greater and thus higher power is required to ensure coverage [1].