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Abstract This work revisits the notion of complex step derivative approximation (CSDA) and presents its use in constitutive model of a class of nonlinear viscoelastic materials. The effectiveness of a CSDA is evaluated by putting it through a series of straightforward examples. After that, the idea of the CSDA is put to use in order to carry out a numerical evaluation of the algorithmic tangent moduli of a viscoelastic constitutive model. The performance of the constitutive models is evaluated through the use of three different numerical tests, and the results are compared to those that were achieved by the application of an analytical method. In comparison to other numerical differentiation techniques, It has been found that the CSDA scheme is the most computationally efficient and robust method of numerical differentiation, regardless of the size of the finite difference interval.

This work revisits the notion of complex step derivative approximation (CSDA) and presents its use in constitutive model of a class of nonlinear viscoelastic materials. The effectiveness of a CSDA is evaluated by putting it through a series of straightforward examples. After that, the idea of the CSDA is put to use in order to carry out a numerical evaluation of the algorithmic tangent moduli of a viscoelastic constitutive model. The performance of the constitutive models is evaluated through the use of three different numerical tests, and the results are compared to those that were achieved by the application of an analytical method. In comparison to other numerical differentiation techniques, It has been found that the CSDA scheme is the most computationally efficient and robust method of numerical differentiation, regardless of the size of the finite difference interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sanitation is a critical issue in internally displaced people (IDP) camps, where the lack of proper infrastructure and services can pose major health and environmental dangers. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the sanitation situation in Kabarto 2 IDP Camp in Iraq using the Smart Sanitation Approach comprising of three tools: SFD (Shit Flow Diagram), CSDA (Citywide Sanitation Diagnostic Assessment), and ECAM (Energy and Carbon Assessment for Environmental Management). The results show that the camp's sanitation infrastructure is wholly unsafe, with faecal sludge (FS) not being properly contained, emptied, or treated. The operation of the desludging trucks and the incomplete treatment are the main causes of the sanitation system's greenhouse gas emissions. The paper offers recommendations for enhancing the design and construction of the containment systems and restoring or upgrading the treatment plant. In conclusion, the study suggests improving data collection and monitoring, clear roles and responsibilities for the developing a faecal sludge management policy. The paper also makes suggestions for potential future applications of these tools, including the use of these technologies in more IDP camps or humanitarian settings to produce more data and knowledge about the provision of sanitation services in these settings and promote service improvement in the region.

The CsdA protein is a highly conserved, DEAD-box RNA helicase and assists RNA structural remodeling at low temperature. We show that the fast-growing wild-type (WT) cells contain higher number of replication origins per cell with bigger cell size and the slowly growing cells possess less number of replication origins per cell with smaller cell size. The absence of CsdA leads to production of larger cells with higher number of origins per cell but slower growth at low temperature in an independent-manner of growth media. The phenotypes in Δ csdA mutant are reversed by ectopic expression of CsdA or RNase R. A global transcription analysis shows that the absence of CsdA leads to significant decreases in transcription of about 200 genes at low temperature. These genes are associated with essential metabolic pathways, flagger assembly and cell division (minDE). It is likely that the slow growth of Δ csdA cell results from the decreased transcription of essential metabolic genes, and the larger Δ csdA cell could be a result of decreased transcription of minDE. The increased transcription of the nrdHIEF genes in Δ csdA mutant is a likely reason that promotes DNA replication. We conclude that CsdA coordinates the cell cycle to growth by stabilizing mRNA of essential metabolic and cell division genes and degrading mRNA for nucleotide metabolic genes at low temperature. • CsdA affects replication initiation, cell division and growth at low temperature. • RNase R compensates for the CsdA effect in respect of replication and growth. • CsdA coordinates the cell cycle to growth by stabilizing or degrading mRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and simulation of variable gain analog buffer amplifier using single gate reconfigurable field-effect transistor (SG-RFET) with strained silicon channel are proposed. The design simplicity makes SG-RFET device a potential candidate compared to the multi-gate RFET devices. The gain of the proposed configuration is varied by tuning the feedback voltage. The voltage gain of the proposed configuration can be tuned from 0.97 V/V to 5 V/V with an output load of 1 kΩ. The operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) using the SG-RFET device is used in the proposed buffer amplifier design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaucoma is a typical eye disorder that induces damage to the optic nerve due to increased intraocular pressure. It ultimately leads to partial or complete blindness without clinical reversal. Hence, it is of utmost importance to screen and detect glaucoma at an early stage. Most of the earlier glaucoma diagnosis methods rely on manual feature engineering, which is time-consuming and requires domain experts. Although recent methods, particularly, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) facilitate learning high-level feature representations from fundus images, they need extensive parameters and pose overfitting issues due to insufficient training samples. Further, conventional CNNs often ignore the minute changes in the lesion region. To overcome these issues, we propose a lightweight multi-scale CNN architecture called as CDAM-Net for effective glaucoma identification from retinal fundus images. Additionally, we introduce an attention module called channel shuffle dual attention (CSDA), comprising of a channel attention block, a spatial attention block and a channel shuffle unit, to focus on important regions in the fundus images, thereby extracting class-specific features. The CDAM-Net mainly consists of multi-scale feature representation (MFR) blocks that enable the extraction of multi-scale features from fundus images. Each MFR block is followed by a CSDA module, which further helps enrich the feature representation. The CDAM-Net is evaluated on a retinal fundus image (RFI) dataset containing 1426 fundus images (837 glaucoma and 589 normal), and the results indicate that CDAM-Net yields promising classification performance compared to existing techniques. Also, ablation studies are carried out to test the effectiveness of each component of the CDAM-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a social science data archive, we focus on collecting and archiving research data. However, there are more responsibilities that come with data archiving: cooperation on international social surveys (ISSP, ESS), supporting secondary data analysis, and much more. A significant part of our work is to communicate with students and researchers, and to educate them about data management and data analysis. Although the relationship we have is functional and seems sufficient, we tend to ask ourselves: who are the data archive users and what do they expect from us?. We decided to employ user-centered design methods and tools to define a typical user of our services, find their motivations for using our data archive and the specific functions they do (or do not) use and appreciate, and thereby get a better understanding of their needs. Moreover, we wondered about the role of open science and its impact on the users' needs and future requirements arising from the open science environment. The information obtained is a starting point for redesigning archival services to satisfy new demands our users have regarding more data resources, new techniques for scientific work, and better interconnection between different platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

to elucidate the effects of multiple scattering and energy-loss straggling on electron beams slowing down in materials. EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulations are done using a purpose-written user-code. Plots are presented of the primary electron's energy as a function of pathlength for 20 MeV electrons incident on water and tantalum as are plots of the overall distribution of pathlengths as the 20 MeV electrons slow down under various Monte Carlo scenarios in water and tantalum. The distributions range from 1 % to 135 % of the CSDA range in water and from 1 % to 186 % in tantalum. The effects of energy-loss straggling on energy spectra at depth and electron fluence at depth are also presented. The role of energy-loss straggling and multiple scattering are shown to play a significant role in the range straggling which determines the dose fall-off region in electron beam dose vs depth curves and a significant role in the energy distributions as a function of depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sanitation is a critical issue in internally displaced people (IDP) camps, where the lack of proper infrastructure and services can pose major health and environmental dangers. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the sanitation situation in Kabarto 2 IDP Camp in Iraq using the Smart Sanitation Approach comprising of three tools: SFD (Shit Flow Diagram), CSDA (Citywide Sanitation Diagnostic Assessment), and ECAM (Energy and Carbon Assessment for Environmental Management). The results show that the camp's sanitation infrastructure is wholly unsafe, with faecal sludge (FS) not being properly contained, emptied, or treated. The operation of the desludging trucks and the incomplete treatment are the main causes of the sanitation system's greenhouse gas emissions. The paper offers recommendations for enhancing the design and construction of the containment systems and restoring or upgrading the treatment plant. In conclusion, the study suggests improving data collection and monitoring, clear roles and responsibilities for the developing a faecal sludge management policy. The paper also makes suggestions for potential future applications of these tools, including the use of these technologies in more IDP camps or humanitarian settings to produce more data and knowledge about the provision of sanitation services in these settings and promote service improvement in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: A role for cold-shock domain (CSD) proteins in abnormal cell proliferation has been suggested in the literature. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)-induced up-regulation of CSD protein A (CSDA) expression on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and its role in gastric cancer cell invasion and proliferation., Materials and Methods: We assessed effects on two gastric cancer cell lines using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, western blotting, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays, and CSDA knockdown with short hairpin RNA., Results: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) elevates CSDA levels in gastric cancer cell lines. To elucidate the mechanism by which HGF prompts CSDA expression and its impact on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), we applied the Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) inhibitor PD098059 and conducted analyses using western blot. Following the administration of PD098059, a reduction in the protein levels of HGF-stimulated VEGF was observed. Additionally, silencing of CSDA resulted in diminished levels of both VEGF and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). The suppression of CSDA also led to reduced HGF-induced cell proliferation and diminished invasive capabilities in vitro. Furthermore, our research pinpointed a potential activator protein-1 (AP-1) binding site within the VEGF promoter zone, validating its activity via chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays further disclosed that HGF-induced CSDA augmentation correlates with an increase in AP-1 binding to VEGF., Conclusion: CSDA is crucial for the proliferation of gastric cancer cells, and the inhibition of this protein could impede the advancement of gastric cancer., (Copyright © 2024 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)

With the development of wireless sensor networks, privacy-preserving has become a very important problem in numerous wireless sensor networks (WSN) applications. This paper presents a novel energy-efficient secure data aggregation scheme cluster-based private data aggregation (CSDA) based on cluster privacy-preserving. It has good flexibility and practical applicability using the slice-assemble technology. And, the number of fragments will dynamically change from the change of the network scale. Then, it can reduce communication overhead and energy consumption. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed aggregation method demonstrates better performance in data aggregation precision, privacy-preserving and communication efficiency than other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(CSDA) ranges for electrons in the elements Calcium , Potassium and Phosphor in terms of energy (0.01 - 10) MeV have been studied by using two empirical formula of Berger-Seltzer and Tabata et al respectively . These two parameters depend upon the atomic number (Z) of the absorber and incident electron energy E. It has been found that these formulae gives better agreement with the available data of Estar universal code. In this paper ,we present the results of Radiative Energy Loss and continuous slowing down approximation

Background: The Y-box protein MSY3/Csda represses myogenin transcription in skeletal muscle by binding a highly conserved cis-acting DNA element located just upstream of the myogenin minimal promoter (myogHCE). It is not known how this MSY3 activity is controlled in skeletal muscle. In this study, we provide multiple lines of evidence showing that the post-translational phosphorylation of MSY3 by Akt kinase modulates the MSY3 repression of myogenin. Methods: Skeletal muscle and myogenic C2C12 cells were used to study the effects of MSY3 phosphorylation in vivo and in vitro on its sub-cellular localization and activity, by blocking the IGF1/PI3K/Akt pathway, by Akt depletion and over-expression, and by mutating potential MSY3 phosphorylation sites. Results: We observed that, as skeletal muscle progressed from perinatal to postnatal and adult developmental stages, MSY3 protein became gradually dephosphorylated and accumulated in the nucleus. This correlated well with the reduction of phosphorylated active Akt. In C2C12 myogenic cells, blocking the IGF1/PI3K/Akt pathway using LY294002 inhibitor reduced MSY3 phosphorylation levels resulting in its accumulation in the nuclei. Knocking down Akt expression increased the amount of dephosphorylated MSY3 and reduced myogenin expression and muscle differentiation. MSY3 phosphorylation by Akt in vitro impaired its binding at the MyogHCE element, while blocking Akt increased MSY3 binding activity. While Akt over-expression rescued myogenin expression in MSY3 overexpressing myogenic cells, ablation of the Akt substrate, (Ser126 located in the MSY3 cold shock domain) promoted MSY3 accumulation in the nucleus and abolished this rescue. Furthermore, forced expression of Akt in adult skeletal muscle induced MSY3 phosphorylation and myogenin derepression. Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that MSY3 phosphorylation by Akt interferes with MSY3 repression of myogenin circuit activity during muscle development. This study highlights a previously undescribed Akt-mediated signaling pathway involved in the repression of myogenin expression in myogenic cells and in mature muscle. Given the significance of myogenin regulation in adult muscle, the Akt/MSY3/myogenin regulatory circuit is a potential therapeutic target to counteract muscle degenerative disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial shape is controlled by peptidoglycan assembly along the lateral wall and at the septum site. In contrast to rods at 37°C, the wild-type strain formed coccobacilli at 12°C, indicating a prevailing shift toward septal peptidoglycan synthesis at low temperature. Escherichia coli cold shock protein CsdA is a DEAD-box RNA helicase with an extended variable region at the carboxyl terminus. The csdA null mutant formed elongated cells indicating that CsdA, directly or indirectly, effects an increase in septation and the resultant coccobacillus morphology. Lipoprotein NlpI is suggested for a role in cell division. The presence of a plasmid encoding CsdA or NlpI increased septation and coccobacillus morphology of the csdA null mutant cells. Plasmid-encoded CsdAΔ445 (lacking the C-terminal extension) in the mutant complemented the growth and resulted in the appearance of coccobacillus- and rod-shaped cells. In contrast, a plasmid encoding both NlpI and CsdAΔ445 in the wild-type or mutant resulted in inhibition of growth accompanied with the formation of elongated and misshapen cells. However, a plasmid encoding both NlpI and CsdA resulted in normal growth and coccobacilli. The data indicate that the addition of the C-terminal extension yields an increase in septation and the resultant increased formation of coccobacilli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Silica hollow spheres with different shell porosity were simply synthesized with micelle and emulsion dual templating route. Various anionic surfactants, such as palmitic acid (C16AA), N-acyl-l-phenylalanine (C18Phe), N-palmitoyl-l-alanine (C16AlaA) and oleic acid (OA) have been used as templates, and 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APES) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) have been used as co-structure directing agent (CSDA) and silica source, respectively. The circle lamellar layer structure and mesopores vertical to the silica hollow spheres surface are believed to originate from the initial formation of amphiphilic carboxylic acid oil drop, which afterwards self-assemble to form the shell of hollow spheres and its mesostructure upon addition of CSDA and silica source. The mesoporous silica hollow spheres with high porosity could be achieved by adding a moderate amount of ethanol in the OA synthesis system, depending on the co-surfactant effect of ethanol that changes the curvature of micelles. The particle diameter and the hollow structure have been controlled by choosing different templates and by manipulating synthesis gel composition. The average particle diameter of the mesoporous silica hollow spheres were controlled in the range of 80–220 nm with constant shell thickness of ∼20 nm and constant mesopore size of ∼4 nm. Besides, the formation of the silica hollow spheres has been investigated in detail with reaction time. These mesoporous silica hollow spheres would have potential applications on catalysis, bimolecular encapsulation, adsorption, drug release, etc. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary CsdA has been proposed to be essential for the biogenesis of ribosome and gene regulation after cold shock. However, the structure of CsdA and the function of its long C-terminal regions are still unclear. Here, we solved all of the domain structures of CsdA and found two previously uncharacterized auxiliary domains: a dimerization domain (DD) and an RNA-binding domain (RBD). Small-angle X-ray scattering experiments helped to track the conformational flexibilities of the helicase core domains and C-terminal regions. Biochemical assays revealed that DD is indispensable for stabilizing the CsdA dimeric structure. We also demonstrate for the first time that CsdA functions as a stable dimer at low temperature. The C-terminal regions are critical for RNA binding and efficient enzymatic activities. CsdA_RBD could specifically bind to the regions with a preference for single-stranded G-rich RNA, which may help to bring the helicase core to unwind the adjacent duplex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myogenin is the dominant transcriptional regulator of embryonic and fetal muscle differentiation and during maturation is profoundly down-regulated. We show that a highly conserved 17-bp DNA cis-acting sequence element located upstream of the myogenin promoter (myogHCE) is essential for postnatal repression of myogenin in transgenic animals. We present multiple lines of evidence supporting the idea that repression is mediated by the Y-box protein MSY-3. Electroporation in vivo shows that myogHCE and MSY-3 are required for postnatal repression. We further show that, in the C2C12 cell culture system, ectopic MSY-3 can repress differentiation, while reduced MSY-3 promotes premature differentiation. MSY-3 binds myogHCE simultaneously with the homeodomain protein Pbx in postnatal innervated muscle. We therefore propose a model in which the myogHCE motif operates as a switch by specifying opposing functions; one that was shown previously is regulated by MyoD and Pbx and it specifies a chromatin opening, gene-activating function at the time myoblasts begin to differentiate; the other includes MYS-3 and Pbx, and it specifies a repression function that operates during and after postnatal muscle maturation in vivo and in myoblasts before they begin to differentiate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Escherichia coli, three cysteine desulfurases (IscS, SufS, and CsdA) initiate the delivery of sulfur for various biological processes such as the biogenesis of Fe-S clusters. The sulfur generated as persulfide on a cysteine residue of cysteine desulfurases is further transferred to Fe-S scaffolds (e.g. IscU) or to intermediate cysteine-containing sulfur acceptors (e.g. TusA, SufE, and CsdE) prior to its utilization. Here, we report the structures of CsdA and the CsdA-CsdE complex, which provide insight into the sulfur transfer mediated by the trans-persulfuration reaction. Analysis of the structures indicates that the conformational flexibility of the active cysteine loop in CsdE is essential for accepting the persulfide from the cysteine of CsdA. Additionally, CsdA and CsdE invoke a different binding mode than those of previously reported cysteine desulfurase (IscS) and sulfur acceptors (TusA and IscU). Moreover, the conservation of interaction-mediating residues between CsdA/SufS and CsdE/SufE further suggests that the SufS-SufE interface likely resembles that of CsdA and CsdE.

Desminopathy is a subtype of myofibrillar myopathy caused by desmin mutations and characterized by protein aggregates accumulating in muscle fibers. The aim of this study was to assess the protein composition of these aggregates. Aggregates and intact myofiber sections were obtained from skeletal muscle biopsies of five desminopathy patients by laser microdissection and analyzed by a label-free spectral count-based proteomic approach. We identified 397 proteins with 22 showing significantly higher spectral indices in aggregates (ratio >1.8, p<0.05). Fifteen of these proteins not previously reported as specific aggregate components provide new insights regarding pathomechanisms of desminopathy. Results of proteomic analysis were supported by immunolocalization studies and parallel reaction monitoring. Three mutant desmin variants were detected directly on the protein level as components of the aggregates, suggesting their direct involvement in aggregate-formation and demonstrating for the first time that proteomic analysis can be used for direct identification of a disease-causing mutation in myofibrillar myopathy. Comparison of the proteomic results in desminopathy with our previous analysis of aggregate composition in filaminopathy, another myofibrillar myopathy subtype, allows to determine subtype-specific proteomic profile that facilitates identification of the specific disorder., Biological Significance: Our proteomic analysis provides essential new insights in the composition of pathological protein aggregates in skeletal muscle fibers of desminopathy patients. The results contribute to a better understanding of pathomechanisms in myofibrillar myopathies and provide the basis for hypothesis-driven studies. The detection of specific proteomic profiles in different myofibrillar myopathy subtypes indicates that proteomic analysis may become a useful tool in differential diagnosis of protein aggregate myopathies., Competing Interests: All the authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interest to disclose regarding this manuscript., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)