Matroid bases with cardinality constraints on the intersection

Mathematical Programming - Given two matroids $$\mathcal {M}_{1} = (E, \mathcal {B}_{1})$$ and $$\mathcal {M}_{2} = (E, \mathcal {B}_{2})$$ on a common ground set E with base sets $$\mathcal...     

Impact of Collection Volume and DNA Extraction Method on the Detection of Biomarkers and HPV DNA in First-Void Urine

The potential of first-void (FV) urine as a non-invasive liquid biopsy for detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and other biomarkers has been increasingly recognized over the past decade. In this study, we investigated whether the volume of this initial urine stream has an impact on the analytical performance of biomarkers. In parallel, we evaluated different DNA extraction protocols and introduced an internal control in the urine preservative. Twenty-five women, diagnosed with high-risk HPV, provided three home-collected FV urine samples using three FV urine collection devices (Colli-Pee) with collector tubes that differ in volume (4, 10, 20 mL). Each collector tube was prefilled with Urine Conservation Medium spiked with phocine herpesvirus 1 (PhHV-1) DNA as internal control. Five different DNA extraction protocols were compared, followed by PCR for GAPDH and PhHV-1 (qPCR), HPV DNA, and HBB (HPV-Risk Assay), and ACTB (methylation-specific qPCR). Results showed limited effects of collection volume on human and HPV DNA endpoints. In contrast, significant variations in yield for human endpoints were observed for different DNA extraction methods (p < 0.05). Additionally, the potential of PhHV-1 as internal control to monitor FV urine collection, storage, and processing was demonstrated.     

Displacement affinity chromatography of protein phosphatase one (PP1) complexes

Background  

Protein phosphatase one (PP1) is a ubiquitously expressed, highly conserved protein phosphatase that dephosphorylates target protein serine and threonine residues. PP1 is localized to its site of action by interacting with targeting or regulatory proteins, a majority of which contains a primary docking site referred to as the RVXF/W motif.     

Direct experimental evidence for atomic tunneling of europium in crystalline Eu8Ga16Ge30

M?ssbauer-effect and microwave absorption experimental evidence unambiguously demonstrates the presence of slow, approximately 450 MHz, tunneling of magnetic europium between four equivalent sites in Eu8Ga16Ge30, a stoichiometric clathrate. Remarkably, six of the eight europium atoms, or 11% of the constituents in this solid, tunnel between these four sites separated by 0.55 A. The off centering of the atoms or ions in crystalline clathrates appears to be a promising route for producing Rabi oscillators in solid-state materials.     

Polynomials Annihilating the Witt Ring

Let F be a non-formally real field of characteristic not 2 and let W(F) be the Witt ring of F. In certain cases generators for the annihilator ideal are determined. Aim the primary decomposition of A(F) is given. For formally d fields F, as an analogue the primary decomposition of A_t(F) = {f(X) ∈ Z[X]| f(ω) = 0 for all ω ∈ W_t(F)}, where W_t(F) is the torsion part of the Witt group, is obtained.     

Dehalogenation of polymers prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization

Polymers prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) have well‐defined end groups, predetermined by the initiator used. A typical initiator is an alkyl halide from which the halogen is transferred to one chain end. To remove the halogen end group, dehalogenation with trialkyltin hydride has been used. Procedures for the removal of the polymer halogen end groups are described, one of them being a one‐pot reaction where the dehalogenation of the polymer chain ends occurs immediately after polymerization.     

Graph structural properties of non-Yutsis graphs allowing fast recognition

Yutsis graphs are connected simple graphs which can be partitioned into two vertex-induced trees. Cubic Yutsis graphs were introduced by Jaeger as cubic dual Hamiltonian graphs, and these are our main focus.Cubic Yutsis graphs also appear in the context of the quantum theory of angular momenta, where they are used to generate summation formulae for general recoupling coefficients. Large Yutsis graphs are of interest for benchmarking algorithms which generate these formulae.In an earlier paper we showed that the decision problem of whether a given cubic graph is Yutsis is NP-complete. We also described a heuristic that was tested on graphs with up to 300,000 vertices and found Yutsis decompositions for all large Yutsis graphs very quickly.In contrast, no fast technique was known by which a significant fraction of bridgeless non-Yutsis cubic graphs could be shown to be non-Yutsis. One of the contributions of this article is to describe some structural impediments to Yutsisness. We also provide experimental evidence that almost all non-Yutsis cubic graphs can be rapidly shown to be non-Yutsis by applying a heuristic based on some of these criteria. Combined with the algorithm described in the earlier paper this gives an algorithm that, according to experimental evidence, runs efficiently on practically every large random cubic graph and can decide on whether the graph is Yutsis or not.The second contribution of this article is a set of construction techniques for non-Yutsis graphs implying, for example, the existence of 3-connected non-Yutsis cubic graphs of arbitrary girth and with few non-trivial 3-cuts.     

Ab Initio Calculation of Hyperfine Interaction Parameters: Recent Evolutions, Recent Examples

For some years already, ab initio calculations based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) belong to the toolbox of the field of hyperfine interaction studies. In this paper, the standard ab initio approach is schematically sketched. New features, methods and possibilities that broke through during the past few years are listed, and their relation to the standard approach is explained. All this is illustrated by some highlights of recent ab initio work done by the Nuclear Condensed Matter Group at the K.U.Leuven.