Application of phase correlation to the montage synthesis and three-dimensional reconstruction of large tissue volumes from confocal laser scanning microscopy.

We have implemented and tested a new automatic method for the montage synthesis and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of large tissue volumes from confocal laser scanning microscopy data (CLSM). This method relies on maximization of the phase correlation between adjacent images. It was tested on a large specimen (a murine heart) that was cut into a number of individual sections with thickness appropriate for CLSM. The sections were scanned horizontally (in-plane) and vertically (perpendicular to the optical planes) to produce "tiles" of a 3D volume. Phase correlation maximization was applied to the montage synthesis of in-plane tiles and 3D alignment of optical slices within a given physical section. The performance of the new method is evaluated.     

Food web model with detritus path

We present and study a lattice (Monte Carlo) model of a food web consisting of three levels. Agents on the lowest level produce food from dead agents (detritus) of the upper levels and are themselves eaten by the first level species, which in turn are prey for the top level species. Agents which do not find food in a given time, die with a given probability, while eating enables them to produce offspring in their neighborhood. This rule applies to species on all levels, including the lowest one. The dynamics is therefore nutrient limited. We are considering two pathways — grazers and detritus (using dead organic matter). We show that the emerging dynamics is more complex than the ordinary predator-prey systems in which bottom species are indestructible. We investigate the viability of our model and we construct appropriate (extinct-alive) phase diagrams. We demonstrate how the temporal fluctuations in the densities of the three populations are correlated. We show also that the density of the middle level agents plays the key role in the viability of the investigated food web.     

Stability of tripled fixed point iteration procedures for monotone mappings

The new concept of tripled fixed point introduced recently by Berinde and Borcut (Nonlinear Anal. 74:4889–4897, 2011) directed to several researches on this subject, in partially metric spaces and in cone metric spaces. In this paper, we introduce the notion of stability definition of tripled fixed point iteration procedures and establish stability results for monotone mappings which satisfy various contractive conditions. Our results extend and complete some existing results in the literature.     

Interplay between composition,structural dynamics and thermodynamic data in amino acid nitrates

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - A systematic thermodynamic study has been performed for a series of nitrates having cations derived from the α-amino acids glycine (Gly),...     

Nonlinear Multigrid Methods for Numerical Solution of the Variably Saturated Flow Equation in Two Space Dimensions

The need of accurate and efficient numerical schemes to solve Richards’ equation is well recognized. This study is carried out to examine the numerical performances of the nonlinear multigrid method for numerical solving of the two-dimensional Richards’ equation modeling water flow in variably saturated porous media. The numerical approach is based on an implicit, second-order accurate time discretization combined with a vertex centered finite volume method for spatial discretization. The test problems simulate infiltration of water in 2D saturated–unsaturated soils with hydraulic properties described by van Genuchten–Mualem models. The numerical results obtained are compared with those provided by the modified Picard–preconditioned conjugated gradient (Krylov subspace) approach.     

Tracking controlled chaos: Theoretical foundations and applications

Tracking controlled states over a large range of accessible parameters is a process which allows for the experimental continuation of unstable states in both chaotic and non-chaotic parameter regions of interest. In algorithmic form, tracking allows experimentalists to examine many of the unstable states responsible for much of the observed nonlinear dynamic phenomena. Here we present a theoretical foundation for tracking controlled states from both dynamical systems as well as control theoretic viewpoints. The theory is constructive and shows explicitly how to track a curve of unstable states as a parameter is changed. Applications of the theory to various forms of control currently used in dynamical system experiments are discussed. Examples from both numerical and physical experiments are given to illustrate the wide range of tracking applications. (c) 1997 American Institute of Physics.     

Valence parity renders z(*)-type ions chemically distinct

Here we report that the odd electron z (*) -type ions formed by the electron-based peptide dissociation methods (electron capture or transfer, ECD or ETD) have distinctive chemical compositions from other common product ion types. Specifically, b-, c-, and y-type ions have an odd number of atoms with an odd valence (e.g., N and H), while z (*)-type ions contain an even number of atoms with an odd valence. This tenet, referred to as the valence parity rule, mandates that no c-type ion shall have the same chemical composition, and by extension mass, as a z (*) -type ion. By experiment we demonstrate that nearly half of all observed c- and z (*) -type product ions resulting from 226 ETD product ion spectra can be assigned to a single, correct, chemical composition and ion type by simple inspection of the m/ z peaks. The assignments provide (1) a platform to directly determine amino acid composition, (2) an input for database search algorithms, or (3) a basis for de novo sequence analysis.     

Metallophthalocyanine Based Carbon Paste Electrodes for the Determination of 2′,3′‐Dideoxyinosine

Novel electrochemical sensors based on carbon paste impregnated with metallopthalocyanine (MPc, M=Co, Fe) complexes, have been constructed for the assay of anti‐HIV drug 2′,3′‐dideoxyinosine (didanosine, DDI). Both modified electrodes showed electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of dideoxyinosine in phosphate buffer pH 7.4 with a working concentration range of 10^?6–10^?4 mol/L and a detection limit of 10^?7 mol/L magnitude order. The sensor proved to be highly reliable for the assay of the purity of DDI ‐ raw material as well as for the uniformity content test of Videx tablets.