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Novel species of fungi described in the present study include the following from Australia: Neoseptorioides eucalypti gen. and sp. nov. from Eucalyptus radiata leaves, Phytophthora gondwanensis from soil, Diaporthe tulliensis from rotted stem ends of Theobroma cacao fruit, Diaporthe vawdreyi from fruit rot of Psidium guajava, Magnaporthiopsis agrostidis from rotted roots of Agrostis stolonifera and Semifissispora natalis from Eucalyptus leaf litter. Furthermore, Neopestalotiopsis egyptiaca is described from Mangifera indica leaves (Egypt), Roussoella mexicana from Coffea arabica leaves (Mexico), Calonectria monticola from soil (Thailand), Hygrocybe jackmanii from littoral sand dunes (Canada), Lindgomyces madisonensis from submerged decorticated wood (USA), Neofabraea brasiliensis from Malus domestica (Brazil), Geastrum diosiae from litter (Argentina), Ganoderma wiiroense on angiosperms (Ghana), Arthrinium gutiae from the gut of a grasshopper (India), Pyrenochaeta telephoni from the screen of a mobile phone (India) and Xenoleptographium phialoconidium gen. and sp. nov. on exposed xylem tissues of Gmelina arborea (Indonesia). Several novelties are introduced from Spain, namely Psathyrella complutensis on loamy soil, Chlorophyllum lusitanicum on nitrified grasslands (incl. Chlorophyllum arizonicum comb. nov.), Aspergillus citocrescens from cave sediment and Lotinia verna gen. and sp. nov. from muddy soil. Novel foliicolous taxa from South Africa include Phyllosticta carissicola from Carissa macrocarpa, Pseudopyricularia hagahagae from Cyperaceae and Zeloasperisporium searsiae from Searsia chirindensis. Furthermore, Neophaeococcomyces is introduced as a novel genus, with two new combinations, N. aloes and N. catenatus. Several foliicolous novelties are recorded from La Réunion, France, namely Ochroconis pandanicola from Pandanus utilis, Neosulcatispora agaves gen. and sp. nov. from Agave vera-cruz, Pilidium eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus robusta, Strelitziana syzygii from Syzygium jambos (incl. Strelitzianaceae fam. nov.) and Pseudobeltrania ocoteae from Ocotea obtusata (Beltraniaceae emend.). Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.

The sorption capacity of high-yield kraft fibers for Cd2+, Co2+, and Ni2+ increased with pH and concentration of the cations in the liquid phase. Within the concentration range for the experiments, which was less than 2 mM, the experimental results fitted the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Sips models with regression coefficient greater than 0.97. Of the three cations investigated, Ni2+ had the highest sorption affinity, followed by Cd2+ and Co2+. The effect of the hydrated radius on the sorption affinity was discussed. Thermodynamically, the sorption was spontaneous and exothermic in the temperature range 283-308 K.

The genus Ceratocystis was established in 1890 and accommodates many important fungi. These include serious plant pathogens, significant insect symbionts and agents of timber degradation that result in substantial economic losses. Virtually since its type was described from sweet potatoes, the taxonomy of Ceratocystis has been confused and vigorously debated. In recent years, particulary during the last two decades, it has become very obvious that this genus includes a wide diversity of very different fungi. These have been roughly lumped together due to their similar morphological structures that have clearly evolved through convergent evolution linked to an insect-associated ecology. As has been true for many other groups of fungi, the emergence of DNA-based sequence data and associated phylogenetic inferences, have made it possible to robustly support very distinct boundaries defined by morphological characters and ecological differences. In this study, DNA-sequence data for three carefully selected gene regions (60S, LSU, MCM7) were generated for 79 species residing in the aggregate genus Ceratocystis sensu lato and these data were subjected to rigorous phylogenetic analyses. The results made it possible to distinguish seven major groups for which generic names have been chosen and descriptions either provided or emended. The emended genera included Ceratocystis sensu stricto, Chalaropsis, Endoconidiophora, Thielaviopsis, and Ambrosiella, while two new genera, Davidsoniella and Huntiella, were described. In total, 30 new combinations have been made. This major revision of the generic boundaries in the Ceratocystidaceae will simplify future treatments and work with an important group of fungi including distantly related species illogically aggregated under a single name.

The growth of 79% Bi2Fe4O9−21% Fe3O4 nanocomposite films on (100) LaAlO3 substrates using molecular beam epitaxy is reported. X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the nanocomposites consisted of an orthorhombic phase of lamellae Bi2Fe4O9 embedded in a face-centered-cubic (fcc) phase of a nanorod-like Fe3O4 matrix. Consequently, nanocomposite films exhibit a significant change of the Verwey transition temperature (TV) as the tailoring heteroepitaxial constraints along the vertical interfaces between the Fe3O4 and Bi2Fe4O9. A possible explanation for the peak at 260 K, referred to as the Neel temperature (TN), is that the magnetization curve is superimposed ferromagnetic Fe3O4 with antiferromagnetic Bi2Fe4O9 components.

The Donnan theory is extended to formulate a model for determination of the distribution coefficient of calcium in slurries of fully bleached and unbleached kraft fibers at different pH, taking into account the presence of both carboxylic and phenolic groups in the fibers. The intrinsic dissociation constants of the carboxylic acid groups and phenolic hydroxyl, which are the key inputs of the extended model, were determined by potentiometric titration. The extension improves the model prediction significantly, particularly when the presence of phenolic lignin in fibers becomes significant. However, when the pH exceeds 10, the model underestimates the distribution coefficient, suggesting that other factors may influence the fiber charge. The structural changes of the fiber wall at high pH and the presence of hydroxyl groups on the cellulose, which ionize at high pH, may be major factors.

Real time identification of planetary landing sites is of significant importance in NASA’s precision landing program. As a lander descends towards a potential landing site, it is important to determine whether or not the potential site is free of debris to allow safe landing. This requires real time processing of images acquired by the lander during the approach, so that appropriate navigational corrections can be made to direct the lander to a safe landing zone. In this paper we discuss an adaptive color segmentation technique that can aid in identifying safe landing terrain, and terrain that may be rock covered, dusty, and unfavorable to land. A new learning architecture that allows real time adaptation in a dynamically changing environment as the lander approaches a landing site is evaluated. Results indicate that a real time adaptive color segmentation approach is sufficient to identify safe landing zones. The paper also discusses the time required for adaptation, a critical parameter during an actual descent. The simulation-based case study reported in this paper is a primary step toward developing a more realistic case for landing site identification.

Little is known about the biology of the monotypic genus Cornuvesica (Microascales), apart from that isolates are notoriously difficult to culture on artificial media. A recent collection of material resembling this genus from freshly made wounds on Gmelina arborea in Indonesia, provided an opportunity to reconsider all available material of Cornuvesica falcata, type species of the genus. In addition to morphological comparisons, multigene phylogenetic analyses were made using sequences of the SSU, ITS, LSU and TEF-1α genes. Our results showed that the holotype of Cor. falcata from pine in Canada differed from all other material previously considered to represent this species and also from the new Indonesian collections. The collections considered represented three additional species that we describe here as new. Three New Zealand isolates and an isolate from UK were respectively described as Cor. acuminata and Cor. crypta, while the Indonesian isolates were described as Cor. magnispora. Phylogenies based on the SSU and LSU data sets showed that Cornuvesica spp. do not belong in the Ceratocystidaceae as previously suggested, but represent a distinct lineage in the Microascales that has yet to be named. Results showed that culture filtrates from other fungi or ferric chloride markedly stimulated the growth of Cor. magnispora.

Leptographium procerum (Ophiostomatales, Ascomycota) is a well-known fungal associate of pine root-infesting bark beetles and weevils, occurring in several countries of the world. The fungus is not a primary pathogen but has been associated with white pine root decline in the USA and with serious damage caused by the introduced red turpentine beetle (RTB) Dendroctonus valens in China. Several species closely related to L. procerum have been described during the past decade. The aim of this study was to reevaluate species boundaries in the L. procerum complex using multigene phylogenetic analyses and morphological comparisons. Phylogenetic analyses of seven gene regions (ITS2-LSU, actin, β-tubulin, calmodulin, translation elongation factor 1-α, and the mating type genes MAT1-1-3 and MAT1-2-1) distinguished between nine species in the complex. These included L. procerum, L. bhutanense, L. gracile, L. profanum, L. pini-densiflorae, L. sibiricum, L. sinoprocerum, as well as two new species described here as Leptographium sinense sp. nov. from Hylobitelus xiaoi on Pinus elliottii in China, and Leptographium longiconidiophorum sp. nov. from Pinus densiflora in Japan. Leptographium latens is reduced to synonymy with L. gracile, and an epitype is designated for L. procerum, because a living culture associated with the holotype of L. procerum did not exist. Amplification patterns of the mating type genes suggest that all known species in the L. procerum complex are heterothallic, although sexual states have not been observed for any of the species. The results also suggest that Eastern Asia is most probably the centre of species diversity for the L. procerum complex.

[EN] Novel species of microfungi described in the present study include the following from South Africa: Cercosporella dolichandrae from Dolichandra unguiscati, Seiridium podocarpi from Podocarpus latifolius, Pseudocercospora parapseudarthriae from Pseudarthria hookeri, Neodevriesia coryneliae from Corynelia uberata on leaves of Afrocarpus falcatus, Ramichloridium eucleae from Euclea undulata and Stachybotrys aloeticola from Aloe sp. (SouthAfrica), as novel member of the Stachybotriaceae fam. nov. Several species were also described from Zambia, and these include Chaetomella zambiensis on unknown Fabaceae, Schizoparme pseudogranati from Terminalia stuhlmannii, Diaporthe isoberliniae from Isoberlinia angolensis, Peyronellaea combreti from Combretum mossambiciensis, Zasmidium rothmanniae and Phaeococcomyces rothmanniae from Rothmannia engleriana, Diaporthe vangueriae from Vangueria infausta and Diaporthe parapterocarpi from Pterocarpus brenanii. Novel species from the Netherlands include: Stagonospora trichophoricola, Keissleriella trichophoricola and Dinemasporium trichophoricola from Trichophorum cespitosum, Phaeosphaeria poae, Keissleriella poagena, Phaeosphaeria poagena, Parastagonospora poagena and Pyrenochaetopsis poae from Poa sp., Septoriella oudemansii from Phragmites australis and Dendryphion europaeum from Hedera helix (Germany) and Heracleum sphondylium (the Netherlands). Novel species from Australia include: Anungitea eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus leaf litter, Beltraniopsis neolitseae and Acrodontium neolitseae from Neolitsea australiensis, Beltraniella endiandrae from Endiandra introrsa, Phaeophleospora parsoniae from Parsonia straminea, Penicillifer martinii from Cynodon dactylon, Ochroconis macrozamiae from Macrozamia leaf litter, Triposporium cycadicola, Circinotrichum cycadis, Cladosporium cycadicola and Acrocalymma cycadis from Cycas spp. Furthermore, Vermiculariopsiella dichapetali is described from Dichapetalum rhodesicum (Botswana), Ophiognomonia acadiensis from Picea rubens (Canada), Setophoma vernoniae from Vernonia polyanthes and Penicillium restingae from soil (Brazil), Pseudolachnella guaviyunis from Myrcianthes pungens (Uruguay) and Pseudocercospora neriicola from Nerium oleander (Italy). Novelties from Spain include: Dendryphiella eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus globulus, Conioscypha minutispora from dead wood, Diplogelasinospora moalensis and Pseudoneurospora canariensis from soil and Inocybe lanatopurpurea from reforested woodland of Pinus spp. Novelties from France include: Kellermania triseptata from Agave angustifolia, Zetiasplozna acaciae from Acacia melanoxylon, Pyrenochaeta pinicola from Pinus sp. and Pseudonectria rusci from Ruscus aculeatus. New species from China include: Dematiocladium celtidicola from Celtis bungeana, Beltrania pseudorhombica, Chaetopsina beijingensis and Toxicocladosporium pini from Pinus spp. and Setophaeosphaeria badalingensis from Hemerocallis fulva. Novel genera of Ascomycetes include Alfaria from Cyperus esculentus (Spain), Rinaldiella from a contaminated human lesion (Georgia), Hyalocladosporiella from Tectona grandis (Brazil), Pseudoacremonium from Saccharum spontaneum and Melnikomyces from leaf litter (Vietnam), Annellosympodiella from Juniperus procera (Ethiopia), Neoceratosperma from Eucalyptus leaves (Thailand), Ramopenidiella from Cycas calcicola (Australia), Cephalotrichiella from air in the Netherlands, Neocamarosporium from Mesembryanthemum sp. and Acervuloseptoria from Ziziphus mucronata (South Africa) and Setophaeosphaeria from Hemerocallis fulva (China). Several novel combinations are also introduced, namely for Phaeosphaeria setosa as Setophaeosphaeria setosa, Phoma heteroderae as Peyronellaea heteroderae and Phyllosticta maydis as Peyronellaea maydis. Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa., We thank Dr Olivier Maurin, John and Sandra Burrows, for their help in identifying the host plants collected in southern Africa. Financial support for R. Cheewangkoon was provided by the Thailand Research Fund MRG5580163. Christian Lechat,Alain Gardiennet and Jacques Fournier gratefully acknowledge DrAmy Rossman for her invaluable scientific help and relevant suggestions in the description of Pseudonectria rusci. Allison K. Walker was supported by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Collaborative Research and Development Grant to J. David Miller and Keith A. Seifert, who also commented on an earlier draft of Ophiognomonia description. We thank the technical staff, A. van Iperen (cultures), M. Vermaas (photographic plates), and M. Starink-Willemse (DNAisolation, amplification and sequencing) for their invaluable assistance.

To determine whether home-use icterometry improves parental recognition of neonatal jaundice, early care seeking and treatment to minimize risks of bilirubin encephalopathy.Cluster-randomised controlled trial of community-level icterometry used at home by mothers in Chi Linh, Vietnam. Rural health-care workers identified and enrolled term newborns. Post-partum mothers received jaundice education and icterometry instructions and were cluster-randomised by commune. Cases received icterometers (icterometer group (IG)) and controls did not (control group (CG)). Subjects received mobile telephone calls from post-natal days 2-7 to determine maternal recognition by visual inspection and icterometer detection of jaundice (≥ 3.0 on five-point scale). Mothers without telephones, premature newborns (35 weeks) or newborns hospitalised5 days were excluded.Three hundred fifty-two subjects were enrolled (183 IG and 169 CG), of whom 11 (3.4%) were lost to telephone follow-up. Jaundice was recognised and/or detected in 94 (27%) of all newborns. Icterometry helped 11 mothers (6%) detect neonatal jaundice that was not visually recognised by IG mothers. Detection by IG mothers was not statistically greater than CG mothers (P = 0.09). Follow-up care seeking was 8% in both groups (P = 0.2), and 11% of jaundiced newborns received treatment (9% IG vs. 16% CG, P = 0.3). Newborns who received care had bilirubin measurements that averaged 257 μmol/L IG vs. 322 μmol/L CG (P = 0.3). There were no deaths.In this pilot study, home-use icterometry may help improve parental detection of jaundice in rural Vietnam. However, larger studies are necessary to determine the changes in recognition, care seeking and treatment.

Changes in symbiont assemblages can affect the success and impact of invasive species, and may provide knowledge regarding the invasion histories of their vectors. Bark beetle symbioses are ideal systems to study changes in symbiont assemblages resulting from invasions. The red turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus valens) is a bark beetle species that recently invaded China from its native range in North America. It is associated with ophiostomatalean fungi in both locations, although the fungi have previously been well-surveyed only in China. We surveyed the ophiostomatalean fungi associated with D. valens in eastern and western North America, and identified the fungal species using multi-gene phylogenies. From the 307 collected isolates (147 in eastern North America and 160 in western North America), we identified 20 species: 11 in eastern North America and 13 in western North America. Four species were shared between eastern North America and western North America, one species (Ophiostoma floccosum) was shared between western North America and China, and three species (Grosmannia koreana, Leptographium procerum, and Ophiostoma abietinum) were shared between eastern North America and China. Ophiostoma floccosum and O. abietinum have worldwide distributions, and were rarely isolated from D. valens. However, G. koreana and L. procerum are primarily limited to Asia and North America respectively. Leptographium procerum, which is thought to be native to North America, represented >45% of the symbionts of D. valens in eastern North America and China, suggesting D. valens may have been introduced to China from eastern North America. These results are surprising, as previous population genetics studies on D. valens based on the cytochrome oxidase I gene have suggested that the insect was introduced into China from western North America.

N-doped TiO2-SBA-15 (denoted as N-TiO2-SBA-15) material has been successfully synthesized by a two-step procedure. Firstly, TiO2-SBA-15 was prepared by impregnating tetraisopropyl orthotitanate on SBA-15 and followed by calcination at 550°C. In the second step, TiO2-SBA-15 was modified by doping nitrogen with the assistance of urea. The resulting material, N-TiO2-SBA-15, was characterized by XRD, TEM, SEM, N2adsorption/desorption at 77 K, DR UV-Vis, and XPS. The results showed that N-TiO2-SBA-15 material maintains its ordered hexagonal mesostructure and exhibits the absorption of visible region. The photocatalytic activity of N-TiO2-SBA-15 sample was evaluated by the photodegradation of methylene blue under visible light.

This chapter presents a controller using Hedge Algebra to control nonlinear object. Then, it opens the possibility for a reasonable application of new theory in the design of automation systems in the industry, suitably for nonlinear objects with variable parameters. The method with a new flexible tool based on quantifying linguistic domains can calculate with higher accuracy than the fuzzy controller.

A disseminated and progressive infection, penicilliosis marneffei is the third most common opportunistic infection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients in certain parts of Southeast Asia. Penicillium marneffei is endemic in Southeast Asia and the southern part of China. Cases have been reported from both Eastern and Western countries. This review discusses the history, epidemiology, mycology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment of penicilliosis marneffei, on the basis of 155 cases of the infection. About 80% of the patients are immunocompromised. P. marneffei can infect various organs, particularly the lung, liver, and skin. The most common clinical features include fever, weight loss, and anemia. The organism has been isolated most commonly from skin, blood, and bone marrow. Immunologic identification of fungal isolates can be done with exoantigen tests and immunohistochemical methods. Treatment of disseminated penicilliosis marneffei in HIV-infected patients with parenteral amphotericin B and itraconazole is relatively effective and safe.

A particularly challenging neural network application requiring high-speed and intensive image processing capability is target acquisition and discrimination. It requires spatio-temporal recognition of point and resolved targets at high speeds. A reconfigur able neural architecture may discriminate targets from clutter or classify targets once resolved. By mating a 64 x 64 pixel array infrared (IR) image sensor to a 3-D stack (cube) of 64 neural-net ICs along respective edges, every pixel would directly input to a neural network, thereby processing the infor-mation with full parallelism. Being mated to the infrared sensor array, the cube would operate at 90°K temperature with

Efficient sharing of content among users in a close area is a challenging problem remaining in smart devices. This paper presents an architecture which allows users in a group to experience the ubiquitous and real -time sharing service of resource like image, video and website address. Our approach is motivated by taking advantage of the novel industrial standard Wi-Fi Direct which allows Wi-Fi terminals to establish a Wi-Fi network without a real Access Point (AP) and P2PSIP protocol which enables real-time communication using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) fashion. Accordingly, with instant ad-hoc peer-to-peer connectivity, content sharing among users is conducted more easily and quickly. We describe a prototype application and discuss major practical requirements of the proposed system.

Polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for the pine-infecting fungus, Grosmannia alacris.Sixteen microsatellite markers were developed by using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR)-PCRs and 454 sequencing methods. Seven of these markers showed polymorphisms for a South African population of G. alacris, and 13 markers showed polymorphism when European isolates were included. Most of the primer pairs also amplified four closely related species: G. serpens, Leptographium gibbsii, L. castellanum, and L. yamaokae.These new markers will be useful for population studies of G. alacris and other species in the G. serpens complex.

Species of Grosmannia with Leptographium anamorphs include important forest pathogens and agents of blue stain in timber. They are commonly found in association with forest pests, such as bark beetles. During a survey of ophiostomatoid fungi in eastern parts of Finland and neighboring Russia, species belonging to the genus Grosmannia were isolated from 12 different bark beetle species infesting Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris, the most economically important conifers in the region. Identification of these fungi was based on morphology, DNA sequence comparisons for three gene regions and phylogenetic analyses. A total of ten taxa were identified. These belonged to six different species complexes in Grosmannia. The phylogenetic analyses provided an opportunity to redefine the G. galeiformis-, L. procerum-, L. lundbergii-, G. piceiperda-, G. olivacea- and G. penicillata-complexes, and to consider the species emerging from the survey within the context of these complexes. The species included G. galeiformis, G. olivacea, L. chlamydatum, L. lundbergii, L. truncatum and a novel taxon, described here as L. taigense sp. nov. In addition, species closely related to G. cucullata, G. olivaceapini comb. nov., G. piceiperda and L. procerum were isolated but their identity could not be resolved. The overall results indicate that the diversity of Grosmannia species in the boreal forests remains poorly understood and that further studies are needed to clarify the status of several species or species complexes.

In this paper, we propose a delegating mechanism to distribute the presence information among watchers in the P2P overlay. Our approach is to take advantage of the network topology knowledge provided by the ALTO service to perform the optimization algorithm at the Presence Server (PS) in order to reduce its burden as well as keep watchers’ delays in receiving the notification message at acceptable values. The performance is evaluated over the basic P2PSIP system and the outcomes prove that our solution can degrade significantly the PS’s load even for the ever-increasing number of subscribers.

The similarity search problem in streaming time series has become a hot research topic since such data arise in so many applications of various areas. In this problem, the fact that data streams are updated continuously as new data arrive in real time is a challenge due to expensive dimensionality reduction recomputation and index update costs. In this paper, adopting the same ideas of a delayed update policy and an incremental computation from IDC index (Incremental Discrete Fourier Transform(DFT) Computation --- Index) we propose a new approach for similarity search in streaming time series by using MP_C as dimensionality reduction method with the support of Skyline index. Our experiments show that our proposed approach for similarity search in streaming time series is more efficient than the IDC-Index in terms of pruning power, normalized CPU cost and recomputation and update time.

In this paper, we introduce a new time series dimensionality reduction method, MP_C (Middle points and Clipping). This method is performed by dividing time series into segments, some points in each segment being extracted and then these points are transformed into a sequence of bits. In our method, we choose the points in each segment by dividing a segment into sub-segments and the middle points of these sub-segments are selected. We can prove that MP_C satisfies the lower bounding condition and make MP_C indexable by showing that a time series compressed by MP_C can be indexed with the support of Skyline index. Our experiments show that our MP_C method is better than PAA in terms of tightness of lower bound and pruning power, and in similarity search, MP_C with the support of Skyline index performs faster than PAA based on traditional R*-tree.

Currently map data is stored as high- resolution digitized pixel data on CD-ROM storage devices. The copious amount of data generated from the global map data base overwhelms even high-density optical storage methods. In addition, the map user is concerned not with the high-resolution image of the map, but the actual features such as roads and rivers. By classifying the map-image pixels into separate features, the dimensional ity of the data is dramatically reduced, the map is significantly decluttered, and the data is in the form most suitable for further analysis. Because of the extensive volume of the data already stored and its on-demand nature, classification speed must exceed the CD-ROM read speed so that access rates are unaffected. This paper describes a neural network approach to pattern classification applied to map pixel data. Software simulations of a sophisticated neural network show that neural networks are indeed equivalent to optimal statistical pattern classifiers. Furthermore, a fully parallel neural network hardware implementatiort developed at JPL, surpasses the necessary processing speed, and provides high classification accuracy. Our software as well a hardware results are presented in this paper along with a brief backgrourtd in pattern classification and neural networks.

This paper presents the JPL-developed Sequential Principal Component Analysis (SPCA) algorithm for feature extraction / image compression, based on “dominant-term selection” unsupervised learning technique that requires an order-of-magnitude lesser computation and has simpler architecture compared to the state of the art gradient-descent techniques. This algorithm is inherently amenable to a compact, low power and high speed VLSI hardware embodiment. The paper compares the lossless image compression performance of the JPL’s SPCA algorithm with the state of the art JPEG2000, widely used due to its simplified hardware implementability. JPEG2000 is not an optimal data compression technique because of its fixed transform characteristics, regardless of its data structure. On the other hand, conventional Principal Component Analysis based transform (PCA-transform) is a data-dependent-structure transform. However, it is not easy to implement the PCA in compact VLSI hardware, due to its highly computational and architectural complexity. In contrast, the JPL’s “dominant-term selection” SPCA algorithm allows, for the first time, a compact, low-power hardware implementation of the powerful PCA algorithm. This paper presents a direct comparison of the JPL’s SPCA versus JPEG2000, incorporating the Huffman and arithmetic coding for completeness of the data compression operation. The simulation results show that JPL’s SPCA algorithm is superior as an optimal data-dependent-transform over the state of the art JPEG2000. When implemented in hardware, this technique is projected to be ideally suited to future NASA missions for autonomous on-board image data processing to improve the bandwidth of communication.

We present a user-friendly hardware learning algorithm called the cascade error projection (CEP) that was developed at JPL and was equipped with a new input feature mapping technique. This new technique is based on Riemannian metric tensor to enhance the learning capability for predicting the reduced ion mobility based on the molecular structure. Our simulation results are reported and compared with the current state-of-the-art ADAPT tools developed by Pennsylvania State University. In addition, our approach is superior in our novel hardware implementation approach enabling a low power, low cost and miniaturized system for remote applications e.g., NASA mission.

In a binary system the sorption of Na(+) and Ca(2+) by kraft pulps follows a second order kinetics, and the isotherms follow the Langmuir model. The sorption capacity is dependent on pH and temperature. The thermodynamic parameters indicate that the sorption is exothermic and spontaneous. In a single-component system, the sorption capacity of the kraft pulp for Na(+) and Ca(2+) increases with the degree of dissociation of ionizable cellulosic components of the kraft pulp fibres. In a binary system the exchange of Na(+) and Ca(2+) is highly dependent on pH. SEM and X-ray analysis indicated that at pH above 11.0 calcium forms a precipitate bound to the surface of the fibres.

To investigate the roles that matrix-degrading proteases may have in development of the chicken embryo, we documented the expression pattern of matrix metalloprotease-2 (MMP-2, 72-kDa type IV collagenase or gelatinase A) and perturbed its function in vitro and in vivo. MMP-2 is expressed as neural crest cells detach from the neural epithelium during an epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) but is rapidly extinguished as they disperse. It is also expressed in the sclerotome and in the dermis at the time that the EMT is initiated, and also as these cells migrate, and is down-regulated once motility has ceased. These patterns suggest that MMP-2 plays a role in cell motility during the EMT and during later morphogenesis. Inhibitors of MMPs, including BB-94 and TIMP-2 (tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease-2), prevent the EMT that generates neural crest cells, both in tissue culture and in vivo, but do not affect migration of the cells that have already detached from the neural tube. Similarly, knockdown of MMP-2 expression in the dorsal neural tube using antisense morpholino oligos perturbs the EMT, but also does not affect migration of neural crest cells after they have detached from the neural tube. On the other hand, when somites in culture are treated with TIMP-2, some mesenchymal cells are produced, suggesting that they undergo the EMT, but show greatly reduced migration through the collagen gel. MMP-2 is also expressed in mesenchyme where tissue remodeling is in progress, such as in the developing feather germs, in the head mesenchyme, in the lateral plate mesoderm, and in the limb dermis, especially in the regions where tendons are developing. Comparisons of these expression patterns in multiple embryonic tissues suggest a probable role for MMP-2 in the migration phase of the EMT, in addition to mesenchyme dispersion and tissue remodeling. Developmental Dynamics 229:42-53, 2004.

Four different titration methods for measurement of fiber charge were used in this study. Each method gave different fiber charge values depending on the acidity of the end point and the interaction between the fiber chemical components and the titrant. Also, the interactions between the ionizable groups on the fiber had significant effects on the interpretation of these results. The conductometric titrations showed trends similar to the results obtained from the potentiometric titration. The conductometric titrations with NaOH produced higher fiber charge values, higher than the titrations with NaHCO3. The differences between the results obtained from the potentiometric and polyelectrolyte titrations, which were associated with the dissolved fiber components during the delignification, were linearly related to the Kappa number of pulps. The positive intercept of this linear relationship indicated that the kraft pulping process not only removed the ionizable groups associated with the dissolved components, but at the same time provided conditions to form new ionizable groups in the fibers. The polyelectrolyte titration results indicated that the lignin content in the fibers did not affect the fiber surface charge. Data extracted from the FTIR spectra of protonated fibers were highly correlated with the fiber charge values obtained from the conductometric titration with NaOH.

The use of antisense morpholino oligos to inhibit the translation of a target transcript has been applied recently to studies of the chicken embryo. In contrast to other developmental systems such as in frog, sea urchin, and zebrafish that permit the direct microinjection of morpholinos into a blastomere, square pulse electroporation is used to introduce fluorescently tagged morpholinos into specific populations of chick embryo cells in ovo. This article reviews the methods that have proven successful, the types of controls that are necessary when performing knockdowns of gene expression in the chick embryo, and discusses the limitations of the current technique, as well as directions for further research.

In this paper, we reinvestigate the solution for chaotic time series prediction problem using neural network approach. The nature of this problem is such that the data sequences are never repeated but they are rather in chaotic region. However, these data sequences are correlated between past present, and future data in high order. We use cascade error projection (CEP) learning algorithm to capture the high order correlation between past and present data to predict a future data using limited weight quantization constraints. This will help to predict a future information that will provide us better estimation in time for intelligent control system. In our earlier work, it has been shown that CEP can sufficiently learn 5-8 bit parity problem with 4- or more bits, and color segmentation problem with 7- or more bits of weight quantization. In this paper, we demonstrate that chaotic time series can be learned and generalized well with as low as 4-bit weight quantization using round-off and truncation techniques. The results show that generalization feature will suffer less as more bit weight quantization is available and error surfaces with the round-off technique are more symmetric around zero than error surfaces with the truncation technique. This study suggests that CEP is an implementable learning technique for hardware consideration.

After situating the spacing function within the context of a multiservices ATM network which carries both isochronous and non-isochronous flows, the paper presents a novel spacing device, based on the classical heap-sort algorithm. Two new aspects of this spacer are: firstly, it is theoretically optimal in complexity; by using log(N) pipelined controllers, the sorter embedded within this spacer is able to sort in a half cell time the N elements situated at the head of N connection related queues, and this is done without very high-speed logic; secondly, it can cope with both real-time services and non-real-time services by combining spacing and weighted fair queuing. Finally, some ATM switch structures making use of the proposed spacer are sketched.

To demonstrate the versatility of the building-block approach, two neural network applications were implemented on cascaded analog VLSI chips. Weights were implemented using 7-b multiplying digital-to-analog converter synapse circuits, with 31*32 and 32*32 synapses per chip. A novel learning algorithm compatible with analog VLSI was applied to the two-input parity problem. The algorithm combines dynamically evolving architecture with limited gradient-descent backpropagation for efficient and versatile supervised learning. To implement the learning algorithm in hardware, synapse circuits were paralleled for additional quantization levels. The hardware-in-the-loop learning system allocated 2-5 hidden neurons for parity problems. Also, a 7*7 assignment problem was mapped onto a cascaded 64-neuron fully connected feedback network. In 100 randomly selected problems, the network found optimal or good solutions in most cases, with settling times in the range of 7-100 mu s. >

During the past few years JPL has been actively involved in soft computing research encompassing theory, architecture, and electronic hardware. There are a host of soft computing applications that require orders of magnitude enhancement in speed compared to present day simulations on digital machines. For real-time computing this is made possible by selecting suitable algorithms, designing compatible architectures and implementing them in parallel processing hardware. A compact low-power hardware design for in-situ applications uses a 3D-packaged artificial neural network (ANN) multi-chip module performing object classification and recognition with 1012 multiply-sum operations per second (ops). Additionally, development on evolvable hardware (EHW) implemented on reconfigurable electronic hardware has shown exciting high-speed evolution of various digital and analog circuits. We review our work to demonstrate real-time processing.

Artificial neural networks, with massive parallelism, have been shown to efficiently solve ill-defined problems in pattern recognition, classification, and optimization. It is further recognized that for real time low power operation, their highly parallel connectivity must be harnessed in VLSI silicon. However, such an implementation, specially an analog embodiment, suffers from two drawbacks: limited precision confounded by circuit noise and lack of proper hardware implementable learning algorithm. This paper specifically addresses these issues and offers an architecture along with a new hardware implementable learning algorithm called cascade error projection (CEP). CEP's methodology is tolerant of limited hardware precision, particularly the synapse resolution. A concise mathematical analysis is presented. The frame work can be used to obtain cascade correlation (CC) learning algorithm as a special case of CEP by choosing a particular set of parameters. Amongst its many attractive features one important CEP attribute is that it operates on one layer of input weights at a time while other connected weights are either frozen or deterministically calculable, hence provides fast learning. Finally, with limited synaptic weight resolution of only 3- to 4-bit, this technique is capable of learning reliably 5- to 8-bit parity problems by incorporating additional hidden units.

Object discrimination and pattern recognition are computationally intensive and for many defense and commercial applications, speed is of the essence. A novel 3-dimensional VLSI architecture in which neural network integrated circuits (ICs) are stacked together and mated to an image sensor may be used to solve such problems. New compact, high speed, low power, analog neuron and synapse circuits, suitable for such 3-D z-plane stacking are reported. The neural circuits have been designed for incorporation into a reconfigurable multilayer perceptron consisting of 64 inputs, up to 64 hidden units, and up to 6 outputs, which can be utilized to solve a variety of pattern recognition problems. The circuits, fabricated in a 1.2 /spl mu/m CMOS process have achieved 125 ns propagation through a synapse neuron pair, resulting in 4 MHz operation through the envisioned 3 layer feed forward network. Power dissipation at these speeds is expected to be under 30 mW per chip. >

Algorithms for the solution of spatio-temporal recognition and classification problems are known to require intense image data computation. To develop a viable hardware solution for such a task, we have focused on the development of a 3D artificial neural network (3DANN). It consists of a set of low power analog chips packaged as a 3D "sugar cube" mated to an infrared imager to conform to highly parallel processing at very high speeds. The challenge of delivering highly parallel image data input (64/spl times/64 bytes of data in parallel every 250 nanoseconds) has been met by the design of an innovative chip architecture, termed the column loading input chip (CLIC). The CLIC replaces the imager on the cube and can be connected to an image frame grabber or a high-speed data formatter through the sugar cube motherboard. This scheme of 3DANN modification has been developed, which consists of a CLIC and a 3D neural processing module.