ALBERT

Description: There are two known mRNA degradation pathways, 3' to 5' and 5' to 3'. We identified likely pathogenic variants in two genes involved in these two pathways in individuals with intellectual disability. In a large family with multiple branches, we identified biallelic variants in DCPS in three affected individuals; a splice site variant (c.636+1G〉A) that results in an in-frame insertion of 45 nucleotides and a missense variant (c.947C〉T; p.Thr316Met). DCPS decaps the cap structure generated by 3' to 5' exonucleolytic degradation of mRNA. In vitro decapping assays showed an ablation of decapping function for both variants in DCPS. In another family, we identified a homozygous mutation (c.161T〉C; p.Phe54Ser) in EDC3 in two affected children. EDC3 stimulates DCP2, which decaps mRNAs at the beginning of the 5' to 3' degradation pathway. In vitro decapping assays showed that altered EDC3 is unable to enhance DCP2 decapping at low concentrations and even inhibits DCP2 decapping at high concentration. We show that individuals with biallelic mutations in these genes of seemingly central functions are viable and that these possibly lead to impairment of neurological functions linking mRNA decapping to normal cognition. Our results further affirm an emerging theme linking aberrant mRNA metabolism to neurological defects.

Description: We report the discovery and characterization of a new M-dwarf binary, with component masses and radii of $M_1 = 0.244_{-0.003}^{+0.003} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ , $R_1 = 0.261_{-0.009}^{+0.006} \, \mathrm{R}_{\odot }$ , $M_2 = 0.179_{-0.001}^{+0.002} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ , $R_2 = 0.218 _{-0.011}^{+0.007} \, \mathrm{R}_{\odot }$ , and orbital period of ~4.1 d. The M-dwarf binary HATS551–027 (LP 837–20) was identified as an eclipsing binary by the HATSouth survey, and characterized by a series of high-precision photometric observations of the eclipse events, and spectroscopic determinations of the atmospheric parameters and radial velocity orbits. HATS551–027 is one of few systems with both stellar components lying in the fully convective regime of very low mass stars, and can serve as a test for stellar interior models. The radius of HATS551–027A is consistent with models to 1, whilst HATS551–027B is inflated by 9 per cent at 2 significance. We measure the effective temperatures for the two stellar components to be T eff, 1  = 3190 ± 100 K and T eff, 2  = 2990 ± 110 K; both are slightly cooler than theoretical models predict, but consistent with other M-dwarfs of similar masses that have previously been studied. We also measure significant H α emission from both components of the binary system, and discuss this in the context of the correlation between stellar activity and the discrepancies between the observed and model temperatures.

Description: We propose decoupling energy and sensing planes in WSN. This decoupling represents a paradigm shift as it can alleviate the fundamental problem of energy depletion in WSN and can (in theory) offer a sensor network with infinite lifetime. We present energy transference as the mode of decoupling energy by allowing energy to move between energy-rich and energy-poor nodes. We present a first practical energy distribution architecture that allows us to decouple energy supply from sensing activities. Such a separation of responsibilities enables us to utilize abundant energy sources distant from the sensing location, allowing unrestricted lifetime and resolving unequal energy consumption in WSN. We demonstrate energy transfer for practical decoupling using low-cost and low-footprint, laser μ-power beaming that powers current WSN platforms at 100 m of range. We design and implement LAMP, a tiered architecture to manage energy supply to both mesh and clustered WSN deployments using an energy distribution protocol. We evaluate our system to show that, for an additional cost of $29 per mote, LAMP can support perpetual mesh functionality for up to 40 sensors or 120 nodes in clustered operation.

Description: International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, Volume 15, Issue 6, June 2019. 〈br/〉In underwater wireless sensor networks, stability and reliability of the network are of paramount importance. Stability of the network ensures persistent operation of the network that, in consequence, avoids data loss when nodes consume all the battery power and subject to death. Particularly, nodes bearing a low pressure of water die early in the usual routing approach due to being preferred choices for data routing. Reliability ensures minimization of the adverse channel effects on data packets so that the desired information is easily extracted from these packets. This article proposes two routing protocols for underwater wireless sensor networks: reliable and stability-aware routing and cooperative reliable and stability-aware routing. In reliable and stability-aware routing, energy assignment to a node is made on the basis of its depth. Sensor nodes having the lowest depth are assigned the highest amount of energy. This energy assignment is called the energy grade of a node and five energy grades are formed in the proposed network from top to bottom. The energy grade along with energy residing in a node battery and its depth decide its selection as a forwarder node. The reliable and stability-aware routing uses only a single link to forward packets. Such a link may not be reliable always. To overcome this issue, the cooperative reliable and stability-aware routing is proposed which introduces cooperative routing to reliable and stability-aware routing. Cooperative routing involves the reception of multiple copies of data symbols by destination. This minimizes the adverse channel effects on data packets and makes the information extraction convenient and less cumbersome at the final destination. Unlike the conventional approach, the proposed schemes do not take into account the coordinates of nodes for defining the routing trajectories, which is challenging in underwater medium. Simulation results reveal a better behavior of the proposed protocols than some competitive schemes in terms of providing stability to the network, packet transfer to the ultimate destination, and latency.

Description: In this paper, we have investigated the role of different fluid parameters particularly electromagnetic field and f ( R ) corrections on the evolution of cylindrical compact object. We have explored the modified field equations, kinematical quantities and dynamical equations. An expression for the mass function has been found in comparison with the Misner–Sharp formalism in modified gravity, after which different mass–radius diagrams are drawn. The coupled dynamical transport equation have been formulated to discuss the role of thermoinertial effects on the inertial mass density of the cylindrical relativistic interior. Finally, we have presented a framework, according to which all possible solutions of the metric f ( R )-Maxwell field equations coupled with static fluid can be written through set of scalar functions. It is found that modified gravity induced by Lagrangians f ( R ) = α R 2 , f ( R ) = α R 2 – β R and $f(R)=\frac{\alpha R^2-\beta R}{1+\gamma R}$ are likely to host more massive cylindrical compact objects with smaller radii as compared to general relativity.

Description: Different concentrations of Mg-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by coprecipitation technique at 60°C. XRD data are used to study phase purity and crystal structure in different doping concentrations. The results indicated that increasing the doping from 0~7.5 wt.% caused a subsequent increase in FWHM in XRD and an associated systematic shift towards higher wavelength in the optical properties. Finally, the sensing of UV light is tested by observing the response of nanoparticles by exposing them to UV light and measuring the resistance in presence and absence of UV light.

Description: In this paper, we explore instability regions of non-static axial reflection symmetric spacetime with anisotropic source in the interior. We impose linear perturbation on the Einstein field equations and dynamical equations to establish the collapse equation. The effects of different physical factors like energy density and anisotropic stresses on the instability regions are studied under Newtonian and post-Newtonian limits. We conclude that stiffness parameter has a significant role in this analysis while the reflection terms increase instability ranges of non-static axial collapse.

Description: The two reaction wheel K2 mission promises and has delivered new discoveries in the stellar and exoplanet fields. However, due to the loss of accurate pointing, it also brings new challenges for the data reduction processes. In this paper, we describe a new reduction pipeline for extracting high-precision photometry from the K2 data set, and present public light curves for the K2 Campaign 1 target pixel data set. Key to our reduction is the derivation of global astrometric solutions from the target stamps, from which accurate centroids are passed on for high-precision photometry extraction. We extract target light curves for sources from a combined UCAC4 and EPIC catalogue – this includes not only primary targets of the K2 campaign 1, but also any other stars that happen to fall on the pixel stamps. We provide the raw light curves, and the products of various detrending processes aimed at removing different types of systematics. Our astrometric solutions achieve a median residual of ~0.127 arcsec. For bright stars, our best 6.5 h precision for raw light curves is ~20 parts per million (ppm). For our detrended light curves, the best 6.5 h precision achieved is ~15 ppm. We show that our detrended light curves have fewer systematic effects (or trends, or red-noise) than light curves produced by other groups from the same observations. Example light curves of transiting planets and a Cepheid variable candidate, are also presented. We make all light curves public, including the raw and detrended photometry, at http://k2.hatsurveys.org .

Description: Question Global change is likely to strongly affect alpine and sub-alpine regions, in which bryophytes are important components. Global change effects on sub-alpine vegetation, bryophytes in particular, however, have been addressed in few studies. We ask if global warming and increased nitrogen (N) deposition, two of the most important components of global change, will have different effects on bryophyte communities and species in sub-alpine coniferous and shrubland ecosystems. Location Eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau. Methods We established a warming by N deposition experiment, using a 2 × 2 factorial design, replicated three times, in each of two sub-alpine ecosystems. Effects on bryophytes at the community and species levels were evaluated after 4 (shrubland) and 5 (coniferous forest) years of warming and N deposition treatments. Results Bryophyte cover increased in the first two growing seasons and thereafter decreased until the end of the experiment in all treatments, most strongly in warming plots in both ecosystems and in N deposition plots in the coniferous forest. At the species level, the pleurocarpous bryophyte Pleurozium schreberi was resilient to warming but sensitive to N deposition, while the acrocarpous bryophytes Rhizomnium tuomikoskii and Racomitrium japonicum were resilient to N addition but sensitive to warming. Conclusions Effects of warming and increased N deposition on bryophytes were species- and to some extent also ecosystem-specific in the experiment in the sub-alpine region, indicating that bryophytes do not respond to global change as one single functional group. The observed species replacements in response to warming and N deposition may affect ecosystem processes. Global change strongly affects subalpine ecosystems with bryophytes as important components. Five-year warming-N deposition experiments on subalpine coniferous and shrubland ecosystems on eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau showed that bryophyte communities were vulnerable to global changes with species-specific responses: Pleurozium schreberi was resilient to warming but sensitive to N deposition with the opposite for Rhizomnium tuomikoskii and Racomitrium japonicum.