TY - CONF AB - Many algorithms to remove distortion from document images have be proposed in recent years, but so far there is no reliable method for comparing their performance. In this paper we propose a collection of methods to measure the quality of such restoration algorithms for document image which show a non-linear distortion due to perspective or page curl. For the result from these measurement to be meaningful, a common data set of ground truth is required. We therefore started with the buildup of a document image database that is meant to serve as a common data basis for all kinds of restoration from images of 3D-shaped document. The long term goal would be to establish this database and following extensions in the area of document image dewarping as an as fruitful and indispensable tool as e.g. the NIST database is for OCR, or the Caltech database is for object and face recognition. AU - Christoph Lampert AU - Breuel,Thomas M ID - 3683 TI - Objective quality measurement for geometric document image restoration ER - TY - CONF AB - Video compression currently is dominated by engineering and fine-tuned heuristic methods. In this paper, we propose to instead apply the well-developed machinery of machine learning in order to support the optimization of existing video encoders and the creation of new ones. Exemplarily, we show how by machine learning we can improve one encoding step that is crucial for the performance of all current video standards: macroblock mode decision. By formulating the problem in a Bayesian setup, we show that macroblock mode decision can be reduced to a classification problem with a cost function for misclassification that is sample dependent. We demonstrate how to apply different machine learning techniques to obtain suitable classifiers and we show in detailed experiments that all of these perform better than the state-of-the-art heuristic method AU - Christoph Lampert ID - 3685 TI - Machine learning for video compression: Macroblock mode decision ER - TY - JOUR AB - We applied a single-cell assay to characterize how transcription dynamics affects protein expression levels of a tetracycline-inducible gene expression system. Transcriptional activity of the tetracycline promoter in response to a steady level of inducer is steady in ΔacrAB efflux mutant but pulsating in wildtype Escherichia coli cells. We found that the expression level of the green fluorescent protein is several folds higher in ΔacrAB efflux mutant than in wildtype cells. AU - Le,Thuc T. AU - Calin Guet AU - Cluzel,Philippe ID - 3750 IS - 1 JF - Protein Expression and Purification TI - Protein expression enhancement in efflux-deleted mutant bacteria VL - 48 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Models of RNA secondary structure folding are widely used to study evolution in theory and simulation. However, systematic studies of the parameters involved are rare. In this paper, we study by simulation how RNA evolution is influenced by three different factors, namely the mutation rate, scaling of the fitness function, and distance measure. We found that for low mutation rates the qualitative evolutionary behavior is robust with respect to the scaling of the fitness function. For efficient mutation rates, which are close to the error threshold, scaling and distance measure have a strong influence on the evolutionary behavior. A global distance measure that takes sequence information additively into account lowers the error threshold. When using a local sequence-structure alignment for the distance, we observed a smoother evolution of the fitness over time. Finally, in addition to the well known error threshold, we identify another threshold of the mutation rate, called divergence threshold, where the qualitative transient behavior changes from a localized to an exploratory search. AU - Anne Kupczok AU - Dittrich,Peter ID - 3767 IS - 3 JF - Journal of Theoretical Biology TI - Determinants of simulated RNA evolution. VL - 238 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Hyperpolarization-activated channels (Ih or HCN channels) are widely expressed in principal neurons in the central nervous system. However, Ih in inhibitory GABAergic interneurons is less well characterized. We examined the functional properties of Ih in fast-spiking basket cells (BCs) of the dentate gyrus, using hippocampal slices from 17- to 21-day-old rats. Bath application of the Ih channel blocker ZD 7288 at a concentration of 30 microm induced a hyperpolarization of 5.7 +/- 1.5 mV, an increase in input resistance and a correlated increase in apparent membrane time constant. ZD 7288 blocked a hyperpolarization-activated current in a concentration-dependent manner (IC50, 1.4 microm). The effects of ZD 7288 were mimicked by external Cs+. The reversal potential of Ih was -27.4 mV, corresponding to a Na+ to K+ permeability ratio (PNa/PK) of 0.36. The midpoint potential of the activation curve of Ih was -83.9 mV, and the activation time constant at -120 mV was 190 ms. Single-cell expression analysis using reverse transcription followed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that BCs coexpress HCN1 and HCN2 subunit mRNA, suggesting the formation of heteromeric HCN1/2 channels. ZD 7288 increased the current threshold for evoking antidromic action potentials by extracellular stimulation, consistent with the expression of Ih in BC axons. Finally, ZD 7288 decreased the frequency of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) in hippocampal granule cells, the main target cells of BCs, to 70 +/- 4% of the control value. In contrast, the amplitude of mIPSCs was unchanged, consistent with the presence of Ih in inhibitory terminals. In conclusion, our results suggest that Ih channels are expressed in the somatodendritic region, axon and presynaptic elements of fast-spiking BCs in the hippocampus. AU - Aponte, Yexica AU - Lien, Cheng-Chang AU - Reisinger, Ellen AU - Peter Jonas ID - 3813 IS - Pt 1 JF - Journal of Physiology TI - Hyperpolarization-activated cation channels in fast-spiking interneurons of rat hippocampus VL - 574 ER - TY - GEN AB - The axon terminals (mossy fibers) of hippocampal dentate granule cells form characteristic synaptic connections with large spines or excrescences of both hilar mossy cells and CA3 pyramidal neurons. Interneurons of the hilar region and area CA3 are also prominent targets of mossy fibers. The tracing of biocytin-filled mossy fibers and immunolabeling of target cells with interneuron markers has revealed that the majority of mossy fiber synapses project to gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic inhibitory interneurons rather than to excitatory principal cells, although the functional implications of these quantitative differences are unclear. Following a brief description of the "classical" mossy fiber synapse on excrescences of CA3 pyramidal cells, the present review focuses on the contacts formed between granule cells and GABAergic interneurons, both normally and after synaptic reorganization. In response to deafferentation of mossy cell target cells, which include both granule cells and interneurons, mossy fibers "sprout" new axon collaterals that form a band of supragranular mossy fibers in the inner molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. Although most newly formed recurrent mossy fibers establish synapses with granule cells, there is an apparently convergent input of new mossy fibers onto GABA-immunoreactive interneuron dendrites that traverse the inner molecular layer. These mossy fiber-interneuron synapses in the dentate gyrus are observed in chronically epileptic rats and may be the structural correlate of the granule cell hyperinhibition observed in these animals in vivo. Together, the findings reviewed here establish mossy fiber synapses as an important component of inhibitory circuits in the hippocampus. AU - Frotscher, Michael AU - Peter Jonas AU - Sloviter, Robert S ID - 3814 IS - 2 T2 - Cell and Tissue Research TI - Synapses formed by normal and abnormal hippocampal mossy fibers (Review) VL - 326 ER - TY - JOUR AB - It is widely accepted that the hippocampus plays a major role in learning and memory. The mossy fiber synapse between granule cells in the dentate gyrus and pyramidal neurons in the CA3 region is a key component of the hippocampal trisynaptic circuit. Recent work, partially based on direct presynaptic patch-clamp recordings from hippocampal mossy fiber boutons, sheds light on the mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity at mossy fiber synapses. A high Na(+) channel density in mossy fiber boutons leads to a large amplitude of the presynaptic action potential. Together with the fast gating of presynaptic Ca(2+) channels, this generates a large and brief presynaptic Ca(2+) influx, which can trigger transmitter release with high efficiency and temporal precision. The large number of release sites, the large size of the releasable pool of vesicles, and the huge extent of presynaptic plasticity confer unique strength to this synapse, suggesting a large impact onto the CA3 pyramidal cell network under specific behavioral conditions. The characteristic properties of the hippocampal mossy fiber synapse may be important for pattern separation and information storage in the dentate gyrus-CA3 cell network. AU - Bischofberger, Josef AU - Engel, Dominique AU - Frotscher, Michael AU - Peter Jonas ID - 3815 IS - 3 JF - Pflugers Archiv : European Journal of Physiology TI - Timing and efficacy of transmitter release at mossy fiber synapses in the hippocampal network VL - 453 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Networks of GABAergic neurons are key elements in the generation of gamma oscillations in the brain. Computational studies suggested that the emergence of coherent oscillations requires hyperpolarizing inhibition. Here, we show that GABA(A) receptor-mediated inhibition in mature interneurons of the hippocampal dentate gyrus is shunting rather than hyperpolarizing. Unexpectedly, when shunting inhibition is incorporated into a structured interneuron network model with fast and strong synapses, coherent oscillations emerge. In comparison to hyperpolarizing inhibition, networks with shunting inhibition show several advantages. First, oscillations are generated with smaller tonic excitatory drive. Second, network frequencies are tuned to the gamma band. Finally, robustness against heterogeneity in the excitatory drive is markedly improved. In single interneurons, shunting inhibition shortens the interspike interval for low levels of drive but prolongs it for high levels, leading to homogenization of neuronal firing rates. Thus, shunting inhibition may confer increased robustness to gamma oscillations in the brain. AU - Vida, Imre AU - Bartos, Marlene AU - Peter Jonas ID - 3811 IS - 1 JF - Neuron TI - Shunting inhibition improves robustness of gamma oscillations in hippocampal interneuron networks by homogenizing firing rates VL - 49 ER - TY - JOUR AU - Frotscher, Michael AU - Gundelfinger, Eckart AU - Peter Jonas AU - Neher, Erwin AU - Seeburg, Peter ID - 3817 IS - 2 JF - Cell and Tissue Research TI - The most important recent advances in synapse research from my point of view--and what remains to be done VL - 326 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Invasive species often dramatically change native species communities by directly and indirectly out-competing native species. We studied the direct interference abilities of the invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus VAN LOON, BOOMSMA & ANDRÁSFALVY, 1990, by performing one-to-one aggression tests of L. neglectus workers towards three native Lasius ant species that occur at the edge of a L. neglectus supercolony in Seva, Spain. Our results show that L. neglectus is highly aggressive against all three native Lasius species tested (L. grandis FOREL, 1909, L. emarginatus (OLIVIER, 1792), and L. cinereus SEIFERT, 1992), expressed as a higher attack rate of L. neglectus and behavioural dominance throughout the aggressive encounters. Attacks of L. neglectus were performed fastest and most frequent against L. grandis, and also the highest antennation frequencies were observed in encounters between these two species. This could be due to the largest difference in body size, or due to a greater overlap in ecological niche between L. neglectus and L. grandis compared to the other two native species. There was only weak support for L. neglectus workers from the periphery of the supercolony to be more aggressive relative to workers from the centre, even though the former encounter native ant species on a daily basis at the edge of the supercolony. AU - Cremer, Sylvia AU - Ugelvig, Line V AU - Lommen, Suzanne AU - Petersen, Klaus AU - Pedersen, Jes ID - 3912 JF - Myrmecological News TI - Attack of the invasive garden ant: aggression behaviour of Lasius neglectus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) against native Lasius species in Spain VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We compare the performances of established means of character selection for discriminant analysis in species distinction with a combination procedure for finding the optimal character combination (minimum classification error, minimum number of required characters), using morphometric data sets from the ant genera Cardiocondyla, Lasius and Tetramorium. The established methods are empirical character selection as well as forward selection, backward elimination and stepwise selection of discriminant analysis. The combination procedure is clearly superior to the established methods of character selection, and is widely applicable. AU - Moder, Karl AU - Schlick Steiner, Birgit AU - Steiner, Florian AU - Cremer, Sylvia AU - Christian, Erhard AU - Seifert, Bernhard ID - 3914 IS - 1 JF - Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research TI - Optimal species distinction by discriminant analysis: comparing established methods of character selection with a combination procedure using ant morphometrics as a case study VL - 45 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Many invasive ant species, such as the Argentine ant or the red imported fire ant, have huge colonies with thousands of mass-foraging workers, which quickly monopolise resources and therefore represent a considerable threat to the native ant fauna. Cardiocondyla obscurior and several other species of this myrmicine genus have similarly been transferred throughout the tropics by human activities. However, because their colonies are tiny and workers forage solitarily, Cardiocondyla are often not recognized as successful invaders. Here, we document that the life history of Cardiocondyla closely resembles that of the more conspicuous tramp species, with polygyny, intranidal mating, budding, worker sterility, low genetic variability, and possibly also unicoloniality. Given that introduced Cardiocondyla may locally reach a very high population density, the effects of these stealthy invaders on the native arthropod fauna should receive more attention. AU - Heinze, Jürgen AU - Cremer, Sylvia AU - Eckl, Norbert AU - Schrempf, Alexandra ID - 3913 IS - 1 JF - Insectes Sociaux TI - Stealthy invaders: the biology of Cardiocondyla tramp ants VL - 53 ER - TY - JOUR AB - OBJECTIVES: The EGFR is expressed in malignant ovarian tumor tissue, and tissue content of EGFR has been directly associated with poor prognosis in patients with ovarian cancer. The uPA system plays a role in pericellular proteolysis, cell migration, invasion, and is over-expressed in ovarian cancer. This study explored the effects of EGF on uPAR expression in the ovarian cancer cell line OVCAR-3. METHODS: We used OVCAR-3 cells and the following methods: cell migration assay, time-lapse video microscopy, real-time PCR, assays for cellular binding of 125I-uPA and cellular degradation of 125I-uPA:PAI-1 complex, biosynthetic labeling using 35S-methionin, Western blot, Northern blot, and ELISAs for uPA, PAI-1, and uPAR. RESULTS: EGF up-regulates both protein and mRNA not only for uPAR, but also for the ligand uPA and its inhibitor PAI-1. Cell surface uPAR, in control as well as EGF-stimulated cells, is present only in the intact, not the cleaved, form. Ligand binding experiments showed an increase of endogenously occupied uPAR, whereas non-occupied receptor sites were not increased. In addition, EGF treatment resulted in decreased degradation of radiolabeled uPA:PAI-1 complex. This suggests decreased internalization of uPAR, since the complex is internalized together with uPAR. Like EGF, colchicine, which inhibits endocytosis, increased cell surface expression of uPAR. In addition, we found an immediate increase of uPAR after exposing the cells to EGF and this was accompanied by a transient increase of cell migration. The increase of cell surface uPAR in response to EGF is accompanied by increased release of the soluble form of uPAR (suPAR) to the medium as well as by increased cell migration. Both uPAR and suPAR increased in cells treated with the endocytosis inhibitor colchicine even though cell migration was inhibited, suggesting that the mechanism of uPAR shedding is not related to cell migration. CONCLUSION: Increased cell surface uPAR in response to EGF stimulation results from mobilization of uPAR from detergent-resistant domains, increased expression of uPAR mRNA, and decreased internalization and degradation of uPAR. Both the anti-uPAR antibody R3, which inhibits binding of uPA, and the EGFR phosphorylation inhibitor Iressa inhibited cell migration in response to uPA as well as to EGF, suggesting that EGFR and uPAR are engaged in the same multiprotein assembly on the cell surface. AU - Henic, Emir AU - Michael Sixt AU - Hansson, Stefan AU - Høyer-Hansen, Gunilla AU - Casslén, Bertil ID - 3932 IS - 1 JF - Gynecologic Oncology TI - EGF-stimulated migration in ovarian cancer cells is associated with decreased internalization, increased surface expression, and increased shedding of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor VL - 101 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Evaluating the quality of experimentally determined protein structural models is an essential step toward identifying potential errors and guiding further structural refinement. Herein, we report the use of proton local density as a sensitive measure to assess the quality of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structures. Using 256 high-resolution crystal structures with protons added and optimized, we show that the local density of different proton types display distinct distributions. These distributions can be characterized by statistical moments and are used to establish local density Z-scores for evaluating both global and local packing for individual protons. Analysis of 546 crystal structures at various resolutions shows that the local density Z-scores increase as the structural resolution decreases and correlate well with the ClashScore (Word et al. J Mol Biol 1999;285(4):1711-1733) generated by all atom contact analysis. Local density Z-scores for NMR structures exhibit a significantly wider range of values than for X-ray structures and demonstrate a combination of potentially problematic inflation and compression. Water-refined NMR structures show improved packing quality. Our analysis of a high-quality structural ensemble of ubiquitin refined against order parameters shows proton density distributions that correlate nearly perfectly with our standards derived from crystal structures, further validating our approach. We present an automated analysis and visualization tool for proton packing to evaluate the quality of NMR structures. AU - Ban, Yih-En Andrew AU - Rudolph, Johannes AU - Zhou, Pei AU - Herbert Edelsbrunner ID - 3978 IS - 4 JF - Proteins: Structure, Function and Bioinformatics TI - Evaluating the quality of NMR structures by local density of protons VL - 62 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Protein-protein interactions, which form the basis for most cellular processes, result in the formation of protein interfaces. Believing that the local shape of proteins is crucial, we take a geometric approach and present a definition of an interface surface formed by two or more proteins as a subset of their Voronoi diagram. The definition deals with the difficult and important problem of specifying interface boundaries by invoking methods used in the alpha shape representation of molecules, the discrete flow on Delaunay simplices to define pockets and reconstruct surfaces, and the assessment of the importance of topological features. We present an algorithm to construct the surface and define a hierarchy that distinguishes core and peripheral regions. This hierarchy is shown to have correlation with hot-spots in protein-protein interactions. Finally, we study the geometric and topological properties of interface surfaces and show their high degree of contortion. AU - Ban, Yih-En Andrew AU - Herbert Edelsbrunner AU - Rudolph, Johannes ID - 3979 IS - 3 JF - Journal of the ACM TI - Interface surfaces for protein-protein complexes VL - 53 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Given a smoothly embedded 2-manifold in R-3, we define the elevation of a point as the height difference to a canonically defined second point on the same manifold. Our definition is invariant under rigid motions and can be used to define features such as lines of discontinuous or continuous but non-smooth elevation. We give an algorithm for finding points of locally maximum elevation, which we suggest mark cavities and protrusions and are useful in matching shapes as for example in protein docking. AU - Agarwal, Pankaj K AU - Herbert Edelsbrunner AU - Harer, John AU - Wang, Yusu ID - 3980 IS - 4 JF - Discrete & Computational Geometry TI - Extreme elevation on a 2-manifold VL - 36 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Der Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dem Konzept der Bibliothek 2.0 (bzw. Library 2.0). Er skizziert anhand einiger Beispiele die Entwicklung zum Web 2.0 und beschreibt, wie Web 2.0-Technologien und -Anwendungen in Bibliotheken eingesetzt werden. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Social-Tagging-Systeme, benutzerorientierte Erweiterungen von Bibliothekskatalogen und Dokumentenservern sowie der Einsatz von Weblogs an Bibliotheken. Ferner werden neue Anforderungen an Bibliothekare diskutiert. AU - Patrick Danowski AU - Heller,Lambert ID - 4345 IS - 11 JF - Bibliotheksdienst TI - Bibliothek 2.0 - Die Bibliothek der Zukunft? VL - 40 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Anopheles darlingi is the primary malaria vector in Latin America, and is especially important in Amazonian Brazil. Historically, control efforts have been focused on indoor house spraying using a variety of insecticides, but since the mid-1990s there has been a shift to patient treatment and focal insecticide fogging. Anopheles darlingi was believed to have been significantly reduced in a gold-mining community, Peixoto de Azevedo (in Mato Grosso State), in the early 1990s by insecticide use during a severe malaria epidemic. In contrast, although An. darlingi was eradicated from some districts of the city of Belem (the capital of Para State) in 1968 to reduce malaria, populations around the water protection area in the eastern district were treated only briefly. To investigate the population structure of An. darlingi including evidence for a population bottleneck in Peixoto, we analyzed eight microsatellite loci of 256 individuals from seven locations in Brazil: three in Amapa State, three in Para State, and one in Mato Grosso State. Allelic diversity and mean expected heterozygosity were high for all populations (mean number alleles/locus and H(E) were 13.5 and 0.834, respectively) and did not differ significantly between locations. Significant heterozygote deficits were associated with linkage disequilibrium, most likely due to either the Wahlund effect or selection. We found no evidence for a population bottleneck in Peixoto, possibly because the reduction was not extreme enough to be detected. Overall estimates of long-term N(e) varied from 92.4 individuals under the linkage disequilibrium model to infinity under the heterozygote excess model. Fixation indices and analysis of molecular variance demonstrated significant differentiation between locations north and south of the Amazon River, suggesting a degree of genetic isolation between them, attributed to isolation by distance. AU - Conn, Jan E AU - Vineis, Joseph H AU - Jonathan Bollback AU - Onyabe, David Y AU - Wilkerson, Richard C AU - Povoa, Marinete M ID - 4352 IS - 5 JF - The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene TI - Population structure of the malaria vector Anopheles darlingi in a malaria-endemic region of eastern Amazonian Brazil VL - 74 ER - TY - JOUR AB - BACKGROUND: Character mapping on phylogenies has played an important, if not critical role, in our understanding of molecular, morphological, and behavioral evolution. Until very recently we have relied on parsimony to infer character changes. Parsimony has a number of serious limitations that are drawbacks to our understanding. Recent statistical methods have been developed that free us from these limitations enabling us to overcome the problems of parsimony by accommodating uncertainty in evolutionary time, ancestral states, and the phylogeny. RESULTS: SIMMAP has been developed to implement stochastic character mapping that is useful to both molecular evolutionists, systematists, and bioinformaticians. Researchers can address questions about positive selection, patterns of amino acid substitution, character association, and patterns of morphological evolution. CONCLUSION: Stochastic character mapping, as implemented in the SIMMAP software, enables users to address questions that require mapping characters onto phylogenies using a probabilistic approach that does not rely on parsimony. Analyses can be performed using a fully Bayesian approach that is not reliant on considering a single topology, set of substitution model parameters, or reconstruction of ancestral states. Uncertainty in these quantities is accommodated by using MCMC samples from their respective posterior distributions. AU - Jonathan Bollback ID - 4351 JF - BMC Bioinformatics TI - SIMMAP: stochastic character mapping of discrete traits on phylogenies VL - 7 ER - TY - CONF AB - One of the most exciting advances in early vision has been the development of efficient energy minimization algorithms. Many early vision tasks require labeling each pixel with some quantity such as depth or texture. While many such problems can be elegantly expressed in the language of Markov Random Fields (MRF's), the resulting energy minimization problems were widely viewed as intractable. Recently, algorithms such as graph cuts and loopy belief propagation (LBP) have proven to be very powerful: for example, such methods form the basis for almost all the top-performing stereo methods. Unfortunately, most papers define their own energy function, which is minimized with a specific algorithm of their choice. As a result, the tradeoffs among different energy minimization algorithms are not well understood. In this paper we describe a set of energy minimization benchmarks, which we use to compare the solution quality and running time of several common energy minimization algorithms. We investigate three promising recent methods - graph cuts, LBP, and tree-reweighted message passing - as well as the well-known older iterated conditional modes (ICM) algorithm. Our benchmark problems are drawn from published energy functions used for stereo, image stitching and interactive segmentation. We also provide a general-purpose software interface that allows vision researchers to easily switch between optimization methods with minimal overhead. We expect that the availability of our benchmarks and interface will make it significantly easier for vision researchers to adopt the best method for their specific problems. Benchmarks, code, results and images are available at http://vision.middlebury.edu/MRF. AU - Szeliski, Richard S AU - Zabih, Ramin AU - Scharstein, Daniel AU - Veksler, Olga AU - Vladimir Kolmogorov AU - Agarwala, Aseem AU - Tappen, Marshall F AU - Rother, Carsten ID - 3180 TI - A comparative study of energy minimization methods for Markov random fields VL - 3952 ER -