Structures of the Insecticidal Toxin Complex Subunit XptA2 Highlight Roles for Flexible Domains.

The Toxin Complex (Tc) superfamily consists of toxin translocases that contribute to the targeting, delivery, and cytotoxicity of certain pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria. Membrane receptor targeting is driven by the A-subunit (TcA), which comprises IgG-like receptor binding domains (RBDs) at the surface. To better understand XptA2, an insect specific TcA secreted by the symbiont X. nematophilus from the intestine of entomopathogenic nematodes, we determined structures by X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM. Contrary to a previous report, XptA2 is pentameric. RBD-B exhibits an indentation from crystal packing that indicates loose association with the shell and a hotspot for possible receptor binding or a trigger for conformational dynamics. A two-fragment XptA2 lacking an intact linker achieved the folded pre-pore state like wild type (wt), revealing no requirement of the linker for protein folding. The linker is disordered in all structures, and we propose it plays a role in dynamics downstream of the initial pre-pore state.

Clean and clear (out): A neat method for the recovery of latent fingermarks from crime-scenes.

Crime-scenes are the heart of any investigation in terms of recovery of key forensic evidence - fingermarks and DNA. Yet, quite often, the operational work of the forensic units, in which different chemicals and reagents for fingermarks development are applied, can also be highly destructive to the property and the environment. Hence, for both ecological and intelligence purposes, an operational method that minimizes that damage would be ideal. In this study, an "out-of-the-box" approach is proposed; rather than working at the crime scene itself, gel-lifters were used as a transferring tool for the latent forensic evidence, fingermarks and DNA, to be developed by applying black wet-powder (Wetwop®) in a controlled laboratory environment, leaving the crime-scene undisturbed. The results show a promising potential, as this indirect method proved to be robust and successful for non-porous surfaces, and even for aged fingermarks. In addition, this study gave a new perspective into the accepted notion regarding the difference between male and female donors, showing a direct correlation of the size and weight of the hands to the natural pressure applied by the donor. Moreover, the indirect nature of the method highlights the importance of the interaction between the type of surface and the latent fingermark constituents, primarily water, and its effect on the survivability and quality of the developed fingermark. Due to the growing demand of keeping crime scenes and exhibits unharmed by both police and intelligence forces, the new approach of this application provides a valuable asset for future operational field-work.

How to Stop Disagreeing and Start Cooperatingin the Presence of Asymmetric Packet Loss.

We consider the design of a disagreement correction protocol in multi-vehicle systems. Vehicles broadcast in real-time vital information such as position, direction, speed, acceleration, intention, etc. This information is then used to identify the risks and adapt their trajectory to maintain the highest performance without compromising the safety. To minimize the risk due to the use of inconsistent information, all cooperating vehicles must agree whether to use the exchanged information to operate in a cooperative mode or use the only local information to operate in an autonomous mode. However, since wireless communications are prone to failures, it is impossible to deterministically reach an agreement. Therefore, any protocol will exhibit necessary disagreement periods. In this paper, we investigate whether vehicles can still cooperate despite communication failures even in the scenario where communication is suddenly not available. We present a deterministic protocol that allows all participants to either operate a cooperative mode when vehicles can exchange all the information in a timely manner or operate in autonomous mode when messages are lost. We show formally that the disagreement time is bounded by the time that the communication channel requires to deliver messages and validate our protocol using NS-3 simulations. We explain how the proposed solution can be used in vehicular platooning to attain high performance and still guarantee high safety standards despite communication failures.

Enhanced imaging of developed fingerprints using mass spectrometry imaging.

Latent fingermarks are invisible to the naked eye and normally require the application of a chemical developer followed by an optical imaging step in order to visualize the ridge detail. If the finger deposition is poor, or the fingermark is aged, it can sometimes be difficult to produce an image of sufficient quality for identification. In this work, we show for the first time how mass spectrometry imaging (in this case time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, ToF-SIMS) can be used to enhance the quality of partially recovered fingermarks. We show three examples of how chemical imaging can be used to obtain enhanced images of fingermarks deposited on aluminium foil, glass and the handle of a hand grenade compared with conventional development techniques.

A fast super-resolution reconstruction algorithm for pure translational motion and common space-invariant blur.

This paper addresses the problem of recovering a super-resolved image from a set of warped blurred and decimated versions thereof. Several algorithms have already been proposed for the solution of this general problem. In this paper, we concentrate on a special case where the warps are pure translations, the blur is space invariant and the same for all the images, and the noise is white. We exploit previous results to develop a new highly efficient super-resolution reconstruction algorithm for this case, which separates the treatment into de-blurring and measurements fusion. The fusion part is shown to be a very simple non-iterative algorithm, preserving the optimality of the entire reconstruction process, in the maximum-likelihood sense. Simulations demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed algorithm.

Superresolution restoration of an image sequence: adaptive filtering approach.

This paper presents a new method based on adaptive filtering theory for superresolution restoration of continuous image sequences. The proposed methodology suggests least squares (LS) estimators which adapt in time, based on adaptive filters, least mean squares (LMS) or recursive least squares (RLS). The adaptation enables the treatment of linear space and time-variant blurring and arbitrary motion, both of them assumed known. The proposed new approach is shown to be of relatively low computational requirements. Simulations demonstrating the superresolution restoration algorithms are presented.

Restoration of a single superresolution image from several blurred, noisy, and undersampled measured images.

The three main tools in the single image restoration theory are the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) estimator, and the set theoretic approach using projection onto convex sets (POCS). This paper utilizes the above known tools to propose a unified methodology toward the more complicated problem of superresolution restoration. In the superresolution restoration problem, an improved resolution image is restored from several geometrically warped, blurred, noisy and downsampled measured images. The superresolution restoration problem is modeled and analyzed from the ML, the MAP, and POCS points of view, yielding a generalization of the known superresolution restoration methods. The proposed restoration approach is general but assumes explicit knowledge of the linear space- and time-variant blur, the (additive Gaussian) noise, the different measured resolutions, and the (smooth) motion characteristics. A hybrid method combining the simplicity of the ML and the incorporation of nonellipsoid constraints is presented, giving improved restoration performance, compared with the ML and the POCS approaches. The hybrid method is shown to converge to the unique optimal solution of a new definition of the optimization problem. Superresolution restoration from motionless measurements is also discussed. Simulations demonstrate the power of the proposed methodology.