Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

About: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Haifa, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Nonlinear system. The organization has 31714 authors who have published 79377 publications receiving 2603976 citations. The organization is also known as: Technion Israel Institute of Technology & Ṭekhniyon, Makhon ṭekhnologi le-Yiśraʼel.

Demosaicing: image reconstruction from color CCD samples

Abstract: A simplified color image formation model is used to construct an algorithm for image reconstruction from CCD sensors samples. The proposed method involves two successive steps. The first is motivated by Cok's (1994) template matching technique, while the second step uses steerable inverse diffusion in color. Classical linear signal processing techniques tend to oversmooth the image and result in noticeable color artifacts along edges and sharp features. The question is how should the different color channels support each other to form the best possible reconstruction. Our answer is to let the edges support the color information, and the color channels support the edges, and thereby achieve better perceptual results than those that are bounded by the sampling theoretical limit.

Climate as a social-cognitive construction of supervisory safety practices: scripts as proxy of behavior patterns.

Abstract: Organizational climate research has focused on prediction of organizational outcomes rather than on climate as a social– cognitive mediator between environmental attributes and relevant outcomes. This article presents a model specifying that supervisory safety practices predict (safety) climate level and strength as moderated by leadership quality. Using supervisory scripts as proxy of practices, it is shown that script orientation indicative of safety priority predicted climate level, whereas script simplicity and cross-situational variability predicted climate strength. Transformational leadership mitigated these effects because of closer leader–member relationships. Safety climate partially mediated the relationship between supervisory scripts and injury rate during the 6-month period following climate and script measurement. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. Organizational climate is a socially construed and shared representation of those aspects of organizational environment that inform role behavior, that is, the extent to which certain facets of role behavior are rewarded and supported in any organization. The most relevant perceptual indicators in this regard are formal and informal policies, procedures, and practices concerning focal organizational facets, such as service and safety (Schneider & Bowen, 1985; Schneider, Bowen, Ehrhart, & Holcombe, 2000; Zohar, 2000). This description reflects the current approaches to climate research, which are associated with facet-specific rather than global climates (i.e., “climate for something,” such as service quality or employee safety; see Schneider et al., 2000). Specific climates thus provide convergent measures of employees’ perceptions of relevant policies, procedures, and practices. Given this theoretical perspective, one would expect the research to incorporate climate mainly as a mediator between environmental properties (i.e., policy and procedural characteristics) and organizational outcomes. However, literature reviews reveal a paucity of research in this direction (Denison, 1996; Ostroff, Kinicki, & Tamkins, 2003) because available studies focus almost entirely on consequences rather than on antecedents of climate. The present work was designed, therefore, to investigate attributes of managerial practice as antecedents of group-level climate. Specifically, it presents a methodology for characterizing managerial practices in terms of three climate-relevant attributes— expression of relative priorities for competing facets, internal consistency, and pattern simplicity—and explores relationships between these attributes and climate level and strength, using safety climate as the exemplar.

Quantum cryptography with coherent states

Abstract: The safety of a quantum key distribution system relies on the fact that any eavesdropping attempt on the quantum channel creates errors in the transmission. For a given error rate, the amount of information that may have leaked to the eavesdropper depends on both the particular system and the eavesdropping strategy. In this work, we discuss quantum cryptographic protocols based on the transmission of weak coherent states and present a system, based on a symbiosis of two existing systems, for which the information available to the eavesdropper is significantly reduced. This system is therefore safer than the two previous ones. We also suggest a possible experimental implementation.

The base of the proteasome regulatory particle exhibits chaperone-like activity.

Abstract: Protein substrates of the proteasome must apparently be unfolded and translocated through a narrow channel to gain access to the proteolytic active sites of the enzyme. Protein folding in vivo is mediated by molecular chaperones. Here, to test for chaperone activity of the proteasome, we assay the reactivation of denatured citrate synthase. Both human and yeast proteasomes stimulate the recovery of the native structure of citrate synthase. We map this chaperone-like activity to the base of the regulatory particle of the proteasome, that is, to the ATPase-containing assembly located at the substrate-entry ports of the channel. Denatured but not native citrate synthase is bound by the base complex. Ubiquitination of citrate synthase is not required for its binding or refolding by the base complex of the proteasome. These data suggest a model in which ubiquitin–protein conjugates are initially tethered to the proteasome by specific recognition of their ubiquitin chains; this step is followed by a nonspecific interaction between the base and the target protein, which promotes substrate unfolding and translocation.