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 & Upper and lower bounds. 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.

ABF++: fast and robust angle based flattening

Abstract: Conformal parameterization of mesh models has numerous applications in geometry processing. Conformality is desirable for remeshing, surface reconstruction, and many other mesh processing applications. Subject to the conformality requirement, these applications typically benefit from parameterizations with smaller stretch. The Angle Based Flattening (ABF) method, presented a few years ago, generates provably valid conformal parameterizations with low stretch. However, it is quite time-consuming and becomes error prone for large meshes due to numerical error accumulation. This work presents ABFpp, a highly efficient extension of the ABF method, that overcomes these drawbacks while maintaining all the advantages of ABF. ABF++ robustly parameterizes meshes of hundreds of thousands and millions of triangles within minutes. It is based on three main components: (1) a new numerical solution technique that dramatically reduces the dimension of the linear systems solved at each iteration, speeding up the solution; (2) a new robust scheme for reconstructing the 2D coordinates from the angle space solution that avoids the numerical instabilities which hindered the ABF reconstruction scheme; and (3) an efficient hierarchical solution technique. The speedup with (1) does not come at the expense of greater distortion. The hierarchical technique (3) enables parameterization of models with millions of faces in seconds at the expense of a minor increase in parametric distortion. The parameterization computed by ABF++ are provably valid, that is they contain no flipped triangles. As a result of these extensions, the ABF++ method is extremely suitable for robustly and efficiently parameterizing models for geometry-processing applications.

Measurement of the Z/γ* boson transverse momentum distribution in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: This paper describes a measurement of the Z/gamma* boson transverse momentum spectrum using ATLAS proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed in the Z/gamma* -> e(+)e(-) and Z/gamma* -> mu(+)mu(-) channels, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1). Normalized differential cross sections as a function of the Z/gamma* boson transverse momentum are measured for transverse momenta up to 800 GeV. The measurement is performed inclusively for Z/gamma* rapidities up to 2.4, as well as in three rapidity bins. The channel results are combined, compared to perturbative and resummed QCD calculations and used to constrain the parton shower parameters of Monte Carlo generators.

Glutamine-driven oxidative phosphorylation is a major ATP source in transformed mammalian cells in both normoxia and hypoxia.

Abstract: Mammalian cells can generate ATP via glycolysis or mitochondrial respiration. Oncogene activation and hypoxia promote glycolysis and lactate secretion. The significance of these metabolic changes to ATP production remains however ill defined. Here, we integrate LC-MS-based isotope tracer studies with oxygen uptake measurements in a quantitative redox-balanced metabolic flux model of mammalian cellular metabolism. We then apply this approach to assess the impact of Ras and Akt activation and hypoxia on energy metabolism. Both oncogene activation and hypoxia induce roughly a twofold increase in glycolytic flux. Ras activation and hypoxia also strongly decrease glucose oxidation. Oxidative phosphorylation, powered substantially by glutamine-driven TCA turning, however, persists and accounts for the majority of ATP production. Consistent with this, in all cases, pharmacological inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation markedly reduces energy charge, and glutamine but not glucose removal markedly lowers oxygen uptake. Thus, glutamine-driven oxidative phosphorylation is a major means of ATP production even in hypoxic cancer cells.