FootSLAM or simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for pedestrians is a technique that addresses the indoor positioning and mapping problem based on human odometry (aka pedestrian dead reckoning), e.g. with a foot-mounted inertial sensor. FootSLAM follows the FastSLAM factorization, using a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter to simultaneously estimate the building layout and the pedestrian...

Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC; aka, mustard oil) is a powerful irritant produced by Brassica plants as a defensive trait against herbivores and confers pungency to mustard and wasabi. AITC is widely used experimentally as an inducer of acute pain and neurogenic inflammation, which are largely mediated by the activation of nociceptive cation channels transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 and trans...

“Identification of this paper as a ‘citation classic’ is a very pleasant way to be reminded of successful research conducted some years ago. My colleagues and I are suitably flattered by this long term result, although that does not compare with the excitement of discovery which permeated many of the results of this early experiment in space magnetometry. Our research was done just as the space...

OBJECTIVES To assess the diagnostic value for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), of an immunoblotting assay based on the rat oesophagus epithelium antigens recognised by the so-called 'antikeratin antibodies' ('AKA'), antigens that have been identified as three non-cytokeratin proteins (referred to as A, B and C proteins). METHODS After polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in non-denaturing conditions ...

AIM This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to critically appraised data from comparable studies leading to quantitative assessment of any independent association between use of oral smokeless tobacco in any form, of betel quid without tobacco and of areca nut with incidence of oral cancer in South Asia and the Pacific. METHODS Studies (case control and/or cohort) were identified by se...

P2X receptors are trimeric membrane proteins. When they bind extracellular ATP, a conformational change occurs that opens a transmembrane ion channel. The ATP-binding pocket is formed in a cleft between two subunits, and a critical amino acid residue for ATP contact is Lys⁶⁹ (P2X2 numbering). In the present work, we sought to determine whether the binding of fewer than three ATP molecules could...

There has recently been considerable interest in design of low-complexity, myopic, distributed and stable scheduling policies for constrained queueing network models that arise in the context of emerging communication networks. Here, we consider two representative models. One, a model for the collection of wireless nodes communicating through a shared medium, that represents randomly varying nu...

January 2012, Vol. 102, No. 1 SAMJ Feisty Western Cape Premier Helen Zille saw out 2011 in a firestorm of protest over pilot and planned provincial lotteries offering potential cash prizes to anyone who tested for HIV and (negative for) drug abuse, claiming ‘persuasion’ had so far proven to be a blunt instrument. The fuse to a series of rhetorical explosions by respondents as varied as the publ...

Aurora kinases (AKs) are serine/threonine kinases that are essential for cell division. Humans have three AK genes: AKA, AKB, and AKC. AKA is required for centrosome assembly, centrosome separation, and bipolar spindle assembly, and its mutation leads to abnormal spindle morphology. AKB is required for the spindle checkpoint and proper cytokinesis, and mutations cause chromosome misalignment an...