Cities are experiencing rapid population growth and consequently extensive urbanization. Land-use/land-cover change is one of the important elements worldwide, which significantly affect the environment. This study aims to describe the emergence of urban heat and cool islands as a result of changes in land-use/land-cover. Land surface temperature over a 32-year period in Isfahan city, Iran was ...

In the classic model of the heat shock response (HSR), the presence of denatured proteins triggers the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) via heat shock transcription factors (reviewed in Voellmy and Boellmann, 2007). Many HSPs are molecular chaperones that bind misfolded proteins. However, this model has increasingly been seen as inadequate to explain the entirety of HSRs (e.g., Kotak, e...

Based on our experience in the DARPA Urban Challenge and on current trends in consumer automobiles, we believe that driver assistance systems can be significantly improved by new techniques in control and sensing that have been developed for fully-autonomous driving. In particular, from the control community, real-time Model Predictive Control (MPC) can be used as the next generation of cruise ...

Demands on heat flow detection at a plane wall via a thermoelectric module have drawn researchers’ attention to quantitative understanding in order to properly implement the thermoelectric module in thermal engineering practices. Basic mathematical models of both heat transfer through a plane wall and thermoelectric effects are numerically solved to represent genuine behaviors of heat flow dete...

Micro hotlm shear-stress sensors have been developed by using surface micromachining techniques. The sensor consists of a suspended silicon-nitride diaphragm located on top of a vacuum-sealed cavity. A heating and heat-sensing element, made of poly-crystalline silicon material, resides on top of the diaphragm. The underlying vacuum cavity greatly reduces conductive heat loss to the substrate an...

Transient-receptor-potential channels (TRPs) underlie the sensing of chemicals, heat, and mechanical force. We expressed the rat TRPV1 and TRPV4 subtypes in yeast and monitored their activities in vivo as Ca(2+) rise using transgenic aequorin. Heat and capsaicin activate TRPV1 but not TRPV4 in yeast. Hypotonic shocks activate TRPV4 but not TRPV1. Osmotic swelling is modeled to activate enzyme(s...

We have been investigating DNA state machines, especially those based on the opening of hairpin molecules in which state transitions are realized as hairpin loops are opened by molecules called openers. This paper introduces photoand thermoregulation of such hairpin-based DNA machines, in which the openers become active by sensing external signals in the form of light or heat. We conducted fluo...

Contrary to current models, Scherrer et al. (2009) provide evidence that mu and delta opioid receptors are not expressed by the same pain-sensing neurons. In mice, agonists for these receptors produce analgesia restricted to either noxious heat or mechanical stimuli, implying that the receptors act on distinct fibers to mediate completely different types of pain relief.