iCAR is a new wireless system architecture based on the integration of cellular and modern ad hoc relaying technologies. It addresses the congestion problem due to limited channel access in a cellular system and provides interoperability for heterogeneous networks. The iCAR system can efficiently balance traffic loads and share channel resource between cells by using ad hoc relaying stations (A...

BACKGROUND Simulation can be used for educating, evaluating and assessing psychometric properties of an instrument. The aim of this study was to contextualize and assess the validity and reliability of the Interprofessional Collaborative Assessment tool (ICAR) in an Iranian context using simulation. METHODS In this descriptive study, contextualization of the ICAR was assessed through several ...

Inconsistent-tolerant semantics, like the IAR and ICAR semantics, have been proposed as means to compute meaningful query answers over inconsistent Description Logic (DL) ontologies. In the current paper we present a framework for scalable query answering under both the IAR and ICAR semantics, which is based on highly efficient data saturation systems. Our approach is sound and complete for ont...

Integrated cellular and ad hoc relaying systems (iCAR) is a new wireless system architecture based on the integration of cellular and modern ad hoc relaying technologies. It addresses the congestion problem due to unbalanced traffic in a cellular system and provides interoperability for heterogeneous networks. The iCAR system can efficiently balance traffic loads between cells by using ad hoc r...

Infections involving Staphylococcus aureus are often more severe and difficult to treat when the organism assumes a biofilm mode of growth. The polysaccharide poly-N-acetylglucosamine (PNAG), also known as polysaccharide intercellular adhesin, is synthesized by the products of the intercellular adhesin (ica) locus and plays a key role in biofilm formation. Numerous conditions and exogenous fact...

Transposon mutagenesis of rsbU leads to a biofilm-negative phenotype in Staphylococcus epidermidis. However, the pathway of this regulatory mechanism was unknown. To investigate the role of RsbU in the regulation of the alternative sigma factor sigma(B) and biofilm formation, we generated different mutants of the sigma(B) operon in S. epidermidis strains 1457 and 8400. The genes rsbU, rsbV, rsb...

The presence of regulatory sequences in the 3' untranslated region (3'-UTR) of eukaryotic mRNAs controlling RNA stability and translation efficiency is widely recognized. In contrast, the relevance of 3'-UTRs in bacterial mRNA functionality has been disregarded. Here, we report evidences showing that around one-third of the mapped mRNAs of the major human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus carry 3'...

Expression of the gene cluster icaADBC is necessary for biofilm production in Staphylococcus epidermidis. The ica operon is negatively controlled by the repressor IcaR. Here, the crystal structure of IcaR was determined and the refined structure revealed a homodimer comprising entirely alpha-helices, typical of the tetracycline repressor protein family for gene regulations. The N-terminal domai...