Distributed key-value storage systems are widely used in corporations and across the Internet. Our research seeks to greatly expand the application space for key-value storage systems through application-specific customization. We designed and implemented Comet, an extensible, distributed key-value store. Each Comet node stores a collection of active storage objects (ASOs) that consist of a key...

BACKGROUND Apoptosis or programmed cell death is an essential process for elimination of damaged cells. Also, induction of apoptosis is fundamental for treating cancer. Screening for agents that induce apoptosis in tumor cells help in the development of novel agents for cancer treatment. Numerous studies suggest that the exposure of tumor cells to statins can lead to cell death via two separate...

The alkaline comet assay or single cell microgel electrophoresis assay is a sensitive method of detecting DNA strand breaks and alkali labile sites in individual cells. The results of this assay can be analysed by different methods. In this study we compared analyses of the same slides by a manual method and by image analysis, post-treatment of clone 707 Friend erythroleukaemia cells with H2O2....

Introduction: The Stardust mission obtained the first dust samples in the coma of an active comet for laboratory analyses. Earlier chemical data on dust from an active comet came from the GIOTTO and VEGA missions to comet Halley [1]. For decades aggregate interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) were available from parent bodies other than those of meteorites [2], i.e. comets or comet-like bodies. ...

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease with different combinations of genetic and epigenetic alterations driving the development of cancer in different individuals. While these alterations are believed to converge on genes in key cellular signaling and regulatory pathways, our knowledge of these pathways remains incomplete, making it difficult to identify driver alterations by their recurrence acros...

The status of spindle checkpoint signaling depends on the balance of two opposing dynamic processes that regulate the highly unusual two-state behavior of Mad2. In mitosis, a Mad1-Mad2 core complex recruits cytosolic Mad2 to kinetochores through Mad2 dimerization and converts Mad2 to a conformer amenable to Cdc20 binding, thereby facilitating checkpoint activation. p31(comet) inactivates the ch...

Developing cost models for query optimization is significantly harder for XML queries than for traditional relational queries. The reason is that XML query operators are much more complex than relational operators such as table scans and joins. In this paper, we propose a new approach, called Comet, to modeling the cost of XML operators; to our knowledge, Comet is the first method ever proposed...

The COMET DBMS (component-based embedded real-time database management system) is an experimental database platform. COMET is intended for resourceconstrained embedded vehicle control-systems. The complexity of modern vehicle control systems is rapidly increasing [1], and so is also the amount of data that needs to be handled and maintained. Thus, a need has emerged for a structured way of hand...

We used a mouse model in which sperm DNA damage was induced to understand the relationship of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) breaks to sperm chromatin structure and to the Comet assay. Sperm chromatin fragmentation (SCF) produces dsDNA breaks located on the matrix attachment regions, between protamine toroids. In this model, epididymal sperm induced to undergo SCF can religate dsDNA breaks while v...