Bioluminescent Optogenetics: A Novel Experimental Therapy to Promote Axon Regeneration after Peripheral Nerve Injury

Functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is poor, mainly due to the slow and incomplete regeneration of injured axons. Experimental therapies that increase the excitability of the injured axons have proven remarkably successful in promoting regeneration, but their clinical applicability has been limited. Bioluminescent optogenetics (BL-OG) uses luminopsins, fusion proteins of light-generating luciferase and light-sensing ion channels that could be used to increase neuronal excitability if exposed to a suitable substrate. Excitatory luminopsins were expressed in motoneurons of transgenic mice and in wildtype mice transduced with adeno-associated viral vectors. Intraperitoneal administration of coelenterazine (CTZ), a known luciferase substrate, generated intense bioluminescence in peripheral axons. This bioluminescence increased motoneuron excitability. A single administration of CTZ immediately after sciatic nerve transection and repair markedly enhanced motor axon regeneration. Compound muscle action potentials were 3–4 times larger than controls by 4 weeks after injury. The results observed with transgenic mice were comparable to those of mice in which the luminopsin was expressed using viral vectors. Significantly more motoneurons had successfully reinnervated muscle targets four weeks after nerve injury in BL-OG treated mice than in controls. Bioluminescent optogenetics is a promising therapeutic approach to enhancing axon regeneration after PNI.     

Trapdoor Hard-to-Invert Group Isomorphisms and Their Application to Password-Based Authentication

In the security chain the weakest link is definitely the human one: human beings cannot remember long secrets and often resort to rather insecure solutions to keep track of their passwords or pass-phrases. For this reason it is very desirable to have protocols that do not require long passwords to guarantee security, even in the case in which exhaustive search is feasible. This is actually the goal of password-based key exchange protocols, secure against off-line dictionary attacks: two people share a password (possibly a very small one, say a 4-digit number), and after the protocol execution, they end up sharing a large secret session key (known to both of them, but nobody else). Then an adversary attacking the system should try several connections (on average 5000 for the above short password) in order to be able to get the correct password. Such a large number of erroneous connections can be prevented by various means. Our results can be highlighted as follows. First we define a new primitive that we call trapdoor hard-to-invert group isomorphisms, and give some candidates. Then we present a generic password-based key exchange construction that admits a security proof assuming that these objects exist. Finally, we instantiate our general scheme with some concrete examples, such as the Diffie-Hellman function and the RSA function, but more interestingly the modular square-root function, which leads to the first scheme with security related to the integer factorization problem. Furthermore, the latter variant is very efficient for one party (the server). Our results hold in the random-oracle model.     

Locomotion techniques for robotic colonoscopy.

Colonoscopy has become a routine procedure in many hospitals all over the world for colon cancer diagnosis. This review article discusses the work done by researchers in the quest to automate the colonoscopy procedure. In vitro and in vivo experimentation have been carried out to prove the possibilities of a robot crawling along a patient's colon, treating polyps as they are encountered. Locomotion is an essential part of robotic colonoscopy. The robot must be able to propel itself from the anus right up to the cecum without damaging the colon walls. The challenge is to design a robust locomotion technique that is able to advance through the stretchable, slippery, and mobile colon, which is always in its collapsed stage, in three-dimensional orientation. The authors believe that in the future, conventional colonoscopy will be revolutionized, giving way to robotics to assist doctors in colonoscope manipulation and performing therapeutic procedures and leaving doctors to concentrate on the diagnostic aspect of the procedure, which would encourage mass screening as more patients can be evaluated per session.     

Influence of Temperature Gradients on Sintering: Experimental Tests of a Theory

The H₂O-catalyzed sintering of MgO in temperature gradients between 1303 and 1233 K is compared to sintering of isothermal samples. Both the changes in sample dimensions in planes normal to the temperature gradients and the increases in density for a fixed sintering time are greater than predicted on the assumption that densification in a temperature gradient is a function only of each local temperature in the gradient. Under the conditions used, neither vapor transport nor transport through a liquid phase is important. The results, therefore, support a recent prediction that temperature gradients supplement surface energy changes in driving sintering and related processes not only by vapor transport, as expected from earlier studies, but also by a surface, grainboundary, or bulk diffusion path.     

Production scheduling in a steelmaking-continuous casting plant

In this paper we describe an optimization procedure for planning the production of steel ingots in a steelmaking-continuous casting plant. The strict requirements of the production process defeated most of the earlier approaches to steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling, mainly due to the lack of information in the optimization models. Our formulation of the problem is based on the alternative graph, which is a generalization of the disjunctive graph of Roy and Sussman. The alternative graph formulation allow us to describe in detail all the constraints that are relevant for the scheduling problem. We then solve the problem by using a beam search procedure, and compare our results with a lower bound of the optimal solutions and with the actual performance obtained in the plant. Computational experience shows the effectiveness of this approach.     

Determination of the phase transition behavior of thermoplastic polyurethanes from coupled rheology/DSC measurements

The rich behavior of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) undergoing phase transition is investigated by means of combined rheological and DSC techniques. In particular, the kinetics of micro‐phase transition of a commercial TPU are followed under both isothermal conditions (crystallization from the melt), and constant temperature rate heating ramps (melting). In rheological tests, the time evolution of the storage modulus is monitored by using a strain rate–controlled rheometer. The rheological results are compared with those obtained by more traditional calorimetric techniques (DSC) under the same thermal histories. It is shown that rheological measurements can give additional (and, in some cases, more accurate) information than that obtained from the more classical thermal analysis. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:1514–1521, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.     

Micromechatronics in medicine

Micromechatronic systems integrate miniature precision mechanisms, actuators, sensors, and embedded control. They are suitable for application in the medical field particularly when miniaturization, reliability, and intimate interaction with the human body are required. Medical applications not only motivate the miniaturization of mechatronic systems, but also encourage the development of novel concepts and technologies for the integration of artificial and biological components into "hybrid" micromechatronic systems, thus giving origin to a new and intriguing field of research and application known as "biomechatronics". Micromechatronic devices can be exploited for acute intervention or for permanent (short- and long-term) implant in the human body. This paper presents many examples of both types of devices being developed in our laboratory, and discusses their associated open problems. Application fields include sensory substitution, internal organs substitution, neural prosthetics, and minimally invasive surgery. Most of the projects are performed in collaboration with other European research groups and industries and supported by programs by the European Union. The conclusion of our analysis is that medical applications of micromechatronics may have tremendous impact on the quality of medical care and may become a very attractive industrial market, provided that some critical technical problems are addressed and solved.     

Primate cognition and the bared-teeth display: A reevaluation of the concept of formal dominance.

The cognitive implications of the phenomenon of dominance in nonhuman primates and other animals have been poorly addressed. This article shows that the concept of formal dominance currently used in the primatological literature is inherently dependent on the assumption that primates are capable of attribution of knowledge to other individuals. Although this assumption has never been made explicitly, without it the concept of formal dominance is virtually indistinguishable from other, more traditional views of dominance. Recent studies have failed to demonstrate attribution of knowledge in nonhuman primates, thus questioning the validity of formal dominance. The concept of formal dominance was originally proposed to account for a discrepancy between dominance hierarchies based on aggressive behavior and dominance hierarchies based on submissive signals. This article shows that such a discrepancy can be accounted for without invoking complex cognitive processes such as attribution of knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intraoperative cytodiagnosis of ovarian tumors

The authors report on their experience in applying rapid intraoperative cytologic analysis in 83 benign and 54 malignant ovarian tumors of various pathohistologic types. The entire procedure, from the receiving of the material, fixing and staining, up to the cytologic diagnosis, did not last longer than 6 minutes. The cytologic findings were negative in all benign tumors except one (99.3%). In cases of malignant tumors the cytologic diagnosis was correct in 49 cases (96.4%). On the basis of cytomorphologic criteria it was also possible to predict the pathohistologic type of most of investigated tumors. The high overall accuracy rate of intraoperative cytologic examination permits the surgeon to make a quick and adequate therapeutic decision concerning the extent of intervention.