Antigenic stimuli do not influence thymic B lymphocytes: a morphological and functional study in germ-free and conventionally reared piglets

We have recently reported that thymic B lymphocytes (TBL) are the first B-cell subpopulation undergoing isotype switching to IgG and IgA during embryonic life. The aim of this study is to analyze the influence of antigenic stimulation on TBL location and activity using a germ-free (GF) newborn pig model, in which maternal antibodies and antigens do not affect B-cell development. Immunohistological analysis showed that TBL were disseminated mainly in the thymic medulla. There were no differences in the distribution of TBL, both in GF newborn piglets before and after colonization with Escherichia coli and in older conventionally reared (CONV) piglets. The number of immunoglobulin (Ig)-secreting cells measured by the ELISPOT method was not influenced by microflora and food antigens. IgM-positive cells secreting IgM and CD45RC-positive cells spontaneously producing IgM, IgG, and IgA were detected in newborn thymus. Our findings suggest that TBL differentiation and Ig switching to IgG and IgA-secreting cells is not influenced by external antigens and that the thymic microenvironment plays an important role in this process.     

Robust controller with disturbance rejection for hydraulic servosystems

A controller is presented that improves the performance and reduces the sensitivity of hydraulic servo systems in the presence of parameter variations, nonlinear effects, and other disturbances. The control system has enhanced closed-loop stability and can recover from steady-state and transient error quickly and completely. It consists of a servo controller, an auxiliary controller, and a robust controller. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the validity of the controller     

Adaptive covariate acquisition for minimizing total cost of classification

Machine Learning - In some applications, acquiring covariates comes at a cost which is not negligible. For example in the medical domain, in order to classify whether a patient has diabetes or not,...     

Algorithms for processing the group K nearest-neighbor query on distributed frameworks

Distributed and Parallel Databases - Given two datasets of points (called Query and Training), the Group (K) Nearest-Neighbor (GKNN) query retrieves (K) points of the Training with the smallest sum...     

Incorporating Actor-Critic in Monte Carlo tree search for symbolic regression

Neural Computing and Applications - Most traditional genetic programming methods that handle symbolic regression are random algorithms without memory and direction. They repeatedly search for the...     

A steel surface defect inspection approach towards smart industrial monitoring

Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing - With the advance in Industry 4.0, smart industrial monitoring has been proposed to timely discover faults and defects in industrial processes. Steel is widely...