Non-Canonical Functions of Myeloperoxidase in Immune Regulation,Tissue Inflammation and Cancer

Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is one of the most abundantly expressed proteins in neutrophils. It serves as a critical component of the antimicrobial defense system, facilitating microbial killing via generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, emerging evidence indicates that in addition to the well-recognized canonical antimicrobial function of MPO, it can directly or indirectly impact immune cells and tissue responses in homeostatic and disease states. Here, we highlight the emerging non-canonical functions of MPO, including its impact on neutrophil longevity, activation and trafficking in inflammation, its interactions with other immune cells, and how these interactions shape disease outcomes. We further discuss MPO interactions with barrier forming endothelial and epithelial cells, specialized cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and its involvement in cancer progression. Such diverse function and the MPO association with numerous inflammatory disorders make it an attractive target for therapies aimed at resolving inflammation and limiting inflammation-associated tissue damage. However, while considering MPO inhibition as a potential therapy, one must account for the diverse impact of MPO activity on various cellular compartments both in health and disease.     

Core‐Sheath Structure in Electrospun Nanofibers from Polymer Blends

Summary: Electrospinning of polymer blends offers the potential to prepare functional nanofibers for use in a variety of applications. This work focused on control of the internal morphology of nanofibers prepared by electrospinning polymer blends to obtain core‐sheath structures. Polybutadiene/polystyrene, poly(methylmethacrylate)/polystyrene, polybutadiene/poly(methylmethacrylate), polybutadiene/polycarbonate, polyaniline/polycarbonate, and poly(methylmethacrylate)/polycarbonate blends were electrospun from polymer solutions. It was found that the formation of core‐sheath structures depends on both thermodynamic and kinetic factors. Incompatibility and large solubility parameter difference of the two polymers is helpful for good phase separation, but not sufficient for the formation of core‐sheath structures. Kinetic factors, however, play a much more important role in the development of the nanofiber morphology. During the electrospinning process, the rapid solvent evaporation requires systems with high molecular mobility for the formation of core‐sheath structures. It was found that polymer blends with lower molecular weight tend to form core‐sheath structures rather than co‐continuous structures, as a result of their higher molecular mobility. Rheological factors also affect the internal phase morphology of nanofibers. It was observed the composition with higher viscosity was always located at the center and the composition with lower viscosity located outside.

TEM image of electrospun polybutadiene/polycarbonate nanofibers at 25/75 wt.‐% ratio after staining by osmium tetroxide. The dark regions are polybutadiene and the light region is polycarbonate.     

Compact, microchip-based systems for practical applications of ultracold atoms

We present a set of building blocks for constructing and utilizing compact, microchip-based, ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chambers for the practical deployment of cold- and ultracold-atom systems. We present two examples of chip-compatible approaches for miniaturizing UHV chambers—double-magneto-optical-trap cells and channel cells—as well as compact, free-space optical systems into which these cells can be easily inserted and quickly swapped. We discuss progress in atom chip technology, including miniature through-chip electrical feedthroughs and optical windows for transferring light between the trapping region on the chip and the ambient environment. As an example of the latter, we present some of the first through-chip fluorescence images of a Bose–Einstein condensate. High numerical apertures can be achieved with this technique, allowing for submicron resolution. Whether for optical detection, trapping, or control, such fine resolution will have numerous applications in quantum information, especially for experiments based on ultracold atoms trapped in optical lattices.     

A Structural Proof of the Soundness of Rely/guarantee Rules

Various forms of rely/guarantee conditions have been used torecord and reason about interference in ways that provide compositionaldevelopment methods for concurrent programs. This article illustratessuch a set of rules and proves their soundness. The underlyingconcurrent language allows fine-grained interleaving and nestedconcurrency; it is defined by an operational semantics; theproof that the rely/guarantee rules are consistent with thatsemantics (including termination) is by a structural induction.A key lemma which relates the states which can arise from theextra interference that results from taking a portion of theprogram out of context makes it possible to do the proofs withouthaving to perform induction over the computation history. Thislemma also offers a way to think about expressibility issuesaround auxiliary variables in rely/guarantee conditions.     

Network malware classification comparison using DPI and flow packet headers

In order to counter cyber-attacks and digital threats, security experts must generate, share, and exploit cyber-threat intelligence generated from malware. In this research, we address the problem of fingerprinting maliciousness of traffic for the purpose of detection and classification. We aim first at fingerprinting maliciousness by using two approaches: Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and IP packet headers classification. To this end, we consider malicious traffic generated from dynamic malware analysis as traffic maliciousness ground truth. In light of this assumption, we present how these two approaches are used to detect and attribute maliciousness to different threats. In this work, we study the positive and negative aspects for Deep Packet Inspection and IP packet headers classification. We evaluate each approach based on its detection and attribution accuracy as well as their level of complexity. The outcomes of both approaches have shown promising results in terms of detection; they are good candidates to constitute a synergy to elaborate or corroborate detection systems in terms of run-time speed and classification precision.     

The effects of recycling on the structure and properties of carbon nanotube‐filled polycarbonate

Sustainable manufacturing processes are becoming more important in industrial practice. A critical part of the manufacturing process is understanding the recycling behavior of nanocomposite materials, particularly as more recycled plastic nanocomposites are entering the market for a variety of different applications. A common method to recycle thermoplastic composites is by melting and remolding, which often leads to decreased mechanical properties. This work was conducted to investigate the effect of nanofillers on the recycling behavior and structure–property relationships of carbon nanotube (CNT)‐filled polycarbonate (PC). Materials were recycled by repeated injection molding and granulating up to twenty cycles. The effect of recycling on chemical, rheological, and mechanical properties was investigated. The results indicated a general decrease in melt viscosity and mechanical properties (with the exception of Young's Modulus). The CNT‐filled PC shows less resistance to recycling compared to neat PC. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:1278–1284, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Numerical simulation of the self‐assembly of a polymer–polymer–solvent ternary system on a heterogeneously functionalized substrate

The spinodal decomposition of a polymer–polymer–solvent ternary blend spin coated on heterogeneously functionalized substrate is studied in a three‐dimensional numerical model. The Cahn‐Hilliard equation was used to describe the free energy profile of the domain. The mechanism of the morphology evolution was studied quantitatively. The well‐established linear relationship of the characteristic length, R(t), with t^1/3 can be observed in the simulation results. The functionalized substrate greatly affected the morphology evolution of blends with different solvent concentrations. The results indicated that a critical time can be observed, at which the evolution rate changes abruptly, also after which the compatibility of the surface morphology to the functionalized substrate pattern increases at a much lower pace in the diluted solution. In the condensed solution, the compatibility actually decreases beyond the critical time. The influence of solvent evaporation is investigated and a sharper interface was observed in the case with solvent evaporation and film thickness reduction. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers     

3-component low temperature solvothermal synthesis of colloidal cadmium sulfide quantum dots

We report the solvothermal synthesis of colloidal cadmium sulfide quantum dots via a three-component system affording various particle diameter ranging from 3.368 nm to 8.411 nm. The band gap, and therefore the optical property, of these nanocrystals can be tuned by varying the reaction time and temperature of the system. The results obtained show strong confinement of particles with diameter smaller than the exciton Bohr radius of CdS. The growth kinetics was found to follow a diffusion-controlled process at the initial stage then shifts to a surface-controlled incorporation of reactants to the crystallite after the particle size becomes comparable to the exciton Bohr radius.     

American child care today.

Child care has 2 purposes: mothers' employment and children's development. These are conflicting goals, because the first focuses on the quantity and affordability of child care whereas the second favors expensive quality services. Affordable child care fosters maternal employment and gender equality. With welfare reform demanding more child-care places to move mothers from welfare to work, the pressure for larger quantities of child care is great. Demanding regulations raise the quality of care and give more assurance of children's well-being, but they also increase the cost. More expensive regulations price more working parents out of licensed care and force them to use unregulated home care. Widely varying qualities of child care have been shown to have only small effects on children's current development and no demonstrated long-term impact, except on disadvantaged children, whose homes put them at developmental risk. Parents have far greater impact on their children's development through both the genes and environments they provide. Thus, greater quantities of affordable, regulated child care may be possible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A content based image information retrieval and video thumbnail extraction framework using SOM

Searching an image or a video in a huge volume of graphical data is a tedious time-consuming process. If this search is performed using the conventional element matching technique, the complexity of the search will render the system useless. To overcome this problem, the current paper proposes a Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) and a Content-Based Video Retrieval (CBVR) technique using clustering algorithms based on neural networks. Neural networks have proved to be quite powerful for dimensionality reduction due to their parallel computations. Retrieval of images in a large database on the basis of the content of the query image has been proved fast and efficient through practical results. Two images of the same object, but taken from different camera angles or have rotational and scaling transforms is also matched effectively. In medical domain, CBIR has proved to be a boon to the doctors. The tumor, cancer etc can be easily deducted comparing the images with normal to the images with diseases. Java and Weka have been used for implementation. The thumbnails extracted from the video facilitates the video search in a large videos database. The unsupervised nature of Self Organizing Maps (SOM) has made the software all the more robust.