IL-4 induces functional cell-surface expression of CXCR4 on human T cells

Here we report that IL-4 specifically enhances cell surface expression of CXCR4 on resting peripheral and cord blood T cells. Whereas polarized Th2 clones express variable levels of CXCR4, expression of this receptor is undetectable on polarized Th1 clones but can be induced on the latter cells as well, following short-term culture in the presence of IL-4. The IL-4-induced CXCR4 is functional since interaction with its ligand, stromal-derived factor (SDF)-1, activates the p42 MAP-kinase ERK-2. In addition, although CXCR4 expression is down-regulated following stimulation of T cells and T cell clones via CD28 or CD3 and CD2 cell surface molecules, respectively, it is re-induced by IL-4. These data indicate an important role for IL-4 in rendering CD4+ T cells susceptible to infection with HIV via CXCR4, as well as in promoting SDF-1-induced migration of these cells.     

Enzyme determination in vitro of inhibitor activity of beta-lactamase from tazobactam. Comparison with high performance liquid chromatography

Most physiological studies of the human olfactory system have concentrated on the cortical level; the olfactory bulbar level has been studied rarely. We attempted to stimulate the human olfactory mucosa by electrical pulse to detect the bulbar potentials. Electrical stimulation (2 mA, 0.5 ms) of the human olfactory mucosa evoked a change in potential recorded from the frontal sector of the head. A negative peak of the evoked potential that occurred at 19.4 ms (grand means, n = 5) after stimulation was the clearest. The highest amplitude of the potential was recorded from the frontal sector of the head on the stimulated side. Our findings were similar to the experimental results obtained from the olfactory bulbs of animals. This evoked potential was considered to be the human olfactory bulbar potential. When the subjects were stimulated by applying electricity to the olfactory mucosa, no sensation of smell occurred even though evoked potentials were recorded. Evoked potentials were recorded only when the stimulating electrode was located in the olfactory cleft. When the stimulating electrode was outside the olfactory cleft, the stimulation caused pain. The trigeminal nerve seemed to be stimulated by electricity. Olfactory evoked potentials produced by the electrical stimulation of the human olfactory mucosa should aid the research on human olfactory physiology, and may be applicable to clinical tests of olfactory dysfunction.     

A sensitivity analysis method aimed at enhancing the metaheuristics for continuous optimization

An efficient covering of the search space is an important issue when dealing with metaheuristics. Sensitivity analysis methods aim at evaluating the influence of each variable of a problem on a model (i.e. objective function) response. Such methods provide knowledge on the function behavior and would be suitable for guiding metaheuristics. To evaluate correctly the dimensions influences, usual sensitivity analysis methods need a lot of evaluations of the objective function or are constrained with an experimental design. In this paper, we propose a new method, with a low computational cost, which can be used into metaheuristics to improve their search process. This method is based on two global sensitivity analysis methods: the linear correlation coefficient technique and Morris’ method. We propose to transform the global study of a non linear model into a local study of quasi-linear sub-parts of the model, in order to evaluate the global influence of each input variable on the model. This sensitivity analysis method will use evaluations of the objective function done by the metaheuristic to compute a weight of each variable. Then, the metaheuristic will generate new solutions choosing dimensions to offset, according to these weights. The tests done on usual benchmark functions of sensitivity analysis and continuous optimization (CEC 2013) reveal two issues. Firstly, our sensitivity analysis method provides good results, it correctly ranks each dimension’s influence. Secondly, integrating a sensitivity analysis method into a metaheuristic (here, Differential Evolution and ABC with modification rate) improves its results.     

Implementing and Reasoning About Hash-consed Data Structures in Coq

We report on four different approaches to implementing hash-consing in Coq programs. The use cases include execution inside Coq, or execution of the extracted OCaml code. We explore the different trade-offs between faithful use of pristine extracted code, and code that is fine-tuned to make use of OCaml programming constructs not available in Coq. We discuss the possible consequences in terms of performances and guarantees.We use the running example of binary decision diagrams and then demonstrate the generality of our solutions by applying them to other examples of hash-consed data structures.     

The perspective of optical packet switching in IP dominant backboneand metropolitan networks

This article analyses the rationale and technical solutions for the use of optical packet switching techniques for both backbone and metropolitan applications. It also provides information on state-of-the-art technologies available for medium-term product development     

Decomposed software pipelining: A new perspective and a new approach

Software pipelining is an efficient instruction-level loop scheduling technique, but existing software pipelining approaches have not been widely used in practical and commercial compilers. This is mainly because resource constraints and the cyclic data dependencies make software pipelining very complicated and difficult to apply. In this paper we present a new perspective on software pipelining in which it is decomposed into two subproblems—one is free from cyclic data dependencies and can be effectively solved by the list scheduling technique, and the other is free from resource constraints and can be easily solved by classical polynomial-time algorithms of graph theory. Based on this new perspective, we develop a new instruction-level loop scheduling approach, call DEcomposed Software Pipelining (DESP).     

Hybrid deterministic/stochastic algorithm for large sets of rate equations

We propose a hybrid algorithm for the time integration of large sets of rate equations coupled by a relatively small number of degrees of freedom. A subset containing fast degrees of freedom evolves deterministically, while the rest of the variables evolves stochastically. The emphasis is put on the coupling between the two subsets, in order to achieve both accuracy and efficiency.The algorithm is tested on the problem of nucleation, growth and coarsening of clusters of defects in iron, treated by the formalism of cluster dynamics. We show that it is possible to obtain results indistinguishable from fully deterministic and fully stochastic calculations, while speeding up significantly the computations with respect to these two cases.