Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membranous structures, which are secreted by almost every cell type analyzed so far. In addition to their importance for cell-cell communication under physiological conditions, EVs are also released during pathogenesis and mechanistically contribute to this process. Here we summarize their functional relevance in asthma, one of the most common chronic non-communicable diseases. Asthma is a complex persistent inflammatory disorder of the airways characterized by reversible airflow obstruction and, from a long-term perspective, airway remodeling. Overall, mechanistic studies summarized here indicate the importance of different subtypes of EVs and their variable cargoes in the functioning of the pathways underlying asthma, and show some interesting potential for the development of future therapeutic interventions. Association studies in turn demonstrate a good diagnostic potential of EVs in asthma. 相似文献
As per the most recent literature, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), a multi access technique, is considered most suitable for the 3G, 4G and 5G techniques in high speed wireless communication. What made OFDM most popular is its ability to deliver high bandwidth efficiency and superior data rate. Besides it, high value of peak to average power ratio (PAPR) and Inter Carrier Interference (ICI) are the challenges to tackle down via appropriate mitigation scheme. As a research contribution in the present work, an improved self-cancellation (SC) technique is designed and simulated through Simulink to mitigate the effect of ICI. This novel proposed technique (Improved SC) is designed over discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based OFDM and compared with conventional SC scheme over different channel conditions i.e. AWGN and Rayleigh fading environments. It is found that proposed DWT-OFDM with Improved SC scheme outperforms conventional SC technique significantly, under both AWGN and Rayleigh channel conditions. Further, in order to justify the novelty in the research contribution, a Split-DWT based Simulink model for Improved SC scheme is investigated to analyse the BER performance. This Split-DWT based Simulink model presented here foretells the future research potential in wavelet hybridization of OFDM to side-line ICI effects more efficiently.
The productivity of agricultural produce is fairly dependent on the availability of nutrients and efficient use. Magnesium (Mg2+) is an essential macronutrient of living cells and is the second most prevalent free divalent cation in plants. Mg2+ plays a role in several physiological processes that support plant growth and development. However, it has been largely forgotten in fertilization management strategies to increase crop production, which leads to severe reductions in plant growth and yield. In this review, we discuss how the Mg2+ shortage induces several responses in plants at different levels: morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular. Additionally, the Mg2+ uptake and transport mechanisms in different cellular organelles and the role of Mg2+ transporters in regulating Mg2+ homeostasis are also discussed. Overall, in this review, we critically summarize the available information about the responses of Mg deficiency on plant growth and development, which would facilitate plant scientists to create Mg2+-deficiency-resilient crops through agronomic and genetic biofortification. 相似文献
Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling plays a critical role in the induction and progression of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematous, experimental autoimmune encephalitis, type 1 diabetes mellitus and neurodegenerative diseases. Deciphering antigen recognition by antibodies provides insights and defines the mechanism of action into the progression of immune responses. Multiple strategies, including phage display and hybridoma technologies, have been used to enhance the affinity of antibodies for their respective epitopes. Here, we investigate the TLR4 antibody-binding epitope by computational-driven approach. We demonstrate that three important residues, i.e., Y328, N329, and K349 of TLR4 antibody binding epitope identified upon in silico mutagenesis, affect not only the interaction and binding affinity of antibody but also influence the structural integrity of TLR4. Furthermore, we predict a novel epitope at the TLR4-MD2 interface which can be targeted and explored for therapeutic antibodies and small molecules. This technique provides an in-depth insight into antibody–antigen interactions at the resolution and will be beneficial for the development of new monoclonal antibodies. Computational techniques, if coupled with experimental methods, will shorten the duration of rational design and development of antibody therapeutics. 相似文献
Thermoelectric properties of two antiperovskites SbNCa3 and BiNCa3 are calculated using first principles calculations. High values of Seebeck coefficients are observed for these materials. Electrical and thermal conductivities are also calculated. Increase in thermal conductivity and decrease in electrical conductivity are found with increasing temperature. The maximum values of thermal conductivity are 92×1014 W/m K s and 88×1014 W/m K s for SbNCa3 and BiNCa3 respectively at a temperature of 900 K. The peak values of 5×1020/Ω m s and 5.2×1020/Ω m s are achieved for n-type SbNCa3 and BiNCa3 respectively at a temperature of 300 K. Figure of merit is achieved for these materials at room temperature which shows that these materials can be useful for thermoelectric devices and alternative energy sources. 相似文献
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAp) composite granules were obtained using twin-screw extruder. Preforms were prepared by injection molding and then PET/nHAp bottles were produced by blow molding. For PET bottles with nHAp, the migration amounts of carboxylic acid (COOH), acetaldehyde (AA), diethylene glycol (DEG), and isophthalic acid (IPA); glass transition temperature (Tg); melting temperature (Tm); and the maximum crystallization temperature (Tcry) were measured. The load-carrying capacity, burst strength, stress cracking, and regional material distribution tests were carried out on the bottles. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and ultraviolet transmittance analyses were conducted to explain the changes in mechanical, chemical, physical properties, and light transmission of bottles. It was found out that the COOH amount increased and the AA content decreased with increasing nHAp amount. On the other hand, no change was observed in the amounts of DEG and IPA. Although the mechanical properties such as load-carrying capacity and burst strength of the bottles have improved, it has been determined that the standard environmental stress crack resistance test procedure cannot be applied to such a composite. Experimental findings indicate that nHAp disrupts the chemical structure of PET and it isolates harmful chemicals such as AA by forming intermolecular bonds. Moreover, with the addition of up to 0.8% nHAp, PET bottles block the light transmission approximately 80% within 400–700 nm wave length zone. The study demonstrates that the PET/nHAp composite bottles can be used in the food industry, particularly in the packaging of milk and milk products which are vulnerable to light exposure. 相似文献
We propose a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) based method for Pseudo De-convolution of the ill-posed inverse problem namely, the space-variant image degradation (SVD). In this paper, SVD is simulated by the pseudo convolution of different sub-regions of the image with different known blurring kernels and additive random noise with unknown variance. Two heuristic modifications are proposed in PSO: 1) Initialization of the swarm and 2) Mutation of the global best. Fuzzy logic is applied for the computation of regularization parameter (RP) to cater for the sensitivity of the problem. The computation of RP is crucial due to the additive noise in the SVD image. Thus mathematical morphology (MM) is applied for better extraction of spatial activity from the distorted image. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated with different test images and noise powers. Comparative analysis demonstrates the superiority of proposed restoration, in terms of quantitative measures, over well-known existing and state-of-the-art SVD approaches. 相似文献