Pectic Galactan Polysaccharide-Based Gene Delivery System for Targeting Neuroinflammation

Treating neuroinflammation-related injuries and disorders through manipulation of neuroinflammation functions is being heralded as a new therapeutic strategy. In this study, a novel pectic galactan (PG) polysaccharide based gene therapy approach is developed for targeting reactive gliosis in neuroinflammation. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a cell protein with a high affinity to β-galactoside sugars and is highly expressed in reactive gliosis. Since PG carries galactans, it can target reactive gliosis via specific carbohydrate interaction between galactan and Gal-3 on the cell membrane, and therefore can be utilized as a carrier for delivering genes to these cells. The carrier is synthesized by modifying quaternary ammonium groups on the PG. The resulting quaternized PG (QPG) is found to form complexes with plasmid DNA with a mean diameter of 100 nm and have the characteristics required for targeted gene therapy. The complexes efficiently condense large amounts of plasmid per particle and successfully bind to Gal-3. The in vivo study shows that the complexes are biocompatible and safe for administration and can selectively transfect reactive glial cells of an induced cortical lesion. The results confirm that this PG-based delivery system is a promising platform for targeting Gal-3 overexpressing neuroinflammation cells for treating neuroinflammation-related injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.     

A comparison among 1-, 3-, and 7-horn feeds for a 37-beam MBA

A very common multiple beam antenna (MBA) configuration consists of a collimating device illuminated by an array of feeds. The collimating device is usually a reflector or a lens. The feeds are usually horn antennas with a circular aperture. The reflector is usually offset-fed to eliminate aperture blockage; the lens is center fed. The antenna's feeds are excited to produce a finite number of beams, so as to provide contiguous coverage of the field of view. The designer is forced to minimize the angular spacing between adjacent beams in order to maximize the minimum gain over the antenna's field of view. On the other hand, the feed horn's aperture gain is maximized when the feed horn spacing and its aperture diameter are equal. This results in antenna efficiency of the order of 30% when a single feed horn is excited to produce a beam. When a cluster of 3 or 7 adjacent feed horns are excited to produce a single beam, antenna efficiency can be increased to 50%. When it is tolerable, several identical antenna apertures can be used to replace a single aperture configuration. In this case, each of M apertures produces approximately N/M beams of an MBA that produces N beams. Horns producing adjacent beams do not illuminate the same aperture. This permits the use of a much larger horn aperture for a given beam spacing. This results in reduced spillover, higher gain of each beam, and increased antenna efficiency of each aperture. This paper investigates the maximization of gain for several lens antennas. It shows that antenna gain is increased as its focal length is decreased. That is, a focal length-to-diameter ratio (F/D) less than 1 is preferred     

Tributary use and large-scale movements of grass carp in Lake Erie

Infrequent captures of invasive, non-native grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) have occurred in Lake Erie over the last 30+ years, with recent evidence suggesting wild reproduction in the lake’s western basin (WB) is occurring. Information on grass carp movements in the Laurentian Great Lakes is lacking, but an improved understanding of large-scale movements and potential areas of aggregation will help inform control strategies and risk assessment if grass carp spread to other parts of Lake Erie and other Great Lakes. Twenty-three grass carp captured in Lake Erie’s WB were implanted with acoustic transmitters and released. Movements were monitored with acoustic receivers deployed throughout Lake Erie and elsewhere in the Great Lakes. Grass carp dispersed up to 236 km, with approximately 25% of fish dispersing greater than 100 km from their release location. Mean daily movements ranged from <0.01 to 2.49 km/day, with the highest daily averages occurring in the spring and summer. The Sandusky, Detroit, and Maumee Rivers, and Plum Creek were the most heavily used WB tributaries. Seventeen percent of grass carp moved into Lake Erie’s central or eastern basins, although all fish eventually returned to the WB. One fish emigrated from Lake Erie through the Huron-Erie Corridor and into Lake Huron. Based on our results, past assessments may have underestimated the potential for grass carp to spread in the Great Lakes. We recommend focusing grass carp control efforts on Sandusky River and Plum Creek given their high use by tagged fish, and secondarily on Maumee and Detroit Rivers.     

AutoRELAX: automatically RELAXing a goal model to address uncertainty

Dynamically adaptive systems (DAS) must cope with system and environmental conditions that may not have been fully understood or anticipated during development. RELAX is a fuzzy logic-based specification language for identifying and assessing sources of environmental uncertainty, thereby making DAS requirements more tolerant of unanticipated conditions. This paper presents AutoRELAX, an approach that automatically generates RELAXed goal models to address environmental uncertainty. Specifically, AutoRELAX identifies goals to RELAX, which RELAX operators to apply, and the shape of the fuzzy logic function that establishes the goal satisfaction criteria. AutoRELAX generates different solutions by making tradeoffs between minimizing the number of RELAXed goals and maximizing delivered functionality by reducing the number of adaptations triggered by minor and adverse environmental conditions. In a recent extension, AutoRELAX uses a stepwise adaptation of weights to balance these two competing concerns and thereby further improve the utility of AutoRELAX. We apply it to two industry-based applications involving network management and a robotic controller, respectively.     

For an updated acupuncture

The author proposes an acupuncture which is characterized by its complete break with the ancient chinese physiopathology and its concepts of "acupuncture points" (in the old sense of the term) of "meridians", "energies", "ying-yang" etc.. This process of renewal of the practice and the theory has been coined "contemporary acupuncture". Its originality stands out in comparison with most teachings of acupuncture which have remained faithful to traditional acupuncture. Contemporary acupuncture creates bridges between acupunture and classical medicine. It offers simple therapeutic gestures to general practitioners. Acupuncture acts, from a clinical point of view, particularly through the following forms of action: a) a relaxing action on striated muscle; b) an anti-inflammatory action on the ligaments; c) an antidepressant and anxiolytic action.     

Differential expression of ICAM-1 and LFA-1 versus L-selectin and VCAM-1 in autoimmune insulitis of NOD mice and association with both Th1- and Th2-type infiltrates

The infiltration of pancreatic islets by mononuclear cells is the hallmark of the development of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in the NOD mouse, an animal model for human IDDM. The aim, of this study was to correlate adhesion molecule expression with the degree of islet infiltration and to compare Th1- and Th2-driven islet inflammation. Cryostat sections of NOD mouse pancreata before and after diabetes development were analysed by semiquantitative immunohistochemistry. NOD mouse islets did not show the expression of ICAM-1, LFA-1, L-selectin and VCAM-1 prior to infiltration by mononuclear cells. Furthermore, islets with early stage insulitis (grade 1, periinsular location of small infiltrates) still were devoid of adhesion molecule expression. ICAM-1 and LFA-1 were first demonstrable in islets with strong periinsular infiltrates (insulitis grade 2) while L-selectin and VCAM-1 were only seen in islets with mild or strong intraislet infiltration (grade 3-4). Adhesion molecules were demonstrable in areas of macrophage and T-lymphocyte infiltrates but not in adjacent endocrine islet tissue. Islets of all infiltration stages contained Th2 lymphocytes (positive for IL-4). Substantial numbers of Th1 cells (positive for IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-2 and/or IL-2 receptor) were observed only after acceleration of diabetes development by a single injection of cyclophosphamide (250 mg/kg i.p.). Interestingly, the adhesion molecule expression pattern in islets with "Th1' versus "Th2 insulitis' was not different. In conclusion, the expression of adhesion molecules in islets during the development of autoimmune diabetes does not precede mononuclear infiltration but probably occurs in response to the activation of initial small infiltrates. ICAM-1 and LFA-1 expression is seen prior to L-selectin and VCAM-1. However, adhesion molecule expression during Th1 versus Th2 cell infiltration is very similar, suggesting similar adhesion molecule requirements of the two Th subsets.     

Organizational impact of system quality,information quality,and service quality

Increased organizational dependence on information systems drives management attention towards improving information systems’ quality. A recent survey shows that “Improve IT quality” is one of the top concerns facing IT executives. As IT quality is a multidimensional measure, it is important to determine what aspects of IT quality are critical to organizations to help Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to devise effective IT quality improvement strategies. In this research, we model the relationship between information systems’ (IS) quality and organizational impact. We hypothesize greater organizational impact in situations in which system quality, information quality and service quality are high. We also hypothesize a positive relationship between system quality and information quality. We test our hypotheses using survey data. Our structural equation model exhibits a good fit with the observed data. Our results show that IS service quality is the most influential variable in this model (followed by information quality and system quality), thus highlighting the importance of IS service quality for organizational performance. This paper contributes theoretically to IS success models through the system quality-to-information quality and IS quality-to-organizational impact links. Implications of our results for practice and research are discussed.