The effect of insulin on the function of the lysosomal apparatus of the neutrophilic leukocytes during the formation of a stress syndrome

In experiments on male rabbits with the lack of insulin it is been revealed violations after the past immobilization the intensivity and duration of neutrophilic leukocytosis decrease, contents of lysosomes in neutrophils, activity of acid phosphatase. By lysosomal ferments don't determine the can observer discordance of processes of coagulation, fibrinolysis, kininogenesis.     

A Novel Human Neutralizing mAb Recognizes Delta,Gamma and Omicron Variants of SARS-CoV-2 and Can Be Used in Combination with Sotrovimab

The dramatic experience with SARS-CoV-2 has alerted the scientific community to be ready to face new epidemics/pandemics caused by new variants. Among the therapies against the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus, monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs) targeting the Spike glycoprotein have represented good drugs to interfere in the Spike/ Angiotensin Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE-2) interaction, preventing virus cell entry and subsequent infection, especially in patients with a defective immune system. We obtained, by an innovative phage display selection strategy, specific binders recognizing different epitopes of Spike. The novel human antibodies specifically bind to Spike-Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) in a nanomolar range and interfere in the interaction of Spike with the ACE-2 receptor. We report here that one of these mAbs, named D3, shows neutralizing activity for virus infection in cell cultures by different SARS-CoV-2 variants and retains the ability to recognize the Omicron-derived recombinant RBD differently from the antibodies Casirivimab or Imdevimab. Since anti-Spike mAbs, used individually, might be unable to block the virus cell entry especially in the case of resistant variants, we investigated the possibility to combine D3 with the antibody in clinical use Sotrovimab, and we found that they recognize distinct epitopes and show additive inhibitory effects on the interaction of Omicron-RBD with ACE-2 receptor. Thus, we propose to exploit these mAbs in combinatorial treatments to enhance their potential for both diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the current and future pandemic waves of coronavirus.     

Intramolecular Interaction with the E6 Region Stabilizes the Closed Conformation of the N-SH2 Domain and Concurs with the Self-Inhibitory Docking in Downregulating the Activity of the SHP2 Tyrosine Phosphatase: A Molecular Dynamics Study

The localization and activity of the SHP2 tyrosine phosphatase across different cellular compartments to the target substrates are steered by the binding of phosphotyrosine (pY) peptides to the tandem SH2 domains. The most N-terminal domain (N-SH2) can also keep the enzyme inactive by intramolecular occlusion of the catalytic site. Enzyme activity can be recovered by an allosteric disruption of this self-inhibitory docking upon the binding of pY peptides to the N-SH2 domain. Prior to this, the N-SH2 domain must abandon the closed conformation because it impedes the access of pY peptides to the binding cleft. Although it cooperates with the self-inhibitory docking in the negative regulation of the phosphatase activity, the structural determinants of the stability of the closed conformation in the self-inhibited phosphatase are still elusive. To address this issue, a molecular dynamics simulation study is carried out. It is shown that the closed conformation is stabilized by the interaction of the N-SH2 domain with a conserved peptide portion in the region encoded by PTPN11 exon 6 (E6).     

RERBEE: robust efficient registration via bifurcations and elongated elements applied to retinal fluorescein angiogram sequences

We present RERBEE (robust efficient registration via bifurcations and elongated elements), a novel feature-based registration algorithm able to correct local deformations in high-resolution ultra-wide field-of-view (UWFV) fluorescein angiogram (FA) sequences of the retina. The algorithm is able to cope with peripheral blurring, severe occlusions, presence of retinal pathologies and the change of image content due to the perfusion of the fluorescein dye in time. We have used the computational power of a graphics processor to increase the performance of the most computationally expensive parts of the algorithm by a factor of over × 1300, enabling the algorithm to register a pair of 3900 × 3072 UWFV FA images in 5-10 min instead of the 5-7 h required using only the CPU. We demonstrate accurate results on real data with 267 image pairs from a total of 277 (96.4%) graded as correctly registered by a clinician and 10 (3.6%) graded as correctly registered with minor errors but usable for clinical purposes. Quantitative comparison with state-of-the-art intensity-based and feature-based registration methods using synthetic data is also reported. We also show some potential usage of a correctly aligned sequence for vein/artery discrimination and automatic lesion detection.     

Progress on large area n‐type silicon solar cells with front laser doping and a rear emitter

We report on the progress of imec's n‐type passivated emitter, rear totally diffused rear junction silicon solar cells. Selective laser doping has been introduced in the flow, allowing the implementation of a shallow diffused front surface field and a reduction of the recombination current in the contact area. Simplifications have been implemented towards a more industrial annealing sequence, by replacing expensive forming gas annealing steps with a belt furnace annealing. By applying these improvements, together with an advanced texturing process and emitter passivation by atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃, 22.5% efficient cells (three busbars) have been realized on commercial 156 · 156 mm² Czochralski‐Si. This result has been independently confirmed by ISE CalLab. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A study of an hybrid CDN–P2P system over the PlanetLab network

In this work we propose an hybrid CDN–P2P architecture for video contents delivery based on the NextShare platform. Experiments were conducted over the PlanetLab network using a number of peers which encompass real network behaviors. Results show that although the NextShare is based on the original BitTorrent file sharing mechanism, the implemented tools can efficiently deliver video over a heterogeneous and time varying network if peers can rely on an intermediate distribution layer between the CDN and the final users. Among the other benefits, CDN edge servers are significantly offloaded and peers can experience low start-up delays. Architecture design and simulation results are taking place in the context of the European FP7 project COAST.     

Self‐Assembled Conjugated Thiophene‐Based Rotaxane Architectures: Structural,Computational, and Spectroscopic Insights into Molecular Aggregation

A comparative study of the self‐assembly at a variety of surfaces of a dithiophene rotaxane 1 ?β‐CD and its corresponding dumbbell, 1, by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging on the micrometer and nanometer scale, respectively. The dumbbell is found to have a greater propensity to form ordered supramolecular assemblies, as a result of π–π interactions between dithiophenes belonging to adjacent molecules, which are hindered in the rotaxane. The fine molecular structure determined by STM was compared to that obtained by molecular modelling. The optical properties of both rotaxane and dumbbell in the solid state were investigated by steady‐state and time‐resolved photoluminescence (PL) experiments on spin‐cast films and diluted solutions. The comparison between the optical features of the threaded and unthreaded systems reveals an effective role of encapsulation in reducing aggregation and exciton migration for the rotaxanes with respect to the dumbbells, thus leading to higher PL quantum efficiency and preserved single‐molecule photophysics for longer times after excitation in the threaded oligomers.     

Cross-layer network formation for energy-efficient IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee Wireless Sensor Networks

In IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) a specific node (called the PAN coordinator or sink) controls the whole network. When the network operates in a multi-hop fashion, the position of the PAN coordinator has a significant impact on the performance: it strongly affects network energy consumption for both topology formation and data routing. The development of efficient self-managing, self-configuring and self-regulating protocols for the election of the node that coordinates and manages the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee WSN is still an open research issue. In this paper we present a cross-layer approach to address the problem of PAN coordinator election on topologies formed in accordance with the IEEE 802.15.4. Our solution combines the network formation procedure defined at the MAC layer by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard with a topology reconfiguration algorithm operating at the network layer. We propose a standard-compliant procedure (named PAN coordinator ELection – PANEL) to self-configure a IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee WSN by electing, in a distributed way, a suitable PAN coordinator. A protocol implementing this solution in IEEE 802.15.4 is also provided. Performance results show that our cross-layer approach minimizes the average number of hops between the nodes of the network and the PAN coordinator allowing to reduce the data transfer delay and determining significant energy savings compared with the performance of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.     

Analysis and comparison of scheduling techniques for a BWA OFDMA mobile system

In the last few years the wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs) have increased their popularity and attracted the interest of important research groups all over the world; as a consequence, several standards have been proposed. Among them, the IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) is one of the most promising standard to carry out a full‐service broadband wireless network in an urban and suburban area. This standard provides high data rate within a wide coverage area with low implementation costs, possibility of multi‐traffic communications, and different network topologies. This paper deals with the analysis and performance comparison of different scheduling techniques for WiMAX networks for allowing quality of service (QoS) differentiation when different types of applications have to be supported and achieving a fair distribution of resource among users. In particular, the focus here is on the resource allocation problem for the case of mobile stations (MSs) active in an urban environment. The proposed scheduling algorithms exploit the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme with adaptive modulation techniques in order to achieve a better network behavior. The performance of the proposed approaches will be derived here by means of theoretical analysis and computer simulations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.