Genetic Dissection of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Signaling during Luteinizing Hormone-Induced Oocyte Maturation

Recent evidence that luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulation of ovulatory follicles causes transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has provided insights into the mechanisms of ovulation. However, the complete array of signals that promote oocyte reentry into the meiotic cell cycle in the follicle are still incompletely understood. To elucidate the signaling downstream of EGFR involved in oocyte maturation, we have investigated the LH responses in granulosa cells with targeted ablation of EGFR. Oocyte maturation and ovulation is disrupted when EGFR expression is progressively reduced. In granulosa cells from mice with either global or granulosa cell-specific disruption of EGFR signaling, LH-induced phosphorylation of MAPK3/1, p38MAPK, and connexin-43 is impaired. Although the LH-induced decrease in cGMP is EGFR-dependent in wild type follicles, LH still induces a decrease in cGMP in Egfrdelta/f Cyp19-Cre follicles. Thus compensatory mechanisms appear activated in the mutant. Spatial propagation of the LH signal in the follicle also is dependent on the EGF network, and likely is important for the control of signaling to the oocyte. Thus, multiple signals and redundant pathways contribute to regulating oocyte reentry into the cell cycle

GRCBox: Extending Smartphone Connectivity in Vehicular Networks

The low penetration of connectivity-enabled OBUs is delaying the deployment of Vehicular Networks (VNs), and therefore the development of Vehicular Delay Tolerant Network (VDTN) applications, among others. In this paper we present GRCBox, an architecture based on RaspberryPi that allows integrating smartphones in VNs. GRCBox is based on a low-cost device that combines several pieces of software to provide ad-hoc and multi-interface connectivity to smartphones. Using GRCBox each application can choose the interface for its data flows, which increases flexibility and will allow developers to easily implement applications based on ad-hoc connectivity, such as VDTN applications.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain, under Grants TIN2011-27543-C03-01 and BES-2012-052673, and by the European Commission under Svagata.eu, the Erasmus Mundus Programme, Action 2 (EMA2).Martínez Tornell, S.; Patra, S.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Manzoni, P. (2015). GRCBox: Extending Smartphone Connectivity in Vehicular Networks. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. 2015:1-13. doi:10.1155/2015/478064S1132015Hartenstein, H., & Laberteaux, K. P. (2008). A tutorial survey on vehicular ad hoc networks. IEEE Communications Magazine, 46(6), 164-171. doi:10.1109/mcom.2008.4539481Wu, H., Palekar, M., Fujimoto, R., Guensler, R., Hunter, M., Lee, J., & Ko, J. (2005). An empirical study of short range communications for vehicles. Proceedings of the 2nd ACM international workshop on Vehicular ad hoc networks - VANET ’05. doi:10.1145/1080754.1080769Jerbi, M., Senouci, S.-M., & Haj, M. A. (2007). Extensive Experimental Characterization of Communications in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks within Different Environments. 2007 IEEE 65th Vehicular Technology Conference - VTC2007-Spring. doi:10.1109/vetecs.2007.533Lee, K. C., Lee, S., Cheung, R., Lee, U., & Gerla, M. (2007). First Experience with CarTorrent in a Real Vehicular Ad Hoc Network Testbed. 2007 Mobile Networking for Vehicular Environments. doi:10.1109/move.2007.4300814Giordano, E., Tomatis, A., Ghosh, A., Pau, G., & Gerla, M. (2008). C-VeT An Open Research Platform for VANETs: Evaluation of Peer to Peer Applications in Vehicular Networks. 2008 IEEE 68th Vehicular Technology Conference. doi:10.1109/vetecf.2008.462Cesana, M., Fratta, L., Gerla, M., Giordano, E., & Pau, G. (2010). C-VeT the UCLA campus vehicular testbed: Integration of VANET and Mesh networks. 2010 European Wireless Conference (EW). doi:10.1109/ew.2010.5483535Santa, J., Tsukada, M., Ernst, T., & Gomez-Skarmeta, A. F. (2009). Experimental analysis of multi-hop routing in vehicular ad-hoc networks. 2009 5th International Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks & Communities and Workshops. doi:10.1109/tridentcom.2009.4976248Paula, M. C. G., Isento, J. N., Dias, J. A., & Rodrigues, J. J. P. C. (2011). A real-world VDTN testbed for advanced vehicular services and applications. 2011 IEEE 16th International Workshop on Computer Aided Modeling and Design of Communication Links and Networks (CAMAD). doi:10.1109/camad.2011.5941108Campbell, A., & Choudhury, T. (2012). From Smart to Cognitive Phones. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 11(3), 7-11. doi:10.1109/mprv.2012.41Vandenberghe, W., Moerman, I., & Demeester, P. (2011). On the feasibility of utilizing smartphones for vehicular ad hoc networking. 2011 11th International Conference on ITS Telecommunications. doi:10.1109/itst.2011.6060061Sawada, D., Sato, M., Uehara, K., & Murai, J. (2011). iDANS: A platform for disseminating information on a VANET consisting of smartphone nodes. 2011 11th International Conference on ITS Telecommunications. doi:10.1109/itst.2011.6060062Tornell, S. M., Calafate, C. T., Cano, J.-C., Manzoni, P., Fogue, M., & Martinez, F. J. (2013). Evaluating the Feasibility of Using Smartphones for ITS Safety Applications. 2013 IEEE 77th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring). doi:10.1109/vtcspring.2013.6692553Mitchell, G. (2012). The Raspberry Pi single-board computer will revolutionise computer science teaching. Engineering & Technology, 7(3), 26-26. doi:10.1049/et.2012.0300Fielding R. T.Architectural styles and the design of network-based software architectures [Ph.D. thesis]2000University of Californi