Supporting novel home network management interfaces with Openflow and NOX

The Homework project has examined redesign of existing home network infrastructures to better support the needs and requirements of actual home users. Integrating results from several ethnographic studies, we have designed and built a home networking platform providing detailed per-flow measurement and management capabilities supporting several novel management interfaces. This demo specifically shows these new visualization and control interfaces, and describes the broader benefits of taking an integrated view of the networking infrastructure, realised through our router's augmented measurement and control APIs. Aspects of this work have been published: the Homework Database in Internet Management (IM) 2011 and implications of the ethnographic results are to appear at the SIGCOMM W-MUST workshop 2011. Separate, more detailed expositions of the interface elements and system performance and implications are currently under submission at other venues. A partial code release is already available and we anticipate fuller public beta release by Q4 2011

Enabling the new economic actor: data protection, the digital economy, and the Databox

This paper offers a sociological perspective on data protection regulation and its relevance to design. From this perspective, proposed regulation in Europe and the USA seeks to create a new economic actor—the consumer as personal data trader—through new legal frameworks that shift the locus of agency and control in data processing towards the individual consumer or “data subject”. The sociological perspective on proposed data regulation recognises the reflexive relationship between law and the social order, and the commensurate needs to balance the demand for compliance with the design of computational tools that enable this new economic actor. We present the Databox model as a means of providing data protection and allowing the individual to exploit personal data to become an active player in the emerging data economy.The authors acknowledge the support of the EPSRC, Grants EP/M001636/1, EP/M02315X/1, EP/N028260/1, and EU FP7 Grant 611001.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from [PUBLISHER] via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-016-0939-

The Sagnac Phase Shift suggested by the Aharonov-Bohm effect for relativistic matter beams

The phase shift due to the Sagnac Effect, for relativistic matter beams counter-propagating in a rotating interferometer, is deduced on the bases of a a formal analogy with the the Aharonov-Bohm effect. A procedure outlined by Sakurai, in which non relativistic quantum mechanics and newtonian physics appear together with some intrinsically relativistic elements, is generalized to a fully relativistic context, using the Cattaneo's splitting technique. This approach leads to an exact derivation, in a self-consistently relativistic way, of the Sagnac effect. Sakurai's result is recovered in the first order approximation.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 2 EPS figures. To appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Supporting novel home network management interfaces with Openflow and NOX

The Homework project has examined redesign of existing home network infrastructures to better support the needs and requirements of actual home users. Integrating results from several ethnographic studies, we have designed and built a home networking platform providing detailed per-flow measurement and management capabilities supporting several novel management interfaces. This demo specifically shows these new visualization and control interfaces, and describes the broader benefits of taking an integrated view of the networking infrastructure, realised through our router's augmented measurement and control APIs. Aspects of this work have been published: the Homework Database in Internet Management (IM) 2011 and implications of the ethnographic results are to appear at the SIGCOMM W-MUST workshop 2011. Separate, more detailed expositions of the interface elements and system performance and implications are currently under submission at other venues. A partial code release is already available and we anticipate fuller public beta release by Q4 2011

The Effects of Exposure to Endophyte-Infected Tall Fescue Seed on Faecal and Urine Concentrations of Ergovaline and Lysergic Acid in Mature Gelding Horses

Despite the good nutritive value of endophyte-infected tall fescue, consumption by livestock results in a decrease in both reproductive and growth performance due to ergot alkaloids produced by an endophytic fungus (Cross et al., 1995). Little research has investigated the metabolic fate of ergot alkaloids and/or their metabolites in grazing horses. Thus, the objectives of this experiment were: a) to determine concentrations of ergovaline (EV) and lysergic acid (LA) in the faeces and urine of geldings exposed to tall fescue seed over a time course experiment and b) to measure the effects of alkaloid-containing tall fescue on nutrient digestibility and serum clinical enzyme profiles

The (un)availability of prognostic information in the last days of life: a prospective observational study.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were (1) to document the clinical condition of patients considered to be in the last 2 weeks of life and (2) to compare patients who did or did not survive for 72 hours. DESIGN: A prospective observational study. SETTING: Two sites in London, UK (a hospice and a hospital palliative care team). PARTICIPANTS: Any inpatient, over 18 years old, English speaking, who was identified by the palliative care team as at risk of dying within the next 2 weeks was eligible. OUTCOME MEASURES: Prognostic signs and symptoms were documented at a one off assessment and patients were followed up 7 days later to determine whether or not they had died. RESULTS: Fifty participants were recruited and 24/50 (48%) died within 72 hours of assessment. The most prevalent prognostic features observed were a decrease in oral food intake (60%) and a rapid decline of the participant's global health status (56%). Participants who died within 72 hours had a lower level of consciousness and had more care needs than those who lived longer. A large portion of data was unavailable, particularly that relating to the psychological and spiritual well-being of the patient, due to the decreased consciousness of the patient. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of prognostic signs and symptoms in the final days of life has been documented between those predicted to die and those who did not. How doctors make decisions with missing information is an area for future research, in addition to understanding the best way to use the available information to make more accurate predictions

Hypoxia upregulates neutrophil degranulation and potential for tissue injury.

BACKGROUND: The inflamed bronchial mucosal surface is a profoundly hypoxic environment. Neutrophilic airway inflammation and neutrophil-derived proteases have been linked to disease progression in conditions such as COPD and cystic fibrosis, but the effects of hypoxia on potentially harmful neutrophil functional responses such as degranulation are unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Following exposure to hypoxia (0.8% oxygen, 3 kPa for 4 h), neutrophils stimulated with inflammatory agonists (granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor or platelet-activating factor and formylated peptide) displayed a markedly augmented (twofold to sixfold) release of azurophilic (neutrophil elastase, myeloperoxidase), specific (lactoferrin) and gelatinase (matrix metalloproteinase-9) granule contents. Neutrophil supernatants derived under hypoxic but not normoxic conditions induced extensive airway epithelial cell detachment and death, which was prevented by coincubation with the antiprotease α-1 antitrypsin; both normoxic and hypoxic supernatants impaired ciliary function. Surprisingly, the hypoxic upregulation of neutrophil degranulation was not dependent on hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), nor was it fully reversed by inhibition of phospholipase C signalling. Hypoxia augmented the resting and cytokine-stimulated phosphorylation of AKT, and inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)γ (but not other PI3K isoforms) prevented the hypoxic upregulation of neutrophil elastase release. CONCLUSION: Hypoxia augments neutrophil degranulation and confers enhanced potential for damage to respiratory airway epithelial cells in a HIF-independent but PI3Kγ-dependent fashion.Supported by the British Lung Foundation, Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, BBSRC and the Cambridge NIHR-Biomedical Research Centre. CS was funded by Wellcome Trust Early Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Clinician Scientists (WT101692MA).This is the author accepted manuscript. It is currently under an indefinite embargo pending publication by BMJ Publishing Group

The distribution of pond snail communities across a landscape: separating out the influence of spatial position from local habitat quality for ponds in south-east Northumberland, UK

Ponds support a rich biodiversity because the heterogeneity of individual ponds creates, at the landscape scale, a diversity of habitats for wildlife. The distribution of pond animals and plants will be influenced by both the local conditions within a pond and the spatial distribution of ponds across the landscape. Separating out the local from the spatial is difficult because the two are often linked. Pond snails are likely to be affected by both local conditions, e.g. water hardness, and spatial patterns, e.g. distance between ponds, but studies of snail communities struggle distinguishing between the two. In this study, communities of snails were recorded from 52 ponds in a biogeographically coherent landscape in north-east England. The distribution of snail communities was compared to local environments characterised by the macrophyte communities within each pond and to the spatial pattern of ponds throughout the landscape. Mantel tests were used to partial out the local versus the landscape respective influences. Snail communities became more similar in ponds that were closer together and in ponds with similar macrophyte communities as both the local and the landscape scale were important for this group of animals. Data were collected from several types of ponds, including those created on nature reserves specifically for wildlife, old field ponds (at least 150 years old) primarily created for watering livestock and subsidence ponds outside protected areas or amongst coastal dunes. No one pond type supported all the species. Larger, deeper ponds on nature reserves had the highest numbers of species within individual ponds but shallow, temporary sites on farm land supported a distinct temporary water fauna. The conservation of pond snails in this region requires a diversity of pond types rather than one idealised type and ponds scattered throughout the area at a variety of sites, not just concentrated on nature reserves

How do palliative care doctors recognise imminently dying patients? A judgement analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To identify a group of palliative care doctors who perform well on a prognostic test and to understand how they make their survival predictions. DESIGN: Prospective observational study and two cross-sectional online studies. SETTING: Phase I: an online prognostic test, developed from a prospective observational study of patients referred to palliative care. Phase II: an online judgement task consisting of 50 hypothetical vignettes. PARTICIPANTS: All members of the Association of Palliative Medicine (APM) were eligible (n=~1100). 99 doctors completed the prognostic test and were included in the phase I analysis. The top 20% were invited to participate in phase II; 14/19 doctors completed the judgement task and were included in the phase II analysis. MEASURES: Phase I: participants were asked to give a probability of death within 72 hours (0%-100%) for all 20 cases. Accuracy on the prognostic test was measured with the Brier score which was used to identify the 'expert' group (scale range: 0 (expert)-1 (non-expert)). Phase II: participants gave a probability of death within 72 hours (0%-100%). A mixed model regression analysis was completed using the percentage estimate as the outcome and the patient information included in the vignettes as the predictors. RESULTS: The mean Brier score of all participants was 0.237 (95% CI 0.235 to 0.239). The mean Brier score of the 'experts' was 0.184 (95% CI 0.176 to 0.192). Six of the seven prognostic variables included in the hypothetical vignettes were significantly associated with clinician predictions of death. The Palliative Performance Score was identified as being the most influential in the doctors' prognostic decision making (β=0.48, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified six clinical signs and symptoms which influenced the judgement policies of palliative care doctors. These results may be used to teach novice doctors how to improve their prognostic skills

The Aminoalkylindole BML-190 Negatively Regulates Chitosan Synthesis via the Cyclic AMP/Protein Kinase A1 Pathway in Cryptococcus neoformans

Cryptococcus neoformans can cause fatal meningoencephalitis in patients with AIDS or other immunocompromising conditions. Current antifungals are suboptimal to treat this disease; therefore, novel targets and new therapies are needed. Previously, we have shown that chitosan is a critical component of the cryptococcal cell wall and is required for survival in the mammalian host and that chitosan deficiency results in rapid clearance from the mammalian host. We had also identified several specific proteins that were required for chitosan biosynthesis, and we hypothesize that screening for compounds that inhibit chitosan biosynthesis would identify additional genes/proteins that influence chitosan biosynthesis. To identify these compounds, we developed a robust and novel cell-based flow cytometry screening method to identify small-molecule inhibitors of chitosan production. We screened the ICCB Known Bioactives library and identified 8 compounds that reduced chitosan in C. neoformans We used flow cytometry-based counterscreens and confirmatory screens, followed by a biochemical secondary screen to refine our primary screening hits to 2 confirmed hits. One of the confirmed hits that reduced chitosan content was the aminoalkylindole BML-190, a known inverse agonist of mammalian cannabinoid receptors. We demonstrated that BML-190 likely targets the C. neoformans G-protein-coupled receptor Gpr4 and, via the cyclic AMP (cAMP)/protein kinase A (PKA) signaling pathway, contributes to an intracellular accumulation of cAMP that results in decreased chitosan. Our discovery suggests that this approach could be used to identify additional compounds and pathways that reduce chitosan biosynthesis and could lead to potential novel therapeutics against C. neoformans IMPORTANCE Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal pathogen that kills approximately 200,000 people every year. The cell wall is an essential organelle that protects fungi from the environment. Chitosan, the deacetylated form of chitin, has been shown to be an essential component of the cryptococcal cell wall during infection of a mammalian host. In this study, we screened a set of 480 compounds, which are known to have defined biological activities, for activity that reduced chitosan production in C. neoformans Two of these compounds were confirmed using an alternative method of measuring chitosan, and one of these was demonstrated to impact the cAMP signal transduction pathway. This work demonstrates that the cAMP pathway regulates chitosan biosynthesis in C. neoformans and validates that this screening approach could be used to find potential antifungal agents