Distributed/virtual manufacturing system cell: an experimental installation

The main objectives of the “Distributed/Virtual Manufacturing System (D/V MS) Cell” project are: (1) The development of Tele-services technologies and organisation for the production planning and control functions; (2) The development of permanent high performance laboratory facilities that enable development and demonstration of D/V MS design and control, i.e., global distribution of production planning and control functions; (3) The development of an abstract environment, i.e., a virtual environment for design and real time control of manufacturing systems, or one of its elements, independent of the physical implementations. The D/V MS Cell satisfies the defined hierarchical distributed control model The Hardware System of the D/V MS Cell is composed by: (1) Machine tool cell: CNC milling machine, external sensors and actuators, interface computer with communications links, (2) Machine cell: Two machine simulators, PLC, sensors and actuators, computer based local controller, (3) Robot cell: Robot SCORBOT ER-VII, artificial vision system, conveyor system, computer based local controller, (4) Control centre: Video projector, computer based remote controller, computer based real time video and audio system. The Software System of the D/V MS Cell is composed by: (1) Applications for Human-Computer Interface (HMI): Interfaces for machine tool and robot programming and control, interface for production planning and control, (2) Computer-Machine Interface, via RS-232C, (3) Computer-Computer Interface, for communications via Internet. The hardware structure of the (D/V MS) Cell is already implemented and interfaces for machine tool programming and control are developed (software system). The operation of the complete system is planned for the year 1999

Episomal Viral cDNAs Identify a Reservoir That Fuels Viral Rebound after Treatment Interruption and That Contributes to Treatment Failure

Viral reservoirs that persist in HIV-1 infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART) are the major obstacle to viral eradication. The identification and definition of viral reservoirs in patients on ART is needed in order to understand viral persistence and achieve the goal of viral eradication. We examined whether analysis of episomal HIV-1 genomes provided the means to characterize virus that persists during ART and whether it could reveal the virus that contributes to treatment failure in patients on ART. For six individuals in which virus replication was highly suppressed for at least 20 months, proviral and episomal genomes present just prior to rebound were phylogenetically compared to RNA genomes of rebounding virus after therapy interruption. Episomal envelope sequences, but not proviral envelope sequences, were highly similar to sequences in rebounding virus. Since episomes are products of recent infections, the phylogenetic relationships support the conclusion that viral rebound originated from a cryptic viral reservoir. To evaluate whether the reservoir revealed by episomal sequence analysis was of clinical relevance, we examined whether episomal sequences define a viral population that contributes to virologic failure in individuals receiving the CCR5 antagonist, Vicriviroc. Episomal envelope sequences at or near baseline predicted treatment failure due to the presence of X4 or D/M (dual/mixed) viral variants. In patients that did not harbor X4 or D/M viruses, the basis for Vicriviroc treatment failure was indeterminate. Although these samples were obtained from viremic patients, the assay would be applicable to a large percentage of aviremic patients, based on previous studies. Summarily, the results support the use of episomal HIV-1 as an additional or alternative approach to traditional assays to characterize virus that is maintained during long-term, suppressive ART

Anthropometric characteristics and vertical jump abilities by player position and performance level of junior female volleyball players

Although absolute jump heights should be considered an important factor in judging the performance requirements of volleyball players, limited data is available on age-appropriate categories. The purpose of this study is to determine the differences in specific anthropometric characteristics and jumping performance variables in under 1219 female volleyball players in rela-tion to playing position and performance level. The sample of subjects consisted of 354 players who prepared for the U19 Women\u2019s Volleyball European Championship 2020 (17.4 \ub1 0.8 years, 1.81 \ub1 0.07 m, 67.5 \ub1 7.1 kg). Playing positions analyzed were setters (n = 55), opposites (n = 37), middle blockers (n = 82), outside hitters (n = 137), and liberos (n = 43). The results showed player position differences in every performance level group in variables of body height, spike, and block jump. Observed differences are a consequence of highly specific tasks of different positions in the composition of the team. Players of different performance levels are significantly different, with athletes of higher-ranked teams achieving better results. The acquired data could be useful for the selection and profiling of young volleyball players

Episomal Viral cDNAs Identify a Reservoir That Fuels Viral Rebound after Treatment Interruption and That Contributes to Treatment Failure

Viral reservoirs that persist in HIV-1 infected individuals on antiretroviral therapy (ART) are the major obstacle to viral eradication. The identification and definition of viral reservoirs in patients on ART is needed in order to understand viral persistence and achieve the goal of viral eradication. We examined whether analysis of episomal HIV-1 genomes provided the means to characterize virus that persists during ART and whether it could reveal the virus that contributes to treatment failure in patients on ART. For six individuals in which virus replication was highly suppressed for at least 20 months, proviral and episomal genomes present just prior to rebound were phylogenetically compared to RNA genomes of rebounding virus after therapy interruption. Episomal envelope sequences, but not proviral envelope sequences, were highly similar to sequences in rebounding virus. Since episomes are products of recent infections, the phylogenetic relationships support the conclusion that viral rebound originated from a cryptic viral reservoir. To evaluate whether the reservoir revealed by episomal sequence analysis was of clinical relevance, we examined whether episomal sequences define a viral population that contributes to virologic failure in individuals receiving the CCR5 antagonist, Vicriviroc. Episomal envelope sequences at or near baseline predicted treatment failure due to the presence of X4 or D/M (dual/mixed) viral variants. In patients that did not harbor X4 or D/M viruses, the basis for Vicriviroc treatment failure was indeterminate. Although these samples were obtained from viremic patients, the assay would be applicable to a large percentage of aviremic patients, based on previous studies. Summarily, the results support the use of episomal HIV-1 as an additional or alternative approach to traditional assays to characterize virus that is maintained during long-term, suppressive ART

Interacting new agegraphic viscous dark energy with varying GG

We consider the new agegraphic model of dark energy with a varying gravitational constant, $G$, in a non-flat universe. We obtain the equation of state and the deceleration parameters for both interacting and noninteracting new agegraphic dark energy. We also present the equation of motion determining the evolution behavior of the dark energy density with a time variable gravitational constant. Finally, we generalize our study to the case of viscous new agegraphic dark energy in the presence of an interaction term between both dark components.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in IJTP (2010

Categorizing Different Approaches to the Cosmological Constant Problem

We have found that proposals addressing the old cosmological constant problem come in various categories. The aim of this paper is to identify as many different, credible mechanisms as possible and to provide them with a code for future reference. We find that they all can be classified into five different schemes of which we indicate the advantages and drawbacks. Besides, we add a new approach based on a symmetry principle mapping real to imaginary spacetime.Comment: updated version, accepted for publicatio

Uncovering the nutritional landscape of food

Recent progresses in data-driven analysis methods, including network-based approaches, are revolutionizing many classical disciplines. These techniques can also be applied to food and nutrition, which must be studied to design healthy diets. Using nutritional information from over 1,000 raw foods, we systematically evaluated the nutrient composition of each food in regards to satisfying daily nutritional requirements. The nutrient balance of a food was quantified herein as nutritional fitness, using the food's frequency of occurrence in nutritionally adequate food combinations. Nutritional fitness offers prioritization of recommendable foods within a global network of foods, in which foods are connected based on the similarities of their nutrient compositions. We identified a number of key nutrients, such as choline and alpha-linolenic acid, whose levels in foods can critically affect the foods' nutritional fitness. Analogously, pairs of nutrients can have the same effect. In fact, two nutrients can impact the nutritional fitness synergistically, although the individual nutrients alone may not. This result, involving the tendency among nutrients to show correlations in their abundances across foods, implies a hidden layer of complexity when exploring for foods whose balance of nutrients within pairs holistically helps meet nutritional requirements. Interestingly, foods with high nutritional fitness successfully maintain this nutrient balance. This effect expands our scope to a diverse repertoire of nutrient-nutrient correlations, integrated under a common network framework that yields unexpected yet coherent associations between nutrients. Our nutrient-profiling approach combined with a network-based analysis provides a more unbiased, global view of the relationships between foods and nutrients, and can be extended towards nutritional policies, food marketing, and personalized nutrition.Comment: Supplementary material is available at the journal websit

Involvement of Cyr61 in growth, migration, and metastasis of prostate cancer cells

Cyr61 has been reported to participate in the development and progression of various cancers; however, its role in prostate cancer (PCa) still remains poorly understood. In this study, we explored the function of Cyr61 in a series of malignant PCa cell lines, including LnCap, Du145, and PC3. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and crystal violet assays demonstrated that Cyr61 was essential for the proliferation of PCa cells. Soft agar assay and xenograft analysis showed that downregulation of Cyr61 suppressed the tumorigenicity of Du145 cells both in vitro and in vivo. Either silencing the cellular Cyr61 by RNA interference or neutralising the endogenous Cyr61 by antibody inhibited the migration of Du145 cells. In contrast, purified protein of Cyr61 promoted the migration of LnCap cells in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggested that Cyr61 was involved in the migration of PCa cells. We also observed the accumulation of mature focal adhesion complexes associated with the impaired migration through Cyr61 downregulation. Also, further studies showed that Cyr61 regulated the level of activated Rac1 as well as its downstream targets, including phosphorylated JNK, E-cadherin, and p27kip1, which are key molecules involved in cell growth, migration, and invasion. The in vivo mouse tail vein injection experiment revealed that Cyr61 affected the metastatic capacity of Du145 cells, suggesting that Cyr61 was required for prostate tumour metastasis. Altogether, our results demonstrated that Cyr61 played an important role in the tumorigenicity and metastasis of PCa cells, which will benefit the development of therapeutic strategy for PCas

Elevated serum procollagen type III peptide in splanchnic and peripheral circulation of patients with inflammatory bowel disease submitted to surgery

BACKGROUND: In the hypothesis that the increased collagen metabolism in the intestinal wall of patients affected by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is reflected in the systemic circulation, we aimed the study to evaluate serum level of procollagen III peptide (PIIIP) in peripheral and splanchnic circulation by a commercial radioimmunoassay of patients with different histories of disease. METHODS: Twenty-seven patients, 17 with Crohn and 10 with ulcerative colitis submitted to surgery were studied. Blood samples were obtained before surgery from a peripheral vein and during surgery from the mesenteric vein draining the affected intestinal segment. Fifteen healthy age and sex matched subjects were studied to determine normal range for peripheral PIIIP. RESULTS: In IBD patients peripheral PIIIP level was significantly higher if compared with controls (5.0 ± 1.9 vs 2.7 ± 0.7 μg/l; p = 0.0001); splanchnic PIIIP level was 5.5 ± 2.6 μg/l showing a positive gradient between splanchnic and peripheral concentrations of PIIIP. No significant differences between groups nor correlations with patients' age and duration of disease were found. CONCLUSIONS: We provide evidence that the increased local collagen metabolism in active IBD is reflected also in the systemic circulation irrespective of the history of the disease, suggesting that PIIIP should be considered more appropiately as a marker of the activity phases of IBD