Infrastructural Sovereignty over Agreement and Transaction Data (‘Metadata’) in an Open Network-Model for Multilateral Sharing of Sensitive Data

Organizations are becoming ever more aware that their data is a valuable asset requiring protection against mis-use. Therefore, being in control over the usage conditions (i.e. data sovereignty) is a prerequisite for sharing sensitive data in (increasingly complex) supply chains. Maintaining sovereignty applies to both the primary shared data and to the ‘metadata’ stemming from the data sharing support processes. However, maintaining sovereignty over this metadata creates an area of tension. Data providers must balance operational efficiency through outsourcing the data sharing support processes and the associated metadata to external, trusted, organizations against the added risk of transferring control over the metadata. At the same time, lock-in by community providers and major integration efforts due to multiple data sharing relationships need to be avoided. To address these issues, this paper elaborates an open network-model approach for maintaining sovereignty over metadata

Clinically Translatable Cell Tracking and Quantification by MRI in Cartilage Repair Using Superparamagnetic Iron Oxides

Background: Articular cartilage has very limited intrinsic regenerative capacity, making cell-based therapy a tempting approach for cartilage repair. Cell tracking can be a major step towards unraveling and improving the repair process of these therapies. We studied superparamagnetic iron oxides (SPIO) for labeling human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) regarding effectivity, cell viability, long term metabolic cell activity, chondrogenic differentiation and hBMSC secretion profile. We additionally examined the capacity of synovial cells to endocytose SPIO from dead, labeled cells, together with the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for intra-articular visualization and quantification of SPIO labeled cells. Methodology/Prinicipal Findings: Efficacy and various safety aspects of SPIO cell labeling were determined using appropriate assays. Synovial SPIO re-uptake was investigated in vitro by co-labeling cells with SPIO and green fluorescent protein (GFP). MRI experiments were performed on a clinical 3.0T MRI scanner. Two cell-based cartilage repair techniques were mimicked for evaluating MRI traceability of labeled cells: intra-articular cell injection and cell implantation in cartilage defects. Cells were applied ex vivo or in vitro in an intra-articular environment and immediately scanned. SPIO labeling was effective and did not impair any of the studied safety aspects, including hBMSC secretion profile. SPIO from dead, labeled cells could be taken up by synovial cells. Both injected and implanted SPIO-labeled cells could accurately be visualized by MRI in a clinically relevant sized joint model using clinically applied cell doses. Finally, we quantified the amount of labeled cells seeded in cartilage defects using MR-based relaxometry. Conclusions: SPIO labeling appears to be safe without influencing cell behavior. SPIO labeled cells can be visualized in an intra-articular environment and quantified when seeded in cartilage defects.Biomechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

User-Centric Network-Model for Data Control with Interoperable Legal Data Sharing Artefacts

Organizations increasingly collaborate in digital ecosystems, whilst being aware that data is becoming a key asset. They require improved data control capabilities that prevent their shared data from being misused. Currently, such capabilities are typically realized as situation-specific closed ecosystem solutions in a ‘hub-model’ approach. This, however, hinders adoption of inter-organizational data sharing as end-users are faced with potential customer lock-in and major integration efforts to manage data sovereignty, trust and security over multiple data sharing relationships. As alternative, an open ‘network-model’ approach provides end-users a single entry-point for simultaneously controlling data sharing over multiple relationships with clear operational advantages in user-friendliness, complexity, efficiency and costs. However, it poses strong interoperability requirements on the legal concepts of data sharing agreements and usage contracts (terms-of-use). This paper contributes to the development of the network-model by identifying and assessing architectural options for realizing interoperability on the legal concepts for controlled data sharing

Quantifying the Performance of Cloud-Oriented Container Orchestrators on Emulated Tactical Networks

Kubernetes is the de facto industry standard for orchestrating containerized applications in clouds. Performance analyses of Kubernetes are often conducted in resource-rich environments on the enterprise or data center level. At the tactical edge domain, network resources are scarce and therefore at the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to resources available to enterprises or data centers. Computing resources (e.g., mobile or edge devices) are typically interconnected via wireless communications links that are characterized by limited bandwidth, low reliability, high latency, and frequent disconnections. This experience article describes lessons learned in constructing a suitable emulation environment for experimentation, and our findings and recommendations for running Kubernetes in tactical networks

Towards a COTS-Enabled Federated Cloud Architecture for Adaptive C2 in Coalition Tactical Operations: A Performance Analysis of Kubernetes

Nowadays, ever-increasing processing and storage resources are available at all echelons, from operations centers to tactical units. However, tactical-edge communications still suffer from scarce network resources such as limited bandwidth, intermittent connectivity, and variable latency. In addition, modern military missions typically involve coalition operations, where heterogeneous mission partners (even belonging to different nations) cooperate in the field. As a result, the distribution of mission-critical information is more complicated than ever. On the one hand, the dynamic nature of the tactical environment frequently disrupts communications. On the other hand, individual resource-sharing policies prevent mission partners from taking full advantage of the available resources in situ. The NATO IST-168 RTG has been exploring commercial-off-the-shelf orchestration technologies for implementing a federated cloud architecture that enables adaptive information processing and dissemination while living within the constraints of the tactical domain. This paper is a follow-up study that assesses the behaviour of Kubernetes under the disadvantaged network conditions characterizing tactical edge networks

Performance Evaluation of Kubernetes Distributions (K8s, K3s, KubeEdge) in an Adaptive and Federated Cloud Infrastructure for Disadvantaged Tactical Networks

The tactical edge domain, primarily consisting of dismounted soldiers and vehicles on the move, are typically interconnected via wireless tactical networks that are limited in terms of bandwidth, reachability, reliability, and latency. Hence, nodes in the tactical network cannot simply rely on assured access to enterprise cloud computing. Instead, they must explore other alternative models to leverage resources that are in situ, by means of a federated cloud architecture that spans the three tiers of dismounted soldiers, vehicles on the move, and operations centers. The NATO IST-168 RTG has been exploring approaches to best exploit available resources in such a federated architecture while living within the constraints of the tactical networks. The first approach has been to evaluate Kubernetes technologies to see if they are able to be deployed over tactical networks and provide the capabilities to dynamically distribute data and computing tasks over a federated cloud infrastructure composed of multiple partner nation networks. This paper provides initial performance results for various Kubernetes distributions (K8s, K3s, KubeEdge) in federated and adaptive tactical networks, leading to recommendations for further development and experimentation

Triamcinolone acetonide activates an anti-inflammatory and folate receptor-positive macrophage that prevents osteophytosis in vivo

INTRODUCTION: Triamcinolone acetonide (TA) is used for osteoarthritis management to reduce pain, and pre-clinical studies have shown that TA limits osteophyte formation. Osteophyte formation is known to be facilitated by synovial macrophage activation. TA injections might influence macrophage activation and subsequently reduce osteophytosis. Although widely applied in clinical care, the mechanism through which TA exerts this effect remains unknown. In this animal study, we investigated the in vivo effects of TA injections on macrophage activation, osteophyte development and joint degeneration. Furthermore, in vitro macrophage differentiation experiments were conducted to further explain working mechanisms of TA effects found in vivo. METHODS: Osteoarthritis was induced in rat knees using papain injections and a running protocol. Untreated and TA-treated animals were longitudinally monitored for 12 weeks with in vivo micro-computed tomography (μCT) to measure subchondral bone changes. Synovial macrophage activation was measured in vivo using folate receptor β (FRβ)-targeted single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography. Articular cartilage was analyzed at 6 and 12 weeks with ex vivo contrast-enhanced μCT and histology. To further explain the outcomes of our in vivo study, TA on macrophages was also studied in vitro. These cultured macrophages were either M1- or M2-activated, and they were analyzed using fluorescence-activated cell sorting for CD163 and FRβ expression as well as for messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of interleukin (IL)-10. RESULTS: Our in vivo study showed that intra-articular injections with TA strongly enhanced FRβ(+) macrophage activation. Despite stimulated macrophage activation, osteophyte formation was fully prevented. There was no beneficial effect of TA against cartilage degradation or subchondral bone sclerosis. In vitro macrophage cultures showed that TA strongly induced monocyte differentiation towards CD163(+) and FRβ(+) macrophages. Furthermore, TA-stimulated M2 macrophages showed enhanced IL-10 expression at the mRNA level. CONCLUSIONS: TA injections potently induce a CD163(+)- and FRβ(+)-activated macrophage with anti-inflammatory characteristics such as reduced IL-10 production in vitro and lack of osteophytosis in vivo

Federated Control of Distributed Multi-Partner Cloud Resources for Adaptive C2 in Disadvantaged Networks

In military mission contexts with limited network connectivity, availability and utilization of information may be improved through adaptive information processing over a federated cloud infrastructure. Orchestration mechanisms to dynamically distribute data and computing tasks over the available partner cloud infrastructures enable improved exploitation of the information processing, storage, and communication means that are ever more available and powerful in battlefield situations