Bacterial-epithelial contact is a key determinant of host innate immune responses to enteropathogenic and enteroaggregative escherichia coli

Background: Enteropathogenic (EPEC) and Enteroaggregative (EAEC) E. coli have similar, but distinct clinical symptoms and modes of pathogenesis. Nevertheless when they infect the gastrointestinal tract, it is thought that their flagellin causes IL-8 release leading to neutrophil recruitment and gastroenteritis. However, this may not be the whole story as the effect of bacterial adherence to IEC innate response(s) remains unclear. Therefore, we have characterized which bacterial motifs contribute to the innate epithelial response to EPEC and EAEC, using a range of EPEC and EAEC isogenic mutant strains. Methodology: Caco-2 and HEp-2 cell lines were exposed to prototypical EPEC strain E2348/69 or EAEC strain O42, in addition to a range of isogenic mutant strains. E69 [LPS, non-motile, non-adherent, type three secretion system (TTSS) negative, signalling negative] or O42 [non-motile, non-adherent]. IL-8 and CCL20 protein secretion was measured. Bacterial surface structures were assessed by negative staining Transmission Electron Microscopy. The Fluorescent-actin staining test was carried out to determine bacterial adherence. Results: Previous studies have reported a balance between the host pro-inflammatory response and microbial suppression of this response. In our system an overall balance towards the host pro-inflammatory response is seen with the E69 WT and to a greater extent O42 WT, which is in fit with clinical symptoms. On removal of the external EPEC structures flagella, LPS, BFP, EspA and EspC; and EAEC flagella and AAF, the host inflammatory response is reduced. However, removal of E69 lymphostatin increases the host inflammatory response suggesting involvement in the bacterial mediated anti-inflammatory response. Conclusion: Epithelial responses were due to combinations of bacterial agonists, with host-bacterial contact a key determinant of these innate responses. Host epithelial recognition was offset by the microbe's ability to down-regulate the inflammatory response. Understanding the complexity of this host-microbial balance will contribute to improved vaccine design for infectious gastroenteritis

HardIDX: Practical and Secure Index with SGX

Software-based approaches for search over encrypted data are still either challenged by lack of proper, low-leakage encryption or slow performance. Existing hardware-based approaches do not scale well due to hardware limitations and software designs that are not specifically tailored to the hardware architecture, and are rarely well analyzed for their security (e.g., the impact of side channels). Additionally, existing hardware-based solutions often have a large code footprint in the trusted environment susceptible to software compromises. In this paper we present HardIDX: a hardware-based approach, leveraging Intel's SGX, for search over encrypted data. It implements only the security critical core, i.e., the search functionality, in the trusted environment and resorts to untrusted software for the remainder. HardIDX is deployable as a highly performant encrypted database index: it is logarithmic in the size of the index and searches are performed within a few milliseconds rather than seconds. We formally model and prove the security of our scheme showing that its leakage is equivalent to the best known searchable encryption schemes. Our implementation has a very small code and memory footprint yet still scales to virtually unlimited search index sizes, i.e., size is limited only by the general - non-secure - hardware resources

VoroCrust: Voronoi Meshing Without Clipping

Polyhedral meshes are increasingly becoming an attractive option with particular advantages over traditional meshes for certain applications. What has been missing is a robust polyhedral meshing algorithm that can handle broad classes of domains exhibiting arbitrarily curved boundaries and sharp features. In addition, the power of primal-dual mesh pairs, exemplified by Voronoi-Delaunay meshes, has been recognized as an important ingredient in numerous formulations. The VoroCrust algorithm is the first provably-correct algorithm for conforming polyhedral Voronoi meshing for non-convex and non-manifold domains with guarantees on the quality of both surface and volume elements. A robust refinement process estimates a suitable sizing field that enables the careful placement of Voronoi seeds across the surface circumventing the need for clipping and avoiding its many drawbacks. The algorithm has the flexibility of filling the interior by either structured or random samples, while preserving all sharp features in the output mesh. We demonstrate the capabilities of the algorithm on a variety of models and compare against state-of-the-art polyhedral meshing methods based on clipped Voronoi cells establishing the clear advantage of VoroCrust output.Comment: 18 pages (including appendix), 18 figures. Version without compressed images available on https://www.dropbox.com/s/qc6sot1gaujundy/VoroCrust.pdf. Supplemental materials available on https://www.dropbox.com/s/6p72h1e2ivw6kj3/VoroCrust_supplemental_materials.pd

Intervalence charge transfer transition in mixed valence complexes synthesised from Ru<SUP>III</SUP>(edta)- and Fe<SUP>II</SUP>(CN)<SUB>5</SUB>-cores

Intervalence charge transfer properties were studied for a set of mixed valence complexes incorporating Ru(III) and Fe(II)-centres linked by various saturated and unsaturated bridging ligands (BL). Studies reveal that degree of ground state electronic interaction and coupling between Ru(III) and Fe(II)-centres can be attenuated by changing the nature of the bridging ligand. Further, inclusion of the bridging ligand with interrupted π-electron system in a β-CD cavity initiate an optical electron transfer from Fe(II) to Ru(III) which is otherwise not observed

Recognizing Facial Expression using PCA and Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents an efficient method of recognition of facial expressions in a video. The works proposes highly efficient facial expression recognition system using PCA optimized by Genetic Algorithm .Reduced computational time and comparable efficiency in terms of its ability to recognize correctly are the benchmarks of this work. Video sequences contain more information than still images hence are in the research subject now-a-days and have much more activities during the expression actions. We use PCA, a statistical method to reduce the dimensionality and are used to extract features with the help of covariance analysis to generate Eigen –components of the images. The Eigen-components as a feature input is optimized by Genetic algorithm to reduce the computation cost

Evaluation of Tribological Properties of Transesterified Cottonseed Oil by Adding Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) as an Additive

The usage of vegetable oils has increased in many applications as they possess desirable lubrication properties. However, the use is limited due to poor tribological properties. Many researchers have attempted to explore the performance of various vegetable oils and the effect of adding anti-wear additives on tribological properties. In the present work, bio lubricant is obtained from pure cottonseed oil (CSO). Silicon Dioxide, a useful catalyst, is used as an anti-wear additive. Oleic Acid surface-modified Silicon Dioxide (OA-SiO2) is added at 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1% weight concentrations in transesterified cottonseed oil (TCSO). After the addition of OA-SiO2 nanoparticles, the improvement in the lubrication properties has been seen. A four-ball tester is used to measure the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear scar diameter (WSD) of CSO, TCSO, and additive-added TCSO as per ASTM standard D 4172. Friction and wear tests reveal that the TCSO with OA-SiO2 nanoparticles shows better tribological properties. It is observed that WSD and COF of TCSO are reduced by 11.85 % and 24.88 % respectively by adding 0.75 weight % of OA-SiO2 nanoparticles. Present work shows that TCSO, on adding OA-SiO2 additives, can be a strong alternative for mineral oil

Evaluation of Tribological Properties of Transesterified Cottonseed Oil by adding Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) as an additive

The usage of vegetable oils has increased in many applications as they possess desirable lubrication properties. However, the use is limited due to poor tribological properties. Many researchers have attempted to explore the performance of various vegetable oils and the effect of adding anti-wear additives on tribological properties. In the present work, bio lubricant is obtained from pure cottonseed oil (CSO). Silicon Dioxide, a useful catalyst, is used as an anti-wear additive. Oleic Acid surface-modified Silicon Dioxide (OA-SiO2) is added at 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1% weight concentrations in transesterified cottonseed oil (TCSO). After the addition of OA-SiO2 nanoparticles, the improvement in the lubrication properties has been seen. A four-ball tester is used to measure the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear scar diameter (WSD) of CSO, TCSO, and additive-added TCSO as per ASTM standard D 4172. Friction and wear tests reveal that the TCSO with OA-SiO2 nanoparticles shows better tribological properties. It is observed that WSD and COF of TCSO are reduced by 11.85 % and 24.88 % respectively by adding 0.75 weight % of OA-SiO2 nanoparticles. Present work shows that TCSO, on adding OA-SiO2 additives, can be a strong alternative for mineral oil