Networking and Application Interface Technology for Wireless Sensor Network Surveillance and Monitoring

Distributed unattended ground sensor networks used in battlefield surveillance and monitoring missions, have proven to be valuable in providing a tactical information advantage required for command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance planning. Operational effectiveness for surveillance missions can be enhanced further through network centric capability, where distributed UGS networks have the ability to perform surveillance operations autonomously. NCC operation can be enhanced through UGSs having the ability to evaluate their awareness of the current joint surveillance environment, in order to provide the necessary adaptation to dynamic changes. NCC can also provide an advantage for UGS networks to self-manage their limited operational resources efficiently, according to mission objective priority. In this article, we present a cross-layer approach and highlight techniques that have potential to enable NCC operation within a mission-orientated UGS surveillance setting

VIGILANT+: mission objective interest groups for wireless sensor network surveillance applications

A system termed VIGILANT+ is outlined, which utilises situation awareness for the purposes of enabling distributed, autonomic, sensor management, so that savings on consumption of network resources can be achieved. VIGILANT+ is a novel proposition allowing deployed, unattended, wireless sensor nodes to self-organise into dynamic groups and self-manage their transmissions efficiently, according to a current common mission objective. First, a distributed situation assessment system named PORTENT model detects and characterises potential situations occurring within an uncertain environment, using the metric, quality of surveillance information. Secondly, a Bayesian belief network is utilised to understand and analyse the significance associated with the potential situation, primarily to enable deployed sensors to self-organise and assign themselves to mission objectives autonomously. Thirdly, a system is introduced for distributed autonomic transmission control, which enables the efficient management of sensor network resource consumption. Simulations have been undertaken to verify the integrated VIGILANT+ concepts and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in improving network efficiency, without compromising the presentation of mission surveillance utility

VIGILANT: "Situation-Aware" Quality of Information Interest Groups for Wireless Sensor Network Surveillance Applications

Effective situation awareness is a critical element for decision support in a wide range of military and para-military operational surveillance scenarios. Effective situation awareness in a surveillance scenario can greatly increase operational effectiveness, by improving the quality and timeliness of decisions. In this paper we outline a three level integrated design approach to promote situation awareness. Our approach allows deployed wireless sensor nodes to efficiently self-organise into dynamic clusters, based on a current common perceived threat situation ( context). Firstly our distributed predator aware situation assessment system ( PORTENT) models, detects and presents, in terms of quality of information (QoI), potential situations occurring within an uncertain environment. Secondly, we utilise a Bayesian belief network to understand the significance associated with the potential situation. Finally in order to obtain a better shared awareness we have developed a "context aware" service protocol that supports group formation and efficient management of sensor network assets. By combining this three level approach, we present our VIGILANT "situation aware" QoI interest group system. Extensive simulations have been undertaken to verify the VIGILANT concept, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, in improving performance for network management efficiency, through utilisation of a shared "context" service provision time and QoI surveillance presentation

Endothelial Cells Potentiate Interferon-γ Production in a Novel Tripartite Culture Model of Human Cerebral Malaria

We have established a novel in vitro co-culture system of human brain endothelial cells (HBEC), Plasmodium falciparum parasitised red blood cells (iRBC) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), in order to simulate the chief pathophysiological lesion in cerebral malaria (CM). This approach has revealed a previously unsuspected pro-inflammatory role of the endothelial cell through potentiating the production of interferon (IFN)-γ by PBMC and concurrent reduction of interleukin (IL)-10. The IFN-γ increased the expression of CXCL10 and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, both of which have been shown to be crucial in the pathogenesis of CM. There was a shift in the ratio of IL-10:IFN-γ protein from >1 to <1 in the presence of HBEC, associated with the pro-inflammatory process in this model. For this to occur, a direct contact between PBMC and HBEC, but not PBMC and iRBC, was necessary. These results support HBEC playing an active role in the pathogenesis of CM. Thus, if these findings reflect the pathogenesis of CM, inhibition of HBEC and PBMC interactions might reduce the occurrence, or improve the prognosis, of the condition. © 2013 Khaw et al

Endocytosis and intracellular processing of platelet microparticles by brain endothelial cells

Platelet-derived microparticles (PMP) bind and modify the phenotype of many cell types including endothelial cells. Recently, we showed that PMP were internalized by human brain endothelial cells (HBEC). Here we intend to better characterize the internalization mechanisms of PMP and their intracellular fate. Confocal microscopy analysis of PKH67-labelled PMP distribution in HBEC showed PMP in early endosome antigen 1 positive endosomes and in LysoTracker-labelled lysosomes, confirming a role for endocytosis in PMP internalization. No fusion of calcein-loaded PMP with HBEC membranes was observed. Quantification of PMP endocytosis using flow cytometry revealed that it was partially inhibited by trypsin digestion of PMP surface proteins and by extracellular Ca2+ chelation by EDTA, suggesting a partial role for receptor-mediated endocytosis in PMP uptake. This endocytosis was independent of endothelial receptors such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 and was not increased by tumour necrosis factor stimulation of HBEC. Platelet-derived microparticle internalization was dramatically increased in the presence of decomplemented serum, suggesting a role for PMP opsonin-dependent phagocytosis. Platelet-derived microparticle uptake was greatly diminished by treatment of HBEC with cytochalasin D, an inhibitor of microfilament formation required for both phagocytosis and macropinocytosis, with methyl-β-cyclodextrin that depletes membrane cholesterol needed for macropinocytosis and with amiloride that inhibits the Na+/H+ exchanger involved in macropinocytosis. In conclusion, PMP are taken up by active endocytosis in HBEC, involving mechanisms consistent with both phagocytosis and macropinocytosis. These findings identify new processes by which PMP could modify endothelial cell phenotype and functions. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine © 2011 Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine/Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Unmanned Aerial System-Based Data Ferrying over a Sensor Node Station Network in Maize

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/)

A comparative study of limitedâ angle coneâ beam reconstruction methods for breast tomosynthesis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134781/1/mp7543.pd

Distinct responses of neurons and astrocytes to TDP-43 proteinopathy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal and incurable neurodegenerative disease caused by motor neuron loss, resulting in muscle wasting, paralysis and eventual death. A key pathological feature of ALS is cytoplasmically mislocalized and aggregated TDP-43 protein in >95% of cases, which is considered to have prion-like properties. Historical studies have predominantly focused on genetic forms of ALS, which represent ∼10% of cases, leaving the remaining 90% of sporadic ALS relatively understudied. Additionally, the role of astrocytes in ALS and their relationship with TDP-43 pathology is also not currently well understood. We have therefore used highly enriched human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived motor neurons and astrocytes to model early cell type-specific features of sporadic ALS. We first demonstrate seeded aggregation of TDP-43 by exposing human iPSC-derived motor neurons to serially passaged sporadic ALS post-mortem tissue (spALS) extracts. Next, we show that human iPSC-derived motor neurons are more vulnerable to TDP-43 aggregation and toxicity compared with their astrocyte counterparts. We demonstrate that these TDP-43 aggregates can more readily propagate from motor neurons into astrocytes in co-culture paradigms. We next found that astrocytes are neuroprotective to seeded aggregation within motor neurons by reducing (mislocalized) cytoplasmic TDP-43, TDP-43 aggregation and cell toxicity. Furthermore, we detected TDP-43 oligomers in these spALS spinal cord extracts, and as such demonstrated that highly purified recombinant TDP-43 oligomers can reproduce this observed cell-type specific toxicity, providing further support to a protein oligomer-mediated toxicity hypothesis in ALS. In summary, we have developed a human, clinically relevant, and cell-type specific modelling platform that recapitulates key aspects of sporadic ALS and uncovers both an initial neuroprotective role for astrocytes and the cell type-specific toxic effect of TDP-43 oligomers

Isospin-Violating Meson-Nucleon Vertices as an Alternate Mechanism of Charge-Symmetry Breaking

We compute isospin-violating meson-nucleon coupling constants and their consequent charge-symmetry-breaking nucleon-nucleon potentials. The couplings result from evaluating matrix elements of quark currents between nucleon states in a nonrelativistic constituent quark model; the isospin violations arise from the difference in the up and down constituent quark masses. We find, in particular, that isospin violation in the omega-meson--nucleon vertex dominates the class IV CSB potential obtained from these considerations. We evaluate the resulting spin-singlet--triplet mixing angles, the quantities germane to the difference of neutron and proton analyzing powers measured in elastic $\vec{n}-\vec{p}$ scattering, and find them commensurate to those computed originally using the on-shell value of the $\rho$-$\omega$ mixing amplitude. The use of the on-shell $\rho$-$\omega$ mixing amplitude at $q^2=0$ has been called into question; rather, the amplitude is zero in a wide class of models. Our model possesses no contribution from $\rho$-$\omega$ mixing at $q^2=0$, and we find that omega-meson exchange suffices to explain the measured $n-p$ analyzing power difference~at~183 MeV.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, 3 uuencoded PostScript figure