3,574 research outputs found
Unobtrusive and Acceptable Ways to Gather Participant Perceptions of Community-Based Interventions and Their Effectiveness at Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing:A Literature Review of Peer Reviewed and Grey Literature
Stochastic Domain Wall-Magnetic Tunnel Junction Artificial Neurons for Noise-Resilient Spiking Neural Networks
The spatiotemporal nature of neuronal behavior in spiking neural networks
(SNNs) make SNNs promising for edge applications that require high energy
efficiency. To realize SNNs in hardware, spintronic neuron implementations can
bring advantages of scalability and energy efficiency. Domain wall (DW) based
magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices are well suited for probabilistic neural
networks given their intrinsic integrate-and-fire behavior with tunable
stochasticity. Here, we present a scaled DW-MTJ neuron with voltage-dependent
firing probability. The measured behavior was used to simulate a SNN that
attains accuracy during learning compared to an equivalent, but more
complicated, multi-weight (MW) DW-MTJ device. The validation accuracy during
training was also shown to be comparable to an ideal leaky integrate and fire
(LIF) device. However, during inference, the binary DW-MTJ neuron outperformed
the other devices after gaussian noise was introduced to the Fashion-MNIST
classification task. This work shows that DW-MTJ devices can be used to
construct noise-resilient networks suitable for neuromorphic computing on the
edge.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Immunity to self co-generates regulatory T cells
Immune responses to self are kept in check by tolerance mechanisms, including suppression by regulatory T cells (Tregs). The defective generation of Tregs specific for self-antigens may lead to autoimmune disease. We identified a novel population of human CD4^+^ Tregs, characterized by high surface expression of CD52, which is co-generated in response to autoantigen. Blood CD4^+^CD52^hi^ T cells were generated preferentially in response to low-dose autoantigen and suppressed proliferation and interferon-[gamma] production by other T cells. Depletion of resting CD4^+^CD52^hi^ T cells enhanced the T-cell response to autoantigen. CD4^+^CD52^hi^ Tregs were neither derived from nor distinguished by markers of conventional resting CD4^+^CD25^+^ Tregs. In response to the pancreatic islet autoantigens glutamic acid decarboxylase, the generation of CD4^+^CD52^hi^ Tregs was impaired in individuals with and at-risk for type 1 diabetes, compared to healthy controls and individuals with type 2 diabetes. CD4^+^CD52^hi^ Tregs co-generated to self-antigen may therefore contribute to immune homeostasis and protect against autoimmune disease
Aerosol Insulin Induces Regulatory CD8 γδ T Cells That Prevent Murine Insulin-dependent Diabetes
Cellular immune hyporesponsiveness can be induced by the presentation of soluble protein antigens to mucosal surfaces. Most studies of mucosa-mediated tolerance have used the oral route of antigen delivery and few have examined autoantigens in natural models of autoimmune disease. Insulin is an autoantigen in humans and nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice with insulindependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). When we administered insulin aerosol to NOD mice after the onset of subclinical disease, pancreatic islet pathology and diabetes incidence were both significantly reduced. Insulin-treated mice had increased circulating antibodies to insulin, absent splenocyte proliferation to the major epitope, insulin B chain amino acids 9–23, which was associated with increased IL-4 and particularly IL-10 secretion, and reduced proliferation to glutamic acid decarboxylase, another islet autoantigen. The ability of splenocytes from insulin-treated mice to suppress the adoptive transfer of diabetes to nondiabetic mice by T cells of diabetic mice was shown to be caused by small numbers of CD8 γδ T cells. These findings reveal a novel mechanism for suppressing cell-mediated autoimmune disease. Induction of regulatory CD8 γδ T cells by aerosol insulin is a therapeutic strategy with implications for the prevention of human IDDM
The Non-Immune RIP-kb Mouse is a Useful Host for Islet Transplantation, as the Diabetes is Spontaneous, Mild and Predictable
Chemically-induced diabetic mice and spontaneously
diabetic NOD mice have been valuable
as recipients for experimental islet transplantation.
However, their maintenance often
requires parenteral insulin. Diabetogenic chemicals
can be cytotoxic to the host’s immune system
and to other organs some of which are
often used as the transplant site. Procurement
of diabetic cohorts in the NOD mouse is problematic
due to variability in the age of disease
onset. We show that RIP-Kb mice, which spontaneously
develop non-immune diabetes due to
over-expression of the H-2Kb heavy chain in
beta cells, offer many advantages as islet transplant
recipients. Diabetes is predictable with a
relatively narrow range of onset (4 wk) and
blood glucose levels (23.0± 4.0 mmol/l for 39
males at 6 weeks of age). The diabetes is mild enough so that most diabetic mice can be maintained
to 40 weeks of age without parenteral
insulin. This consistency of diabetes avails that
outcomes of intervention can be interpreted
with confidence
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An Antibody-Based Leukocyte-Capture Microarray for the Diagnosis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
The diagnosis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is challenging due to its heterogeneous clinical presentation and the lack of robust biomarkers to distinguish it from other autoimmune diseases. Further, currently used laboratory tests do not readily distinguish active and inactive disease. Several groups have attempted to apply emerging high throughput profiling technologies to diagnose and monitor SLE. Despite showing promise, many are expensive and technically challenging for routine clinical use. The goal of this work is to develop a better diagnostic and monitoring tool for SLE. We report a highly customisable antibody microarray that consists of a duplicate arrangement of 82 antibodies directed against surface antigens on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs). This high-throughput array was used to profile SLE patients (n = 60) with varying disease activity, compared to healthy controls (n = 24), patients with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 25), and other autoimmune diseases (n = 28). We used a computational algorithm to calculate a score from the entire microarray profile and correlated it with SLE disease activity. Our results demonstrate that leukocyte-capture microarray profiles can readily distinguish active SLE patients from healthy controls (AUROC = 0.84). When combined with the standard laboratory tests (serum anti-dsDNA, complements C3 and C4), the microarrays provide significantly increased discrimination. The antibody microarrays can be enhanced by the addition of other markers for potential application to the diagnosis and stratification of SLE, paving the way for the customised and accurate diagnosis and monitoring of SLE
Single-Player and Two-Player Buttons & Scissors Games
We study the computational complexity of the Buttons \& Scissors game and
obtain sharp thresholds with respect to several parameters. Specifically we
show that the game is NP-complete for colors but polytime solvable for
. Similarly the game is NP-complete if every color is used by at most buttons but polytime solvable for . We also consider
restrictions on the board size, cut directions, and cut sizes. Finally, we
introduce several natural two-player versions of the game and show that they
are PSPACE-complete.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures. Presented at JCDCG2 2015, Kyoto University,
Kyoto, Japan, September 14 - 16, 201
Composition, volume, and aspect ratio dependence of the strain distribution, band lineups and electron effective masses in self-assembled pyramidal In1-xGaxAs/GaAs and SixGe1-x/Si quantum dots
We present a systematic investigation of the strain distribution of self-assembled pyramidal In1-xGaxAs/GaAs and SixGe1-x/Si quantum dots for the case of growth on a (001) substrate. The dependence of the biaxial and hydrostatic components of the strain on the quantum dot volume, aspect ratio, composition, and percentage of alloying x is studied using a method based on a Green's function technique. The dependence of the carriers' confining potentials and the electronic effective mass on the same parameters is then calculated in the framework of eight-band k .p theory. The results for which comparable published data are available are in good agreement with the theoretical values for strain profiles, confining potentials, and electronic effective mass. © 2002 American Institute of Physics
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