An efficient sodium chloride-catalyzed synthesis of bis(indolyl) methanes in green solvent and their antibacterial evaluation

A series of bis(indolyl)methanes derivatives have been synthesized using an efficient sodium chloride-catalyst in aqueous medium. Herein, substituted aldehydes have been successfully condensed with indole in an aqueous medium. Sodium chloride serves as an efficient and green catalyst as it is freely available and environmentally benign. Water used as green solvent also has no negative impact on the environment. The experiment follows a simple reaction procedure and completion of the reaction is achieved within 3-4 hours. The synthesized compounds have also been evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial property using 4 strains of bacteria, namely Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia where Streptomycin is used as the reference standard

Analysis of end-to-end multi-domain management and orchestration frameworks for software defined infrastructures: an architectural survey

Over the last couple of years, industry operators’ associations issued requirements towards an end-to-end management and orchestration plane for 5G networks. Consequently, standard organisations started their activities in this domain. This arti- cle provides an analysis and an architectural survey of these initiatives and of the main requirements, proposes descriptions for the key concepts of domain, resource and service slicing, end-to-end orchestration and a reference architecture for the end-to-end orchestration plane. Then, a set of currently available or under development domain orchestration frameworks are mapped to this reference architecture. These frameworks, meant to provide coordination and automated management of cloud and networking resources, network functions and services, fulfil multi-domain (i.e. multi-technology and multi- operator) orchestration requirements, thus enabling the realisation of an end-to-end orchestration plane. Finally, based on the analysis of existing single-domain and multi-domain orchestration components and requirements, this paper presents a functional architecture for the end-to-end management and orchestration plane, paving the way to its full realisation

Orchestration of Network Services Across Multiple Operators: The 5G Exchange Prototype

Future 5G networks will rely on the coordinated allocation of compute, storage, and networking resources in order to meet the functional requirements of 5G services as well as guaranteeing efficient usage of the network infrastructure. However, the 5G service provisioning paradigm will also require a unified infrastructure service market that integrates multiple operators and technologies. The 5G Exchange (5GEx) project, building heavily on the Software-Defined Network (SDN) and the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) functionalities, tries to overcome this market and technology fragmentation by designing, implementing, and testing a multi-domain orchestrator (MdO) prototype for fast and automated Network Service (NS) provisioning over multiple-technologies and spanning across multiple operators. This paper presents a first implementation of the 5GEx MdO prototype obtained by extending existing open source software tools at the disposal of the 5GEx partners. The main functions of the 5GEx MdO prototype are showcased by demonstrating how it is possible to create and deploy NSs in the context of a Slice as a Service (SlaaS) use-case, based on a multi-operator scenario. The 5GEx MdO prototype performance is experimentally evaluated running validation tests within the 5GEx sandbox. The overall time required for the NS deployment has been evaluated considering NSs deployed across two operators

Analysis of end-to-end multi-domain management and orchestration frameworks for software defined infrastructures: An architectural survey

Over the last couple of years, industry operators' associations issued requirements towards an end-to-end management and orchestration plane for 5G networks. Consequently, standard organisations started their activities in this domain. This article provides an analysis and an architectural survey of these initiatives and of the main requirements, proposes descriptions for the key concepts of domain, resource and service slicing, end-to-end orchestration and a reference architecture for the end-to-end orchestration plane. Then, a set of currently available or under development domain orchestration frameworks are mapped to this reference architecture. These frameworks, meant to provide coordination and automated management of cloud and networking resources, network functions and services, fulfil multi-domain (i.e. multi-technology and multi-operator) orchestration requirements, thus enabling the realisation of an end-to-end orchestration plane. Finally, based on the analysis of existing single-domain and multi-domain orchestration components and requirements, this paper presents a functional architecture for the end-to-end management and orchestration plane, paving the way to its full realisatio

Analysis of end-to-end multi-domain management and orchestration frameworks for software defined infrastructures: An architectural survey

Over the last couple of years, industry operators' associations issued requirements towards an end-to-end management and orchestration plane for 5G networks. Consequently, standard organisations started their activities in this domain. This article provides an analysis and an architectural survey of these initiatives and of the main requirements, proposes descriptions for the key concepts of domain, resource and service slicing, end-to-end orchestration and a reference architecture for the end-to-end orchestration plane. Then, a set of currently available or under development domain orchestration frameworks are mapped to this reference architecture. These frameworks, meant to provide coordination and automated management of cloud and networking resources, network functions and services, fulfil multi-domain (i.e. multi-technology and multi-operator) orchestration requirements, thus enabling the realisation of an end-to-end orchestration plane. Finally, based on the analysis of existing single-domain and multi-domain orchestration components and requirements, this paper presents a functional architecture for the end-to-end management and orchestration plane, paving the way to its full realisation

Realizing services and slices across multiple operator domains

Supporting end-to-end network slices and services across operators has become an important use case of study for 5G networks as can be seen by 5G use cases published in 3GPP, ETSI as well as NGMN. This paper presents the in- depth architecture, implementation and experiment on a multidomain orchestration framework that is ab le to deploy such multi-operator service as well as monitor the service for SLA compliance. Our implemented architecture allows operators to abstract their sensitive details while exposing the relevant amount of information to support inter-operator slice creation. Our experiment shows that the implemented framework is capable of creating services across operators while fulfilling the respective service requirements

Localization and function of the renal calcium-sensing receptor

The ability to monitor changes in the ionic composition of the extracellular environment is a crucial feature that has evolved in all living organisms. The cloning and characterization of the extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) from the mammalian parathyroid gland in the early 1990s provided the first description of a cellular, ion-sensing mechanism. This finding demonstrated how cells can detect small, physiological variations in free ionized calcium (Ca 2+) in the extracellular fluid and subsequently evoke an appropriate biological response by altering the secretion of parathyroid hormone (PTH) that acts on PTH receptors expressed in target tissues, including the kidney, intestine, and bone. Aberrant Ca 2+ sensing by the parathyroid glands, as a result of altered CaSR expression or function, is associated with impaired divalent cation homeostasis. CaSR activators that mimic the effects of Ca 2+ (calcimimetics) have been designed to treat hyperparathyroidism, and CaSR antagonists (calcilytics) are in development for the treatment of hypercalciuric disorders. The kidney expresses a CaSR that might directly contribute to the regulation of many aspects of renal function in a PTH-independent manner. This Review discusses the roles of the renal CaSR and the potential impact of pharmacological modulation of the CaSR on renal function

Noninvasive Assessment of Antenatal Hydronephrosis in Mice Reveals a Critical Role for Robo2 in Maintaining Anti-Reflux Mechanism

Antenatal hydronephrosis and vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) are common renal tract birth defects. We recently showed that disruption of the Robo2 gene is associated with VUR in humans and antenatal hydronephrosis in knockout mice. However, the natural history, causal relationship and developmental origins of these clinical conditions remain largely unclear. Although the hydronephrosis phenotype in Robo2 knockout mice has been attributed to the coexistence of ureteral reflux and obstruction in the same mice, this hypothesis has not been tested experimentally. Here we used noninvasive high-resolution micro-ultrasonography and pathological analysis to follow the progression of antenatal hydronephrosis in individual Robo2-deficient mice from embryo to adulthood. We found that hydronephrosis progressed continuously after birth with no spontaneous resolution. With the use of a microbubble ultrasound contrast agent and ultrasound-guided percutaneous aspiration, we demonstrated that antenatal hydronephrosis in Robo2-deficient mice is caused by high-grade VUR resulting from a dilated and incompetent ureterovesical junction rather than ureteral obstruction. We further documented Robo2 expression around the developing ureterovesical junction and identified early dilatation of ureteral orifice structures as a potential fetal origin of antenatal hydronephrosis and VUR. Our results thus demonstrate that Robo2 is crucial for the formation of a normal ureteral orifice and for the maintenance of an effective anti-reflux mechanism. This study also establishes a reproducible genetic mouse model of progressive antenatal hydronephrosis and primary high-grade VUR

Partial Regulatory T Cell Depletion Prior to Acute Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Does Not Alter Disease Pathogenesis

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection in cats follows a disease course similar to HIV-1, including a short acute phase characterized by high viremia, and a prolonged asymptomatic phase characterized by low viremia and generalized immune dysfunction. CD4+CD25hiFoxP3+ immunosuppressive regulatory T (Treg) cells have been implicated as a possible cause of immune dysfunction during FIV and HIV-1 infection, as they are capable of modulating virus-specific and inflammatory immune responses. Additionally, the immunosuppressive capacity of feline Treg cells has been shown to be increased during FIV infection. We have previously shown that transient in vivo Treg cell depletion during asymptomatic FIV infection reveals FIV-specific immune responses suppressed by Treg cells. In this study, we sought to determine the immunological influence of Treg cells during acute FIV infection. We asked whether Treg cell depletion prior to infection with the highly pathogenic molecular clone FIV-C36 in cats could alter FIV pathogenesis. We report here that partial Treg cell depletion prior to FIV infection does not significantly change provirus, viremia, or CD4+ T cell levels in blood and lymphoid tissues during the acute phase of disease. The effects of anti-CD25 mAb treatment are truncated in cats acutely infected with FIV-C36 as compared to chronically infected cats or FIV-naïve cats, as Treg cell levels were heightened in all treatment groups included in the study within two weeks post-FIV infection. Our findings suggest that the influence of Treg cell suppression during FIV pathogenesis is most prominent after Treg cells are activated in the environment of established FIV infection

How unstable? Volatility and the genuinely new parties in Eastern Europe

Measuring of party system stability in Eastern Europe during the first decade of democratic elections presents problems. The traditional quantitative measure - volatility - does not distinguish between the dynamics among incumbent parties and the rise of genuinely new ones. I propose a new additional measure - success of genuinely new parties - and compare it to volatility. The subsequent performance of initially successful genuinely new parties is analysed. While volatility has been remarkably high in East European countries, the genuinely new parties have, in general, not been very successful. Instability of party systems in the region stems rather from the inner dynamics of incumbent actors than from the rise of new contenders