2,391 research outputs found
Mining nonterrestrial resources: Information needs and research topics
An outline of topics we need to understand better in order to apply mining technology to a nonterrestrial environment is presented. The proposed list is not intended to be complete. It aims to identify representative topics that suggest productive research. Such research will reduce the uncertainties associated with extrapolating from conventional earthbound practice to nonterrestrial applications. One objective is to propose projects that should put future discussions of nonterrestrial mining on a firmer, less speculative basis
The Need for Liability Constraints in Successful High-Technology Development: A Comparison of the French and U.S. Commercial Nuclear Programs
The history of America\u27s nuclear program is replete with examples of shining brilliance and dismal failure. After examining America\u27s successes and failures, this Comment reviews the highly structured French development history. The internationalization of nuclear safety is then addressed, as international efforts continue to play a critical role in future nuclear production. Finally, a variety of key recommendations for current and future activity are analyzed
Liposomal phosphatidylserine inhibits tumor cytotoxicity of liver macrophages induced by muramyl dipeptide and lipopolysaccharide
Liposomes can very efficiently deliver immunomodulators to macrophages so as to induce tumor cytotoxicity. Liposomes most widely used for that purpose contain negatively charged lipids, in particular phosphatidylserine (PS), to enhance liposome uptake by the macrophages. We investigated the effect of three negatively charged liposomal lipids on the in vitro activation of liver macrophages to tumor cytotoxicity by muramyl dipeptide (MDP) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Both MDP- and LPS-induced tumor cytotoxicity towards murine colon adenocarcinoma cells were strongly inhibited by PS-containing liposomes. Under comparable conditions phosphatidylglycerol (DPPG)-containing or dicetyl phosphate (DCP)-containing liposomes did not inhibit or only marginally inhibited the induction of tumor cytotoxicity. We did not observe PS-mediated inhibition of tumor cell toxicity when the exposure of the macrophages to PS-liposomes was limited to the 4-h activation period prior to addition of the tumor target cells, suggesting that the inhibitory effect is accomplished at the level of the later stages of the activation process. Previously, we showed that macrophages which are activated to tumor cytotoxicity during a 24-h incubation with MDP become refractory to a second activation with MDP. Now we observed that simultaneous incubation with PS-containing liposomes partially prevents this refractoriness, which is also compatible with an interfering action of PS at a relatively late stage in the activation process. We conclude that PS, despite its reported stimulatory effect on liposome uptake by macrophages, can seriously antagonize the effectiveness of immunomodulating, agents acting on macrophages. This bears relevance to the use of PS-containing liposomes as a vehicle for such agents. The results are discussed in perspective of earlier reported pharmacological effects of PS and its metabolites.</p
KLEIN: A New Family of Lightweight Block Ciphers
Resource-efficient cryptographic primitives become fundamental for realizing both security and efficiency in embedded systems like RFID tags and sensor nodes. Among those primitives, lightweight block cipher plays a major role as a building block for security protocols. In this paper, we describe a new family of lightweight block ciphers named KLEIN, which is designed for resource-constrained devices such as wireless sensors and RFID tags. Compared to the related proposals, KLEIN has advantage in the software performance on legacy sensor platforms, while in the same time its hardware implementation can also be compact
Detecting time-fragmented cache attacks against AES using Performance Monitoring Counters
Cache timing attacks use shared caches in multi-core processors as side
channels to extract information from victim processes. These attacks are
particularly dangerous in cloud infrastructures, in which the deployed
countermeasures cause collateral effects in terms of performance loss and
increase in energy consumption. We propose to monitor the victim process using
an independent monitoring (detector) process, that continuously measures
selected Performance Monitoring Counters (PMC) to detect the presence of an
attack. Ad-hoc countermeasures can be applied only when such a risky situation
arises. In our case, the victim process is the AES encryption algorithm and the
attack is performed by means of random encryption requests. We demonstrate that
PMCs are a feasible tool to detect the attack and that sampling PMCs at high
frequencies is worse than sampling at lower frequencies in terms of detection
capabilities, particularly when the attack is fragmented in time to try to be
hidden from detection
Features of spin-charge separation in the equilibrium conductance through finite rings
We calculate the conductance through rings with few sites described by
the model, threaded by a magnetic flux and weakly coupled to
conducting leads at two arbitrary sites. The model can describe a circular
array of quantum dots with large charging energy in comparison with the
nearest-neighbor hopping . We determine analytically the particular values
of for which a depression of the transmittance is expected as a
consequence of spin-charge separation. We show numerically that the equilibrium
conductance at zero temperature is depressed at those particular values of
for most systems, in particular at half filling, which might be easier
to realize experimentally.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
The coronary intravascular lithotripsy system
Calcified lesions often mean percutaneous intervention results are suboptimal and increase the risk of procedural complications and future adverse events. Available plaque-modifying devices rely on tissue compression or debulking, with the intention of fracturing calcium and facilitating optimal stent deployment. In contrast, coronary intravascular lithotripsy delivers unfocused, circumferential, pulsatile mechanical energy to safely disrupt the calcium within the target lesion. The present review summarises the evidence available so far on this therapy and includes a practical description of the components and function of the Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy System (Shockwave Medical)
Recommended from our members
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha regulates the expression of inducible costimulator receptor ligand on CD34+ progenitor cells during differentiation into antigen presenting cells
The inducible costimulator receptor (ICOS) is a third member of the CD28 receptor family that regulates T cell activation and function. ICOS binds to a newly identified ligand on antigen presenting cells different from the CD152 ligands CD80 and CD86. We used soluble ICOSIg and a newly developed murine anti-human ICOS ligand (ICOSL) monoclonal antibody to further characterize the ICOSL during ontogeny of antigen presenting cells. In a previous study, we found that ICOSL is expressed on monocytes, dendritic cells, and B cells. To define when ICOSL is first expressed on myeloid antigen presenting cells, we examined ICOSL expression on CD34 cells in bone marrow. We found that CD34bright cells regardless of their myeloid commitment were ICOSL , whereas ICOSL was first expressed when CD34 expression diminished and the myeloid marker CD33 appeared
"The Caveats of Drugs-Eluting Stents": a critical appraisal of the safety Concerns
Coronary heart disease has been the leading
cause of death in developed countries for many
years. At the same time, the developments in
the field of interventional cardiology occurred at
an incredible speed and it took no more than 15
years for the first balloon-mounted stent by Palmaz
et al. in 198
- …