Unleashing the Potential of LTE for Next Generation Railway Communications

In an increasingly demanding marketplace that will put great strain on railway services, research on broadband wireless communication must continue to strive for improvement. Based on the mature narrowband GSM technology, Global System for Mobile Communications-Railways (GSM-R) has been deployed both for operational and voice communications. Although GSM-R fulfills the requirements of current railway services, it imposes limited capacity and high costs that restrict enhancements of operational efficiency, passenger security and transport quality. 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is expected to be the natural successor of GSM-R not only for its technical advantages and increasing performance, but also due to the current evolution of general-purpose communication systems. This paper examines the key features of LTE as well as its technical ability to support both the migration of current railway services and the provisioning of future ones.Comment: This is a portion of the ACCEPTED VERSION of the published document in: Kassab, M., Berbineau,M., Vinel, A., Jonsson, M., Garcia, F., Soler, J. (eds) Communication Technologies for Vehicles. Nets4Cars/Nets4Trains/Nets4Aircraft 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9066. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17765-6_1

Ab initio study of the influence of nanoscale doping inhomogeneities in the phase separated state of La1−x_{1-x}Cax_{x}MnO3_3

The chemical influence in the phase separation phenomenon that occurs in perovskite manganites is discussed by means of ab initio calculations. Supercells have been used to simulate a phase separated state, that occurs at Ca concentrations close to the localized to itinerant crossover. We have first considered a model with two types of magnetic ordering coexisting within the same compound. This is not stable. However, a non-isotropic distribution of chemical dopants is found to be the ground state. This leads to regions in the system with different effective concentrations, that would always accompany the magnetic phase separation at the same nanometric scale, with hole-rich regions being more ferromagnetic in character and hole-poor regions being in the antiferromagnetic region of the phase diagram, as long as the system is close to a phase crossover.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Generation of a human control iPS cell line (ESi080‐A) from a donor with no rheumatic diseases

[Abstract] Here, we report the establishment of the human iPS cell line N1-FiPS4F#7 generated from skin cells of a patient with no rheumatic diseases, thus obtaining an appropriate control iPS cell line for researchers working in the field of rheumatic diseases. The reprogramming factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc were introduced using a non-integrating reprogramming strategy involving Sendai Virus.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI17/0219

Versatility of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) for Improving the Knowledge on Musculoskeletal Diseases

[Abstract] Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent an unlimited source of pluripotent cells capable of di erentiating into any cell type of the body. Several studies have demonstrated the valuable use of iPSCs as a tool for studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying disorders a ecting bone, cartilage and muscle, as well as their potential for tissue repair. Musculoskeletal diseases are one of the major causes of disability worldwide and impose an important socio-economic burden. To date there is neither cure nor proven approach for e ectively treating most of these conditions and therefore new strategies involving the use of cells have been increasingly investigated in the recent years. Nevertheless, some limitations related to the safety and di erentiation protocols among others remain, which humpers the translational application of these strategies. Nonetheless, the potential is indisputable and iPSCs are likely to be a source of di erent types of cells useful in the musculoskeletal field, for either disease modeling or regenerative medicine. In this review, we aim to illustrate the great potential of iPSCs by summarizing and discussing the in vitro tissue regeneration preclinical studies that have been carried out in the musculoskeletal field by using iPSCs.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI17/02197Xunta de Galicia; R2016/036Xunta de Galicia; R2014/050Xunta de Galicia; CN2012/142Xunta de Galicia; GPC2014/04

Usefulness of mesenchymal cell lines for bone and cartilage regeneration research

[Abstract] The unavailability of sufficient numbers of human primary cells is a major roadblock for in vitro repair of bone and/or cartilage, and for performing disease modelling experiments. Immortalized mesenchymal stromal cells (iMSCs) may be employed as a research tool for avoiding these problems. The purpose of this review was to revise the available literature on the characteristics of the iMSC lines, paying special attention to the maintenance of the phenotype of the primary cells from which they were derived, and whether they are effectively useful for in vitro disease modeling and cell therapy purposes. This review was performed by searching on Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases from 1 January 2015 to 30 September 2019. The keywords used were ALL = (mesenchymal AND (“cell line” OR immortal*) AND (cartilage OR chondrogenesis OR bone OR osteogenesis) AND human). Only original research studies in which a human iMSC line was employed for osteogenesis or chondrogenesis experiments were included. After describing the success of the immortalization protocol, we focused on the iMSCs maintenance of the parental phenotype and multipotency. According to the literature revised, it seems that the maintenance of these characteristics is not guaranteed by immortalization, and that careful selection and validation of clones with particular characteristics is necessary for taking advantage of the full potential of iMSC to be employed in bone and cartilage-related research.Xunta de Galicia; R2016/036Deputación da Coruña; BINV-CS/2016Xunta de Galicia; R2014/050Xunta de Galicia; CN2012/142Xunta de Galicia; GPC2014/04

Computational study of the interplay between intermolecular interactions and CO2 orientations in type I hydrates

Carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules show a rich orientation landscape when they are enclathrated in type I hydrates. Previous studies have described experimentally their preferential orientations, and some theoretical works have explained, but only partially, these experimental results. In the present paper, we use classical molecular dynamics and electronic density functional theory to advance in the theoretical description of CO2 orientations within type I hydrates. Our results are fully compatible with those previously reported, both theoretical and experimental, the geometric shape of the cavities in hydrate being, and therefore, the steric constraints, responsible for some (but not all) preferential angles. In addition, our calculations also show that guest–guest interactions in neighbouring cages are a key factor to explain the remaining experimental angles. Besides the implication concerning equation of state hydrate modeling approximations, the conclusion is that these guest–guest interactions should not be neglected, contrary to the usual practice

Immortalizing mesenchymal stromal cells from aged donors while keeping their essential features

[Abstract] Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) obtained from aged patients are prone to senesce and diminish their differentiation potential, therefore limiting their usefulness for osteochondral regenerative medicine approaches or to study age-related diseases, such as osteoarthiritis (OA). MSCs can be transduced with immortalizing genes to overcome this limitation, but transduction of primary slow-dividing cells has proven to be challenging. Methods for enhancing transduction efficiency (such as spinoculation, chemical adjuvants, or transgene expression inductors) can be used, but several parameters must be adapted for each transduction system. In order to develop a transduction method suitable for the immortalization of MSCs from aged donors, we used a spinoculation method. Incubation parameters of packaging cells, speed and time of centrifugation, and valproic acid concentration to induce transgene expression have been adjusted. In this way, four immortalized MSC lines (iMSC#6, iMSC#8, iMSC#9, and iMSC#10) were generated. These immortalized MSCs (iMSCs) were capable of bypassing senescence and proliferating at a higher rate than primary MSCs. Characterization of iMSCs showed that these cells kept the expression of mesenchymal surface markers and were able to differentiate towards osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes. Nevertheless, alterations in the CD105 expression and a switch of cell fate-commitment towards the osteogenic lineage have been noticed. In conclusion, the developed transduction method is suitable for the immortalization of MSCs derived from aged donors. The generated iMSC lines maintain essential mesenchymal features and are expected to be useful tools for the bone and cartilage regenerative medicine research.Xunta de Galicia; R2016/036Xunta de Galicia; R2014/050Xunta de Galicia; CN2012/142Xunta de Galicia; GPC2014/048Deputación da Coruña; BINV-CS/2016Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI17/0219

Tips and Tricks for Successfully Culturing and Adapting Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells [Protocol]

Protocol[Abstract] Reprogramming somatic cells toward pluripotency became possible over a decade ago. Since then, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have served as a versatile and powerful tool not only for basic research but also with the long-term goal of using them in human cell transplantation after differentiation. Nonetheless, downstream applications are frequently blurred by the difficulties that researchers have to face when working with iPSCs, such as trouble with clonal selection, in vitro culture and cryopreservation, adaptation to feeder-free conditions, or expansion of the cells. Therefore, in this article we aim to provide other researchers with practical and detailed information to successfully culture and adapt iPSCs. Specifically, we (1) describe the most common problems when in-vitro culturing iPSCs onto feeder cells as well as its possible troubleshooting, and (2) compare different matrices and culture media for adapting the iPSCs to feeder-free conditions. We believe that the troubleshooting and recommendations provided in this article can be of use to other researchers working with iPSCs and who may be experiencing similar issues, hopefully enhancing the appeal of this promising cell source to be used for biomedical investigations, such as tissue engineering or regenerative medicine applications.We thank the laboratory staff from INIBIC-CHUAC, the Radio Physics department from the Oncology Center of Galicia and the Servicio de Xenética (CHUAC) for their assistance. We also thank the staff from Oza University Library (University of A Coruña) for their collaboration. We also thank our funding agencies: Instituto de Salud Carlos III-General Subdirection of Assessment and Promotion of the Research—European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) “A way of making Europe” (PI17/02197 and PI20/00933); Rede Galega deTerapia Celular and Grupos con Potencial de Crecemento, Xunta de Galicia (R2016/036, R2014/050, CN2012/142, ED431B 2020/55, and GPC2014/048); the University of A Coruña; M.P.-R. and S.R.-F. are granted by a predoctoral fellowship from Xunta de Galicia and European Union (European Social Fund) and C.S.-R. was beneficiary of a postdoctoral fellowship from Xunta de GaliciaXunta de Galicia; R2016/036Xunta de Galicia; R2014/050Xunta de Galicia; CN2012/142Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2020/55Xunta de Galicia; GPC2014/04

Generation of Mesenchymal Cell Lines Derived from Aged Donors

[Abstract] Background: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have the capacity for self-renewal and multi-differentiation, and for this reason they are considered a potential cellular source in regenerative medicine of cartilage and bone. However, research on this field is impaired by the predisposition of primary MSCs to senescence during culture expansion. Therefore, the aim of this study was to generate and characterize immortalized MSC (iMSC) lines from aged donors. Methods: Primary MSCs were immortalized by transduction of simian virus 40 large T antigen (SV40LT) and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). Proliferation, senescence, phenotype and multi-differentiation potential of the resulting iMSC lines were analyzed. Results: MSCs proliferate faster than primary MSCs, overcome senescence and are phenotypically similar to primary MSCs. Nevertheless, their multi-differentiation potential is unbalanced towards the osteogenic lineage. There are no clear differences between osteoarthritis (OA) and non-OA iMSCs in terms of proliferation, senescence, phenotype or differentiation potential. Conclusions: Primary MSCs obtained from elderly patients can be immortalized by transduction of SV40LT and hTERT. The high osteogenic potential of iMSCs converts them into an excellent cellular source to take part in in vitro models to study bone tissue engineering.This research was carried out thanks to the funding from Rede Galega de Terapia Celular 2016 (R2016/036) and Grupos con Potencial de Crecemento 2020 (ED431B 2020/55) from Xunta de Galicia, Proyectos de Investigación 2017 (PI17/02197) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the Biomedical Research Network Center (CIBER). The Biomedical Research Network Center (CIBER) is an initiative from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). MPR and SRF were granted a predoctoral fellowship from Xunta de Galicia and European Union (European Social Fund)Xunta de Galicia; R2016/036Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2020/5

Generation of osteoarthritic mesenchymal stromal cell lines.

ResumenXunta de Galicia; R2016/036Xunta de Galicia; R2014/050Xunta de Galicia; CN2012/142Xunta de Gaicia; GPC2014/048Instituto de salud Carlos III; PI17/0219