Foundations of Digital Arch{\ae}oludology

Digital Archaeoludology (DAL) is a new field of study involving the analysis and reconstruction of ancient games from incomplete descriptions and archaeological evidence using modern computational techniques. The aim is to provide digital tools and methods to help game historians and other researchers better understand traditional games, their development throughout recorded human history, and their relationship to the development of human culture and mathematical knowledge. This work is being explored in the ERC-funded Digital Ludeme Project. The aim of this inaugural international research meeting on DAL is to gather together leading experts in relevant disciplines - computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational phylogenetics, mathematics, history, archaeology, anthropology, etc. - to discuss the key themes and establish the foundations for this new field of research, so that it may continue beyond the lifetime of its initiating project.Comment: Report on Dagstuhl Research Meeting. Authored/edited by all participants. Appendices by Thierry Depauli

P2 purinergic receptor modulation of cytokine production

Cytokines serve important functions in controlling host immunity. Cells involved in the synthesis of these polypeptide mediators have evolved highly regulated processes to ensure that production is carefully balanced. In inflammatory and immune disorders, however, mis-regulation of the production and/or activity of cytokines is recognized as a major contributor to the disease process, and therapeutics that target individual cytokines are providing very effective treatment options in the clinic. Leukocytes are the principle producers of a number of key cytokines, and these cells also express numerous members of the purinergic P2 receptor family. Studies in several cellular systems have provided evidence that P2 receptor modulation can affect cytokine production, and mechanistic features of this regulation have emerged. This review highlights three separate examples corresponding to (1) P2Y6 receptor mediated impact on interleukin (IL)-8 production, (2) P2Y11 receptor-mediated affects on IL-12/23 output, and (3) P2X7 receptor mediated IL-1β posttranslational processing. These examples demonstrate important roles of purinergic receptors in the modulation of cytokine production. Extension of these cellular observations to in vivo situations may lead to new therapeutic strategies for treating cytokine-mediated diseases

Programmed cell death and its role in inflammation

Cell death plays an important role in the regulation of inflammation and may be the result of inflammation. The maintenance of tissue homeostasis necessitates both the recognition and removal of invading microbial pathogens as well as the clearance of dying cells. In the past few decades, emerging knowledge on cell death and inflammation has enriched our molecular understanding of the signaling pathways that mediate various programs of cell death and multiple types of inflammatory responses. This review provides an overview of the major types of cell death related to inflammation. Modification of cell death pathways is likely to be a logical therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases

Negative-phase-velocity electromagnetic waves in Schwarzschild-(anti-)de Sitter spacetime

The propagation of electromagnetic plane waves with negative phase velocity (NPV) is considered in Schwarzschild-(anti-)de Sitter spacetime. It is reported that: (i) NPV propagation occurs in Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime at lower values of the cosmological constant than is the case for de Sitter spacetime; (ii) NPV propagation is not observed in Schwarzschild-anti-de Sitter spacetime; and (iii) NPV propagation is not possible outside the event horizon of a Schwarzschild blackhole

Improving Card Fraud Detection Through Suspicious Pattern Discovery

We propose a new approach to detect credit card fraud based on suspicious payment patterns. According to our hypothesis fraudsters use stolen credit card data at specific, recurring sets of shops. We exploit this behavior to identify fraudulent transactions. In a first step we show how suspicious patterns can be identified from known compromised cards. The transactions between cards and shops can be represented as a bipartite graph. We are interested in finding fully connected subgraphs containing mostly compromised cards, because such bicliques reveal suspicious payment patterns. Then we define new attributes which capture the suspiciousness of a transaction indicated by known suspicious patterns. Eventually a non-linear classifier is used to assess the predictive power gained through those new features. The new attributes lead to a significant performance improvement compared to state-of-the-art aggregated transaction features. Our results are verified on real transaction data provided by our industrial partner (worldline http://www.worldline.com)

Oral biofilm challenge regulates the RANKL-OPG system in periodontal ligament and dental pulp cells

Inflammatory bone destruction triggered by oral bacteria is a hallmark of chronic and apical periodontitis. Receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) activates bone resorption, whereas osteoprotegerin (OPG) blocks its action. These are members of the tumor necrosis factor ligand and receptor families, respectively. Although individual oral pathogens are known to regulate RANKL and OPG expression in cells of relevance to the respective diseases, such as periodontal ligament (PDL) and dental pulp (DP) cells, the effect of polymicrobial oral biofilms is not known. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the Zürich in vitro supragingival biofilm model on RANKL and OPG gene expression, in human PDL and DP cell cultures, by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. RANKL expression was more pronouncedly up-regulated in DP than PDL cells (4-fold greater), whereas OPG was up-regulated to a similar extent. The RANKL/OPG ratio was increased only in DP cells, indicating an enhanced capacity for inducing bone resorption. The expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β was also increased in DP, but not PDL cells. Collectively, the high responsiveness of DP, but not PDL cells to the supragingival biofilm challenge could constitute a putative pathogenic mechanism for apical periodontitis, which may not crucial for chronic periodontitis