The Effects of Psychostimulant Drugs on Blood Brain Barrier Function and Neuroinflammation

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a highly dynamic interface between the central nervous system (CNS) and periphery. The BBB is comprised of a number of components and is part of the larger neuro(glio)vascular unit. Current literature suggests that psychostimulant drugs of abuse alter the function of the BBB which likely contributes to the neurotoxicities associated with these drugs. In both preclinical and clinical studies, psychostimulants including methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, and nicotine, produce BBB dysfunction through alterations in tight junction protein expression and conformation, increased glial activation, increased enzyme activation related to BBB cytoskeleton remodeling, and induction of neuroinflammatory pathways. These detrimental changes lead to increased permeability of the BBB and subsequent vulnerability of the brain to peripheral toxins. In fact, abuse of these psychostimulants, notably methamphetamine and cocaine, has been shown to increase the invasion of peripheral bacteria and viruses into the brain. Much work in this field has focused on the co-morbidity of psychostimulant abuse and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. As psychostimulants alter BBB permeability, it is likely that this BBB dysfunction results in increased penetration of the HIV virus into the brain thus increasing the risk of and severity of neuro AIDS. This review will provide an overview of the specific changes in components within the BBB associated with psychostimulant abuse as well as the implications of these changes in exacerbating the neuropathology associated with psychostimulant drugs and HIV co-morbidity

Comparing PID and H-infinity controllers on a 2-DoF nonlinear quarter car suspension system

Automotive suspension system is an important part of car comfort and safety. In this article active suspension for 2DOF nonlinear coupled Passenger-Car model with force actuator is designed using PID control and H-infinity control. This paper is focused on comparison of those two controllers. Simulations on an exact nonlinear model of the suspension are performed for control validation

Secure Multilevel Data Authentication System in Cloud Environment

Dynamic Proof of Storage is a useful cryptographic primitive that enables a user to check the integrity of outsourced files and to efficiently update the files in a cloud server. Though researchers have planned several dynamic PoS schemes in single user environments, the matter in multi-user environments has not been investigated sufficiently. A sensible multi-user cloud storage system wants the secure client-side cross-user de-duplication technique, that permits a user to skip the uploading method and procure the possession of the files now, once alternative house owners of an equivalent files have uploaded them to the cloud server. To the simplest of our data, none of the present dynamic PoS will support this system. during this paper, we have a tendency to introduce the conception of de-duplicatable dynamic proof of storage associated propose an economical construction referred to as DeyPoS, to realize dynamic PoS and secure cross-user duplication, at the same time. Considering the challenges of structure diversity and personal tag generation, we have a tendency to exploit a unique tool referred to as Homomorphic Authenticated Tree (HAT). We have a tendency to prove the protection of our construction, and therefore the theoretical analysis and experimental results show that our construction is economical in follow

A Multi-Threading Algorithm for Constrained Path Optimization Problem on Road Networks

The constrained path optimization (CPO) problem takes the following input: (a) a road network represented as a directed graph, where each edge is associated with a "cost" and a "score" value; (b) a source-destination pair and; (c) a budget value, which denotes the maximum permissible cost of the solution. Given the input, the goal is to determine a path from source to destination, which maximizes the "score" while constraining the total "cost" of the path to be within the given budget value. CPO problem has applications in urban navigation. However, the CPO problem is computationally challenging as it can be reduced to an instance of the arc orienteering problem, which is known to be NP-hard. The current state-of-the-art algorithms for this problem are essentially serial in nature and cannot take full advantage (i.e., achieve good load balance) of the increasingly available multi-core systems to solve a CPO query. Our proposed parallel algorithm (with its intelligent task-assignment scheme) achieves both superior solution quality and very low execution times (via good load balancing). Moreover, our approach is also able to demonstrate an almost linear speed-up with an increase in the number of cores.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, accepted as a short paper in the 23rd International Conference on Web Information Systems Engineerin

Isthmus Dependent Atrial Flutter Cycle Length Correlates with Right Atrial Cross-Sectional Area

Background: Right atrial flutter cycle length can prolong in the presence of antiarrhythmic drug therapy. We hypothesized that the cycle length of right atrial isthmus dependent flutter would correlate with right atrial cross-sectional area measurements. Methods: 60 patients who underwent ablation for electrophysiologically proven isthmus dependent right atrial flutter, who were not on Class I or Class III antiarrhythmic drugs and had recent 2-dimensional echocardiographic data comprised the study group. Right atrial length and width were measured in the apical four chamber view. Cross-sectional area was estimated by multiplying the length and width. 35 patients had an atrial flutter rate ≥250 bpm (Normal Flutter Group) and 25 patients had an atrial flutter rate < 250 bpm (Slow Flutter Group). Results: Mean atrial flutter rate was 283 bpm in the normal flutter group and 227 bpm in the slow flutter group. Mean atrial flutter cycle length was 213 ms in the Normal Flutter Group and 265 ms in the Slow Flutter Group (p<0.0001). Mean right atrial cross sectional area was 1845 mm2 in the Normal Flutter group and 2378 mm2 in the Slow Flutter Group, (p< 0.0001). Using linear regression, CSA was a significant predictor of cycle length (β =0.014 p = 0.0045). For every 1 mm2 increase in cross-sectional area, cycle length is 0.014 ms longer.Conclusion: In the absence of antiarrhythmic medications, right atrial cross sectional area enlargement correlates with atrial flutter cycle length. These findings provide further evidence that historical rate-related definitions of typical isthmus dependent right atrial are not mechanistically valid

Hydrochemistry, water quality and land use signatures in an ephemeral tidal river : implications in water management in the southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh

Despite its complexity and importance in managing water resources in populous deltas, especially in tidal areas, literatures on tidal rivers and their land use linkage in connection to water quality and pollution are rare. Such information is of prior need for Integrated Water Resource Management in water scarce and climate change vulnerable regions, such as the southwestern coast of Bangladesh. Using water quality indices and multivariate analysis, we present here the land use signatures of a dying tidal river due to anthropogenic perturbation. Correlation matrix, hierarchical cluster analysis, factor analysis, and bio-geo-chemical fingerprints were used to quantify the hydro-chemical and anthropogenic processes and identify factors influencing the ionic concentrations. The results show remarkable spatial and temporal variations (p <0.05) in water quality parameters. The lowest solute concentrations are observed at the mid reach of the stream where the agricultural and urban wastewater mix. Agricultural sites show higher concentration of DO, Na+ and K+ reflecting the effects of tidal spill-over and shrimp wastewater effluents nearby. Higher level of Salinity, EC, Cl-, HCO3 (-), NO3 (-), PO4 (3-) and TSS characterize the urban sites indicating a signature of land use dominated by direct discharge of household organic waste into the waters. The spatial variation in overall water quality suggests a periodic enhancement of quality especially for irrigation and non-drinking purposes during monsoon and post-monsoon, indicating significant influence of amount of rainfall in the basin. We recommend that, given the recent trend of increasing precipitation and ground water table decrease, such dying tidal river basins may serve as excellent surface water reservoir to supplement quality water supply to the region.Peer reviewe

Design and development of a biomimetic solar tree for sustainable cogeneration : An energy and exergy assessment

Solar energy is becoming an increasingly popular and important source of renewable energy. Solar trees have emerged as a novel and innovative approach to harvesting solar energy. Solar trees are artificial structures that mimic the shape and function of trees, with branches or leaves that contain photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity. The solar tree generates both electrical and thermal energy from solar radiation. The present study tested the thermal (module temperature, heat loss coefficient), electrical (power output), and operating parameters of a solar tree at Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Pekan, Malaysia, on a typical sunny day. First-law analysis and second-law analysis were carried out to determine exergy losses during the photovoltaic conversion process of solar trees. The data obtained from the experiment is utilized to determine the energy and exergy efficiencies of the solar tree. The energy efficiency ranges from 16.8% to 8.3% throughout the day, displaying some variability. However, as for the exergy efficiency of the photovoltaic solar tree under consideration, it is observed to be lower, ranging from 16.1% to 6.6% for electricity generation. It is observed that the exergy losses increased with increasing module temperature and a drop in exergy efficiency

A Single-Tube, Functional Marker-Based Multiplex PCR Assay for Simultaneous Detection of Major Bacterial Blight Resistance Genes Xa21, xa13 and xa5 in Rice

AbstractIn marker-assisted breeding for bacterial blight (BB) resistance in rice, three major resistance genes, viz., Xa21, xa13 and xa5, are routinely deployed either singly or in combinations. As efficient and functional markers are yet to be developed for xa13 and xa5, we have developed simple PCR-based functional markers for both the genes. For xa13, we designed a functional PCR-based marker, xa13-prom targeting the InDel polymorphism in the promoter of candidate gene Os8N3 located on chromosome 8 of rice. With respect to xa5, a multiplex-PCR based functional marker system, named xa5FM, consisting of two sets of primer pairs targeting the 2-bp functional nucleotide polymorphism in the exon II of the gene TFIIAɤ5 (candidate for xa5), has been developed. Both xa13-prom and xa5FM can differentiate the resistant and susceptible alleles for xa13 and xa5, respectively, in a co-dominant fashion. Using these two functional markers along with the already reported functional PCR-based marker for Xa21 (pTA248), we designed a single-tube multiplex PCR based assay for simultaneous detection of all the three major resistance genes and demonstrated the utility of the multiplex marker system in a segregating population