Proteomic Analysis Of Moringa Oleifera’s Anti-Arthritic Effects On Human Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects more than 1.3 million Americans, making it the most common auto-immune arthritic disorder in the U.S. Current treatments are largely based on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and corticosteroids. However, these drugs are either ineffective, costly or have a plethora of side effects. Therefore, here, we sought to examine the anti-arthritic effects of a tropical medicinal plant, Moringa oleifera (MO), and its underlying mechanism using proteomics analysis and primary human fibroblast-like synoviocytes (HFLS) harvested from healthy people and patients with arthritis (HFLS-RA). Data generated from proteomics were verified by confocal immunofluorescence. The MTT assay data shows that below 75 mg/mL, MO is not cytotoxic and therefore does not affect cell viability. Proteomics data revealed that MO alters expression of all the 40 proteins that are aberrantly expressed in HFLS-RA by either mitigating their expression (35 proteins) or enhancing (5 proteins) them. Specifically, the 35 proteins were mostly associated with pathological processes, such as inflammation, aberrant proliferation and cell adhesion, whereas the 5 proteins were associated overall with normal protective processes, such as anti-inflammatory and apoptotic activities, were down regulated in HFLS-RA. We conclude that MO is potentially a good candidate for developing alternative therapy for managing arthritis

Breaking The Silence: A Qualitative Study on the Use of Guided Imagery and Music, Expressive Arts, and a Body-Centered Perspective to Address Women’s Issues

Issues related to the body-mind connection are endemic in our society. Due to gender-specific factors, women can be at a greater risk for disorders or characteristics that result from an unhealthy relationship to the body. The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) has been used to address somatic issues such as those that manifest in trauma and illness and has the potential to create powerful changes in the body and mind. This study used guided imagery and music in group therapy (Group GIM) and other expressive arts modalities with women as a means to address these body-mind issues. Through a combination of imagery, music, body-centered techniques, and visual art, participants experienced emotional expression, connected with and supported one another, and gained a deeper awareness of body and personal issues

Application Of The TriFISHer Assay For Estrogenic Activity From Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Effluents Released Into The New River

The TriFISHer assay was used to evaluate the risk from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent Endocrine Disrupting Concentrations (EDC) effects to the citizens in proximity of the South Fork New River (SFNR) and the Middle Fork of the New River (MFNR) as well as the aquatic vertebrate populations. Water samples were taken along the SFNR (n=16) and the MFNR (n= 15) from 2014 to 2016. Previous research suggests EDCs have potential impact at sub-ng/L concentrations, interfering with fish reproduction. Estrogen equivalent concentrations (EEQs) were negatively correlated with distance from the WWTPs along both rivers analyzed (p<0.0001). EEQ concentrations from Atlantic Croaker Estrogen Receptor (acERa) were not significantly different between rivers analyzed but had a significant amount of variation (26-83%) due to seasonal effects (p=0.0002). acERßa and acERßb EEQ from SFNR and MFNR sewage effluent were different across all seasons (p=<0.0001). Seasonal differences in ACER activity along the rivers can be attributed to temperature influences on bacterial metabolic rates, variation in UV irradiation levels, or precipitation effects on dilution rates. Differences between effluents are likely associated with differences in WWTP treatment technology and in pharmaceutical use between populations with median ages of 21 and 60 years according to 2010 census data

The Relationship Between Generalized Anxiety In Mothers And Social Activity In Their Children's Free Play

The relationship between generalized anxiety in mothers and social activity in their children's free play was investigated by means of a behavior check-list and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. Thirty-six children were observed in three different nursery schools or daycare centers for ten days. These observations of their play were correlated with their mothers' anxiety scores and a small negative correlation, significant at the .10 level, was found. Analyses of variance were calculated among groups of nursery schools. These indicate that the children were more socially active toward children in the non-university-operated program and more socially active toward adults in a program that had more adults available. It also indicated that boys in the non-university program were less inclined to social interaction with adults than were girls

Band Ordering in Lossless Compression of Multispectral Images

In this paper, we consider a model of lossless image compression in which each band of a multispectral image is coded using a prediction function involving values from a previously coded band of the compression, and examine how the ordering of the bands affects the achievable compression. We present an efficient algorithm for computing the optimal band ordering for a multispectral image. This algorithm has time complexity O(n2) for an n-band image, while the naive algorithm takes time &#x03A9(n!). A slight variant of the optimal ordering problem that is motivated by some practical concerns is shown to be NP-hard, and hence, computationally infeasible, in all cases except for the most trivial possibility. In addition, we report on our experimental findings using the algorithms designed in this paper applied to real multispectral satellite data. The results show that the techniques described here hold great promise for application to real-world compression needs

On Threshold Circuits and Polynomial Computation

A Threshold Circuit consists of an acyclic digraph of unbounded fanin, where each node computes a threshold function or its negation. This paper investigates the computational power of Threshold Circuits. A surprising relationship is uncovered between Threshold Circuits and another class of unbounded fanin circuits which are denoted Finite Field ZP(n) Circuits, where each node computes either multiple sums or products of integers modulo a prime P(n). In particular, it is proved that all functions computed by Threshold Circuits of size S(n) &#x2265 n and depth D(n) can also be computed by ZP(n) Circuits of size O(S(n) log S(n) + nP(n) log P(n)) and depth O(D(n)). Furthermore, it is shown that all functions computed by ZP(n) Circuits of size S(n) and depth D(n) can be computed by Threshold Circuits of size O((1/&#x22082)(S(n) log P(n))1+&#x2208) and depth O((1/&#x22085)D(n)). These are the main results of this paper. There are many useful and quite surprising consequences of this result. For example, an integer reciprocal can be computed in size nO(1)M and depth O(1). More generally, any analytic function with a convergent rational polynomial power series (such as sine, cosine, exponentiation, square root, and logarithm) can be computed within accuracy 2-nc , for any constant c, by Threshold Circuits of polynomial size and constant depth. In addition, integer and polynomial division, FFf, polynomial interpolation, Chinese Remaindering, all the elementary symmetric functions, banded matrix inverse, and triangular Toeplitz matrix inverse can be exactly computed by Threshold Circuits of polynomial size and constant depth. All these results and simulations hold for polytime uniform circuits. This paper also gives a corresponding simulation oflogspace uniform ZP(n) Circuits by logspace uniform Threshold Circuits requiring an additional multiplying factor of O(log log log P(n) depth. Finally, purely algebraic methods forlowerbounds for ZP(n) Circuits are developed. Using degree arguments, a Depth Hierarchy Theorem for ZP(n) Circuits is proved: for any S(n) &#x2265 n, D(n) = O(S(n)c') for some constant c' P(n) where 6(S(n)/D(n))D(n) P(n) c' 2n, there exist explicitly constructible functions computable by ZP(n) Circuits of size S(n) and depth D(n), but provably not computable by ZP(n) Circuits of size S(n)c and depth oD(n)) for any constant c &#x2265 1

Experiences During a Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

The objective of this article is to encourage schools to participate in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) and to ease their entry by providing information about the event and describing the experiences of both the student participants and the educators. This article focuses mainly on the recent experience of a University of North Texas student team at the Southwest Regional CCDC 2008 hosted by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. It describes the entire process of participating in the CCDC, including announcements, team formation, task assignments, preparations, and actual team experience during the competition and provides suggestions on strategies for future competitions

Online matching with blocked input

In this paper, we examine the problem of "blocked online bipartite matching". This problem is similar to the online matching problem except that the vertices arrive in blocks instead of one at a time. Previously studied problems exist as special cases of this problem; the case where each block contains only a single vertex is the standard online matching problem studied by Karp et al. (1990), and the case where Mere is only one block (containing al/ vertices of the graph) is the offline matching problem (see, for example, the work by Aho et al. (1985)). The main result of this paper is that no performance gain (except in low-order terms) is possible by revealing the vertices in blocks, unless the number of blocks remains constant as n (the number of vertices) grows. Specifically, we show that if the number of vertices in a block is k = o(n), then the expected size of the matching produced by any algorithm (on its worst-case input) is at most (1 — 1/e)n + o(n). This is exactly the bound achieved in the original online matching problem, so no improvement is possible when k = o(n). This result follows from a more general upper bound that applies for all k = n; however, the bound does not appear to be tight for some values of k which are a constant fraction of n (in particular, for k = n/3). We also give an algorithm that makes use of the blocked structure of the input. On inputs with k = o(n), this algorithm can be shown to perform at least as well as using the algorithm from Karp et al. (1990) and ignoring blocking. Hence, by the upper bound, our algorithm is optimal to low-order terms for k = o(n), and in some cases considerably outperforms the algorithm of Karp et al. (1990). The algorithm also trivially has optimal performance for k = n; furthermore, it appears to have optimal performance for k = n/2, but a proof of this performance has not been found. Unfortunately, the algorithm does not meet the upper bound for all block sizes, as is shown by a simple example with block size n/3. We conjecture that the algorithm we present is actually optimal, and that the upper bound is not tight

ProtoMon: Embedded Monitors for Cryptographic Protocol Intrusion Detection and Prevention

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are responsible for monitoring and analyzing host or network activity to detect intrusions in order to protect information from unauthorized access or manipulation. There are two main approaches for intrusion detection: signature-based and anomaly-based. Signature-based detection employs pattern matching to match attack signatures with observed data making it ideal for detecting known attacks. However, it cannot detect unknown attacks for which there is no signature available. Anomaly-based detection uses machine-learning techniques to create a profile of normal system behavior and uses this profile to detect deviations from the normal behavior. Although this technique is effective in detecting unknown attacks, it has a drawback of a high false alarm rate. In this paper, we describe our anomaly-based IDS designed for detecting malicious use of cryptographic and application-level protocols. Our system has several unique characteristics and benefits, such as the ability to monitor cryptographic protocols and application-level protocols embedded in encrypted sessions, a very lightweight monitoring process, and the ability to react to protocol misuse by modifying protocol response directly

Stable Computation of the Complex Roots of Unity

In this correspondence, we show that the problem of computing the complex roots of unity is not as simple as it seems at first. In particular, the formulas given in a standard programmer's reference book (Knuth, Seminumerical Algorithms, 1981) are shown to be numerically unstable, giving unacceptably large error for moderate sized sequences. We give alternative formulas, which we show to be superior both by analysis and experiment