Histone Deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) Regulates Lymphatic Vascular Development

Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with an estimated 17 million annual deaths. A majority of cases are attributed to disease affecting the vascular system including arterial, venous and lymphatic vessels. Despite progress in understanding the molecular bases of vascular development and disease, the role of chromatin modifying enzymes in vascular processes remains ill defined. Here we show that the histone-modifying enzyme Hdac3 is a critical regulator of lymphatic vascular development. Endothelial specific loss of Hdac3 in mice affects the development of lymphovenous and lymphatic valves resulting in aberrant blood lymph separation, lymphedema and complete lethality. We demonstrate that Hdac3 functions in a flow responsive manner to regulate the expression of Gata2, a transcription factor essential for lymphatic valve development. In response to flow, transcription factors Tal1, Ets1/2 and Gata2 recruit Hdac3 to an evolutionarily conserved intragenic enhancer of Gata2 gene. In turn, Hdac3 recruits p300, a histone acetyl transferase, to render activation of the Gata2 enhancer, and thus promotes Gata2 transcription. Together, our findings demonstrate the molecular basis by which cell extrinsic and intrinsic cues cooperate to regulate lymphatic development

Cascading Failures in Interconnected Power-to-Water Networks

The manageability and resilience of critical infrastructures, such as power and water networks, is challenged by their increasing interdependence and interconnectivity. Power networks often experience cascading failures, i.e. blackouts, that have unprecedented economic and social impact. Al- though knowledge exists about how to control such complex non-linear phenomena within a single power network, little is known about how such failures can spread and coevolve in the water network when failing power components energize the water distribution infrastructure, i.e. pumps and valves. This paper studies such a scenario and specifically the impact of power cascading failures on shortages of water supply. A realistic exemplary of an interconnected power-to-water network is experimentally evaluated using a modular simulation approach. Power and waterflow dynamics are simulated separately by taking into account different maximum powerlines capacities and water demand requirements. Results showcase the strong dependency of urban water sup- ply systems on the reliability of power networks, with severe shortages of water supply being caused by failures originating indistant power lines, especially for heavily loaded power networks

Design of an LDPC Decoder and Its Performance

Low-Density Parity-Check codes (LDPC) are widely using ECC (Error Correcting Codes) for having eminent capabilities. By using Message Passing Algorithm, these codes can be decoded. These codes perform better than Turbo Codes and easily attains Shannon’s limit. For low SNR, these codes provide low bit error rates. For high SNR, these codes provide no error floor. These codes are used in various applications like Wi-Fi, Mobile WiMAX, DVD-S2, and IEEE 802.3 (10 GBASE –T). The main feature of these codes is that they can provide efficient encoding and decoding. In this paper, an LDPC encoder and decoder are implemented by Verilog techniques. For simulation, Xilinx Vivado 14.2 and Questa Sim 10.4c are used. And for synthesis, Leonardo Spectrum 2014b.4is used. These designs are also implemented on Nexys 4-DDR XC7A100TCSG324-2L FPGA

Can replay attacks designed to steal water from water distribution systems remain undetected?

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) monitor and control physical processes. ICS are found in, among others, critical infrastructures such as water treatment plants, water distribution systems, and the electric power grid. While the existence of cyber-components in an ICS leads to ease of operations and maintenance, it renders the system under control vulnerable to cyber and physical attacks. An experimental study was conducted with replay attacks launched on an operational water distribution (WADI) plant to understand under what conditions an attacker/attack can remain undetected while stealing water. A detection method, based on an input-output Linear Time-invariant system model of the physical process, was developed and implemented in WADI to detect such attacks. The experiments reveal the strengths and limitations of the detection method and challenges faced by an attacker while attempting to steal water from a water distribution system

Curse of system complexity and virtue of operational invariants : machine learning based system modeling and attack detection in CPS

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) security has gained a lot of interest in recent years. Different approaches have been proposed to tackle the security challenges. Intrusion detection has been of most interest so far, involving design-based and data-based approaches. Design-based approaches require domain expertise and are not scalable, on the other hand, data-based approaches suffer from the lack of real-world datasets available for specific critical physical processes. In this work, a data collection effort is made on a realistic Water Distribution (WADI) test-bed. Collected data consists of both the normal operation as well as a range of attack scenarios. Next, machine learning-based system-modeling techniques are considered using the data from WADI. It is shown that the accuracy of system model-based intrusion detectors depends on the model accuracy and for non-linear processes, it is non-trivial to obtain accurate system models. Moreover, an operational invariants-based attack detection technique is proposed using the system design parameters. It is shown that using a simple rule-based anomaly detector performs better than the complex black-box data-based techniques

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF MANILKARA ZAPOTA LEAF EXTRACT

Objective: Manilkara zapota is a medicinal plant which is native to Mexico and Central America, and widely distributed in India. Various parts of this plant are traditionally used for treatment of several diseases, including inflammation-associated ailments. The main aim of the present study is to evaluate the anti-inflammatory potential of ethyl acetate and methanolic extracts of M. zapota leaf.Methods: In vitro secretary phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and 5-Lipoxygenase (5-LOX) assays and In vivo studies using carrageenan induced rat paw edema model were performed to assess the anti-inflammatory activity of M. zapota leaf extracts.Results: In vitro studies suggest that M. zapota leaf extracts exhibited significant SPLA2 and 5-LOX inhibitory activities. In in vivo studies M. zapota leaf extracts showed dose dependent inhibition of carrageenan induced paw edema in rats. The anti-inflammatory activity of ethyl acetate leaf extract was superior to methanolic extract.Conclusion: This study concluded that ethyl acetate leaf extract of M. zapotaexhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity and warranted further investigation to isolate and identify the components.Â

Influence of thermomechanical interaction effects on the failure behaviour of polymer foam cored sandwich panels

The paper presents an experimentally based and numerically supported investigation of the collapse behaviour of polymer foam cored sandwich beams subjected to combined mechanical and thermal loading. Recent analytical and numerical modelling results available in the literature have ascertained that collapse may be due to loss of stability induced by nonlinear interactions between mechanical loads and thermally induced deformations, when accounting for the reduction of the polymer foam core mechanical properties with increasing temperature. In the paper, experiments are devised whereby a thermal gradient is introduced into a sandwich beam specimen loaded in three-point bending. The experiments cover a range of temperatures where one face sheet is heated from room temperature (25?) to just below the glass transition temperature of the polymer foam core (70?) and the other face sheet remains at room temperature. Digital image correlation (DIC) is used to obtain the local displacement field of the sandwich beam and its temperature is monitored using an infrared detector and thermocouples. The experimental results are compared with the predictions of both a generally nonlinear finite element model and an analytical so-called high-order sandwich panel theory (HSAPT) model. It is important to note that the HSAPT model has clear limitations as it takes into account only the geometric nonlinearity and thermal degradation of the foam core elastic properties, and it further assumes that the sandwich constituents are linear elastic with infinite straining capability. The HSAPT model predicts the occurrence of a strongly nonlinear load response leading to loss of stability (limit point behaviour). However, the experiments show that for the investigated sandwich beam configuration, it is necessary to include the nonlinear material properties in the modelling, as the nonlinear beam response leading to failure and collapse is significantly influenced by plastic deformations in the constituent materials. Thus, core indentation and extensive plasticity precede the transition to loss of stability driven by geometric nonlinearity and thermomechanical interaction effects. Finite element analyses that include both geometric and material nonlinearities provide results that correlate closely with the experimental observations. The work presented lays the foundation of a methodology for validating complex thermomechanical behaviour in sandwich structures using non-contact full-field measurement systems, and it demonstrates that analytical or numerical models based on the assumption of linear elastic material behaviour (such as the HSAPT model referenced in the paper) generally cannot adequately describe the thermomechanical behaviour of foam-cored sandwich structures

Quadricuspid aortic valve: A rare intraoperative diagnosis by transesophageal echocardiography

Quadricuspid aortic valve (QAV) is a rare congenital anomaly frequently associated with other anomalies particularly coronary anomalies. It may be detected on transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography. We present here a case report of a 27-year-old male patient with a QAV, the valve being regurgitant and requiring aortic valve replacement. It has been reported as isolated case reports in the literature and various theories exist to the development of QAV. The diagnosis requires a high degree of suspicion and a detailed assessment, and if asymptomatic, then patients need to be carefully followed up for the development of aortic regurgitation