Mandate-driven networking eco-system : a paradigm shift in end-to-end communications

The wireless industry is driven by key stakeholders that follow a holistic approach of "one-system-fits-all" that leads to moving network functionality of meeting stringent End-to-End (E2E) communication requirements towards the core and cloud infrastructures. This trend is limiting smaller and new players for bringing in new and novel solutions. For meeting these E2E requirements, tenants and end-users need to be active players for bringing their needs and innovations. Driving E2E communication not only in terms of quality of service (QoS) but also overall carbon footprint and spectrum efficiency from one specific community may lead to undesirable simplifications and a higher level of abstraction of other network segments may lead to sub-optimal operations. Based on this, the paper presents a paradigm shift that will enlarge the role of wireless innovation at academia, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME)'s, industries and start-ups while taking into account decentralized mandate-driven intelligence in E2E communications

Quality assurance of rectal cancer diagnosis and treatment - phase 3 : statistical methods to benchmark centres on a set of quality indicators

In 2004, the Belgian Section for Colorectal Surgery, a section of the Royal Belgian Society for Surgery, decided to start PROCARE (PROject on CAncer of the REctum), a multidisciplinary, profession-driven and decentralized project with as main objectives the reduction of diagnostic and therapeutic variability and improvement of outcome in patients with rectal cancer. All medical specialties involved in the care of rectal cancer established a multidisciplinary steering group in 2005. They agreed to approach the stated goal by means of treatment standardization through guidelines, implementation of these guidelines and quality assurance through registration and feedback. In 2007, the PROCARE guidelines were updated (Procare Phase I, KCE report 69). In 2008, a set of 40 process and outcome quality of care indicators (QCI) was developed and organized into 8 domains of care: general, diagnosis/staging, neoadjuvant treatment, surgery, adjuvant treatment, palliative treatment, follow-up and histopathologic examination. These QCIs were tested on the prospective PROCARE database and on an administrative (claims) database (Procare Phase II, KCE report 81). Afterwards, 4 QCIs were added by the PROCARE group. Centres have been receiving feedback from the PROCARE registry on these QCIs with a description of the distribution of the unadjusted centre-averaged observed measures and the centre’s position therein. To optimize this feedback, centres should ideally be informed of their risk-adjusted outcomes and be given some benchmarks. The PROCARE Phase III study is devoted to developing a methodology to achieve this feedback

Perforin and Granzyme B Expressed by Murine Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells: A Study on Their Role in Outgrowth of Cancer Cells

A wide-range of myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC)-mediated immune suppressive functions has previously been described. Nevertheless, potential novel mechanisms by which MDSCs aid tumor progression are, in all likelihood, still unrecognized. Next to its well-known expression in natural killer cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), granzyme B (GzmB) expression has been found in different cell types. In an MDSC culture model, we demonstrated perforin and GzmB expression. Furthermore, similar observations were made in MDSCs isolated from tumor-bearing mice. Even in MDSCs from humans, GzmB expression was demonstrated. Of note, B16F10 melanoma cells co-cultured with perforin/GzmB knock out mice (KO) MDSCs displayed a remarkable decrease in invasive potential. B16F10 melanoma cells co-injected with KO MDSCs, displayed a significant slower growth curve compared to tumor cells co-injected with wild type (WT) MDSCs. In vivo absence of perforin/GzmB in MDSCs resulted in a higher number of CD8+ T-cells. Despite this change in favor of CD8+ T-cell infiltration, we observed low interferon-¿ (IFN-¿) and high programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, suggesting that other immunosuppressive mechanisms render these CD8+ T-cells dysfunctional. Taken together, our results suggest that GzmB expression in MDSCs is another means to promote tumor growth and warrants further investigation to unravel the exact underlying mechanism

DNA methylation of the allergy regulatory gene interferon gamma varies by age, sex, and tissue type in asthmatics

Background Asthma is associated with allergic sensitization in about half of all cases, and asthma phenotypes can vary by age and sex. DNA methylation in the promoter of the allergy regulatory gene interferon gamma (IFNγ) has been linked to the maintenance of allergic immune function in human cell and mouse models. We hypothesized that IFNγ promoter methylation at two well-studied, key cytosine phosphate guanine (CpG) sites (-186 and -54), may differ by age, sex, and airway versus systemic tissue in a cohort of 74 allergic asthmatics. Results After sampling buccal cells, a surrogate for airway epithelial cells, and CD4+ lymphocytes, we found that CD4+ lymphocyte methylation was significantly higher in children compared to adults at both CpG sites (P <0.01). Buccal cell methylation was significantly higher in children at CpG -186 (P = 0.03) but not CpG -54 (P = 0.66). Methylation was higher in males compared to females at both CpG sites in CD4+ lymphocytes (-186: P <0.01, -54: P = 0.02) but not buccal cells (-186: P = 0.14, -54: P = 0.60). In addition, methylation was lower in CD4+ lymphocytes compared to buccal cells (P <0.01) and neighboring CpG sites were strongly correlated in CD4+ lymphocytes (r = 0.84, P <0.01) and weakly correlated in buccal cells (r = 0.24, P = 0.04). At CpG -186, there was significant correlation between CD4+ lymphocytes and buccal cells (r = 0.24, P = 0.04) but not at CpG -54 (r = -0.03, P = 0.78). Conclusions These findings highlight significant age, sex, and tissue-related differences in IFNγ promoter methylation that further our understanding of methylation in the allergic asthma pathway and in the application of biomarkers in clinical research

Geospatial Analysis of Sodium and Potassium Intake: A Swiss Population-Based Study.

Inadequate sodium and potassium dietary intakes are associated with major, yet preventable, health consequences. Local public health interventions can be facilitated and informed by fine-scale geospatial analyses. In this study, we assess the existence of spatial clustering (i.e., an unusual concentration of individuals with a specific outcome in space) of estimated sodium (Na), potassium (K) intakes, and Na:K ratio in the Bus Santé 1992-2018 annual population-based surveys, including 22,495 participants aged 20-74 years, residing in the canton of Geneva, using the local Moran's I spatial statistics. We also investigate whether socio-demographic and food environment characteristics are associated with identified spatial clustering, using both global ordinary least squares (OLS) and local geographically weighted regression (GWR) modeling. We identified clear spatial clustering of Na:K ratio, Na, and K intakes. The GWR outperformed the OLS models and revealed spatial variations in the associations between explanatory and outcome variables. Older age, being a woman, higher education, and having a lower access to supermarkets were associated with higher Na:K ratio, while the opposite was seen for having the Swiss nationality. Socio-demographic characteristics explained a major part of the identified clusters. Socio-demographic and food environment characteristics significantly differed between individuals in spatial clusters of high and low Na:K ratio, Na, and K intakes. These findings could guide prioritized place-based interventions tailored to the characteristics of the identified populations

The Benefits of Explicit Ontological Knowledge-Bases for Robotic Systems

Abstract With the increasing abilities of robots comes a corresponding in-crease in the complexity of creating the software enabling these abilities. We present a case study of a sophisticated robotic system which uses an ontology as the central data store for all information processing. We show how this central, structured and easily human-understandable knowledge-base makes for a system that is easier to develop, understand, and modify.

Cataclysmic Variables in the First Year of the Zwicky Transient Facility

Using selection criteria based on amplitude, time, and color, we have identified 329 objects as known or candidate cataclysmic variables (CVs) during the first year of testing and operation of the Zwicky Transient Facility. Of these, 90 are previously confirmed CVs, 218 are strong candidates based on the shape and color of their light curves obtained during 3–562 days of observation, and the remaining 21 are possible CVs but with too few data points to be listed as good candidates. Almost half of the strong candidates are within 10 deg of the galactic plane, in contrast to most other large surveys that have avoided crowded fields. The available Gaia parallaxes are consistent with sampling the low mass transfer CVs, as predicted by population models. Our follow-up spectra have confirmed Balmer/helium emission lines in 27 objects, with four showing high-excitation He ii emission, including candidates for an AM CVn, a polar, and an intermediate polar. Our results demonstrate that a complete survey of the Galactic plane is needed to accomplish an accurate determination of the number of CVs existing in the Milky Way

Target Displacements during Eye Blinks Trigger Automatic Recalibration of Gaze Direction

Eye blinks cause disruptions to visual input and are accompanied by rotations of the eyeball [1]. Like every motor action, these eye movements are subject to noise and introduce instabilities in gaze direction across blinks [2]. Accumulating errors across repeated blinks would be debilitating for visual performance. Here, we show that the oculomotor system constantly recalibrates gaze direction during blinks to counteract gaze instability. Observers were instructed to fixate a visual target while gaze direction was recorded and blinks were detected in real time. With every spontaneous blink-while eyelids were closed-the target was displaced laterally by 0.5° (or 1.0°). Most observers reported being unaware of displacements during blinks. After adapting for ∼35 blinks, gaze positions after blinks showed significant biases toward the new target position. Automatic eye movements accompanied each blink, and an aftereffect persisted for a few blinks after target displacements were eliminated. No adaptive gaze shift occurred when blinks were simulated with shutter glasses at random time points or actively triggered by observers, or when target displacements were masked by a distracting stimulus. Visual signals during blinks are suppressed by inhibitory mechanisms [3-6], so that small changes across blinks are generally not noticed [7, 8]. Additionally, target displacements during blinks can trigger automatic gaze recalibration, similar to the well-known saccadic adaptation effect [9-11]. This novel mechanism might be specific to the maintenance of gaze direction across blinks or might depend on a more general oculomotor recalibration mechanism adapting gaze position during intrinsically generated disruptions to visual input

An angle-scanned cryogenic Fabry-Pérot interferometer for far-infrared astronomy

The sensitivity of state-of-the-art superconducting far-infrared detectors used in conjunction with cryogenically cooled space telescopes and instrumentation is such that spectroscopic observations are generally limited by photon noise from the astronomical source or by galactic foreground or zodiacal emission within the field-of-view. Therefore, an instrument design that restricts the spectral bandpass viewed by the detector must be employed. One method of achieving background limited, high resolution spectroscopy is to combine a high resolution component such as a Fabry–Pérot interferometer (FPI) with a lower resolution, post-dispersing system, such as a grating spectrometer, the latter serving to restrict the spectral bandpass. The resonant wavelength of an FPI is most often tuned by changing the spacing or medium between the parallel reflecting plates of the etalon. In this paper, we present a novel design for an FPI in which the wavelength is tuned by scanning the angle of incidence on a high refractive index etalon. This concept simplifies the cryomechanical design, actuation, and metrology. The first results from the realized instrument are presented and compared with theory. The effects on the spectral response as a function of the incident angle have been simulated and shown to agree well with the observation