Symmetrical Observability of Kinematic Parameters in Symmetrical Parallel Mechanisms

This article presents an application of symmetry group theory in kinematic identification of parallel mechanisms of nlegs legs -- Kinematic Identification implies the estimation of the actual geometrical parameters (as opposed to nominal ones) of a physical mechanism -- For a symmetric mechanism, KI requires configuring sets of leg positions with symmetrical observability – This article presents as main contributions: (i) a conjecture that allows mapping the symmetries of the mechanism into the active-joint workspace, (ii) a set of necessary conditions to express leg parameters in coordinate systems which allow symmetrical observability, and (iii) a procedure for exploiting symmetries in pose selection for kinematic identification of symmetrical parallel mechanisms -- For the kinematic identification itself, we adopt a divide-and-conquer (DC) identification protocol -discussed by us in another publication- in which each leg of the mechanism is independently identified by using the inverse calibration method -- In this article we emphasize how to exploit the symmetries existent in (nlegs − 1) legs of the parallel mechanism allowing to apply to other legs the symmetry-transformed sample protocol used for the kinematic identification of a reference leg -- The symmetrical observability of sets of leg parameters allows to reduce the costs of the pose selection procedure by a factor of (1/nlegs) compared to a complete DC procedure in which the poses of each leg are selected independently -- The pose selection is carried out only for the reference leg -- For the (nlegs−1) remaining legs the poses are dictated by symmetry operations performed onto the poses of the reference leg -- An application of the symmetrical observability is presented through the simulated kinematic identification of a 3RRR symmetrical parallel mechanismPolytechnic School of the University of São PauloSitio webIndicaciones, Associação Brasileira de Métodos Computacionais em Engenharia, International Association for Computational Mechanics, International Congress and Convention Association, Conheça o São Paulo é Tudo de Bom, Embratur, PETROBRA

ELABORACIÓN DE CUPCAKE INTEGRAL

Este proyecto formativo se centró en la elaboración de un “Cupcake integral”, para el desarrollo del sector panadero en el Valle de Aburra. Se aplicó una primera encuesta diagnóstica para conocer la factibilidad de un producto saludable. Se realizaron tres ensayos, donde se elaboró un Cupcake sustituyendo parcialmente la harina de trigo por harina de arroz y Stevia como endulzante, estos ensayos permitieron la estandarización del producto y a cada uno de estos se le aplicó su respectiva encuesta, las cuales permitieron: recoger errores, buscar soluciones, y mejorar el producto y así obtener un producto de calidad acorde a las percepciones de los panelistas encuestados. Se logró elaborar la ficha técnica para un Cupcake integral con alto grado de aceptación en los consumidores potenciales y posibilidades de comercializar a un costo accesible

Dietary antioxidant intake is inversely associated with 2,3-dinor oxylipin metabolites, the major excreted oxylipins in overweight and obese subjects

Cardiometabolic disease risk factors, including obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and dyslipidemia, are associated with elevated oxidative stress biomarkers like oxylipins. Increased adiposity by itself induces various isomers of this oxidized lipid family, while dietary polyphenols show benefits in its regulation. Previously, we showed that specific co-abundant microorganisms characterized the gut microbiota of Colombians and associated differentially with diet, lifestyle, obesity, and cardiometabolic health status, which led us to hypothesize that urinary oxylipins would reflect the intensity of oxidative metabolism linked to gut microbiota dysbiosis. Thus, we selected a convenience sample of 105 participants (age: 40.2 ± 11.9 years, 47.6% women), grouped according to microbiota, cardiometabolic health status, and body mass index (BMI); and evaluated 33 urinary oxylipins by HPLC-QqQ-MS/MS (e.g., isoprostanes, prostaglandins, and metabolites), paired with anthropometry and blood chemistry information and dietary antioxidants estimated from a 24-h food recall. In general, oxylipins did not show differences among individuals who differed in gut microbiota. While the unmetabolized oxylipin levels were not associated with BMI, the total content of oxylipin metabolites was highest in obese and cardiometabolically abnormal subjects (e.g., insulin resistant), mainly by prostaglandin-D (2,3-dinor-11β-PGF) and 15-F-IsoPs (2,3-dinor-15-F-IsoP and 2,3-dinor-15-epi-15-F-IsoP) metabolites. The total polyphenol intake in this cohort was 1070 ± 627 mg/day. After adjusting for body weight, the polyphenol intake was significantly higher in lean than overweight and showed an inverse association with dinor-oxylipin levels in principal component analysis. These results suggest that the 2,3-dinor-oxylipins could be more specific biomarkers associated with BMI than their parent oxylipins and that are sensitive to be regulated by dietary antioxidants.The authors thank the volunteers who agreed to participate in this study, the Colombian Ministry of science, technology, and innovation (Minciencias; grant number 832-2018), and Grupo Empresarial Nutresa. They also thank the Ibero-American Programme for Science, Technology and Development (CYTED) – Action 112RT0460 CORNUCOPIA networ

Albumin-Like Proteins Are Critical Regulators of Vascular Redox Signaling

This laboratory previously identified an albumin-like protein (denoted as p70) as a component of the macromolecular complex assembled within the 5 -regulatory region of redox-sensitive genes in vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs). Here we show that p70 is present in the cytosolic and nuclear compartments of vSMCs and dynamically responsive to redox status. Intense cytoplasmic and perinuclear staining, coupled with enhanced nuclear localization, was observed in vSMCs, but not HepG2 cells, treated with benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), H 2 O 2 , or N-acetylcysteine, agents known to modulate redox status. 3 RACE indicated that p70 is not generated as a product of endogenous gene expression, but rather taken up from the extracellular compartment. While p70 was undetectable in cells grown for 24 hours under serum-free conditions, cell-associated, acid-resistant albumin was detected 30 min after the addition of exogenous albumin. vSMCs incubated at 4 ∘ C with 100 g/mL unlabeled BSA and 10 g/mL FITC-BSA for 60 minutes and switched to 37 ∘ C to examine temperature-sensitive label uptake showed punctate structures throughout the cell consistent with albumin internalization at the higher temperature. Albumin was found to influence redox-signaling, as evidenced by modulation of cyp1a1 gsta1 and Ha-ras gene inducibility. Together, these results implicate albumin and albumin-like proteins as critical regulators of vascular redox signaling

Determinación y Estandarización De Las Mejores Condiciones De Proceso De Lavado Cip (Cleaning In Place): En La Zona De Evaporación De La Planta Pulverizadora De Leche Colanta Planeta Rica

La industria lechera utiliza desde hace muchos años el CIP (cleaning in place) como método de limpieza. En la planta Pulverizadora Colanta Planeta Rica no existía un procedimiento de CIP que garantizara la eficiencia y condiciones constantes durante el proceso. Mediante modificaciones de infraestructura en los equipos, recomendaciones de los proveedores, revisión bibliográfica y ensayos realizados en la planta se logró determinar y estandarizar las condiciones para desarrollar el proceso CIP como; concentraciones y temperaturas de las soluciones de lavado, caudales y tiempos de proceso. Se logró que las soluciones de lavado recircularan a las concentraciones deseadas (soda caustica de 3 – 4% y ácido nítrico de 2 – 3%). Se consiguió mantener la temperatura de la soda en un rango de 70 a 80o C durante su recirculación en los efectos del evaporador. Se alcanzó el caudal máximo posible para realizar el CIP en el pasterizador el cual garantizara el arrastre total de partículas adheridas y se determinó el caudal más adecuado para el lavado del evaporador que garantizara una limpieza eficiente y evitara la inundación del equipo. Se logró la reducción del CIP de 6 a 4,5 horas representando una ganancia de $748 ́459.008 anuales, ya que el tiempo ahorrado es ahora invertido en la producción de leche en polvo, lo cual estuvo mayoritariamente influenciado por la reducción del tiempo de recirculación de soda en el pasterizador, el cual no se había bajado de 3 horas pese a la sospecha que pudiera influir negativamente en el equipo o en el proceso productivo

Interleukin-10 Production by T and B Cells Is a Key Factor to Promote Systemic Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Infection in Mice

Indexción: Scopus.Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a Gram-negative bacterium that produces disease in numerous hosts. In mice, oral inoculation is followed by intestinal colonization and subsequent systemic dissemination, which leads to severe pathogenesis without the activation of an efficient anti-Salmonella immune response. This feature suggests that the infection caused by S. Typhimurium may promote the production of anti-inflammatory molecules by the host that prevent efficient T cell activation and bacterial clearance. In this study, we describe the contribution of immune cells producing the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) to the systemic infection caused by S. Typhimurium in mice. We observed that the production of IL-10 was required by S. Typhimurium to cause a systemic disease, since mice lacking IL-10 (IL-10-/-) were significantly more resistant to die after an infection as compared to wild-type (WT) mice. IL-10-/- mice had reduced bacterial loads in internal organs and increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in serum at 5 days of infection. Importantly, WT mice showed high bacterial loads in tissues and no increase of cytokines in serum after 5 days of S. Typhimurium infection, except for IL-10. In WT mice, we observed a peak of il-10 messenger RNA production in ileum, spleen, and liver after 5 days of infection. Importantly, the adoptive transfer of T or B cells from WT mice restored the susceptibility of IL-10-/- mice to systemic S. Typhimurium infection, suggesting that the generation of regulatory cells in vivo is required to sustain a systemic infection by S. Typhimurium. These findings support the notion that IL-10 production from lymphoid cells is a key process in the infective cycle of S. Typhimurium in mice due to generation of a tolerogenic immune response that prevents bacterial clearance and supports systemic dissemination

Establishing the baseline level of repetitive element expression in the human cortex

Background: Although nearly half of the human genome is comprised of repetitive sequences, the expression profile of these elements remains largely uncharacterized. Recently developed high throughput sequencing technologies provide us with a powerful new set of tools to study repeat elements. Hence, we performed whole transcriptome sequencing to investigate the expression of repetitive elements in human frontal cortex using postmortem tissue obtained from the Stanley Medical Research Institute. Results: We found a significant amount of reads from the human frontal cortex originate from repeat elements. We also noticed that Alu elements were expressed at levels higher than expected by random or background transcription. In contrast, L1 elements were expressed at lower than expected amounts. Conclusions: Repetitive elements are expressed abundantly in the human brain. This expression pattern appears to be element specific and can not be explained by random or background transcription. These results demonstrate that our knowledge about repetitive elements is far from complete. Further characterization is required to determine the mechanism, the control, and the effects of repeat element expression

The Impact of CpG Island on Defining Transcriptional Activation of the Mouse L1 Retrotransposable Elements

BACKGROUND: L1 retrotransposable elements are potent insertional mutagens responsible for the generation of genomic variation and diversification of mammalian genomes, but reliable estimates of the numbers of actively transposing L1 elements are mostly nonexistent. While the human and mouse genomes contain comparable numbers of L1 elements, several phylogenetic and L1Xplore analyses in the mouse genome suggest that 1,500-3,000 active L1 elements currently exist and that they are still expanding in the genome. Conversely, the human genome contains only 150 active L1 elements. In addition, there is a discrepancy among the nature and number of mouse L1 elements in L1Xplore and the mouse genome browser at the UCSC and in the literature. To date, the reason why a high copy number of active L1 elements exist in the mouse genome but not in the human genome is unknown, as are the potential mechanisms that are responsible for transcriptional activation of mouse L1 elements. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyzed the promoter sequences of the 1,501 potentially active mouse L1 elements retrieved from the GenBank and L1Xplore databases and evaluated their transcription factors binding sites and CpG content. To this end, we found that a substantial number of mouse L1 elements contain altered transcription factor YY1 binding sites on their promoter sequences that are required for transcriptional initiation, suggesting that only a half of L1 elements are capable of being transcriptionally active. Furthermore, we present experimental evidence that previously unreported CpG islands exist in the promoters of the most active T(F) family of mouse L1 elements. The presence of sequence variations and polymorphisms in CpG islands of L1 promoters that arise from transition mutations indicates that CpG methylation could play a significant role in determining the activity of L1 elements in the mouse genome. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive analysis of mouse L1 promoters suggests that the number of transcriptionally active elements is significantly lower than the total number of full-length copies from the three active mouse L1 families. Like human L1 elements, the CpG islands and potentially the transcription factor YY1 binding sites are likely to be required for transcriptional initiation of mouse L1 elements

Many LINE1 elements contribute to the transcriptome of human somatic cells

Over 600 LINE 1 elements are shown to be transcribed in humans; 400 of these are full-length elements in the reference genome

A narrative review of the potential pharmacological influence and safety of ibuprofen on coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), ACE2, and the immune system: a dichotomy of expectation and reality

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is currently the most acute healthcare challenge in the world. Despite growing knowledge of the nature of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), treatment options are still poorly defined. The safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), specifically ibuprofen, has been openly questioned without any supporting evidence or clarity over dose, duration, or temporality of administration. This has been further conflicted by the initiation of studies to assess the efficacy of ibuprofen in improving outcomes in severe COVID-19 patients. To clarify the scientific reality, a literature search was conducted alongside considerations of the pharmacological properties of ibuprofen in order to construct this narrative review. The literature suggests that double-blind, placebo-controlled study results must be reported and carefully analysed for safety and efficacy in patients with COVID-19 before any recommendations can be made regarding the use of ibuprofen in such patients. Limited studies have suggested: (i) no direct interactions between ibuprofen and SARS-CoV-2 and (ii) there is no evidence to suggest ibuprofen affects the regulation of angiotensin-converting-enzyme 2 (ACE2), the receptor for COVID-19, in human studies. Furthermore, in vitro studies suggest ibuprofen may facilitate cleavage of ACE2 from the membrane, preventing membrane-dependent viral entry into the cell, the clinical significance of which is uncertain. Additionally, in vitro evidence suggests that inhibition of the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-kB) by ibuprofen may have a role in reducing excess inflammation or cytokine release in COVID-19 patients. Finally, there is no evidence that ibuprofen will aggravate or increase the chance of infection of COVID-19