Zingiber officinale Roscoe aqueous extract modulates Matrixmetalloproteinases and tissue inhibitors of Metalloproteinases expressions in Dengue virus-infected cells: implications for prevention of vascular permeability

Purpose: To investigate the effect of the aqueous extract of Zingiber officinale Roscoe. (ZOA) rhizome on the activity and expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and TIMP-2 using an in vitro model of Dengue virus (DV) infection.Methods: Z. officinale rhizomes were extracted with water by continuous shaking for 5 days. The total phenolic content in extract was measured by Folin-Ciocalteu method. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed to define qualitative and quantitative content of [6]-gingerol in ZOA. The median inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of ZOA for Vero cells was determined by 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. To induce MMPs production, Vero cells were infected with DV3. The modulatory effect of ZOA on the activity and expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 were assessed using gelatin zymography and quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR), respectively.Results: The yield of the ZOA was 7.98%. Total phenolics in ZOA was 68.17 ± 0.28 mg GAE/g of extract and it contained 29.32 ± 1.97 mg 6-gingerol/g of extract.The half-maximal inhibition concentration (IC50) of ZOA was 348.8 μg/mL for Vero cells. DV infection of Vero cells significantly elevated the production of soluble gelatinolytic MMP-2 and to a lesser extent, MMP-9, and their activities were significantly inhibited by ZOA in a dose-dependent manner. A significant down-regulation of MMP-2, MMP-9 mRNA expression and up-regulation of TIMP-1, TIMP-2 mRNA expression were observed in DV-infected Vero cells following treatment with ZOA, and it occurred in a  dose-dependent manner.Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that ZOA may ameliorate plasma leakage in dengue virus infection and decrease the chances of severe dengue complications, dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) by inhibiting the activities and expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 while upregulating the expression of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2

Towards use of Dijkstra Algorithm for Optimal Navigation of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle in a Real-Time Marine Environment with Results from Artificial Potential Field

The growing need of ocean surveying and exploration for scientific and industrial application has led to the requirement of routing strategies for ocean vehicles which are optimal in nature. Most of the optimal path planning for marine vehicles had been conducted offline in a self‐made environment. This paper takes into account a practical marine environment, i.e. Portsmouth Harbour, for finding an optimal path in terms of computational time between source and end points on a real time map for an USV. The current study makes use of a grid map generated from original and uses a Dijkstra algorithm to find the shortest path for a single USV. In order to benchmark the study, a path planning study using a well‐known local path planning method artificial path planning (APF) has been conducted in a real time marine environment and effectiveness is measured in terms of path length and computational time

Process evaluation of complex interventions tested in randomised controlled trials in musculoskeletal disorders: A systematic review protocol

Introduction The effectiveness of complex interventions for the management of musculoskeletal disorders has been estimated in many randomised clinical trials (RCTs). These trials inform which interventions are the most effective, however they do not always inform how an intervention achieved its clinical outcomes, nor how and what elements of an intervention were delivered to patients. Such information is useful for translating findings into clinical practice. A few process evaluation studies have been conducted alongside RCTs and a variety of methods have been used. To gain a better understanding of current practices of process evaluation in RCTs in musculoskeletal disorders, this systematic review is designed to answer the following research question: How are process evaluation of complex interventions tested in RCTs in musculoskeletal disorders being conducted? Methods and analysis We will systematically search seven electronic databases (MEDLINE, SCOPUS, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane database) from the date of inception to August 2018 for studies on process evaluation of RCTs on non-surgical and non-pharmacological management of musculoskeletal disorders. We will include qualitative and quantitative studies conducted alongside RCTs, reported with the RCTs or separate studies that assessed interventions for musculoskeletal disorders. Two reviewers will screen abstracts and apply prespecified inclusion criteria to identify relevant studies, extract the data and assess the risk of bias within included studies. We will follow recommendations from the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group Guidance Series' when assessing methodological strengths and limitations of included studies. We will use a narrative synthesis to describe findings. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required as this review will not collect original data. Findings from this systematic review will be presented at a scientific conference and published in a peer reviewed journal. PROSPERO registration number CRD4201810960

USV Navigation in a Real-Time Map using Intelligent Path Planner

Oral presentation and print abstract only; no proceedings. Abstract appeared in Journal of Applied Mechanical EngineeringUnmanned surface vehicles (USV) are the recent trend in marine robotics due to their diverse application and easy deployment. Navigation of such USV in a real time marine environment is a major challenge and creates a need towards development of intelligent path planners which can increase the system autonomy. Many such intelligent path planning studies have been conducted in the area of mobile robotics but needs a lot more research to be conducted in area of marine robotics. In this study, a well know intelligent path planner A* has been implemented in a real time map using safety distance from obstacle as the criteria towards generating optimal trajectory for a single USV navigation. Different safety distances from obstacles ranging from 10 pixels to 40 pixels have been used to generate optimal trajectory and comparative performance has been analyzed in terms of computational time and path length. In this study, Portsmouth Harbour has been considered as area of study to determine the effectiveness of A* algorithm with different safety distance from obstacle as constraint. Algorithm has been validated on computer-based simulations using C++ and OpenCV libraries

Optimal path planning of unmanned surface vehicles

The publisher has released this paper this under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. This release is used to provide the authority for open access deposit in Pearl, but please note that the licence forbids commercial use and the distribution of derivative works.Present study reviews the current methodologies adopted for optimal path planning of single unmanned surface vehicles and studies associated with swarm of unmanned surface vehicles. This also discusses the challenges and scopes, which can act as objectives, for future research towards path planning of such marine craft

Stalking influenza by vaccination with pre-fusion headless HA mini-stem.

Inaccuracies in prediction of circulating viral strain genotypes and the possibility of novel reassortants causing a pandemic outbreak necessitate the development of an anti-influenza vaccine with increased breadth of protection and potential for rapid production and deployment. The hemagglutinin (HA) stem is a promising target for universal influenza vaccine as stem-specific antibodies have the potential to be broadly cross-reactive towards different HA subtypes. Here, we report the design of a bacterially expressed polypeptide that mimics a H5 HA stem by protein minimization to focus the antibody response towards the HA stem. The HA mini-stem folds as a trimer mimicking the HA prefusion conformation. It is resistant to thermal/chemical stress, and it binds to conformation-specific, HA stem-directed broadly neutralizing antibodies with high affinity. Mice vaccinated with the group 1 HA mini-stems are protected from morbidity and mortality against lethal challenge by both group 1 (H5 and H1) and group 2 (H3) influenza viruses, the first report of cross-group protection. Passive transfer of immune serum demonstrates the protection is mediated by stem-specific antibodies. Furthermore, antibodies indudced by these HA stems have broad HA reactivity, yet they do not have antibody-dependent enhancement activity

Feasibility study of a constrained Dijkstra approach for optimal path planning of an unmanned surface vehicle in a dynamic maritime environment

Copy deposited in PEARL for open access under terms in penultimate paragraph of Optimal path planning is an important part of mission management hierarchy in a modern unmanned surface vehicle (USV) guidance, navigation and control frame work. USVs operate in a complex dynamic marine environment comprising of moving obstacles and sea surface currents. These characterising variables of configuration space change spatially as well as temporally. The current work investigates a well-known search technique, the Dijkstra algorithm, to resolve the problem of motion planning for a USV moving in a maritime environment. The current study extends the implementation of Dijkstra algorithm in a space cluttered with static and moving obstacles. In addition, downstream and upstream effects of sea surface currents of different intensities on optimal path planning are studied. The performance is verified in simulations with total path length and elapsed computational time considered as parameters to determine the effectiveness of the adopted approach. The results showed that the approach is effective for global path planning of USVs

A constrained A* approach towards optimal path planning for an unmanned surface vehicle in a maritime environment containing dynamic obstacles and ocean currents

Even after embargo period expires, authors' right to distribute as green open access is conditional on the green open access version including a DOI link, and on the green open access version being distributed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND licence. In addition, the authors' right to distribute as green open access extends only to the author-generated post-print, not to any version with Elsevier typography.Efficient path planning is a critical issue for the navigation of modern unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) characterized by a complex operating environment having dynamic obstacles with a spatially variable ocean current. The current work explores an A* approach with an USV enclosed by a circular boundary as a safety distance constraint on generation of optimal waypoints to resolve the problem of motion planning for an USV moving in a maritime environment. Unlike existing work on USV navigation using graph based methods, this study extends the implementation of the proposed A* approach in an environment cluttered with static and moving obstacles and different current intensities. The study also examines the effect of headwind and tailwind currents moving in clockwise and anti clockwise direction respectively of different intensities on optimal waypoints in a partially dynamic environment. The performance of the proposed approach is verified in simulations for different environmental conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is measured using two parameters, namely, path length and computational time as considered in other research works. The results show that the proposed approach is effective for global path planning of USVs

Gene expression in cardiac tissues from infants with idiopathic conotruncal defects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most commonly observed conotruncal congenital heart defect. Treatment of these patients has evolved dramatically in the last few decades, yet a genetic explanation is lacking for the failure of cardiac development for the majority of children with TOF. Our goal was to perform genome wide analyses and characterize expression patterns in cardiovascular tissue (right ventricle, pulmonary valve and pulmonary artery) obtained at the time of reconstructive surgery from 19 children with tetralogy of Fallot.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We employed genome wide gene expression microarrays to characterize cardiovascular tissue (right ventricle, pulmonary valve and pulmonary artery) obtained at the time of reconstructive surgery from 19 children with TOF (16 idiopathic and three with 22q11.2 deletions) and compared gene expression patterns to normally developing subjects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We detected a signal from approximately 26,000 probes reflecting expression from about half of all genes, ranging from 35% to 49% of array probes in the three tissues. More than 1,000 genes had a 2-fold change in expression in the right ventricle (RV) of children with TOF as compared to the RV from matched control infants. Most of these genes were involved in compensatory functions (e.g., hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis and cardiac dilation). However, two canonical pathways involved in spatial and temporal cell differentiation (WNT, <it>p </it>= 0.017 and Notch, <it>p </it>= 0.003) appeared to be generally suppressed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The suppression of developmental networks may represent a remnant of a broad malfunction of regulatory pathways leading to inaccurate boundary formation and improper structural development in the embryonic heart. We suggest that small tissue specific genomic and/or epigenetic fluctuations could be cumulative, leading to regulatory network disruption and failure of proper cardiac development.</p

Australian Sphingidae – DNA Barcodes Challenge Current Species Boundaries and Distributions

© 2014 Rougerie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article