Antinociceptive and Cardiorespiratory Effects of a Single Dose of Dexmedetomidine in Laboratory Mice Subjected to Craniotomy under General Anaesthesia with Isoflurane and Carprofen or Meloxicam

Pain refinement represents an important aspect of animal welfare in laboratory animals. Refining analgesia regimens in mice undergoing craniotomy has been sparsely investigated. Here, we sought to investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine in combination with other analgesic drugs on intraoperative anti-nociceptive effects and cardiorespiratory stability. All mice were anaesthetised with isoflurane and received local lidocaine infiltration at the surgical site. Mice were randomised into treatment groups consisting of either carprofen 5 mg kg−1 or meloxicam 5 mg kg−1 with or without dexmedetomidine 0.1 mg kg−1 administered subcutaneously. Intra-anaesthetic heart rates, breathing rates, isoflurane requirements, and arterial oxygen saturations were continuously monitored. We found that administration of dexmedetomidine significantly improved heart and breathing rate stability during two of four noxious stimuli (skin incision and whisker stimulation) compared to non-dexmedetomidine-treated mice and lowered isoflurane requirements throughout anaesthesia by 5–6%. No significant differences were found between carprofen and meloxicam. These results demonstrate that dexmedetomidine reduces nociception and provides intra-anaesthetic haemodynamic and respiratory stability in mice. In conclusion, the addition of dexmedetomidine to anaesthetic regimes for craniotomy offers a refinement over current practice for laboratory mice

Securing Wireless Communication in Critical Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities

Critical infrastructure constitutes the foundation of every society. While traditionally solely relying on dedicated cable-based communication, this infrastructure rapidly transforms to highly digitized and interconnected systems which increasingly rely on wireless communication. Besides providing tremendous benefits, especially affording the easy, cheap, and flexible interconnection of a large number of assets spread over larger geographic areas, wireless communication in critical infrastructure also raises unique security challenges. Most importantly, the shift from dedicated private wired networks to heterogeneous wireless communication over public and shared networks requires significantly more involved security measures. In this paper, we identify the most relevant challenges resulting from the use of wireless communication in critical infrastructure and use those to identify a comprehensive set of promising opportunities to preserve the high security standards of critical infrastructure even when switching from wired to wireless communication.Comment: Author's version of a paper accepted for publication in Proceedings of the 20th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (MobiQuitous 2023

A Case for Integrated Data Processing in Large-Scale Cyber-Physical Systems

Large-scale cyber-physical systems such as manufacturing lines generate vast amounts of data to guarantee precise control of their machinery. Visions such as the Industrial Internet of Things aim at making this data available also to computation systems outside the lines to increase productivity and product quality. However, rising amounts and complexities of data and control decisions push existing infrastructure for data transmission, storage, and processing to its limits. In this paper, we exemplarily study a fine blanking line which can produce up to 6.2 Gbit/s worth of data to showcase the extreme requirements found in modern manufacturing. We consequently propose integrated data processing which keeps inherently local and small-scale tasks close to the processes while at the same time centralizing tasks relying on more complex decision procedures and remote data sources. Our approach thus allows for both maintaining control of field-level processes and leveraging the benefits of “big data” applications

Associations between cortisol stress responses and limbic volume and thickness in young adults: an exploratory study

The investigation of the relationship between neural measures of limbic structures and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis responses to acute stress exposure in healthy young adults has so far focused in particular on task-based and resting state functional connectivity studies. Thus, the present study examined the association between limbic volume and thickness measures and acute cortisol responses to the psychosocial stress paradigm ScanSTRESS. Using Permutation Analysis of Linear Models controlling for sex, age, and total brain volume, the associations between (sex-specific) cortisol increases and human connectome project style anatomical variables of limbic structures (i.e., volume and thickness) were investigated in 66 healthy and young (18-33 years) subjects (35 men, 31 women taking oral contraceptives). In addition, exploratory (sex-specific) bivariate correlations between cortisol increases and structural measures were conducted. The present data provide interesting new insights into the involvement of striato-limbic structures in psychosocial stress processing, suggesting that acute cortisol stress responses are also associated with mere structural measures of the human brain. Thus, our pre-liminary findings suggest that not only situation- and contextdependent reactions of the limbic system (i.e., blood oxygenation level dependent reactions) are related to acute (sex-specific) cortisol stress responses, but also basal and somewhat more constant structural measures. Our study hereby paves the way for further analyses in this context and highlights the relevance of the topic

Forty-five minutes of physical activity at school each day? Curricular promotion of physical activity in grades one to four

Aim: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (2008) and the World Health Organization (2008), regular physical activity is essential to the healthy development of children and contributes to the reduction of chronic diseases throughout their life span. However, coordinated comprehensive national and international programs to promote physical activity and sports participation are lacking. According to the German Sports Federation (2006), physical education (PE) classes at German schools are increasingly being canceled or taught outside the school. "fit for pisa" is a German intervention developed in response to the demand for scientific evaluation of interventions like daily physical education. Its goal is to provide quality management-secured, structured and standardized PE instruction by qualified instructors. Subjects and methods: The "fit for pisa" intervention has been implemented at five primary schools in Göttingen, Germany, since 2003. This daily physical education intervention is based on quality standards. At the five primary schools participating in "fit for pisa," students receive a supplementary 3 class hours of PE/week in addition to the mandatory 2 class hours/week for the entire school term. In other words, the children now receive one 45-min session of PE each school day. Daily physical education is now a part of their mandatory school curriculum. The curriculum content and teaching methods have been continuously developed and optimized based on the state guidelines for Lower Saxony. Results: Teacher training is held at the participating schools once a month to promote standardized implementation and quality management of the intervention program. Additional monthly meetings are held so that the teachers can discuss any problems, deviations or other issues occurring in the classes. Checklists are provided for the teachers and external trainers to document the content and objectives of each lesson. Supervisors evaluate the checklists at regular intervals. Using these instruments, the results of the 4-year intervention program were evaluated at the five participating primary schools. Conclusions: This study provides important data for recommendations to implement additional physical education in primary schools, for the corresponding quality assurance instruments and for the optimization of physical education guidelines for primary schools

Anatomical Reconstruction and Functional Imaging Reveal an Ordered Array of Skylight Polarization Detectors in Drosophila

Many insects exploit skylight polarization as a compass cue for orientation and navigation. In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, photoreceptors R7 and R8 in the dorsal rim area (DRA) of the compound eye are specialized to detect the electric vector (e-vector) of linearly polarized light. These photoreceptors are arranged in stacked pairs with identical fields of view and spectral sensitivities, but mutually orthogonal microvillar orientations. As in larger flies, we found that the microvillar orientation of the distal photoreceptor R7 changes in a fan-like fashion along the DRA. This anatomical arrangement suggests that the DRA constitutes a detector for skylight polarization, in which different e-vectors maximally excite different positions in the array. To test our hypothesis, we measured responses to polarized light of varying e-vector angles in the terminals of R7/8 cells using genetically encoded calcium indicators. Our data confirm a progression of preferred e-vector angles from anterior to posterior in the DRA, and a strict orthogonality between the e-vector preferences of paired R7/8 cells. We observed decreased activity in photoreceptors in response to flashes of light polarized orthogonally to their preferred e-vector angle, suggesting reciprocal inhibition between photoreceptors in the same medullar column, which may serve to increase polarization contrast. Together, our results indicate that the polarization-vision system relies on a spatial map of preferred e-vector angles at the earliest stage of sensory processing

Small Latency Variations Do Not Affect Player Performance in First-Person Shooters

In interactive systems high latency affects user performance and experience. This is especially problematic in video games. A large number of studies on this topic investigated the effects of constant, high latency. However, in practice, latency is never constant but varies by up to 100 ms due to variations in processing time and delays added by polling between system components. In a large majority of studies, these variations in latency are neither controlled for nor reported. Thus, it is unclear to which degree small, continuous variations in latency affect user performance. If these unreported variations had a significant impact, this might cast into doubt the findings of some studies. To investigate how latency variation affects player performance and experience in games, we conducted an experiment with 28 participants playing a first-person shooter. Participants played with two levels of base latency (50 ms vs. 150 ms) and variation (0 ms vs. 50 ms). As expected, high base latency significantly reduces player performance and experience. However, we found strong evidence that small variations in latency in the order of 50 ms, do not affect player performance significantly. Thus, our findings mitigate concerns that previous latency studies might have systematically ignored a confounding effect

Securing the legacy of TESS through the care and maintenance of TESS planet ephemerides

Much of the science from the exoplanets detected by the TESS mission relies on precisely predicted transit times that are needed for many follow-up characterization studies. We investigate ephemeris deterioration for simulated TESS planets and find that the ephemerides of 81% of those will have expired (i.e. 1$\sigma$ mid-transit time uncertainties greater than 30 minutes) one year after their TESS observations. We verify these results using a sample of TESS planet candidates as well. In particular, of the simulated planets that would be recommended as JWST targets by Kempton et al. (2018), $\sim$80% will have mid-transit time uncertainties $>$ 30 minutes by the earliest time JWST would observe them. This rapid deterioration is driven primarily by the relatively short time baseline of TESS observations. We describe strategies for maintaining TESS ephemerides fresh through follow-up transit observations. We find that the longer the baseline between the TESS and the follow-up observations, the longer the ephemerides stay fresh, and that 51% of simulated primary mission TESS planets will require space-based observations. The recently-approved extension to the TESS mission will rescue the ephemerides of most (though not all) primary mission planets, but the benefits of these new observations can only be reaped two years after the primary mission observations. Moreover, the ephemerides of most primary mission TESS planets (as well as those newly discovered during the extended mission) will again have expired by the time future facilities such as the ELTs, Ariel and the possible LUVOIR/OST missions come online, unless maintenance follow-up observations are obtained.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted to AJ; main changes are cross-checking results against the sample of real TOIs, and addressing the impact of the TESS extended missio

POSTER: Towards Secure 5G Infrastructures for Production Systems

To meet the requirements of modern production, industrial communication increasingly shifts from wired fieldbus to wireless 5G communication. Besides tremendous benefits, this shift introduces severe novel risks, ranging from limited reliability over new security vulnerabilities to a lack of accountability. To address these risks, we present approaches to (i) prevent attacks through authentication and redundant communication, (ii) detect anomalies and jamming, and (iii) respond to detected attacks through device exclusion and accountability measures.Comment: Accepted to the poster session of the 22nd International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS 2024