Immunomodulatory effects of tick saliva on dermal cells exposed to \u3cem\u3eBorrelia burgdorferi\u3c/em\u3e, the agent of Lyme disease

Background: The prolonged feeding process of ixodid ticks, in combination with bacterial transmission, should lead to a robust inflammatory response at the blood-feeding site. Yet, factors present in tick saliva may down-regulate such responses, which may be beneficial to spirochete transmission. The primary goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that tick saliva, in the context of Borrelia burgdorferi, can have widespread effects on the production of immune mediators in skin. Methods: A cross-section of tick feeding on skin was examined histologically. Human THP-1 cells stimulated with B. burgdorferi and grown in the presence or absence of tick saliva were examined by human DNA microarray, cytokine bead array, sandwich ELISA, and qRT-PCR. Similar experiments were also conducted using dermal fibroblasts. Results: Tick feeding on skin showed dermal infiltration of histiocytes and granulocytes at the bite location. Changes in monocytic transcript levels during co-culture with B. burgdorferi and saliva indicated that tick saliva had a suppressive effect on the expression of certain pro-inflammatory mediators, such as IL-8 (CXCL8) and TLR2, but had a stimulatory effect on specific molecules such as the Interleukin 10 receptor, alpha subunit (IL-10RA), a known mediator of the immunosuppressive signal of IL-10. Stimulated cell culture supernatants were analyzed via antigen-capture ELISA and cytokine bead array for inflammatory mediator production. Treatment of monocytes with saliva significantly reduced the expression of several key mediators including IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha. Tick saliva had an opposite effect on dermal fibroblasts. Rather than inhibiting, saliva enhanced production of pro-inflammatory mediators, including IL-8 and IL-6 from these sentinel skin cells. Conclusions: The effects of ixodid tick saliva on resident skin cells is cell type-dependent. The response to both tick and pathogen at the site of feeding favors pathogen transmission, but may not be wholly suppressed by tick saliva

Simulation of Leaping, Tumbling, Landing, and Balancing Humans

This thesis describes an approach for generating transitions between simulated human behaviors in which the designer concentrates effort on the creation of parameterized basis behaviors that can be combined together in an automatic fashion. The parameterization allows the generation of a wide variety of motions from a single basis behavior. If the behaviors are well designed, the exit states of one leaves the simulated character in a valid initial state for the next. This nesting of the input and output states allows easy transitions between behaviors and the generation of many complex behaviors from a small set of basis behaviors. I demonstrate this approach with four basis behaviors: leaping, tumbling, landing, and balancing. Each parameterized control system allows the user to specify properties of the desired behavior such as how high or far to jump and the number of somersaults to perform. I demonstrate transitions between the basis controllers by generating a diverse set of behaviors, including a standing broad jump, vertical leap, forward somersault, backward somersault, back handspring, and various platform dives

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Animation of Human Diving

The motion of a human platform diver was simulated using a dynamic model and a control system. The dynamic model has 32 actuated degrees of freedom and dynamic parameters within the range of those reported in the literature for humans. The control system uses algorithms for balance, jumping, and twisting to initiate the dive, sequences of desired values for proportional--derivative servos to perform the aerial portion of the dive, and a state machine to sequence the actions throughout the dive. The motion of the simulated diver closely resembles video footage of dives performed by human athletes. The control and simulation techniques presented in this paper are useful for providing realistic motion for synthetic actors in computer animations and virtual environments and may someday be useful for analysis of sports performance. 1. Introduction In this paper, we explore dynamic simulation as a technique for generating animations of an Olympic sport, platform diving. The simulated diver ..

Animating human athletics

This paper describes algorithms for the animation of men and women performing three dynamic athletic behaviors: running, bicycling, and vaulting. We animate these behaviors using control algorithms that cause a physically realistic model to perform the desired maneuver. For example, control algorithms allow the simulated humans to maintain balance while moving their arms, to run or bicycle at a variety of speeds, and to perform a handspring vault. Algorithms for group behaviors allow a number of simulated bicyclists to ride as a group while avoiding simple patterns of obstacles. We add secondary motion to the animations with springmass simulations of clothing driven by the rigid-body motion of the simulated human. For each simulation, we compare the computed motion to that of humans performing similar maneuvers both qualitatively through the comparison of real and simulated video images and quantitatively through the comparison of simulated and biomechanical data. Key Words and Phrases: computer animation, human motion, motion control, dynamic simulation, physically realistic modeling

ABSTRACT Animating Human Athletics

This paper describes algorithms for the animation of men and women performing three dynamic athletic behaviors: running, bicycling, and vaulting. We animate these behaviors using control algorithms that cause a physically realistic model to perform the desired maneuver. For example, control algorithms allow the simulated humans to maintain balance while moving their arms, to run or bicycle at a variety of speeds, and to perform a handspring vault. Algorithms for group behaviors allow a number of simulated bicyclists to ride as a group while avoiding simple patterns of obstacles. We add secondary motion to the animations with springmass simulations of clothing driven by the rigid-body motion of the simulated human. For each simulation, we compare the computed motion to that of humans performing similar maneuvers both qualitatively through the comparison of real and simulated video images and quantitatively through the comparison of simulated and biomechanical data. Key Words and Phrases: computer animation, human motion, motion control, dynamic simulation, physically realistic modeling

Simulation of Human Diving

In this paper we describe a dynamic model and control system for a human platform diver. The dynamic model is a 38 degree-of-freedom rigid body model with dynamic parameters similar to those given in the literature for humans. The control system uses a state machine, algorithms for balance, and proportional-derivative servos to balance the model on a 10 meter platform, to generate the angular velocity for the dive, and to perform the maneuvers required during the dive. The motion of the simulated divers closely resembles video footage of dives performed by human athletes. The control and simulation techniques presented in this paper will be useful for analysis of sports performance and as a source of realistic motion for synthetic actors

Transitions between dynamically simulated motions

Animating characters for video games is a challenge because a good game requires a wide variety of appealing character motion and realistic responses to unpredictable user input. Video game systems usually generate continuous action by selecting an appropriate motion from a library of data and then smoothly interpolating between the current motion and the newly selected motion. We present an alternative, simulation-based approach that computes the desired motion by making smooth transitions between a set of parameterized basis control systems. One potential advantage of dynamic simulation is that a basis control system can be parameterized to produce a variety of motions [1]. We use the term basis controller to describe a control system for a speci c low-level task such as leaping, tumbling, landing, or balancing. Each basis control system provides a set of parameters for modifying the desired behavior. For example, the basis controller for leaping allows the speci cation of the height and the distance of the jump. To produce the equivalent range of behavior using a motion library, anumber of jumping sequences would have tobeinterpolated. By using a sequence of basis controllers, we can create a wider variety of motions for more complex tasks. Control systems can be designed so that the exit state of one control system usually leaves the simulation in a valid initial state for the next control system, making transitions easy to achieve [2]. We demonstrate the basis control systems and transitions between them by generating a diverse set of behaviors for a male and female character, including an inward 2-1/2 somersault pike, standing forward and backward somersaults, a handspring, and vari

Simulation of Human Diving

In this paper we describe an animation of a human platform diver. We simulated the motion of the diver using a dynamic model and a control system. The dynamic model is a 32 degree-of-freedom rigid body model with dynamic parameters similar to those reported in the literature for humans. The control system uses algorithms for balance, jumping, and twisting to initiate the dive, proportionalderivative servos to perform the aerial portion of the dive, and a state machine to sequence the actions throughout the dive. The motion of the simulated diver closely resembles video footage of dives performed by human athletes. The combination of dynamic simulation and a control system allowed us to animate the diver using high level commands. The control and simulation techniques presented in this paper may be useful for analysis of sports performance and for providing realistic motion for synthetic actors in computer animation and virtual environments. Keywords: Human Figure Animation, Simulatio..