Macrophage polarization impacts tunneling nanotube formation and intercellular organelle trafficking.

Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are cellular extensions enabling cytosol-to-cytosol intercellular interaction between numerous cell types including macrophages. Previous studies of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) transplantation for the lysosomal storage disorder cystinosis have shown that HSPC-derived macrophages form TNTs to deliver cystinosin-bearing lysosomes to cystinotic cells, leading to tissue preservation. Here, we explored if macrophage polarization to either proinflammatory M1-like M(LPS/IFNγ) or anti-inflammatory M2-like M(IL-4/IL-10) affected TNT-like protrusion formation, intercellular transport and, ultimately, the efficacy of cystinosis prevention. We designed new automated image processing algorithms used to demonstrate that LPS/IFNγ polarization decreased bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) formation of protrusions, some of which displayed characteristics of TNTs, including cytoskeletal structure, 3D morphology and size. In contrast, co-culture of macrophages with cystinotic fibroblasts yielded more frequent and larger protrusions, as well as increased lysosomal and mitochondrial intercellular trafficking to the diseased fibroblasts. Unexpectedly, we observed normal protrusion formation and therapeutic efficacy following disruption of anti-inflammatory IL-4/IL-10 polarization in vivo by transplantation of HSPCs isolated from the Rac2-/- mouse model. Altogether, we developed unbiased image quantification systems that probe mechanistic aspects of TNT formation and function in vitro, while HSPC transplantation into cystinotic mice provides a complex in vivo disease model. While the differences between polarization cell culture and mouse models exemplify the oversimplicity of in vitro cytokine treatment, they simultaneously demonstrate the utility of our co-culture model which recapitulates the in vivo phenomenon of diseased cystinotic cells stimulating thicker TNT formation and intercellular trafficking from macrophages. Ultimately, we can use both approaches to expand the utility of TNT-like protrusions as a delivery system for regenerative medicine

Single core configurations of saturated core fault current limiter performance of laboratory test models

Economic growth with industrialization and urbanization lead to an extensive increase in power demand. It forced the utilities to add power generating facilities to cause the necessary demand-generation balance. The bulk power generating stations, mostly interconnected, with the penetration of distributed generation result in an enormous rise in the fault level of power networks. It necessitates for electrical utilities to control the fault current so that the existing switchgear can continue its services without up-gradation or replacement for reliable supply. The deployment of fault current limiter (FCL) at the distribution and transmission networks has been under investigation as a potential solution to the problem. A saturated core fault current limiter (SCFCL) technology is a smart, scalable, efficient, reliable, and commercially viable option to manage fault levels in existing and future MV/HV supply systems. This paper presents the comparative performance analysis of two single-core SCFCL topologies impressed with different core saturations. It has demonstrated that the single AC winding configuration needs more bias power for affecting the same current limiting performance with an acceptable steady-state voltage drop contribution. The fault state impedance has a transient nature, and the optimum bias selection is a critical design parameter in realizing the SCFCL applications

High-level feature detection from video in TRECVid: a 5-year retrospective of achievements

Successful and effective content-based access to digital video requires fast, accurate and scalable methods to determine the video content automatically. A variety of contemporary approaches to this rely on text taken from speech within the video, or on matching one video frame against others using low-level characteristics like colour, texture, or shapes, or on determining and matching objects appearing within the video. Possibly the most important technique, however, is one which determines the presence or absence of a high-level or semantic feature, within a video clip or shot. By utilizing dozens, hundreds or even thousands of such semantic features we can support many kinds of content-based video navigation. Critically however, this depends on being able to determine whether each feature is or is not present in a video clip. The last 5 years have seen much progress in the development of techniques to determine the presence of semantic features within video. This progress can be tracked in the annual TRECVid benchmarking activity where dozens of research groups measure the effectiveness of their techniques on common data and using an open, metrics-based approach. In this chapter we summarise the work done on the TRECVid high-level feature task, showing the progress made year-on-year. This provides a fairly comprehensive statement on where the state-of-the-art is regarding this important task, not just for one research group or for one approach, but across the spectrum. We then use this past and on-going work as a basis for highlighting the trends that are emerging in this area, and the questions which remain to be addressed before we can achieve large-scale, fast and reliable high-level feature detection on video

DETERMINATION OF ALPRAZOLAM AND FLUOXETINE HCl FROM SPIKED RAT PLASMA USING HPTLC WITH UV DETECTION

Objective: The main aim of this study was to develop a rapid, simple and selective validated high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method with UV detection for the estimation of alprazolam and fluoxetine HCl from spiked rat plasma.Methods: In this method, a mixture of acetonitrile and chloroform (2:4 v/v) was employed as the solvent for extraction of alprazolam and fluoxetine HCl from spiked rat plasma samples with good sample recovery. The separation was achieved on a 20 cm x10 cm TLC plate precoated with silica gel 60F254, the 250μm thickness on aluminium sheets employing a mobile phase consisting of ethyl acetate: toluene: methanol: ammonia (4:3:1:0.1v/v/v/v). The densitometric evaluation was performed at 230 nm. The developed method was validated as per the recommendations of USFDA Guidance for Industry: Bioanalytical Method Validation.Results: The Rf value were observed at 0.48±0.04 and 0.17±0.02 for alprazolam and fluoxetine HCl respectively. The calibration curves were linear in the range of 40-100 ng/μl for both drugs with regression coefficients (r2) of 0.9910 and 0.9932 for alprazolam and fluoxetine HCl respectively. In the intraday and interday precision study, the % CV was less than 15. Results of recovery studies prove the extraction efficiency of the proposed method. Stability data indicated that both alprazolam and fluoxetine HCl were stable in plasma after three freeze-thaw cycles and upon storage at -20 °C for 1 w.Conclusion: In the proposed method, the rapid, single step extraction of drugs from plasma samples coupled with the simple HPTLC-UV chromatographic conditions makes the method cost effective and suitable for analysis of a large number of binary samples of alprazolam and fluoxetine HCl in plasma.Keywords: Alprazolam, Fluoxetine HCl, Bioanalytical method, Liquid-liquid extraction, HPTLC, Spiked rat plasm

Estimation and Control of Autonomous Racing Drone

Autonomous Drone Racing (ADR) is an annual competition, organized at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), in which research groups all over the world participate to demonstrate the state-of-the-art technology in the autonomous aerial robotics field. This work describes the system development of the Autonomous Racing Drone System for the IROS ADR competition. A gate detection based, computationally light-weight visual-inertial localization (VIL) system is developed. We show that the proposed VIL system has a significantly lower memory usage than the state-of-the-art Monocular VIO systems which makes it suitable to run on resource constraint hardware. A non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) strategy is implemented for high-speed way-point navigation of the racing drone. We show that the NMPC strategy provides better trajectory tracking performance as compared with the traditional PD controller. The VIL system proposed in this work was utilized in the autonomous drone racing system which won the second-place in the IROS ADR 2019, Macau competition

Experimental and CFD Study on Natural Circulation Phenomenon in Lead Bismuth Eutectic Loop

AbstractA test loop, HANS (Heavy metal Alloy Natural circulation Study loop) is installed in BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) for thermal hydraulic, instrumentation development and material compatibility related studies in Lead Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) coolant. Steady state natural circulation characteristics in the LBE loop were investigated at different power levels. Significant natural convection flow was observed in the experiments. It was found that the natural circulation was easily established and stabilized. It took only a few minutes to have a stable natural circulation at a constant power level. The natural circulation flow rate depends on the loop resistance and the temperature difference between the hot leg and the cold leg, as determined by the power level and the heat sink capacity. The heater power is varied from 1200W to 2700W and the temperature difference found across the heater is 80°C to 165oC. The natural circulation in the loop is simulated in a CFD code PHOENICS. The predictions of PHOENICS code are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data