Improving usability in pan gateways by means of a novel Bluetooth pairing method

This thesis investigates the usability issues surrounding an implementation of the Personal Area Network (PAN) Gateway, a new concept in mobile communications. The PAN Gateway device consists of a GSM/GPRS modem and a Bluetooth modem. The Bluetooth modem is used to link mobile devices to form a PAN and the GSM/GPRS modem is used to link the PAN to external networks. The possible Man Machine Interfaces for the PAN Gateway are discussed together with the usability of existing Bluetooth devices. A weakness was discovered in the usability and security of Bluetooth Pairing in existing mobile devices and this led to the development of the "Touch and Find" system and the Pairing Link Protocol. The "Touch and Find" system interacts with the Bluetooth stack and allows simple, intuitive pairing of Bluetooth devices via a serial link. A full duplex serial link was implemented using simple electrical contacts to provide the link. Inductive coupling and infrared solutions were also developed. The Pairing Link Protocol specifies the signal flow for the "Touch and Find" process. The "Touch and Find" system that was implemented using simple electrical contacts shows how simple Bluetooth pairing can be. Pairing is simply carried out by briefly touching together the devices to be paired. The "Touch and Find" system was implemented in C on Borland C++ and used in conjunction with TTPCom's Bluetooth development system, which consists of a "Mad Cow" evaluation board and Genie - a Bluetooth development tool. The research carried out demonstrates the feasibility of the "Touch and Find" system over a variety of physical mediums. The system greatly improves the usability of Bluetooth Pairing, thus improving the "Out of Box" experience. It is likely that the Inductive solution can be extended to enable battery charging across the "Touch and Find" Inductive interface, further enhancing the "value added" capabilities of this system

Stem cell-derived porcine macrophages as a new platform for studying host-pathogen interactions

BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases of farmed and wild animals pose a recurrent threat to food security and human health. The macrophage, a key component of the innate immune system, is the first line of defence against many infectious agents and plays a major role in shaping the adaptive immune response. However, this phagocyte is a target and host for many pathogens. Understanding the molecular basis of interactions between macrophages and pathogens is therefore crucial for the development of effective strategies to combat important infectious diseases. RESULTS: We explored how porcine pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) can provide a limitless in vitro supply of genetically and experimentally tractable macrophages. Porcine PSC-derived macrophages (PSCdMs) exhibited molecular and functional characteristics of ex vivo primary macrophages and were productively infected by pig pathogens, including porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and African swine fever virus (ASFV), two of the most economically important and devastating viruses in pig farming. Moreover, porcine PSCdMs were readily amenable to genetic modification by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing applied either in parental stem cells or directly in the macrophages by lentiviral vector transduction. CONCLUSIONS: We show that porcine PSCdMs exhibit key macrophage characteristics, including infection by a range of commercially relevant pig pathogens. In addition, genetic engineering of PSCs and PSCdMs affords new opportunities for functional analysis of macrophage biology in an important livestock species. PSCs and differentiated derivatives should therefore represent a useful and ethical experimental platform to investigate the genetic and molecular basis of host-pathogen interactions in pigs, and also have wider applications in livestock. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12915-021-01217-8

Beyond T Staging in the “Treat-All” Era: Severity and Heterogeneity of Kaposi Sarcoma in East Africa

BackgroundAlthough many patients with Kaposi sarcoma (KS) in sub-Saharan Africa are diagnosed with AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) T1 disease, T1 staging insufficiently captures clinical heterogeneity of advanced KS. Using a representative community-based sample, we detailed disease severity at diagnosis to inform KS staging and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa.MethodsWe performed rapid case ascertainment on people living with HIV, aged 18 years or older, newly diagnosed with KS from 2016 to 2019 at 3 clinic sites in Kenya and Uganda to ascertain disease stage as close as possible to diagnosis. We reported KS severity using ACTG and WHO staging criteria and detailed measurements that are not captured in the current staging systems.ResultsWe performed rapid case ascertainment within 1 month for 241 adults newly diagnosed with KS out of 389 adult patients with suspected KS. The study was 68% men with median age 35 years and median CD4 count 239. Most of the patients had advanced disease, with 82% qualifying as ACTG T1 and 64% as WHO severe/symptomatic KS. The most common ACTG T1 qualifiers were edema (79%), tumor-associated ulceration (24%), extensive oral KS (9%), pulmonary KS (7%), and gastrointestinal KS (4%). There was marked heterogeneity within T1 KS, with 25% of patients having 2 T1 qualifying symptoms and 3% having 3 or more.ConclusionMost of the patients newly diagnosed with KS had advanced stage disease, even in the current antiretroviral therapy "treat-all" era. We observed great clinical heterogeneity among advanced stage patients, leading to questions about whether all patients with advanced KS require the same treatment strategy