A systems biology analysis of brain microvascular endothelial cell lipotoxicity.

BackgroundNeurovascular inflammation is associated with a number of neurological diseases including vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, which are increasingly important causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. Lipotoxicity is a metabolic disorder that results from accumulation of lipids, particularly fatty acids, in non-adipose tissue leading to cellular dysfunction, lipid droplet formation, and cell death.ResultsOur studies indicate for the first time that the neurovascular circulation also can manifest lipotoxicity, which could have major effects on cognitive function. The penetration of integrative systems biology approaches is limited in this area of research, which reduces our capacity to gain an objective insight into the signal transduction and regulation dynamics at a systems level. To address this question, we treated human microvascular endothelial cells with triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRL) lipolysis products and then we used genome-wide transcriptional profiling to obtain transcript abundances over four conditions. We then identified regulatory genes and their targets that have been differentially expressed through analysis of the datasets with various statistical methods. We created a functional gene network by exploiting co-expression observations through a guilt-by-association assumption. Concomitantly, we used various network inference algorithms to identify putative regulatory interactions and we integrated all predictions to construct a consensus gene regulatory network that is TGRL lipolysis product specific.ConclusionSystem biology analysis has led to the validation of putative lipid-related targets and the discovery of several genes that may be implicated in lipotoxic-related brain microvascular endothelial cell responses. Here, we report that activating transcription factors 3 (ATF3) is a principal regulator of TGRL lipolysis products-induced gene expression in human brain microvascular endothelial cell

An integrative, multi-scale, genome-wide model reveals the phenotypic landscape of Escherichia coli.

Given the vast behavioral repertoire and biological complexity of even the simplest organisms, accurately predicting phenotypes in novel environments and unveiling their biological organization is a challenging endeavor. Here, we present an integrative modeling methodology that unifies under a common framework the various biological processes and their interactions across multiple layers. We trained this methodology on an extensive normalized compendium for the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli, which incorporates gene expression data for genetic and environmental perturbations, transcriptional regulation, signal transduction, and metabolic pathways, as well as growth measurements. Comparison with measured growth and high-throughput data demonstrates the enhanced ability of the integrative model to predict phenotypic outcomes in various environmental and genetic conditions, even in cases where their underlying functions are under-represented in the training set. This work paves the way toward integrative techniques that extract knowledge from a variety of biological data to achieve more than the sum of their parts in the context of prediction, analysis, and redesign of biological systems

IoT Enhancements for an In-house Calm Computing Environment

This article describes IOT enhancements in a smart house so as to provide a calm computing environment. Experimental studies using a portable wireless EEG-casket indicate that the habitants’ calmness can increase with simple, yet effective reinforcements in the existing in-house infrastructure. A ground robot assists by providing services and spherical video feedback to the humans while remaining out of visual contact to them. Wireless sensors measuring the sound level, luminosity, humidity, CO, temperature, and pressure assist in the calmness. At the same time, the persons’ heart rate and their interaction with their smartphones is monitored resulting in appropriate actions. A Google-hub enabled device provides actions to the robot, a loudspeaker, an air-cooling device and powers up smart power outlets

Development of a Versatile Modular Platform for Aerial Manipulators

The scope of this chapter is the development of an aerial manipulator platform using an octarotor drone with an attached manipulator. An on-board spherical camera provides visual information for the drone’s surroundings, while a Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera system is used to track targets. A powerful computer with a GPU offers significant on-board computational power for the visual servoing of the aerial manipulator system. This vision system, along with the Inertial Management Unit based controller provides exemplary guidance in confined and outdoor spaces. Coupled with the manipulator’s force sensing capabilities the system can interact with the environment. This aerial manipulation system is modular as far as attaching various payloads depending on the application (i.e., environmental sensing, facade cleaning and others, aerial netting for evader-drone geofencing, and others). Experimental studies using a motion capture system are offered to validate the system’s efficiency

Developing BIOTEL: A Semi-Automated Spreadsheet for Estimating Telomere Length and Biological Age

Introduction: Telomere length (TL) is causally related to aging and several age-related diseases. Specifically, the abundance of short telomeres and the rate of telomere shortening are strong determinants of cell homeostasis. Thus, tools for analyzing and manipulating TL data can vastly improve research focused on aging. Aim: In this study, we developed a semi-automated worksheet, BIOTEL, to generate individual and group TL statistics and provide a crude estimation of biological age.Results: Data from the Telomere Length Database Project (TLDP) were implemented to the spreadsheet to produce TL statistics. 150 participants were included, and their age was from 21 to 82 years, and the sex distribution ratio was 52.3%: 47.7% (male: female). Initially, we analyzed the fluorescence intensities of telomeres that were measured on metaphase spread leukocytes using three-dimensional (3D) quantitative-fluorescent in situ hybridization (Q-FISH) procedures (3D DNA FISH) with a (C3TA2)3 peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe. Raw data of fluorescence intensities, demographic data and medical records from the participants were imported into the worksheet. Basic statistical analyses of TL data were provided through BIOTEL, including TL percentiles, specialized charts for TL distribution including the percentage of critically short telomeres (< 3,000 kilobases), individual telomere profiles, and graphs of biological age vs. chronological age.Conclusion: BIOTEL ver. 2.4 is a functional semi-automated worksheet that calculates a wide range of TL statistics, thus a useful tool with applications in research of telomeres and biological age estimation

Inmate cancer patients – highlighting the importance of a holistic approach to oncological care

Purpose: Inmate oncologic patients' rates increased drastically worldwide. Elderly, limited exercise, unhealthy diet, hepatitis, HIV+ status, tobacco and alcohol use, constitute the main cancer risk factors. We present an outline of practical oncological management and ethical thinking, in the specific environment of a detention facility. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials, SCOPUS and grey literature were extensively searched upto October 2021. Ιncarcerated oncologic patients experiencevarious everyday challenges:their confinement in high securityfacilities, the lack of access to critical care and related ethicaldilemmas inherent to the context of a correctional facility. Results: The detention facilities may be inadequate in providing early cancer diagnosis and appropriate care mainlydue to a lack of specialized personnel, b) in-house or in external specialized cancer hospitals, care variability (e.g. admissions in small local or regional hospitals), c) delays inproviding access and d) gatekeeper systems. There is a paucity of administration of a) systemic therapy(chemotherapy, targeted drug therapy etc), b) radiotherapy, c)palliative care, and d) enrollment in clinical trials.  Conclusions: Correctional facilities must encourage teamwork between healthcare and correctional professionals inorder to improve the provided anticancer care

MODELLING AND ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF TENDON-DRIVEN MICROMANIPULATORS IN THE PRESENCE OF VAN-DER-WAALS FORCES

ABSTRACT In this article, the design problem of an adaptive controller for a robotic micromanipulator, including the effects of the applied Van der Waals (VdW) forces is considered. The micromanipulator's dynamic model is appropriately modified in order to include the interaction of the attractive VdW-forces. Inhere, every link is decomposed into a series of elementary particles (e.g. spheres), each one interacting with the robot's neighboring objects during its motion. This interaction induces nonlinear additive terms in the model, attributed to the overall effect of the VdW-forces. The actuation is achieved by a tendon-driven system. At each joint, a pair of tendons is attached and act in an almost passive antagonistic manner. The kinematic and dynamic analysis of the tendon-driven actuation mechanism is offered. Consequently, the microrobot's model is shown to be linearly parameterizable. Subject to this observation, a globally stabilizable adaptive control scheme is derived, estimating the unknown parameters (masses, generalized VdW-forces) and compensating any variations of those. Simulation studies on a 2-DOF micromanipulator are offered to highlight the effectiveness of the proposed scheme

Modeling and control of micro/nano robotic systems

he present PhD thesis has a key object the modeling and control of a micro robotic manipulator, represented by spherical particles in an environment with external Van Der Waals forces and taking friction into account. The main points are a) the insertion of the external forces in the micro robot model, b) the adaptive control used in order to follow a desired trajectory, with identification and cancellation of the external forces, the position identification and avoidance of obstacles in an unstructured micrometer scale environment and the trajectory planning towards a target point in the task space of the microrobot. Also a tendon like actuation system is proposed, using nanowires and its mechanical properties are studied in order to determine the viability of its use in relation to the required torques during the control process. For the external force identification scheme, various types of estimators are proposed and their efficiency in the system is studied. - See more at: http://nemertes.lis.upatras.gr/jspui/handle/10889/5706#sthash.ibBNTqWx.dpufΗ παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή έχει ως κύριο αντικείμενο μελέτης την μοντελοποίηση και έλεγχο ενός μικρορομποτικού βραχίονα αναλυόμενου σε σφαιρικά πεπερασμένα στοιχεία σε περιβάλλον με εξωτερικές δυνάμεις Van Der Waals και συνυπολογίζοντας την τριβή. Τα κύρια σημεία είναι η εισαγωγή των εξωτερικών δυνάμεων στο μοντέλο του μικρορομπότ, η δημιουργία προσαρμοστικού ελέγχου για την επίτευξη ακολουθίας τροχιάς με αναγνώριση και ακύρωση των ισχυρών μεταβαλλόμενων εξωτερικών δυνάμεων, η αναγνώριση της θέσης και η αποφυγή εμποδίων σε άγνωστο περιβάλλον κλίμακας μικρομέτρων και ο καθορισμός τροχιάς για προσέγγιση σημείων στον χώρο εργασίας του μικρορομπότ. Προτείνεται επίσης ένα σύστημα επενέργησης σε διάταξη τένοντα με νανοκαλώδια και γίνεται μελέτη της αντοχής του σε σχέση με τις μέγιστες δυνάμεις-ροπές που παρουσιάζονται κατά τον έλεγχο. Για την αναγνώριση των εξωτερικών δυνάμεων δοκιμάζονται διαφορετικά είδη εκτιμητών και εξετάζεται η απόδοσή τους στο συνολικό σύστημα. - See more at: http://nemertes.lis.upatras.gr/jspui/handle/10889/5706#sthash.ibBNTqWx.dpu

Scout movement and political components in Greece during the 20th century: the archives of Scouts of Greece

The direct involvement of Scouting in the field of social and political education and in the formation of similar consciousness among young people, makes this Movement interesting both historically and politically. The aim of the thesis was to investigate and document the relationships of the Scout Movement with the political situation and the respective state authority since its creation in 1910 until 1950 in Greece. The Greek Bibliography on Scouting was too limited. However, archival and live survey revealed a volume of unclassified and unexplored material in Greece, as well as files from Great Britain. The Scouting phenomenon in Greece has been approached through its ideological and po-litical components, studying at the same time its institutional tradition, which is the influence exerted by the institutions in its subsequent development. The methodological approach to the Greek 20th century was performed through its great historical and political sections, namely the 1909 Movement, the National Schism, the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the Occupation and the Civil War. The conclusion of the study, which is documented with indisputable evidence, is that the interests of the ruling classes internationally required the creation of an extracurricular edu-cation system for youth that mainly belonged to the middle class, which through the years became a physical, emotional and social empowerment movement, as well as a business of physical, ideological and political manipulation. The development of Scouting in Greece and its dynamics in youth, quickly led the move-ment to the zone of influence of state power centers. The main feature and political practice of the respective politic power in Greece was an attempt to manipulate and rule Scouting, always having as final purpose the manipulation of Greek youth through extracurricular edu-cation. Greek Scouting endured and coped with the interventions received from state power and the occasional ideological excesses of its leadership, especially due to the institutional characteristics acquired during the period of its configuration and which preserved its democratic origins, offering both reason and substance to the education of youth until today.Η άμεση εμπλοκή του Προσκοπισμού στο πεδίο της κοινωνικής και πολιτικής διαπαιδα-γώγησης και στη διαμόρφωση ανάλογης συνείδησης στους νέους, καθιστά την Κίνηση αυτή ενδιαφέρουσα από ιστορική και πολιτική άποψη. Σκοπός της διατριβής ήταν η διερεύνηση και τεκμηρίωση των σχέσεων της Προσκοπικής Κίνησης με την πολιτική συγκυρία και την εκάστοτε κρατική εξουσία από την ίδρυσή της το 1910, έως το 1950 στην Ελλάδα. Η ελληνική Βιβλιογραφία για τον Προσκοπισμό υπήρξε υπερβολικά περιορισμένη. Ω-στόσο η Αρχειακή και η δια ζώσης έρευνα, ανέδειξε έναν όγκο αταξινόμητου και ανεξερεύ-νητου υλικού στην Ελλάδα, αλλά και σε αρχεία από την Μεγάλη Βρετανία. Προσεγγίστηκε το φαινόμενο του Προσκοπισμού στην Ελλάδα μέσα από τις ιδεολογικές και πολιτικές του συνιστώσες, εξετάζοντας παράλληλα και την θεσμική του παράδοση, δη-λαδή την επιρροή που άσκησαν οι θεσμοί στην κατοπινή του εξέλιξη. Η μεθοδολογική προσέγγιση στον ελληνικό 20ο αιώνα, έγινε μέσα από τις μεγάλες ιστο-ρικές και πολιτικές τομές του, δηλαδή το Κίνημα του 1909, τον Εθνικό Διχασμό, την Μι-κρασιατική Καταστροφή, την Κατοχή και τον Εμφύλιο. Το συμπέρασμα της έρευνας , το οποίο τεκμηριώνεται με αδιαμφισβήτητα τεκμήρια, είναι πως το συμφέρον των κυρίαρχων τάξεων διεθνώς, επέβαλλε την δημιουργία ενός εξωσχολι-κού συστήματος αγωγής για τη νεολαία των μικροαστικών κυρίως στρωμάτων, το οποίο όμως μετεξελίχθηκε σε κίνημα σωματικής, συναισθηματικής και κοινωνικής χειραφέτησης, αλλά και επιχείρηση φυσικής, ιδεολογικής και πολιτικής χειραγώγησης. Η εξάπλωση του Προσκοπισμού στην Ελλάδα και η δυναμική του στη νεολαία, γρήγορα τον οδήγησαν στη σφαίρα επιρροής κρατικών κέντρων εξουσίας. Κύριο χαρακτηριστικό και πολιτική πρακτική της εκάστοτε πολιτικής εξουσίας στην Ελλάδα, υπήρξε η προσπάθεια να ποδηγετήσει και να ηγεμονεύσει τον Προσκοπισμό, έχοντας πάντοτε σαν τελικό σκοπό την χειραγώγηση της ελληνικής νεολαίας μέσω και της εξωσχολικής αγωγής. Ο Ελληνικός Προσκοπισμός άντεξε και αντεπεξήλθε στις επεμβάσεις που δέχτηκε από την κρατική εξουσία και τις κατά καιρούς ιδεολογικές παρεκτροπές της ηγεσίας του, κυρίως λόγω των θεσμικών χαρακτηριστικών που απέκτησε κατά τη διαμορφωτική του περίοδο και που διαφύλαξαν τις δημοκρατικές καταβολές του, προσφέροντάς του συγχρόνως λόγο και ουσία στη διαπαιδαγώγηση των νέων μέχρι και σήμερα