Transmitter and Receiver Architectures for Molecular Communications: A Survey on Physical Design with Modulation, Coding, and Detection Techniques

Inspired by nature, molecular communications (MC), i.e., the use of molecules to encode, transmit, and receive information, stands as the most promising communication paradigm to realize the nanonetworks. Even though there has been extensive theoretical research toward nanoscale MC, there are no examples of implemented nanoscale MC networks. The main reason for this lies in the peculiarities of nanoscale physics, challenges in nanoscale fabrication, and highly stochastic nature of the biochemical domain of envisioned nanonetwork applications. This mandates developing novel device architectures and communication methods compatible with MC constraints. To that end, various transmitter and receiver designs for MC have been proposed in the literature together with numerable modulation, coding, and detection techniques. However, these works fall into domains of a very wide spectrum of disciplines, including, but not limited to, information and communication theory, quantum physics, materials science, nanofabrication, physiology, and synthetic biology. Therefore, we believe it is imperative for the progress of the field that an organized exposition of cumulative knowledge on the subject matter can be compiled. Thus, to fill this gap, in this comprehensive survey, we review the existing literature on transmitter and receiver architectures toward realizing MC among nanomaterial-based nanomachines and/or biological entities and provide a complete overview of modulation, coding, and detection techniques employed for MC. Moreover, we identify the most significant shortcomings and challenges in all these research areas and propose potential solutions to overcome some of them.This work was supported in part by the European Research Council (ERC) Projects MINERVA under Grant ERC-2013-CoG #616922 and MINERGRACE under Grant ERC-2017-PoC #780645

Performance analysis for capacitive electrical neural interfaces

Neural interfaces will pave the way for novel treatment methods for neural disorders, which are due to communication problems in nervous system. Such disorders include spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer's and Multiple Sclerosis. In this work, we present a novel neural stimulator, which will act as the transmitter part of a neural interface. We perform in detail physical analysis of such a device for the first time, considering the electrostatic and capacitive effects. We also establish the stimulation requirements of the post-synaptic neuron and support our findings with COMSOL simulations. This work will pave the way to the design of more efficient neural stimulators.This work was supported in part by the ERC project MINERVA (ERC-2013-CoG #616922), and the ERC Project MINERGRACE (ERC-2018-PoC #780645)

TRIM5-mediated retrovirus restriction is modulated by type I interferon.

Since the identification in 2004 of the interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) tripartite motif-containing protein 5 α (TRIM5α) from rhesus macaques as a restriction factor preventing HIV-1 infection in these monkeys, the antiretroviral activity of several primate TRIM5α orthologs against HIV-1 has been described, establishing the model that TRIM5α inhibits retroviral infection in a species-specific manner, preventing host cell infection by retroviruses from different species through fragmentation of incoming viral capsids and the activation of innate immune pathways. However, the long held dogma that retroviruses have evolved to evade the TRIM5α ortholog present in species to which they are endemic has recently changed by the identification of human TRIM5α as a major determinant in the Type 1 IFNinduced suppression of HIV-1 replication, presumably contributing to the immune control of HIV-1 in infected humans. Given that IFN levels are elevated during natural retrovirus infection and that IFN treatment enables human TRIM5α restriction of HIV-1, we evaluated the IFN-induced restriction of distinct retroviruses in presence of TRIM5α orthologues from different primate species. To this end, we ectopically expressed different TRIM5α orthologues in human U87 cells where endogenous TRIM5α and MX2 expression had been ablated using CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing, and then challenged with a wide range of GFP-encoding retrovirus-based vectors in the presence or absence of IFN. This approach reveals that IFN treatment changes the patterns of TRIM5α-mediated retrovirus restriction, suggesting that the role of TRIM5α in retrovirus infection should be re-examined under conditions that more closely mimic those encountered during natural virus infection.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Massive retroperitoneal tubercular abscess mimicking a leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm: a case report

In spite of being a common diagnosis in the patients of Asian origin, atypical presentations of tuberculosis may pose diagnostic challenges. We report a huge prevertebral abscess in a 30-year-old female, mimicking a leaking aortic aneurysm. The patient was managed successfully by emergency decompression and stabilization. The issues related to poor patient compliance to chemotherapy and management of atypical presentations of spinal tuberculosis are discussed here

Corporate governance compliance and disclosure in the banking sector: using data from Japan

Using regression model this study investigates which characteristics of a bank is associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure in Japan. The findings suggest that on average 8 banks out of a sample of 46 disclose optimal corporate governance information. The regression model results reveal in general that non-executive directors, cross-ownership, capital adequacy ratio and type of auditors are associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure. Of these four variables, non-executive directors have a more significant impact on the extent of disclosure contrary to total assets and audit firms of banks in the context of Japan. The findings of this paper are relevant for corporate regulators, professional associations and developers of corporate governance code when designing or updating corporate governance code