Antimicrobial Peptides and Skin: A Paradigm of Translational Medicine

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small, cationic, amphiphilic peptides with broad-spectrum microbicidal activity against both bacteria and fungi. In mammals, AMPs form the first line of host defense against infections and generally play an important role as effector agents of the innate immune system. The AMP era was born more than 6 decades ago when the first cationic cyclic peptide antibiotics, namely polymyxins and tyrothricin, found their way into clinical use. Due to the good clinical experience in the treatment of, for example, infections of mucus membranes as well as the subsequent understanding of mode of action, AMPs are now considered for treatment of inflammatory skin diseases and for improving healing of infected wounds. Based on the preclinical findings, including pathobiochemistry and molecular medicine, targeted therapy strategies are developed and first results indicate that AMPs influence processes of diseased skin. Importantly, in contrast to other antibiotics, AMPs do not seem to propagate the development of antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms. Therefore, AMPs should be tested in clinical trials for their efficacy and tolerability in inflammatory skin diseases and chronic wounds. Apart from possible fields of application, these peptides appear suited as an example of the paradigm of translational medicine for skin diseases which is today seen as a `two-way road' - from bench to bedside and backwards from bedside to bench. Copyright (c) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

Enabling Cyber Physical Systems with Wireless Sensor Networking Technologies

[[abstract]]Over the last few years, we have witnessed a growing interest in Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs) that rely on a strong synergy between computational and physical components. CPSs are expected to have a tremendous impact on many critical sectors (such as energy, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, aerospace, etc) of the economy. CPSs have the ability to transform the way human-to-human, human-toobject, and object-to-object interactions take place in the physical and virtual worlds. The increasing pervasiveness of Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN) technologies in many applications make them an important component of emerging CPS designs. We present some of the most important design requirements of CPS architectures. We discuss key sensor network characteristics that can be leveraged in CPS designs. In addition, we also review a few well-known CPS application domains that depend on WSNs in their design architectures and implementations. Finally, we present some of the challenges that still need to be addressed to enable seamless integration of WSN with CPS designs.[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙

Heterologous Expression of Alteromonas macleodii and Thiocapsa roseopersicina [NiFe] Hydrogenases in Synechococcus elongatus

Oxygen-tolerant [NiFe] hydrogenases may be used in future photobiological hydrogen production systems once the enzymes can be heterologously expressed in host organisms of interest. To achieve heterologous expression of [NiFe] hydrogenases in cyanobacteria, the two hydrogenase structural genes from Alteromonas macleodii Deep ecotype (AltDE), hynS and hynL, along with the surrounding genes in the gene operon of HynSL were cloned in a vector with an IPTG-inducible promoter and introduced into Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942. The hydrogenase protein was expressed at the correct size upon induction with IPTG. The heterologously-expressed HynSL hydrogenase was active when tested by in vitro H2 evolution assay, indicating the correct assembly of the catalytic center in the cyanobacterial host. Using a similar expression system, the hydrogenase structural genes from Thiocapsa roseopersicina (hynSL) and the entire set of known accessory genes were transferred to S. elongatus. A protein of the correct size was expressed but had no activity. However, when the 11 accessory genes from AltDE were co-expressed with hynSL, the T. roseopersicina hydrogenase was found to be active by in vitro assay. This is the first report of active, heterologously-expressed [NiFe] hydrogenases in cyanobacteria

Alexithymia may explain the relationship between autistic traits and eating disorder psychopathology

Background: Autistic people are disproportionately vulnerable to anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders (ED), and within the general population, autistic traits correlate with ED psychopathology. A putative mechanism which may underpin this heightened risk is alexithymia, a difficulty identifying and describing emotional states which is observed in both autism and ED. In two experiments with independent non-clinical samples, we explored whether alexithymia might mediate the heightened risk of eating psychopathology in individuals high in autistic traits. Methods: Our first experiment used the PROCESS macro for SPSS to examine relationships between alexithymia (measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)), autistic traits (autism quotient (AQ)), and eating psychopathology (Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26)) in 121 participants. Our second experiment (n = 300) replicated and furthered this analysis by examining moderating effects of sex and controlling for anxiety and depression as covariates. We also included an additional performance-based measure of alexithymia, the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). Results: Study 1 suggested that TAS-20 scores mediated the relationship between heightened autistic traits and eating psychopathology. Replication and further scrutiny of this finding, in study 2, revealed that this mediation effect was partial and specific to the female participants in this sample. The mediation effect appeared to be carried by the difficulty identifying feelings subscale of the TAS-20, even when depression and anxiety were controlled for. LEAS scores, however, were not significantly related to autistic traits or eating psychopathology. Limitations: Cross-sectional data prevents any conclusions around the direction and causality of relationships between alexithymia, autistic traits, and eating psychopathology (alongside depression and anxiety), necessitating longitudinal research. Our non-clinical sample was predominantly Caucasian undergraduate students, so it remains to be seen if these results would extrapolate to clinical and/or autistic samples. Divergence between the TAS-20 and LEAS raises crucial questions regarding the construct validity of these measures. Conclusions: Our findings with respect to autistic traits suggest that alexithymia could partially explain the prevalence of ED in autistic people and may as such be an important consideration in the pathogenesis and treatment of ED in autistic and non-autistic people alike. Further research with clinical samples is critical to explore these ideas. Differences between men and women, furthermore, emphasize the importance of looking for sexspecific as well as generic risk factors in autistic and non-autistic men and women

Hamiltonian cycles in the generating graphs of finite groups

For a finite group G let Gamma(G) denote the graph defined on the non-identity elements of G in such a way that two distinct vertices are connected by an edge if and only if they generate G. In this paper it is shown that the graph Gamma(G) contains a Hamiltonian cycle for many finite groups G

A New Multilevel Member of Modified CUK Converter Family for Renewable Energy Applications

A new multilevel family member of Modified CUK Converter (MCC) by topping up with Voltage Multiplier (VM) to term as MCCVM is developed in this article. Suitable goal to generate high-voltage output and fits the renewable energy applications. By integrating the specific arrangement of diodes and capacitors in MCC, the voltage gain is boosted in the proposed MCCVM converter. An effective solution for renewable energy applications such as PV, fuel cell, etc. Features of the proposed converter are (a) single switch topology which required simple digital control scheme, (b) low-voltage stress on switch as compare to the output voltage, (c) continuous input current, (d) inverted output with respective to the input voltage. The operating principle, the mathematical derivation of proposed MCCVM converter are discussed in the paper. The functionality and performance of the proposed high-voltage converter are verified by means of MatLab (R2016a) numerical simulation. Followed by the experimental verifications through hardware prototype model and which always show a good agreement with the numerical simulation and theoretical analysis.Scopu