859 research outputs found
Acute pain management in children
The greatest advance in pediatric pain medicine is the recognition that untreated pain is a significant cause of morbidity and even mortality after surgical trauma. Accurate assessment of pain in different age groups and the effective treatment of postoperative pain is constantly being refined; with newer drugs being used alone or in combination with other drugs continues to be explored. Several advances in developmental neurobiology and pharmacology, knowledge of new analgesics and newer applications of old analgesics in the last two decades have helped the pediatric anesthesiologist in managing pain in children more efficiently. The latter include administering opioids via the skin and nasal mucosa and their addition into the neuraxial local anesthetics. Systemic opioids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents and regional analgesics alone or combined with additives are currently used to provide effective postoperative analgesia. These modalities are best utilized when combined as a multimodal approach to treat acute pain in the perioperative setting. The development of receptor specific drugs that can produce pain relief without the untoward side effects of respiratory depression will hasten the recovery and discharge of children after surgery. This review focuses on the overview of acute pain management in children, with an emphasis on pharmacological and regional anesthesia in achieving this goal
Effects of meal size on growth and conversion efficiency of the freshwater catfish Clarias batrachus (Linn.)
Primary cilia elongation in response to interleukin-1 mediates the inflammatory response
Primary cilia are singular, cytoskeletal organelles present in the majority of mammalian cell types where they function as coordinating centres for mechanotransduction, Wnt and hedgehog signalling. The length of the primary cilium is proposed to modulate cilia function, governed in part by the activity of intraflagellar transport (IFT). In articular cartilage, primary cilia length is increased and hedgehog signaling activated in osteoarthritis (OA). Here, we examine primary cilia length with exposure to the quintessential inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 (IL-1), which is up-regulated in OA. We then test the hypothesis that the cilium is involved in mediating the downstream inflammatory response. Primary chondrocytes treated with IL-1 exhibited a 50 % increase in cilia length after 3 h exposure. IL-1-induced cilia elongation was also observed in human fibroblasts. In chondrocytes, this elongation occurred via a protein kinase A (PKA)-dependent mechanism. G-protein coupled adenylate cyclase also regulated the length of chondrocyte primary cilia but not downstream of IL-1. Chondrocytes treated with IL-1 exhibit a characteristic increase in the release of the inflammatory chemokines, nitric oxide and prostaglandin E2. However, in cells with a mutation in IFT88 whereby the cilia structure is lost, this response to IL-1 was significantly attenuated and, in the case of nitric oxide, completely abolished. Inhibition of IL-1-induced cilia elongation by PKA inhibition also attenuated the chemokine response. These results suggest that cilia assembly regulates the response to inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, the cilia proteome may provide a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of inflammatory pathologies, including OA
Diversity of culturable gut bacteria associated with the field populations of cotton leafhopper (Amrasca biguttula biguttula) in India
Field populations of cotton leafhopper [Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida)] exposed to heavy applications of imidacloprid, acephate, acetamiprid and dimethoate were collected from the seven cotton (Gossypium spp ) growing areas of the country. Thirty culturable bacteria were isolated from the guts of 16 populations of leafhoppers and were characterized through morphological and molecular methods. A good diversity of microflora was recorded across the location and is unique with respect to the locations. None of them are repeated except the genera Bacillus and Enterobacter. There was more number of gut microflora associated with the leafhoppers collected from Dharwad where the insecticide usage pattern and the number of sprays were very high as compared to other locations. Various Bacillus spp. were reported in the Dharwad population. The association of Enterococcus asburiae, Enterobacter silesiacus from the guts of leafhoppers of Guntur which was exposed to nine rounds of sprays of acephate, imidacloprid and dimethoate as compared to Bangalore which was not exposed to insecticides at all. Enterococcus hormaechei was isolated from the insects of Bangalore. The predominant bacterial genera identified in A.biguttula biguttula were Serratia, Bacillus, Enterococcus, Enterobacter, Pantoea, Methylobacterium, Stenotrophomonas, Pseudomonas and Paenibacillus
Scattering Theory of Photon-Assisted Electron Transport
The scattering matrix approach to phase-coherent transport is generalized to
nonlinear ac-transport. In photon-assisted electron transport it is often only
the dc-component of the current that is of experimental interest. But
ac-currents at all frequencies exist independently of whether they are measured
or not. We present a theory of photon-assisted electron transport which is
charge and current conserving for all Fourier components of the current. We
find that the photo-current can be considered as an up- and down-conversion of
the harmonic potentials associated with the displacement currents. As an
example explicit calculations are presented for a resonant double barrier
coupled to two reservoirs and capacitively coupled to a gate. Two experimental
situations are considered: in the first case the ac-field is applied via a
gate, and in the second case one of the contact potentials is modulated. For
the first case we show that the relative weight of the conduction sidebands
varies with the screening properties of the system. In contrast to the
non-interacting case the relative weights are not determined by Bessel
functions. Moreover, interactions can give rise to an asymmetry between
absorption and emission peaks. In the contact driven case, the theory predicts
a zero-bias current proportional to the asymmetry of the double barrier. This
is in contrast to the discussion of Tien and Gordon which, in violation of
basic symmetry principles, predicts a zero-bias current also for a symmetric
double barrier.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, REVTE
Regulators of cell movement during development and regeneration in Drosophila
Cell migration is a fundamental cell biological process essential both for normal development and for tissue regeneration after damage. Cells can migrate individually or as a collective. To better understand the genetic requirements for collective migration, we expressed RNA interference (RNAi) against 30 genes in the Drosophila embryonic salivary gland cells that are known to migrate collectively. The genes were selected based on their effect on cell and membrane morphology, cytoskeleton and cell adhesion in cell culture-based screens or in Drosophila tissues other than salivary glands. Of these, eight disrupted salivary gland migration, targeting: Rac2, Rab35 and Rab40 GTPases, MAP kinase-activated kinase-2 (MAPk-AK2), RdgA diacylglycerol kinase, Cdk9, the PDSW subunit of NADH dehydrogenase (ND-PDSW) and actin regulator Enabled (Ena). The same RNAi lines were used to determine their effect during regeneration of X-ray-damaged larval wing discs. Cells translocate during this process, but it remained unknown whether they do so by directed cell divisions, by cell migration or both. We found that RNAi targeting Rac2, MAPk-AK2 and RdgA disrupted cell translocation during wing disc regeneration, but RNAi against Ena and ND-PDSW had little effect. We conclude that, in Drosophila, cell movements in development and regeneration have common as well as distinct genetic requirements
Human surfactant protein D alters oxidative stress and HMGA1 expression to induce p53 apoptotic pathway in eosinophil leukemic cell line
This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright: © 2013 Mahajan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Surfactant protein D (SP-D), an innate immune molecule, has an indispensable role in host defense and regulation of
inflammation. Immune related functions regulated by SP-D include agglutination of pathogens, phagocytosis,
oxidative burst, antigen presentation, T lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine secretion, induction of apoptosis and
clearance of apoptotic cells. The present study unravels a novel ability of SP-D to reduce the viability of leukemic
cells (eosinophilic leukemic cell line, AML14.3D10; acute myeloid leukemia cell line, THP-1; acute lymphoid leukemia
cell lines, Jurkat, Raji; and human breast epithelial cell line, MCF-7), and explains the underlying mechanisms. SP-D
and a recombinant fragment of human SP-D (rhSP-D) induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest, and dose and timedependent
apoptosis in the AML14.3D10 eosinophilic leukemia cell line. Levels of various apoptotic markers viz.
activated p53, cleaved caspase-9 and PARP, along with G2/M checkpoints (p21 and Tyr15 phosphorylation of cdc2)
showed significant increase in these cells. We further attempted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of rhSP-D
induced apoptosis using proteomic analysis. This approach identified large scale molecular changes initiated by SPD
in a human cell for the first time. Among others, the proteomics analysis highlighted a decreased expression of
survival related proteins such as HMGA1, overexpression of proteins to protect the cells from oxidative burst, while a
drastic decrease in mitochondrial antioxidant defense system. rhSP-D mediated enhanced oxidative burst in
AML14.3D10 cells was confirmed, while antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine, abrogated the rhSP-D induced apoptosis.
The rhSP-D mediated reduced viability was specific to the cancer cell lines and viability of human PBMCs from
healthy controls was not affected. The study suggests involvement of SP-D in host’s immunosurveillance and
therapeutic potential of rhSP-D in the eosinophilic leukemia and cancers of other origins.Department of Biotechnology, Indi
Interleukin-1β sequesters hypoxia inducible factor 2α to the primary cilium.
BACKGROUND: The primary cilium coordinates signalling in development, health and disease. Previously we have shown that the cilium is essential for the anabolic response to loading and the inflammatory response to interleukin-1β (IL-1β). We have also shown the primary cilium elongates in response to IL-1β exposure. Both anabolic phenotype and inflammatory pathology are proposed to be dependent on hypoxia-inducible factor 2 alpha (HIF-2α). The present study tests the hypothesis that an association exists between the primary cilium and HIFs in inflammatory signalling. RESULTS: Here we show, in articular chondrocytes, that IL-1β-induces primary cilia elongation with alterations to cilia trafficking of arl13b. This elongation is associated with a transient increase in HIF-2α expression and accumulation in the primary cilium. Prolyl hydroxylase inhibition results in primary cilia elongation also associated with accumulation of HIF-2α in the ciliary base and axoneme. This recruitment and the associated cilia elongation is not inhibited by blockade of HIFα transcription activity or rescue of basal HIF-2α expression. Hypomorphic mutation to intraflagellar transport protein IFT88 results in limited ciliogenesis. This is associated with increased HIF-2α expression and inhibited response to prolyl hydroxylase inhibition. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that ciliary sequestration of HIF-2α provides negative regulation of HIF-2α expression and potentially activity. This study indicates, for the first time, that the primary cilium regulates HIF signalling during inflammation
A survey of cognitive assistants
Cognitive Assistants is a subset area of Personal Assistants focused on ubiquitous and pervasive platforms and services. They are aimed at elderly people’s needs, habits, and emotions by being dynamic, adaptive, sensitive, and responsive. These advances make cognitive assistants a true candidate of being used in real scenarios and help elderly people at home and outside environments. This survey will discuss the cognitive assistants’ emergence in order to provide a list of new projects being developed on this area. We summarize and enumerate the state-of-the-art projects. Moreover, we discuss how technology support the elderly affected by physical or mental disabilities or chronic diseases.Programa Operacional Temático Factores de Competitividade (UID/CEC/00319/2013
Object Detection Through Exploration With A Foveated Visual Field
We present a foveated object detector (FOD) as a biologically-inspired
alternative to the sliding window (SW) approach which is the dominant method of
search in computer vision object detection. Similar to the human visual system,
the FOD has higher resolution at the fovea and lower resolution at the visual
periphery. Consequently, more computational resources are allocated at the
fovea and relatively fewer at the periphery. The FOD processes the entire
scene, uses retino-specific object detection classifiers to guide eye
movements, aligns its fovea with regions of interest in the input image and
integrates observations across multiple fixations. Our approach combines modern
object detectors from computer vision with a recent model of peripheral pooling
regions found at the V1 layer of the human visual system. We assessed various
eye movement strategies on the PASCAL VOC 2007 dataset and show that the FOD
performs on par with the SW detector while bringing significant computational
cost savings.Comment: An extended version of this manuscript was published in PLOS
Computational Biology (October 2017) at
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.100574
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