Cytochrome c oxidase loses catalytic activity and structural integrity during the aging process in Drosophila melanogaster

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ren, Jian-Ching; Rebrin, Igor [Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033 (United States); Klichko, Vladimir; Orr, William C. [Department of Biological Sciences, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 (United States); Sohal, Rajindar S., E-mail: sohal@usc.edu [Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033 (United States)

2010-10-08

Research highlights: {yields} Cytochrome c oxidase loses catalytic activity during the aging process. {yields} Abundance of seven nuclear-encoded subunits of cytochrome c oxidase decreased with age in Drosophila. {yields} Cytochrome c oxidase is specific intra-mitochondrial site of age-related deterioration. -- Abstract: The hypothesis, that structural deterioration of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) is a causal factor in the age-related decline in mitochondrial respiratory activity and an increase in H{sub 2}O{sub 2} generation, was tested in Drosophila melanogaster. CcO activity and the levels of seven different nuclear DNA-encoded CcO subunits were determined at three different stages of adult life, namely, young-, middle-, and old-age. CcO activity declined progressively with age by 33%. Western blot analysis, using antibodies specific to Drosophila CcO subunits IV, Va, Vb, VIb, VIc, VIIc, and VIII, indicated that the abundance these polypeptides decreased, ranging from 11% to 40%, during aging. These and previous results suggest that CcO is a specific intra-mitochondrial site of age-related deterioration, which may have a broad impact on mitochondrial physiology.

Cytochrome c oxidase loses catalytic activity and structural integrity during the aging process in Drosophila melanogaster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren, Jian-Ching; Rebrin, Igor; Klichko, Vladimir; Orr, William C.; Sohal, Rajindar S.

2010-01-01

Research highlights: → Cytochrome c oxidase loses catalytic activity during the aging process. → Abundance of seven nuclear-encoded subunits of cytochrome c oxidase decreased with age in Drosophila. → Cytochrome c oxidase is specific intra-mitochondrial site of age-related deterioration. -- Abstract: The hypothesis, that structural deterioration of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) is a causal factor in the age-related decline in mitochondrial respiratory activity and an increase in H 2 O 2 generation, was tested in Drosophila melanogaster. CcO activity and the levels of seven different nuclear DNA-encoded CcO subunits were determined at three different stages of adult life, namely, young-, middle-, and old-age. CcO activity declined progressively with age by 33%. Western blot analysis, using antibodies specific to Drosophila CcO subunits IV, Va, Vb, VIb, VIc, VIIc, and VIII, indicated that the abundance these polypeptides decreased, ranging from 11% to 40%, during aging. These and previous results suggest that CcO is a specific intra-mitochondrial site of age-related deterioration, which may have a broad impact on mitochondrial physiology.

Exposure of pampas fox (Pseudalopex gymnocercus and crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous from the Southern region of Brazil to Canine distemper virus (CDV, Canine parvovirus (CPV and Canine coronavirus (CCoV

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Silvia de Oliveira Hübner

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The exposure of 13 Brazilian free-ranging nondomestic canids (five pampas fox - Pseudalopex gymnocercus and eight crab-eating fox -Cerdocyon thous from Southern region of Brazil, to Canine distemper virus (CDV, canine parvovirus (CPV and Canine coronavirus (CCoV was investigated. Antibodies against CDV were detected in 38.5% (5/13 of the samples. There were anti-CDV antibodies in 60% (3/5 of P. gymnocercus and in 25% (2/8 of C. thous. The frequency was higher among the adults and males. Eleven canids (84.6% presented antibodies against CPV, 80% (4/5 were from P. gymnocercus and 87.5% (7/8 were from C. thous. There was no difference in positivity rate against CPV between gender and age. Antibodies against CCoV were detected in 38.5% (5/13 of the samples, with 60% (3/5 of positivity in P. gymnocercus and 25% (2/8 in C. thous. The frequency of antibodies against CCoV was higher among the adults and males. The study showed that these canids were exposed to CDV, CPV and CCoV.Foi investigada a ocorrência de exposição em 13 canídeos não domésticos de vida livre (cinco graxains-do-campo - Pseudalopex gymnocercus e oito graxains-do-mato - Cerdocyon thous da região sul do Brasil ao vírus da cinomose canina (CDV, parvovírus canino (CPV e coronavírus canino (CCoV. Anticorpos contra o CDV foram detectados em 38,5% (5/13 das amostras. Haviam anticorpos anti-CDV em 60% (3/5 dos P. gymnocercus e em 25% (2/8 dos C. thous. A freqüência foi maior entre machos e adultos. Para CPV, 11 canídeos (84,6% apresentaram anticorpos, 80% (4/5 eram da espécie P. gymnocercus e 87,5% (7/8 eram C. thous. Não houve diferença de positividade para o CPV entre sexos e idades. Anticorpos contra o CCoV foram detectados em 38,5% (5/13 das amostras, sendo 60% (3/5 de positividade entre os P. gymnocercus e 25% (2/8 entre os C. thous. A freqüência de anticorpos para CCoV foi maior entre os machos e adultos. O estudo revelou que estes canídeos foram expostos ao CDV, CPV

Increased activities of mitochondrial enzymes in white adipose tissue in trained rats

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stallknecht, B; Vinten, J; Ploug, T

1991-01-01

of 8-12 rats were swim trained for 10 wk or served as either sedentary, sham swim-trained, or cold-stressed controls. White adipose tissue was removed, and the activities of the respiratory chain enzyme cytochrome-c oxidase (CCO) and of the enzyme malate dehydrogenase (MDH), which participates...... 0.05). In female rats the CCO activity expressed per milligram protein was increased 4.5-fold in the trained compared with the sedentary control rats (P less than 0.01). Neither cold stress nor sham swim training increased CCO or MDH activities in white adipose tissue (P greater than 0...

Investigation of the redox-dependent modulation of structure and dynamics in human cytochrome c.

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Imai, Mizue; Saio, Tomohide; Kumeta, Hiroyuki; Uchida, Takeshi; Inagaki, Fuyuhiko; Ishimori, Koichiro

2016-01-22

Redox-dependent changes in the structure and dynamics of human cytochrome c (Cyt c) were investigated by solution NMR. We found significant structural changes in several regions, including residues 23-28 (loop 3), which were further corroborated by chemical shift differences between the reduced and oxidized states of Cyt c. These differences are essential for discriminating redox states in Cyt c by cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) during electron transfer reactions. Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) relaxation dispersion experiments identified that the region around His33 undergoes conformational exchanges on the μs-ms timescale, indicating significant redox-dependent structural changes. Because His33 is not part of the interaction site for CcO, our data suggest that the dynamic properties of the region, which is far from the interaction site for CcO, contribute to conformational changes during electron transfer to CcO. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

System for δ13C-CO2 and xCO2 analysis of discrete gas samples by cavity ring-down spectroscopy

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Dickinson, Dane; Bodé, Samuel; Boeckx, Pascal

2017-11-01

A method was devised for analysing small discrete gas samples (50 mL syringe) by cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS). Measurements were accomplished by inletting 50 mL syringed samples into an isotopic-CO2 CRDS analyser (Picarro G2131-i) between baseline readings of a reference air standard, which produced sharp peaks in the CRDS data feed. A custom software script was developed to manage the measurement process and aggregate sample data in real time. The method was successfully tested with CO2 mole fractions (xCO2) ranging from 20 000 ppm and δ13C-CO2 values from -100 up to +30 000 ‰ in comparison to VPDB (Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite). Throughput was typically 10 samples h-1, with 13 h-1 possible under ideal conditions. The measurement failure rate in routine use was ca. 1 %. Calibration to correct for memory effects was performed with gravimetric gas standards ranging from 0.05 to 2109 ppm xCO2 and δ13C-CO2 levels varying from -27.3 to +21 740 ‰. Repeatability tests demonstrated that method precision for 50 mL samples was ca. 0.05 % in xCO2 and 0.15 ‰ in δ13C-CO2 for CO2 compositions from 300 to 2000 ppm with natural abundance 13C. Long-term method consistency was tested over a 9-month period, with results showing no systematic measurement drift over time. Standardised analysis of discrete gas samples expands the scope of application for isotopic-CO2 CRDS and enhances its potential for replacing conventional isotope ratio measurement techniques. Our method involves minimal set-up costs and can be readily implemented in Picarro G2131-i and G2201-i analysers or tailored for use with other CRDS instruments and trace gases.

EFEITO DO EXTRATO AQUOSO DE PRÓPOLIS MARROM SOBRE A PRODUÇÃO DE IFN-γ APÓS IMUNIZAÇÃO CONTRA PARVOVÍRUS CANINO (CPV E CORONAVÍRUS CANINO (CCoV

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Maureen Hoch Vieira Fernandes

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to evaluate the imunnostimulatory adjuvant capacity of water extract from brown propolis (WEBP when added to a vaccine against canine parvovirus (CPV and canine coronavirus (CCoV, regarding the production of IFN-γ. Mice were vaccinated with CPV and CCoV (3.0 x 106 TCID50 with or without 400 µg/dose of WEBP. Thirty days after the third dose, splenocytes were cultured to measure the expression levels of IFN-γ mRNA in the immunized animals. Increased levels of IFN-γ mRNA expression for CCoV were evidenced by RT-PCR, in the splenocytes of mice inoculated with the vaccine containing 400 μg/dose of WEBP, demonstrating the ability of propolis to stimulate cellular immune responses against the antigens of this virus. In contrast, the levels of IFN-γ to CPV were not influenced by the presence of WEBP.

Evaluation of 4 years of continuous δ13C(CO2) data using a moving Keeling plot method

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Vardag, Sanam Noreen; Hammer, Samuel; Levin, Ingeborg

2016-07-01

Different carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters can be distinguished by their carbon isotope ratios. Therefore measurements of atmospheric δ13C(CO2) and CO2 concentration contain information on the CO2 source mix in the catchment area of an atmospheric measurement site. This information may be illustratively presented as the mean isotopic source signature. Recently an increasing number of continuous measurements of δ13C(CO2) and CO2 have become available, opening the door to the quantification of CO2 shares from different sources at high temporal resolution. Here, we present a method to compute the CO2 source signature (δS) continuously and evaluate our result using model data from the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport model. Only when we restrict the analysis to situations which fulfill the basic assumptions of the Keeling plot method does our approach provide correct results with minimal biases in δS. On average, this bias is 0.2 ‰ with an interquartile range of about 1.2 ‰ for hourly model data. As a consequence of applying the required strict filter criteria, 85 % of the data points - mainly daytime values - need to be discarded. Applying the method to a 4-year dataset of CO2 and δ13C(CO2) measured in Heidelberg, Germany, yields a distinct seasonal cycle of δS. Disentangling this seasonal source signature into shares of source components is, however, only possible if the isotopic end members of these sources - i.e., the biosphere, δbio, and the fuel mix, δF - are known. From the mean source signature record in 2012, δbio could be reliably estimated only for summer to (-25.0 ± 1.0) ‰ and δF only for winter to (-32.5 ± 2.5) ‰. As the isotopic end members δbio and δF were shown to change over the season, no year-round estimation of the fossil fuel or biosphere share is possible from the measured mean source signature record without additional information from emission inventories or other tracer measurements.

Analysis of clonal expansions through the normal and premalignant human breast epithelium reveals the presence of luminal stem cells.

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Cereser, Biancastella; Jansen, Marnix; Austin, Emily; Elia, George; McFarlane, Taneisha; van Deurzen, Carolien Hm; Sieuwerts, Anieta M; Daidone, Maria G; Tadrous, Paul J; Wright, Nicholas A; Jones, Louise; McDonald, Stuart Ac

2018-01-01

It is widely accepted that the cell of origin of breast cancer is the adult mammary epithelial stem cell; however, demonstrating the presence and location of tissue stem cells in the human breast has proved difficult. Furthermore, we do not know the clonal architecture of the normal and premalignant mammary epithelium or its cellular hierarchy. Here, we use deficiency in the mitochondrial enzyme cytochrome c oxidase (CCO), typically caused by somatic mutations in the mitochondrial genome, as a means to perform lineage tracing in the human mammary epithelium. PCR sequencing of laser-capture microdissected cells in combination with immunohistochemistry for markers of lineage differentiation was performed to determine the clonal nature of the mammary epithelium. We have shown that in the normal human breast, clonal expansions (defined here by areas of CCO deficiency) are typically uncommon and of limited size, but can occur at any site within the adult mammary epithelium. The presence of a stem cell population was shown by demonstrating multi-lineage differentiation within CCO-deficient areas. Interestingly, we observed infrequent CCO deficiency that was restricted to luminal cells, suggesting that niche succession, and by inference stem cell location, is located within the luminal layer. CCO-deficient areas appeared large within areas of ductal carcinoma in situ, suggesting that the rate of clonal expansion was altered in the premalignant lesion. © 2017 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. © 2017 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Impact of varying control moment selection in a case-crossover (CCO) study on antidepressant drug (AD) use and hip/femur fracture (HFF) in protect

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Groot, Mark C.H.; Belitser, Svetlana V.; Souverein, Patrick C.; Groenwold, Rolf H.H.; Candore, Gianmario; Alvarez, Yolanda; Schlienger, Raymond G.; Reynolds, Robert; Klungel, Olaf H.; Gardarsdottir, Helga

2014-01-01

Background: The CCO design is appealing because it eliminates time-invariant person related confounding. A prerequisite is that exposure in real life drug use is sufficiently transient to allow for independence of exposure states. The impact of variation in time of control moment selection is

Trans-cranial infrared laser stimulation induces hemodynamic and metabolic response measured by broadband near infrared spectroscopy in vivo on human forehead (Conference Presentation)

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Wang, Xinlong; Nalawade, Sahil Sunil; Reddy, Divya Dhandapani; Tian, Fenghua; Gonzalez-Lima, F.; Liu, Hanli

2017-02-01

Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) uses infrared light (lasers or LEDs) for nondestructive and non-thermal photobiomodulation on the human brain. Although TILS has shown its beneficial effects to a variety of neurological and psychological conditions, its physiological mechanism remains unknown. Cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO), the last enzyme in the electron transportation chain, is proposed to be the primary photoacceptor of this infrared laser. In this study, we wish to validate this proposed mechanism. We applied 8 minutes in vivo TILS on the right forehead of 11 human participants with a 1064-nm laser. Broad-band near infrared spectroscopy (bb-NIRS) from 740-900nm was also employed near the TILS site to monitor hemodynamic and metabolic responses during the stimulation and 5-minute recovery period. For rigorous comparison, we also performed similar 8-min bb-NIR measurements under placebo conditions. A multi-linear regression analysis based on the modified Beer-Lambert law was performed to estimate concentration changes of oxy-hemoglobin (Δ[HbO]), deoxy-hemoglobin (Δ[Hb]), and cytochrome-c-oxidase (Δ[CCO]). We found that TILS induced significant increases of [CCO], [HbO] and a decrease of [Hb] with dose-dependent manner as compared with placebo treatments. Furthermore, strong linear relationships or interplays between [CCO] versus [HbO] and [CCO] versus [Hb] induced by TILS were observed in vivo for the first time. These relationships have clearly revealed close coupling/relationship between the hemodynamic oxygen supply and blood volume versus up-regulation of CCO induced by photobiomodulation. Our results demonstrate the tremendous potential of bb-NIRS as a non-invasive in vivo means to study photobiomodulation mechanisms and perform treatment evaluations of TILS.

Assignment and analysis of the A3Πi-X3Σ- transition of the CCO molecule. Formation and disappearance of the CCO's X3Σ- state during flash photolysis of the carbon suboxide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devillers, Claude

1971-01-01

As the C 2 O radical appeared to be the necessary intermediate compound which could lead from atomic carbon to carbon suboxide by a chain of elementary reactions for the study of the effect of radiations on CO, this research thesis, after a recall on the nature of primary compounds of carbon suboxide photolysis, presents experimental techniques aimed at the investigation of C 2 O: flash photolysis to observe it with low resolution, experimental set-up to record its spectrum with a high resolution, experimental set-up to observe it by pulse radiolysis of carbon oxide. The author reports the identification and analysis of the C 2 O spectrum, and discusses the formation and disappearance of the CCO's X 3 Σ - state with or without the presence of sensors during flash photolysis of the carbon suboxide [fr

The genome and proteome of a Campylobacter coli bacteriophage vB_CcoM-IBB_35 reveal unusual features

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Carvalho Carla M

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Campylobacter is the leading cause of foodborne diseases worldwide. Bacteriophages (phages are naturally occurring predators of bacteria, ubiquitous in the environment, with high host specificity and thus considered an appealing option to control bacterial pathogens. Nevertheless for an effective use of phages as antimicrobial agents, it is important to understand phage biology which renders crucial the analysis of phage genomes and proteomes. The lack of sequence data from Campylobacter phages adds further importance to these studies. Methods vB_CcoM-IBB_35 is a broad lytic spectrum Myoviridae Campylobacter phage with high potential for therapeutic use. The genome of this phage was obtained by pyrosequencing and the sequence data was further analyzed. The proteomic analysis was performed by SDS-PAGE and Mass spectrometry. Results and conclusions The DNA sequence data of vB_CcoM-IBB_35 consists of five contigs for a total of 172,065 bp with an average GC content of 27%. Attempts to close the gaps between contigs were unsuccessful since the DNA preparations appear to contain substances that inhibited Taq and ϕ29 polymerases. From the 210 identified ORFs, around 60% represent proteins that were not functionally assigned. Homology exists with members of the Teequatrovirinae namely for T4 proteins involved in morphogenesis, nucleotide metabolism, transcription, DNA replication and recombination. Tandem mass spectrometric analysis revealed 38 structural proteins as part of the mature phage particle. Conclusions Genes encoding proteins involved in the carbohydrate metabolism along with several incidences of gene duplications, split genes with inteins and introns have been rarely found in other phage genomes yet are found in this phage. We identified the genes encoding for tail fibres and for the lytic cassette, this later, expressing enzymes for bacterial capsular polysaccharides (CPS degradation, which has not been reported

Structural alterations in a component of cytochrome c oxidase and molecular evolution of pathogenic Neisseria in humans.

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Marina Aspholm

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Three closely related bacterial species within the genus Neisseria are of importance to human disease and health. Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of meningitis, while Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the agent of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea and Neisseria lactamica is a common, harmless commensal of children. Comparative genomics have yet to yield clear insights into which factors dictate the unique host-parasite relationships exhibited by each since, as a group, they display remarkable conservation at the levels of nucleotide sequence, gene content and synteny. Here, we discovered two rare alterations in the gene encoding the CcoP protein component of cytochrome cbb(3 oxidase that are phylogenetically informative. One is a single nucleotide polymorphism resulting in CcoP truncation that acts as a molecular signature for the species N. meningitidis. We go on to show that the ancestral ccoP gene arose by a unique gene duplication and fusion event and is specifically and completely distributed within species of the genus Neisseria. Surprisingly, we found that strains engineered to express either of the two CcoP forms conditionally differed in their capacity to support nitrite-dependent, microaerobic growth mediated by NirK, a nitrite reductase. Thus, we propose that changes in CcoP domain architecture and ensuing alterations in function are key traits in successive, adaptive radiations within these metapopulations. These findings provide a dramatic example of how rare changes in core metabolic proteins can be connected to significant macroevolutionary shifts. They also show how evolutionary change at the molecular level can be linked to metabolic innovation and its reversal as well as demonstrating how genotype can be used to infer alterations of the fitness landscape within a single host.

Prognostic relevance of cytochrome C oxidase in primary glioblastoma multiforme.

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Corinne E Griguer

Full Text Available Patients with primary glioblastoma multiforme (GBM have one of the lowest overall survival rates among cancer patients, and reliable biomarkers are necessary to predict patient outcome. Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO promotes the switch from glycolytic to OXPHOS metabolism, and increased CcO activity in tumors has been associated with tumor progression after chemotherapy failure. Thus, we investigated the relationship between tumor CcO activity and the survival of patients diagnosed with primary GBM. A total of 84 patients with grade IV glioma were evaluated in this retrospective cohort study. Cumulative survival was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and analyzed by the log-rank test, and univariate and multivariate analyses were performed with the Cox regression model. Mitochondrial CcO activity was determined by spectrophotometrically measuring the oxidation of cytochrome c. High CcO activity was detected in a subset of glioma tumors (∼30%, and was an independent prognostic factor for shorter progression-free survival and overall survival [P = 0.0087 by the log-rank test, hazard ratio = 3.57 for progression-free survival; P<0.001 by the log-rank test, hazard ratio = 10.75 for overall survival]. The median survival time for patients with low tumor CcO activity was 14.3 months, compared with 6.3 months for patients with high tumor CcO activity. High CcO activity occurs in a significant subset of high-grade glioma patients and is an independent predictor of poor outcome. Thus, CcO activity may serve as a useful molecular marker for the categorization and targeted therapy of GBMs.

Age-related decline of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit expression in the auditory cortex of the mimetic aging rat model associated with the common deletion.

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Zhong, Yi; Hu, Yujuan; Peng, Wei; Sun, Yu; Yang, Yang; Zhao, Xueyan; Huang, Xiang; Zhang, Honglian; Kong, Weijia

2012-12-01

The age-related deterioration in the central auditory system is well known to impair the abilities of sound localization and speech perception. However, the mechanisms involved in the age-related central auditory deficiency remain unclear. Previous studies have demonstrated that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions accumulated with age in the auditory system. Also, a cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) deficiency has been proposed to be a causal factor in the age-related decline in mitochondrial respiratory activity. This study was designed to explore the changes of CcO activity and to investigate the possible relationship between the mtDNA common deletion (CD) and CcO activity as well as the mRNA expression of CcO subunits in the auditory cortex of D-galactose (D-gal)-induced mimetic aging rats at different ages. Moreover, we explored whether peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF-1) and mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM) were involved in the changes of nuclear- and mitochondrial-encoded CcO subunits in the auditory cortex during aging. Our data demonstrated that d-gal-induced mimetic aging rats exhibited an accelerated accumulation of the CD and a gradual decline in the CcO activity in the auditory cortex during the aging process. The reduction in the CcO activity was correlated with the level of CD load in the auditory cortex. The mRNA expression of CcO subunit III was reduced significantly with age in the d-gal-induced mimetic aging rats. In contrast, the decline in the mRNA expression of subunits I and IV was relatively minor. Additionally, significant increases in the mRNA and protein levels of PGC-1α, NRF-1 and TFAM were observed in the auditory cortex of D-gal-induced mimetic aging rats with aging. These findings suggested that the accelerated accumulation of the CD in the auditory cortex may induce a substantial decline in CcO subunit III and lead to a significant decline in the CcO

Dose and time-dependent effects of cyanide on thiosulfate sulfurtransferase, 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase, and cystathionine λ-lyase activities.

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Singh, Poonam; Rao, Pooja; Bhattacharya, Rahul

2013-12-01

We assessed the dose-dependent effect of potassium cyanide (KCN) on thiosulfate sulfurtransferase (TST), 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (3-MPST), and cystathionine λ-lyase (CST) activities in mice. The time-dependent effect of 0.5 LD50 KCN on cyanide level and cytochrome c oxidase (CCO), TST, 3-MPST, and CST activities was also examined. Furthermore, TST, 3-MPST, and CST activities were measured in stored mice cadavers. Hepatic and renal TST activity increased by 0.5 LD50 KCN but diminished by ≥2.0 LD50. After 0.5 LD50 KCN, the elevated hepatic cyanide level was accompanied by increased TST, 3-MPST, and CST activities, and CCO inhibition. Elevated renal cyanide level was only accompanied by increased 3-MPST activity. No appreciable change in enzyme activities was observed in mice cadavers. The study concludes that high doses of cyanide exert saturating effects on its detoxification enzymes, indicating their exogenous use during cyanide poisoning. Also, these enzymes are not reliable markers of cyanide poisoning in autopsied samples. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Defense Human Resources Activity > PERSEREC

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Skip to main content (Press Enter). Toggle navigation Defense Human Resources Activity Search Search Defense Human Resources Activity: Search Search Defense Human Resources Activity: Search Defense Human Resources Activity U.S. Department of Defense Defense Human Resources Activity Overview

Up-regulation of cerebral cytochrome-c-oxidase and hemodynamics by transcranial infrared laser stimulation: A broadband near-infrared spectroscopy study.

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Wang, Xinlong; Tian, Fenghua; Reddy, Divya D; Nalawade, Sahil S; Barrett, Douglas W; Gonzalez-Lima, Francisco; Liu, Hanli

2017-12-01

Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) is a noninvasive form of brain photobiomulation. Cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO), the terminal enzyme in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, is hypothesized to be the primary intracellular photoacceptor. We hypothesized that TILS up-regulates cerebral CCO and causes hemodynamic changes. We delivered 1064-nm laser stimulation to the forehead of healthy participants ( n = 11), while broadband near-infrared spectroscopy was utilized to acquire light reflectance from the TILS-treated cortical region before, during, and after TILS. Placebo experiments were also performed for accurate comparison. Time course of spectroscopic readings were analyzed and fitted to the modified Beer-Lambert law. With respect to the placebo readings, we observed (1) significant increases in cerebral concentrations of oxidized CCO (Δ[CCO]; >0.08 µM; p 0.8 µM; p 0.5 µM; p < 0.01) during and after TILS, and (2) linear interplays between Δ[CCO] versus Δ[HbO] and between Δ[CCO] versus Δ[HbT]. Ratios of Δ[CCO]/Δ[HbO] and Δ[CCO]/Δ[HbT] were introduced as TILS-induced metabolic-hemodynamic coupling indices to quantify the coupling strength between TILS-enhanced cerebral metabolism and blood oxygen supply. This study provides the first demonstration that TILS causes up-regulation of oxidized CCO in the human brain, and contributes important insight into the physiological mechanisms.

Biological Activity Assessment in Mexican Tropical Soils with Different Hydrocarbon Contamination Histories.

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Riveroll-Larios, Jessica; Escalante-Espinosa, Erika; Fócil-Monterrubio, Reyna L; Díaz-Ramírez, Ildefonso J

The use of soil health indicators linked to microbial activities, such as key enzymes and respirometric profiles, helps assess the natural attenuation potential of soils contaminated with hydrocarbons. In this study, the intrinsic physicochemical characteristics, biological activity and biodegradation potential were recorded for two soils with different contamination histories (>5 years and soil samples. Soil suspensions were tested as microbial inocula in biodegradation potential assays using contaminated perlite as an inert support. The basal respiratory rate of the recently contaminated soil was 15-38 mg C-CO 2  kg -1 h -1 , while the weathered soil presented a greater basal mineralisation capacity of 55-70 mg C-CO 2 kg -1 h -1 . The basal levels of lipase and dehydrogenase were significantly greater than those recorded in non-contaminated soils (551 ± 21 μg pNP g -1 ). Regarding the biodegradation potential assessment, the lipase (1000-3000 μg pNP g -1 of perlite) and dehydrogenase (~3000 μg INF g -1 of perlite) activities in the inoculum of the recently contaminated soil were greater than those recorded in the inoculum of the weathered soil. This was correlated with a high mineralisation rate (~30 mg C-CO 2 kg -1 h -1 ) in the recently contaminated soil and a reduction in hydrocarbon concentration (~30 %). The combination of an inert support and enzymatic and respirometric analyses made it possible to detect the different biodegradation capacities of the studied inocula and the natural attenuation potential of a recently contaminated soil at high hydrocarbon concentrations.

Human activity recognition and prediction

CERN Document Server

2016-01-01

This book provides a unique view of human activity recognition, especially fine-grained human activity structure learning, human-interaction recognition, RGB-D data based action recognition, temporal decomposition, and causality learning in unconstrained human activity videos. The techniques discussed give readers tools that provide a significant improvement over existing methodologies of video content understanding by taking advantage of activity recognition. It links multiple popular research fields in computer vision, machine learning, human-centered computing, human-computer interaction, image classification, and pattern recognition. In addition, the book includes several key chapters covering multiple emerging topics in the field. Contributed by top experts and practitioners, the chapters present key topics from different angles and blend both methodology and application, composing a solid overview of the human activity recognition techniques. .

A field test of the centrifugal community organization model using psammophilic gerbils in Israel's southern coastal plain

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Wasserberg, Gideon; Kotler, B.P.; Morris, D.W.; Abramsky, Z.

2007-01-01

Background: An optimal habitat selection model called centrifugal community organization (CCO) predicts that species, although they have the same primary habitat, may co-exist owing to their ability to use different secondary habitats. Goal: Test the predictions of CCO with field experiments. Species: The Egyptian sand gerbil (40 g), Gerbillus pyramidum, and Allenby's gerbil (25 g), G. andersoni allenbyi. Site: Ashdod sand dunes in the southern coastal plain of Israel. Three sandy habitats are present: shifting, semi-stabilized, and stabilized sand. Gerbils occupied all three habitats. Methods: We surveyed rodent abundance, activity levels, and foraging behaviour while experimentally removing G. pyramidum. Results: Three predictions of the CCO model were supported. Both species did best in the semi-stabilized habitat. However, they differed in their secondary habitats. Gerbillus pyramidum preferred the shifting sand habitat, whereas G. a. allenbyi preferred the stabilized habitat. Habitat selection by both species depended on density. However, in contrast to CCO, G. pyramidum dominated the core habitat and excluded G. a. allenbyi. We term this variant of CCO, 'asymmetric CCO'. Conclusions: The fundamental feature of CCO appears valid: co-existence may result not because of what each competing species does best, but because of what they do as a back-up. But in contrast to the prediction of the original CCO model, all dynamic traces of interaction can vanish if the system includes interference competition. ?? 2007 Gideon Wasserberg.

The Gene Ontology (GO) Cellular Component Ontology: integration with SAO (Subcellular Anatomy Ontology) and other recent developments

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background The Gene Ontology (GO) (http://www.geneontology.org/) contains a set of terms for describing the activity and actions of gene products across all kingdoms of life. Each of these activities is executed in a location within a cell or in the vicinity of a cell. In order to capture this context, the GO includes a sub-ontology called the Cellular Component (CC) ontology (GO-CCO). The primary use of this ontology is for GO annotation, but it has also been used for phenotype annotation, and for the annotation of images. Another ontology with similar scope to the GO-CCO is the Subcellular Anatomy Ontology (SAO), part of the Neuroscience Information Framework Standard (NIFSTD) suite of ontologies. The SAO also covers cell components, but in the domain of neuroscience. Description Recently, the GO-CCO was enriched in content and links to the Biological Process and Molecular Function branches of GO as well as to other ontologies. This was achieved in several ways. We carried out an amalgamation of SAO terms with GO-CCO ones; as a result, nearly 100 new neuroscience-related terms were added to the GO. The GO-CCO also contains relationships to GO Biological Process and Molecular Function terms, as well as connecting to external ontologies such as the Cell Ontology (CL). Terms representing protein complexes in the Protein Ontology (PRO) reference GO-CCO terms for their species-generic counterparts. GO-CCO terms can also be used to search a variety of databases. Conclusions In this publication we provide an overview of the GO-CCO, its overall design, and some recent extensions that make use of additional spatial information. One of the most recent developments of the GO-CCO was the merging in of the SAO, resulting in a single unified ontology designed to serve the needs of GO annotators as well as the specific needs of the neuroscience community. PMID:24093723

A Review of Human Activity Recognition Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michalis eVrigkas

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Recognizing human activities from video sequences or still images is a challenging task due to problems such as background clutter, partial occlusion, changes in scale, viewpoint, lighting, and appearance. Many applications, including video surveillance systems, human-computer interaction, and robotics for human behavior characterization, require a multiple activity recognition system. In this work, we provide a detailed review of recent and state-of-the-art research advances in the field of human activity classification. We propose a categorization of human activity methodologies and discuss their advantages and limitations. In particular, we divide human activity classification methods into two large categories according to whether they use data from different modalities or not. Then, each of these categories is further analyzed into sub-categories, which reflect how they model human activities and what type of activities they are interested in. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing, publicly available human activity classification datasets and examine the requirements for an ideal human activity recognition dataset. Finally, we report the characteristics of future research directions and present some open issues on human activity recognition.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of bioactive components present in virgin coconut oil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yashi Srivastava

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The hot and cold extracted virgin coconut oil (VCO has been subjected to the various quality parameters. There was a no significant difference in iodine value, saponification value, refractive index, fatty acid profile, specific gravity, and moisture content of hot extracted virgin coconut oil (HEVCO, cold extracted virgin coconut oil (CEVCO, and copra oil (CCO samples. The phenolic components of the HEVCO, CEVCO, and CCO were found to be 650.35 ± 25.11 μg/g, 401.23 ± 20.11 μg/g, and 182.82 ± 15.24 μg/g, respectively. The antioxidant activity ranged from 80 to 87% in HEVCO, 65 to 70% in CEVCO, and 35 to 45% in CCO. The results showed that VCO obtained from hot extraction process contained more total polyphenol, antioxidant activity, tocopherol, phytosterol, monoglycerides, and diglyceride content in comparison to CEVCO and CCO samples.

Interplay between up-regulation of cytochrome-c-oxidase and hemoglobin oxygenation induced by near-infrared laser

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xinlong; Tian, Fenghua; Soni, Sagar S.; Gonzalez-Lima, F.; Liu, Hanli

2016-08-01

Photobiomodulation, also known as low-level laser/light therapy (LLLT), refers to the use of red-to-near-infrared light to stimulate cellular functions for physiological or clinical benefits. The mechanism of LLLT is assumed to rely on photon absorption by cytochrome c oxidase (CCO), the terminal enzyme in the mitochondrial respiratory chain that catalyzes the reduction of oxygen for energy metabolism. In this study, we used broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure the LLLT-induced changes in CCO and hemoglobin concentrations in human forearms in vivo. Eleven healthy participants were administered with 1064-nm laser and placebo treatments on their right forearms. The spectroscopic data were analyzed and fitted with wavelength-dependent, modified Beer-Lambert Law. We found that LLLT induced significant increases of CCO concentration (Δ[CCO]) and oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (Δ[HbO]) on the treated site as the laser energy dose accumulated over time. A strong linear interplay between Δ[CCO] and Δ[HbO] was observed for the first time during LLLT, indicating a hemodynamic response of oxygen supply and blood volume closely coupled to the up-regulation of CCO induced by photobiomodulation. These results demonstrate the tremendous potential of broadband NIRS as a non-invasive, in vivo means to study mechanisms of photobiomodulation and perform treatment evaluations of LLLT.

Human Activity in the Web

OpenAIRE

Radicchi, Filippo

2009-01-01

The recent information technology revolution has enabled the analysis and processing of large-scale datasets describing human activities. The main source of data is represented by the Web, where humans generally use to spend a relevant part of their day. Here we study three large datasets containing the information about Web human activities in different contexts. We study in details inter-event and waiting time statistics. In both cases, the number of subsequent operations which differ by ta...

Co-Circulation of Canine Coronavirus I and IIa/b with High Prevalence and Genetic Diversity in Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinyu Wang

Full Text Available To trace the evolution of canine coronavirus (CCoV, 201 stool samples from diarrheic dogs in northeast China were subjected to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCRs targeting the partial M and S genes of CCoV, followed by an epidemiological analysis. M gene RT-PCRs showed that 28.36% (57/201 of the samples were positive for CCoV; of the 57 positive samples, CCoV-I and CCoV-II accounted for 15.79% (9/57 and 84.21% (48/57, respectively. A sequence comparison of the partial M gene revealed nucleotide homologies of 88.4%-100% among the 57 CCoV strains, and 88.7%-96.2% identity between the 57 CCoV strains and the Chinese reference strain HF3. The CCoV-I and CCoV-II strains exhibited genetic diversity when compared with reference strains from China and other countries. The 57 CCoV strains exhibited high co-infection rates with canine kobuvirus (CaKV (33.33% and canine parvovirus-2 (CPV-2 (31.58%. The CCoV prevalence in diarrheic dogs differed significantly with immunization status, regions, seasons, and ages. Moreover, 28 S genes were amplified from the 57 CCoV-positive samples, including 26 CCoV-IIa strains, one CCoV-IIb strain, and one CCoV-I strain. A sequence comparison of the partial S gene revealed 86.3%-100% nucleotide identity among the 26 CCoV-IIa strains, and 89.6%-92.2% identity between the 26 CCoV-IIa strains and the Chinese reference strain V1. The 26 CCoV-IIa strains showed genetic diversity when compared with reference strains from China and other countries. Our data provide evidence that CCoV-I, CCoV-IIa, and CCoV-IIb strains co-circulate in the diarrhoetic dogs in northeast China, high co-infection rates with CaKV and CPV-2 were observed, and the CCoV-II strains exhibited high prevalence and genetic diversity.

Brain Activity and Human Unilateral Chewing

Science.gov (United States)

Quintero, A.; Ichesco, E.; Myers, C.; Schutt, R.; Gerstner, G.E.

2012-01-01

Brain mechanisms underlying mastication have been studied in non-human mammals but less so in humans. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate brain activity in humans during gum chewing. Chewing was associated with activations in the cerebellum, motor cortex and caudate, cingulate, and brainstem. We also divided the 25-second chew-blocks into 5 segments of equal 5-second durations and evaluated activations within and between each of the 5 segments. This analysis revealed activation clusters unique to the initial segment, which may indicate brain regions involved with initiating chewing. Several clusters were uniquely activated during the last segment as well, which may represent brain regions involved with anticipatory or motor events associated with the end of the chew-block. In conclusion, this study provided evidence for specific brain areas associated with chewing in humans and demonstrated that brain activation patterns may dynamically change over the course of chewing sequences. PMID:23103631

ActivityNet: A Large-Scale Video Benchmark for Human Activity Understanding

KAUST Repository

Heilbron, Fabian Caba

2015-06-02

In spite of many dataset efforts for human action recognition, current computer vision algorithms are still severely limited in terms of the variability and complexity of the actions that they can recognize. This is in part due to the simplicity of current benchmarks, which mostly focus on simple actions and movements occurring on manually trimmed videos. In this paper we introduce ActivityNet, a new largescale video benchmark for human activity understanding. Our benchmark aims at covering a wide range of complex human activities that are of interest to people in their daily living. In its current version, ActivityNet provides samples from 203 activity classes with an average of 137 untrimmed videos per class and 1.41 activity instances per video, for a total of 849 video hours. We illustrate three scenarios in which ActivityNet can be used to compare algorithms for human activity understanding: untrimmed video classification, trimmed activity classification and activity detection.

ActivityNet: A Large-Scale Video Benchmark for Human Activity Understanding

KAUST Repository

Heilbron, Fabian Caba; Castillo, Victor; Ghanem, Bernard; Niebles, Juan Carlos

2015-01-01

In spite of many dataset efforts for human action recognition, current computer vision algorithms are still severely limited in terms of the variability and complexity of the actions that they can recognize. This is in part due to the simplicity of current benchmarks, which mostly focus on simple actions and movements occurring on manually trimmed videos. In this paper we introduce ActivityNet, a new largescale video benchmark for human activity understanding. Our benchmark aims at covering a wide range of complex human activities that are of interest to people in their daily living. In its current version, ActivityNet provides samples from 203 activity classes with an average of 137 untrimmed videos per class and 1.41 activity instances per video, for a total of 849 video hours. We illustrate three scenarios in which ActivityNet can be used to compare algorithms for human activity understanding: untrimmed video classification, trimmed activity classification and activity detection.

HUMAN ACTIVITY MONITORING USING SMARTPHONE

OpenAIRE

TOKALA, SAI SUJIT; ROKALA, RANADEEP

2014-01-01

The main aim of the project is to develop an algorithm which will classify the activity performed by a human who is carrying a smart phone. The day to day life made humans very busy at work and during daily activities, mostly elderly people who are at home have an important need to monitor their activity by others when they are alone, if they are inactive for a long time without movement, or in some situations like if they have fallen down, became unconscious for sometime or seized with a car...

Heme A synthesis and CcO activity are essential for Trypanosoma cruzi infectivity and replication.

Science.gov (United States)

Merli, Marcelo L; Cirulli, Brenda A; Menéndez-Bravo, Simón M; Cricco, Julia A

2017-06-27

Trypanosoma cruzi , the causative agent of Chagas disease, presents a complex life cycle and adapts its metabolism to nutrients' availability. Although T. cruzi is an aerobic organism, it does not produce heme. This cofactor is acquired from the host and is distributed and inserted into different heme-proteins such as respiratory complexes in the parasite's mitochondrion. It has been proposed that T. cruzi's energy metabolism relies on a branched respiratory chain with a cytochrome c oxidase-type aa 3 (C c O) as the main terminal oxidase. Heme A, the cofactor for all eukaryotic C c O, is synthesized via two sequential enzymatic reactions catalyzed by heme O synthase (HOS) and heme A synthase (HAS). Previously, TcCox10 and TcCox15 ( Trypanosoma cruzi Cox10 and Cox15 proteins) were identified in T. cruzi They presented HOS and HAS activity, respectively, when they were expressed in yeast. Here, we present the first characterization of TcCox15 in T. cruzi , confirming its role as HAS. It was differentially detected in the different T. cruzi stages, being more abundant in the replicative forms. This regulation could reflect the necessity of more heme A synthesis, and therefore more C c O activity at the replicative stages. Overexpression of a non-functional mutant caused a reduction in heme A content. Moreover, our results clearly showed that this hindrance in the heme A synthesis provoked a reduction on C c O activity and, in consequence, an impairment on T. cruzi survival, proliferation and infectivity. This evidence supports that T. cruzi depends on the respiratory chain activity along its life cycle, being C c O an essential terminal oxidase. © 2017 The Author(s); published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society.

CCoAOMT down-regulation activates anthocyanin biosynthesis in petunia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shaipulah, N.F.M.; Muhlemann, J.K.; Woodworth, B.D.; Van Moerkercke, A.; Verdonk, J.C.; Ramirez, A.M.; Haring, M.A.; Dudareva, N.; Schuurink, R.C.

2016-01-01

Anthocyanins and volatile phenylpropenes (isoeugenol and eugenol) in petunia flowers have the precursor 4-coumaryl CoA in common. These phenolics are produced at different stages during flower development. Anthocyanins are synthesized during early stages of flower development and sequestered in

CCoAOMT down-regulation activates anthocyanin biosynthesis in petunia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shaipulah, N.F.M.; Muhlemann, Joëlle K.; Woodworth, Benjamin D.; Moerkercke, Van Alex; Verdonk, J.C.; Ramirez, A.A.; Haring, Michel A.; Dudareva, Natalia; Schuurink, Robert C.

2016-01-01

Anthocyanins and volatile phenylpropenes (isoeugenol and eugenol) in petunia (Petunia hybrida) flowers have the precursor 4-coumaryl coenzyme A (CoA) in common. These phenolics are produced at different stages during flower development. Anthocyanins are synthesized during early stages of flower

ESR of the triplet molecules CCO and CNN in rare-gas matrices; isotope and matrix effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, G.R.; Weltner, W. Jr.

1975-01-01

CCO and CNN, with isotopic substitution of 13 C, 18 O, and 15 N, were prepared by the reaction of C atoms with CO or N 2 and trapped in various matrices at 4 degreeK. ESR spectra of both 3 Σ molecules yielded hyperfine splittings, g values, and zero-field splittings. In solid neon, these parameters for C/sub alpha/C/sub beta/O, assuming g/sub parallel/=g/sube/, were g/sub perpendicular/=2.0029(4), D=0.7392(4) cm -1 , vertical-barA/sub perpendicular/(C/sub alpha/) vertical-bar = 57(3) MHz, vertical-barA/sub parallel/(C/sub alpha/) vertical-bar = 17(3) MHz, vertical-barA/sub perpendicular/(C/sub beta/) vertical-bar = 26(3) MHz, vertical-barA/sub parallel/(C/sub beta/) vertical-bar = 32(3) MHz. Similar but less extensive data were obtained for CN/sub alpha/N/sub beta/ where in solid neon, assuming g/sub parallel/ =g/sub perpendicular/=g/sube/, D = 1.1590(5) cm -1 , vertical-barA/sub perpendicular/( 14 N/sub alpha/) vertical-bar = 35(5), vertical-barA/sub perpendicular/( 14 N/sub beta/) vertical-bar = 19(5), and vertical-barA/sub perpendicular/( 13 C) vertical-bar = 50(5) MHz. D values for isotopic molecules 12 C 12 C 16 O, 13 C 12 C 18 O, etc., varied by small but significant amounts (up to about 0.001 cm -1 ) in Ne and in Ar matrices. These variations could be approximately accounted for by assuming torsional oscillation in the solid. This was supported by a temperature variation study. The observed decrease of D/sub gas/ = 0.772 cm -1 for C 2 O in matrices, particularly large in Kr and Xe, is attributed partially to motional averaging and partially to matrix perturbations of molecular electronic properties. Theory was applied to qualitatively account for the changes in spin--spin, D/sub SS/, and spin--orbit, D/sub SO/, contributions to the zfs of the molecule in the solids

Recent Developments in Carbonylation Chemistry Using [13 C]CO, [11 C]CO and [14 C]CO.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Dennis U; Neumann, Karoline T; Lindhardt, Anders T; Skrydstrup, Troels

2018-06-01

Carbon monoxide represents the most important C1-building block for the chemical industry, both for the production of bulk and fine chemicals, but also for synthetic fuels. Yet, its toxicity and subsequently its cautious handling has limited its applications in medicinal chemistry research and in particular for the synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant molecules. Recent years have nevertheless witnessed a considerable headway on the development of carbon monoxide surrogates and reactor systems, which provide an ideal setting for performing carbonylation chemistry with stoichiometric and sub-stoichiometric carbon monoxide. Such set-ups are particularly ideal for the introduction of isotope labels such as carbon-11, carbon-13 and carbon-14 into bioactive compounds. This review summarizes this growing field and examines the large number of carbonylation reactions that can be exploited for the introduction of a carbon isotope. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Biomassa microbiana e produção de C-CO2 e N mineral de um podzólico vermelho-escuro submetido a diferentes sistemas de manejo: Microbial biomass and C-CO2 and mineral nitrogen production in paleudult soil cultivated under different management systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. K. Vargas

2000-03-01

Full Text Available Os sistemas de manejo, com diferenças no revolvimento do solo e na composição dos resíduos vegetais, alteram as propriedades biológicas do solo, com reflexos na qualidade do solo e na produtividade das culturas. Com vistas em medir estas alterações nas propriedades biológicas do solo, a biomassa e a atividade microbiana foram avaliadas em um Podzólico Vermelho-Escuro, em Eldorado do Sul (RS, utilizando diferentes preparos (convencional, reduzido e plantio direto e dois sistemas de sucessões de culturas (aveia preta + vica/milho + caupi e aveia/milho. As avaliações foram realizadas em quatro épocas, durante 12 meses, e em duas profundidades (0-5 e 5-15 cm. O carbono da biomassa microbiana foi analisado pelo método de fumigação-incubação, e a atividade microbiana, pela produção de C-CO2 e N mineral, após 60 dias de incubação. As diferenças na biomassa e na atividade microbiana, entre os sistemas de manejo, foram mais pronunciadas na camada de 0-5 cm. Nesta camada de solo, observaram-se os maiores valores de biomassa e de atividade nos preparos conservacionistas e no sistema aveia + vica/milho + caupi. Dentre as variáveis estudadas, a mineralização de N mostrou-se a mais sensível aos manejos, à profundidade e à época de amostragem.

Anti-complement activities of human breast-milk.

Science.gov (United States)

Ogundele, M O

1999-08-01

It has long been observed that the human milk possesses significant anti-inflammatory properties, while simultaneously protecting the infant against many intestinal and respiratory pathogens. There is, however, a paucity of information on the degree and extent of this anti-inflammatory activity. In the present study, the inhibitory effects of different fractions of human milk on serum complement activity were analysed. Colostrum and milk samples from healthy voluntary lactating donors at different postpartum ages were obtained and pooled normal human serum was used as source of complement in a modified CH50 assay. Inherent complement activity in human milk was also investigated by measuring the deposition of an activated C3 fragment on a serum-sensitive bacteria, and by haemolytic assays. Most whole- and defatted-milk samples consistently showed a dose-dependent inhibition of the serum complement activity. This inhibition was greater in mature milk compared to transitional milk samples. It was enhanced by inactivation of milk complement, and diminished by centrifugation of milk samples, which partly removed fat and larger protein components including casein micelles. Inherent complement activity in human milk was also demonstrated by haemolysis of sensitised sheep erythrocytes and deposition of C3 fragments on solid-phase bacteria. These activities were highest in the colostrum and gradually decreased as lactation proceeded. Several natural components abundant in the fluid phase of the human breast-milk have been shown to be inhibitors of complement activation in vitro. Their physiological significance probably reside in their ability to prevent inflammatory-induced tissue damage of the delicate immature gastrointestinal tract of the new-born as well as the mammary gland itself, which may arise from ongoing complement activation.

ASSESSMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES FOR REGIONAL INNOVATION ACTIVITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. R. Lukyanova

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the issues of human resource development regarding an innovation activity. Concepts of labor and human resources have been surveyed. An integral index for assessment of human resources for regional innovation activity has been developed and assessment of the Russian regions has been made on the basis of it. Development tendencies of modern human resources for innovation activity in Russia have been revealed.

Monetary reward activates human prefrontal cortex

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thut, G.; Roelcke, U.; Nienhusmeier, M.; Missimer, J.; Maguire, R.P.; Leenders, K.L.; Schultz, W.

1997-01-01

We present a rCBF PET activation study, in which we demonstrated that reward processing in humans activates a cortical-subcortical network including dorsolateral prefrontal, orbital frontal, thalamic and midbrain regions. It is suggested that, as found for non-human primates, the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical system is implicated in reward processing. (author) 1 fig., 3 refs

A Review on Video-Based Human Activity Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shian-Ru Ke

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This review article surveys extensively the current progresses made toward video-based human activity recognition. Three aspects for human activity recognition are addressed including core technology, human activity recognition systems, and applications from low-level to high-level representation. In the core technology, three critical processing stages are thoroughly discussed mainly: human object segmentation, feature extraction and representation, activity detection and classification algorithms. In the human activity recognition systems, three main types are mentioned, including single person activity recognition, multiple people interaction and crowd behavior, and abnormal activity recognition. Finally the domains of applications are discussed in detail, specifically, on surveillance environments, entertainment environments and healthcare systems. Our survey, which aims to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the field, also addresses several challenges associated with these systems and applications. Moreover, in this survey, various applications are discussed in great detail, specifically, a survey on the applications in healthcare monitoring systems.

Real-time Human Activity Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Albukhary, N.; Mustafah, Y. M.

2017-11-01

The traditional Closed-circuit Television (CCTV) system requires human to monitor the CCTV for 24/7 which is inefficient and costly. Therefore, there’s a need for a system which can recognize human activity effectively in real-time. This paper concentrates on recognizing simple activity such as walking, running, sitting, standing and landing by using image processing techniques. Firstly, object detection is done by using background subtraction to detect moving object. Then, object tracking and object classification are constructed so that different person can be differentiated by using feature detection. Geometrical attributes of tracked object, which are centroid and aspect ratio of identified tracked are manipulated so that simple activity can be detected.

Human body contour data based activity recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Myagmarbayar, Nergui; Yuki, Yoshida; Imamoglu, Nevrez; Gonzalez, Jose; Otake, Mihoko; Yu, Wenwei

2013-01-01

This research work is aimed to develop autonomous bio-monitoring mobile robots, which are capable of tracking and measuring patients' motions, recognizing the patients' behavior based on observation data, and providing calling for medical personnel in emergency situations in home environment. The robots to be developed will bring about cost-effective, safe and easier at-home rehabilitation to most motor-function impaired patients (MIPs). In our previous research, a full framework was established towards this research goal. In this research, we aimed at improving the human activity recognition by using contour data of the tracked human subject extracted from the depth images as the signal source, instead of the lower limb joint angle data used in the previous research, which are more likely to be affected by the motion of the robot and human subjects. Several geometric parameters, such as, the ratio of height to weight of the tracked human subject, and distance (pixels) between centroid points of upper and lower parts of human body, were calculated from the contour data, and used as the features for the activity recognition. A Hidden Markov Model (HMM) is employed to classify different human activities from the features. Experimental results showed that the human activity recognition could be achieved with a high correct rate.

Scaling behavior of online human activity

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Zhi-Dan; Cai, Shi-Min; Huang, Junming; Fu, Yan; Zhou, Tao

2012-11-01

The rapid development of the Internet technology enables humans to explore the web and record the traces of online activities. From the analysis of these large-scale data sets (i.e., traces), we can get insights about the dynamic behavior of human activity. In this letter, the scaling behavior and complexity of human activity in the e-commerce, such as music, books, and movies rating, are comprehensively investigated by using the detrended fluctuation analysis technique and the multiscale entropy method. Firstly, the interevent time series of rating behaviors of these three types of media show similar scaling properties with exponents ranging from 0.53 to 0.58, which implies that the collective behaviors of rating media follow a process embodying self-similarity and long-range correlation. Meanwhile, by dividing the users into three groups based on their activities (i.e., rating per unit time), we find that the scaling exponents of the interevent time series in the three groups are different. Hence, these results suggest that a stronger long-range correlations exist in these collective behaviors. Furthermore, their information complexities vary in the three groups. To explain the differences of the collective behaviors restricted to the three groups, we study the dynamic behavior of human activity at the individual level, and find that the dynamic behaviors of a few users have extremely small scaling exponents associated with long-range anticorrelations. By comparing the interevent time distributions of four representative users, we can find that the bimodal distributions may bring forth the extraordinary scaling behaviors. These results of the analysis of the online human activity in the e-commerce may not only provide insight into its dynamic behaviors but may also be applied to acquire potential economic interest.

Activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α enhances fatty acid oxidation in human adipocytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Joo-Young; Hashizaki, Hikari; Goto, Tsuyoshi; Sakamoto, Tomoya; Takahashi, Nobuyuki; Kawada, Teruo

2011-01-01

Highlights: → PPARα activation increased mRNA expression levels of adipocyte differentiation marker genes and GPDH activity in human adipocytes. → PPARα activation also increased insulin-dependent glucose uptake in human adipocytes. → PPARα activation did not affect lipid accumulation in human adipocytes. → PPARα activation increased fatty acid oxidation through induction of fatty acid oxidation-related genes in human adipocytes. -- Abstract: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) is a key regulator for maintaining whole-body energy balance. However, the physiological functions of PPARα in adipocytes have been unclarified. We examined the functions of PPARα using human multipotent adipose tissue-derived stem cells as a human adipocyte model. Activation of PPARα by GW7647, a potent PPARα agonist, increased the mRNA expression levels of adipocyte differentiation marker genes such as PPARγ, adipocyte-specific fatty acid-binding protein, and lipoprotein lipase and increased both GPDH activity and insulin-dependent glucose uptake level. The findings indicate that PPARα activation stimulates adipocyte differentiation. However, lipid accumulation was not changed, which is usually observed when PPARγ is activated. On the other hand, PPARα activation by GW7647 treatment induced the mRNA expression of fatty acid oxidation-related genes such as CPT-1B and AOX in a PPARα-dependent manner. Moreover, PPARα activation increased the production of CO 2 and acid soluble metabolites, which are products of fatty acid oxidation, and increased oxygen consumption rate in human adipocytes. The data indicate that activation of PPARα stimulates both adipocyte differentiation and fatty acid oxidation in human adipocytes, suggesting that PPARα agonists could improve insulin resistance without lipid accumulation in adipocytes. The expected effects of PPARα activation are very valuable for managing diabetic conditions accompanied by obesity, because

Production and Partial Characterization of Cellulases from ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The optimum temperature of CCI was 55°C whereas that of CCO was 50°C. The stability of enzymes from 35°C to 70°C was studied. At 70°C, CCO cellulase has lost 45.88% of its original activity while CCI cellulase lost 58.14%. The results show that corn cob could serve as a cheap carbon source for the production of fungi ...

Human rights education (HRE) and transnational activism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mihr, A.; Schmitz, Hans-Peter

2007-01-01

Transnational human rights activism occupies today a significant place in the practice and scholarship of current global affairs. This article reviews the past successes and limits of this activism and suggests Human Rights Education (HRE) as a strategic tool currently underutilized by activists and

First-order decay models to describe soil C-CO2 Loss after rotary tillage Modelos de decaimento de primeira ordem aplicado a descrição da perda de C-CO2 do solo após preparo com enxada rotativa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Newton La Scala Jr.

2009-10-01

Full Text Available To further understand the impact of tillage on CO2 emission, the applicability of two conceptual models was tested, which describe the CO2 emission after tillage as a function of the non-tilled emission plus a correction due to the tillage disturbance. Models assume that C in readily decomposable organic matter follows a first-order reaction kinetics equation as: dCsoil (t / dt = -k Csoil (t, and that soil C-CO2 emission is proportional to the C decay rate in soil, where Csoil(t is the available labile soil C (g m-2 at any time (t and k is the decay constant (time-1. Two possible assumptions were tested to determine the tilled (F T fluxes: the decay constants (k of labile soil C before and after tillage are different (Model 1 or not (Model 2. Accordingly, C flux relationships between non-tilled (F NT and tilled (F T conditions are given by: F T = F NT + a1 e-a2t (model 1 and F T = a3 F NT e-a4t (model 2, where t is time after tillage. Predicted and observed CO2 fluxes presented good agreement based on the coefficient of determination (R² = 0.91. Model comparison revealed a slightly improved statistical fit of model 2, where all C pools are assigned with the same k constant. Rotary speed was related to increases in the amount of labile C available and to changes of the mean resident labile C pool available after tillage. This approach allows describing the temporal variability of tillage-induced emissions by a simple analytical function, including non-tilled emission plus an exponential term modulated by tillage and environmentally dependent parameters.Para entendimento do impacto do preparo do solo sobre as emissões de CO2 desenvolvemos e aplicamos dois modelos conceituais que são capazes de prever a emissão de CO2 do solo após seu preparo em função da emissão da parcela sem distúrbio, acrescida de uma correção devido ao preparo. Os modelos assumem que o carbono presente na matéria orgânica lábil segue uma cinética de decaimento

Cox1 mutation abrogates need for Cox23 in cytochrome c oxidase biogenesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Dela Cruz

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Cox23 is a known conserved assembly factor for cytochrome c oxidase, although its role in cytochrome c oxidase (CcO biogenesis remains unresolved. To gain additional insights into its role, we isolated spontaneous suppressors of the respiratory growth defect in cox23∆ yeast cells. We recovered independent colonies that propagated on glycerol/lactate medium for cox23∆ cells at 37°C. We mapped these mutations to the mitochondrial genome and specifically to COX1 yielding an I101F substitution. The I101F Cox1 allele is a gain-of-function mutation enabling yeast to respire in the absence of Cox23. CcO subunit steady-state levels were restored with the I101F Cox1 suppressor mutation and oxygen consumption and CcO activity were likewise restored. Cells harboring the mitochondrial genome encoding I101F Cox1 were used to delete genes for other CcO assembly factors to test the specificity of the Cox1 mutation as a suppressor of cox23∆ cells. The Cox1 mutant allele fails to support respiratory growth in yeast lacking Cox17, Cox19, Coa1, Coa2, Cox14 or Shy1, demonstrating its specific suppressor activity for cox23∆ cells.

Analysis of Gait Pattern to Recognize the Human Activities

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Jay Prakash Gupta

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Human activity recognition based on the computer vision is the process of labelling image sequences with action labels. Accurate systems for this problem are applied in areas such as visual surveillance, human computer interaction and video retrieval. The challenges are due to variations in motion, recording settings and gait differences. Here we propose an approach to recognize the human activities through gait. Activity recognition through Gait is the process of identifying an activity by the manner in which they walk. The identification of human activities in a video, such as a person is walking, running, jumping, jogging etc are important activities in video surveillance. We contribute the use of Model based approach for activity recognition with the help of movement of legs only. Experimental results suggest that our method are able to recognize the human activities with a good accuracy rate and robust to shadows present in the videos.

Activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-{alpha} enhances fatty acid oxidation in human adipocytes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Joo-Young; Hashizaki, Hikari; Goto, Tsuyoshi; Sakamoto, Tomoya; Takahashi, Nobuyuki [Laboratory of Molecular Function of Food, Division of Food Science and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011 (Japan); Kawada, Teruo, E-mail: fat@kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp [Laboratory of Molecular Function of Food, Division of Food Science and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011 (Japan)

2011-04-22

Highlights: {yields} PPAR{alpha} activation increased mRNA expression levels of adipocyte differentiation marker genes and GPDH activity in human adipocytes. {yields} PPAR{alpha} activation also increased insulin-dependent glucose uptake in human adipocytes. {yields} PPAR{alpha} activation did not affect lipid accumulation in human adipocytes. {yields} PPAR{alpha} activation increased fatty acid oxidation through induction of fatty acid oxidation-related genes in human adipocytes. -- Abstract: Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-{alpha} (PPAR{alpha}) is a key regulator for maintaining whole-body energy balance. However, the physiological functions of PPAR{alpha} in adipocytes have been unclarified. We examined the functions of PPAR{alpha} using human multipotent adipose tissue-derived stem cells as a human adipocyte model. Activation of PPAR{alpha} by GW7647, a potent PPAR{alpha} agonist, increased the mRNA expression levels of adipocyte differentiation marker genes such as PPAR{gamma}, adipocyte-specific fatty acid-binding protein, and lipoprotein lipase and increased both GPDH activity and insulin-dependent glucose uptake level. The findings indicate that PPAR{alpha} activation stimulates adipocyte differentiation. However, lipid accumulation was not changed, which is usually observed when PPAR{gamma} is activated. On the other hand, PPAR{alpha} activation by GW7647 treatment induced the mRNA expression of fatty acid oxidation-related genes such as CPT-1B and AOX in a PPAR{alpha}-dependent manner. Moreover, PPAR{alpha} activation increased the production of CO{sub 2} and acid soluble metabolites, which are products of fatty acid oxidation, and increased oxygen consumption rate in human adipocytes. The data indicate that activation of PPAR{alpha} stimulates both adipocyte differentiation and fatty acid oxidation in human adipocytes, suggesting that PPAR{alpha} agonists could improve insulin resistance without lipid accumulation in adipocytes. The expected

Cholesterol esterase activity of human intestinal mucosa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ponz de Leon, M.; Carubbi, F.; Di Donato, P.; Carulli, N.

1985-01-01

It has been suggested that cholesterol absorption in humans is dependent on bile acid pool composition and that expansion of the cholic acid pool size is followed by an increase of the absorption values. Similar observations were reported in rats. In the present study, therefore, the authors investigated some general properties of human intestinal cholesterol esterase, with particular emphasis on the effect of bile acids on this enzymatic activity. Twenty-nine segments of small intestine were taken during operations; the enzymatic activity was studied by using mucosal homogenate as a source of enzyme and oleic acid, cholesterol, and 14 C-labeled cholesterol as substrates. The time-activity relationship was linear within the first two hours; optimal pH for esterification ranged between 5 and 6.2. There was little difference between the esterifying activity of the jejunal and ileal mucosa. Esterification of cholesterol was observed with all the investigated fatty acids but was maximal with oleic acid. Bile acids did not affect cholesterol esterase activity when present in the incubation mixture at 0.1 and 1.0 mM; the enzymatic activity, however, was significantly inhibited when bile acids were added at 20 mM. In conclusion, this study has shown that the human intestinal mucosa possesses a cholesterol esterase activity; at variance with the rat, however, the human enzyme does not seem to be stimulated by trihydroxy bile acids

Fire, Climate, and Human Activity: A Combustive Combination

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Kehrwald, N. M.; Battistel, D.; Argiriadis, E.; Barbante, C.; Barber, L. B.; Fortner, S. K.; Jasmann, J.; Kirchgeorg, T.; Zennaro, P.

2017-12-01

Ice and lake core records demonstrate that fires caused by human activity can dominate regional biomass burning records in the Common Era. These major increases in fires are often associated with extensive land use change such as an expansion in agriculture. Regions with few humans, relatively stable human populations and/or unvarying land use often have fire histories that are dominated by climate parameters such as temperature and precipitation. Here, we examine biomass burning recorded in ice cores from northern Greenland (NEEM, (77°27'N; 51°3.6'W), Alaska (Juneau Icefield, 58° 35' N; 134° 29'W) and East Antarctica (EPICA DOME C; 75°06'S; 123°21'E), along with New Zealand lake cores to investigate interactions between climate, fire and human activity. Biomarkers such as levoglucosan, and its isomers mannosan and galactosan, can only be produced by cellulose combustion and therefore are specific indicators of past fire activity archived in ice and lake cores. These fire histories add another factor to climate proxies from the same core, and provide a comparison to regional fire syntheses from charcoal records and climate models. For example, fire data from the JSBACH-Spitfire model for the past 2000 years demonstrates that a climate-only scenario would not increase biomass burning in high northern latitudes for the past 2000 years, while NEEM ice core and regional pollen records demonstrate both increased fire activity and land use change that may be ascribed to human activity. Additional biomarkers such as fecal sterols in lake sediments can determine when people were in an area, and can help establish if an increased human presence in an area corresponds with intensified fire activity. This combination of specific biomarkers, other proxy data, and model output can help determine the relative impact of humans versus climate factors on regional fire activity.

Brain Activation During Singing: "Clef de Sol Activation" Is the "Concert" of the Human Brain.

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Mavridis, Ioannis N; Pyrgelis, Efstratios-Stylianos

2016-03-01

Humans are the most complex singers in nature, and the human voice is thought by many to be the most beautiful musical instrument. Aside from spoken language, singing represents a second mode of acoustic communication in humans. The purpose of this review article is to explore the functional anatomy of the "singing" brain. Methodologically, the existing literature regarding activation of the human brain during singing was carefully reviewed, with emphasis on the anatomic localization of such activation. Relevant human studies are mainly neuroimaging studies, namely functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography studies. Singing necessitates activation of several cortical, subcortical, cerebellar, and brainstem areas, served and coordinated by multiple neural networks. Functionally vital cortical areas of the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes bilaterally participate in the brain's activation process during singing, confirming the latter's role in human communication. Perisylvian cortical activity of the right hemisphere seems to be the most crucial component of this activation. This also explains why aphasic patients due to left hemispheric lesions are able to sing but not speak the same words. The term clef de sol activation is proposed for this crucial perisylvian cortical activation due to the clef de sol shape of the topographical distribution of these cortical areas around the sylvian fissure. Further research is needed to explore the connectivity and sequence of how the human brain activates to sing.

Clinical application of positron CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takashima, Tsuneo; Yamaura, Akira; Shishido, Fumio; Tateno, Yukio.

1981-01-01

A newley designed positron CT has been applied for neurosurgical patients. The radiopharmaceuticals administered are 13 N-ammonia, 11 C-CO, and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose, which are produced and synthesized in the institute using the cyclotron. 13 N-ammonia and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose are administered by intravenous injection but 11 C-CO is administered by inhaling. 13 N-ammonia acts as a diffusible tracer and is readily metabolized to glutamine in the brain tissue, but the extraction fraction of the glutamine is so slow that the 13 N-ammonia imaging reflects the distribution of the crebral perfusion. 11 C-CO is combined with the hemoglobin and undiffusible in behavior. This makes the 11 C-CO images conduct the cerebral blood pooling distribution. 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose is an analogous substance of glucose and is transported within the brain tissue competitively. Then, fluorodeoxyglucose is metabolized to fluorodeoxyglucose-6-phosphate but no further. This characteristic property of fluorodeoxyglucose let 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose images convey the local cerebral metabolic rate of glucose. In normal volunteer subjects, the distribution of 13 N-ammonia and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose appeared in a similar fashion, and was in accordance with the brain tissue. Both tracers were accumulated in particularly high concentrations in the gray matter and the basal ganglia. 11 C-CO activity was prominently accumulated in various dural sinuses and the vascular areas. In stroke patients, old lesions showed a lack of perfusion but fresh lesions showed hyperperfusion surrounded by a decreased perfused area. 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose activity was decreased in the lesion in spite of the hyperperfusion. (J.P.N.)

Human Activity Recognition in AAL Environments Using Random Projections

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Robertas Damaševičius

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Automatic human activity recognition systems aim to capture the state of the user and its environment by exploiting heterogeneous sensors attached to the subject’s body and permit continuous monitoring of numerous physiological signals reflecting the state of human actions. Successful identification of human activities can be immensely useful in healthcare applications for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL, for automatic and intelligent activity monitoring systems developed for elderly and disabled people. In this paper, we propose the method for activity recognition and subject identification based on random projections from high-dimensional feature space to low-dimensional projection space, where the classes are separated using the Jaccard distance between probability density functions of projected data. Two HAR domain tasks are considered: activity identification and subject identification. The experimental results using the proposed method with Human Activity Dataset (HAD data are presented.

Human Activity Recognition in AAL Environments Using Random Projections.

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Damaševičius, Robertas; Vasiljevas, Mindaugas; Šalkevičius, Justas; Woźniak, Marcin

2016-01-01

Automatic human activity recognition systems aim to capture the state of the user and its environment by exploiting heterogeneous sensors attached to the subject's body and permit continuous monitoring of numerous physiological signals reflecting the state of human actions. Successful identification of human activities can be immensely useful in healthcare applications for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), for automatic and intelligent activity monitoring systems developed for elderly and disabled people. In this paper, we propose the method for activity recognition and subject identification based on random projections from high-dimensional feature space to low-dimensional projection space, where the classes are separated using the Jaccard distance between probability density functions of projected data. Two HAR domain tasks are considered: activity identification and subject identification. The experimental results using the proposed method with Human Activity Dataset (HAD) data are presented.

Atributos químicos e atividade microbiana em solos convertidos de savana para plantios de Acacia mangium Willd em Roraima. = Chemical attribuites and microbial activity in soils converted to savanna for plantations of Acacia mangium Willd. in Roraima, Brazil.

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Moisés Mourão Júnior

2011-04-01

Full Text Available A atividade microbiana tem sido empregada na avaliação de solos manejados, sendo um indicador importante na caracterização de solos alterados. Nesse sentido, objetivou-se com o presente trabalho avaliar o efeito de plantios de Acacia mangium com diferentes idades sobre os atributos químicos e atividade microbiana em solos representativos da Savana do Estado de Roraima. Os plantios de A. mangium de três e cinco anos encontravam-se em áreas de LATOSSOLO AMARELO Distrófico e os de quatro e seis anos em ARGISSOLO AMARELO Distrófico. As áreas próximas aos plantios com as mesmas condições de solos e com cobertura vegetal primária (savana natural constituiram as testemunhas. Foram amostrados os horizontes A e B sendo avaliados os atributos químicos dos solos e a atividade microbiana. A pobreza química e elevadasaturação por alumínio (%m dos solos estudados influenciaram significativamente nos menores valores de C-CO2 evoluído pela atividade microbiana. A maior atividade microbiana ocorreu em áreas plantadas independentemente do tipo de solo, em função das melhores condições químicas. Os maiores valores de C-CO2 evoluído correlacionaram-se melhor com os teores de carbono orgânico e matéria orgânica do solo. = Microbial activity has been used in the evaluation of soils, an important indicator in the characterization of alteredsoils. Therefore, this study has as aim to evaluate the effect of replacing natural vegetation to plantations of Acacia mangium onmicrobial activity in soils of savannas in Roraima state. The areas studied consisted of plantations of acacia with three and fiveyears in Yellow Latosol with four and six years in yellow Alfisols. Areas near the plantations with the same conditions of soiland vegetation (natural savanna were considered control. Were sampled the A and B horizons, corresponding depths 0-30 and 30-60 cm respectively, with three replications for a total of 36 experimental units. The results

Smartphone-based human activity recognition

OpenAIRE

Reyes Ortiz, Jorge Luis

2014-01-01

Cotutela Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya i Università degli Studi di Genova Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is a multidisciplinary research field that aims to gather data regarding people's behavior and their interaction with the environment in order to deliver valuable context-aware information. It has nowadays contributed to develop human-centered areas of study such as Ambient Intelligence and Ambient Assisted Living, which concentrate on the improvement of people's Quality of Lif...

Degalactosylated/desialylated human serum containing GcMAF induces macrophage phagocytic activity and in vivo antitumor activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuchiike, Daisuke; Uto, Yoshihiro; Mukai, Hirotaka; Ishiyama, Noriko; Abe, Chiaki; Tanaka, Daichi; Kawai, Tomohito; Kubo, Kentaro; Mette, Martin; Inui, Toshio; Endo, Yoshio; Hori, Hitoshi

2013-07-01

The group-specific component protein-derived macrophage-activating factor (GcMAF) has various biological activities, such as macrophage activation and antitumor activity. Clinical trials of GcMAF have been carried out for metastatic breast cancer, prostate cancer, and metastatic colorectal cancer. In this study, despite the complicated purification process of GcMAF, we used enzymatically-treated human serum containing GcMAF with a considerable macrophage-stimulating activity and antitumor activity. We detected GcMAF in degalactosylated/desialylated human serum by western blotting using an anti-human Gc globulin antibody, and Helix pomatia agglutinin lectin. We also found that GcMAF-containing human serum significantly enhanced the phagocytic activity of mouse peritoneal macrophages and extended the survival time of mice bearing Ehrlich ascites tumors. We demonstrated that GcMAF-containing human serum can be used as a potential macrophage activator for cancer immunotherapy.

Similarity of hydrolyzing activity of human and rat small intestinal disaccharidases

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Oku T

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Tsuneyuki Oku¹, Kenichi Tanabe¹, Shigeharu Ogawa², Naoki Sadamori¹, Sadako Nakamura¹¹Graduate School of Human Health Science, University of Nagasaki, Siebold, Nagayo, Japan; ²Juzenkai Hospital, Kagomachi, Nagasaki, JapanBackground: The purpose of this study was to clarify whether it is possible to extrapolate results from studies of the hydrolyzing activity of disaccharidases from rats to humans.Materials and methods: We measured disaccharidase activity in humans and rats using identical preparation and assay methods, and investigated the similarity in hydrolyzing activity. Small intestinal samples without malignancy were donated by five patients who had undergone bladder tumor surgery, and homogenates were prepared to measure disaccharidase activity. Adult rat homogenates were prepared using small intestine.Results: Maltase activity was the highest among the five disaccharidases, followed by sucrase and then palatinase in humans and rats. Trehalase activity was slightly lower than that of palatinase in humans and was similar to that of sucrase in rats. Lactase activity was the lowest in humans, but was similar to that of palatinase in rats. Thus, the hydrolyzing activity of five disaccharidases was generally similar in humans and rats. The relative activity of sucrose and palatinase versus maltase was generally similar between humans and rats. The ratio of rat to human hydrolyzing activity of maltase, sucrase, and palatinase was 1.9–3.1, but this was not a significant difference. Leaf extract from Morus alba strongly inhibited the activity of maltase, sucrase, and palatinase, but not trehalase and lactase, and the degree of inhibition was similar in humans and rats. L-arabinose mildly inhibited sucrase activity, but hardly inhibited the activity of maltase, palatinase, trehalase and lactase in humans and rats. The digestibility of 1-kestose, galactosylsucrose, and panose by small intestinal enzymes was very similar between humans and

Exploring the entrance of proton pathways in cytochrome c oxidase from Paracoccus denitrificans: surface charge, buffer capacity and redox-dependent polarity changes at the internal surface.

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Kirchberg, Kristina; Michel, Hartmut; Alexiev, Ulrike

2013-03-01

Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO), the terminal oxidase of cellular respiration, reduces molecular oxygen to water. The mechanism of proton pumping as well as the coupling of proton and electron transfer is still not understood in this redox-linked proton pump. Eleven residues at the aqueous-exposed surfaces of CcO from Paracoccus denitrificans have been exchanged to cysteines in a two-subunit base variant to yield single reactive cysteine variants. These variants are designed to provide unique labeling sites for probes to be used in spectroscopic experiments investigating the mechanism of proton pumping in CcO. To this end we have shown that all cysteine variants are enzymatically active. Cysteine positions at the negative (N-) side of the membrane are located close to the entrance of the D- and K-proton transfer pathways that connect the N-side with the catalytic oxygen reduction site. Labeling of the pH-indicator dye fluorescein to these sites allowed us to determine the surface potential at the cytoplasmic CcO surface, which corresponds to a surface charge density of -0.5 elementary charge/1000Å(2). In addition, acid-base titrations revealed values of CcO buffer capacity. Polarity measurements of the label environment at the N-side provided (i) site-specific values indicative of a hydrophilic and a more hydrophobic environment dependent on the label position, and (ii) information on a global change to a more apolar environment upon reduction of the enzyme. Thus, the redox state of the copper and heme centers inside the hydrophobic interior of CcO affect the properties at the cytoplasmic surface. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Positron CT findings of chronic schizophrenics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toyoda, Junzo; Miyazaki, Chihiro; Sugai, Yuichi; Iio, Masaaki.

1983-01-01

Positron CT images of 15 chronic schizophrenics (2 females and 13 males) were examined in contrast to 5 male controls. Average age of controls was 36 years and that of schizophrenics was 42 years. Schizophrenic cases were ill over 6 years, averaging 17 years. All were under antipsychotic drug therapy. Tracer compounds were 11 C-CO2 and 11 C-glucose photosynthesised, the former being inhalated once just before and the latter being administered orally 10-15 minutes before examinations. On positron CT images of all normal controls, hyper-radioactivities in frontal regions were observed. Some asymmetries of activities were observed but not remarkable. There wes no difference between the images with 11 C-CO2 and those with 11 C-glucose. In schizophrenic cases, (1) 7 out of 15 cases showed hypo-activities in the frontal regions both with 11 C-CO2 and 11 C-glucose. (2) With 11 C-glucose, relative activities in the brain were lower than those in the soft tissues around the scalp, suggesting the lowered selective uptake of 11 C-glucose by the brain. (3) With 11 C-CO 2, 4 cases showed higher activities in the right temporal regions and their subcortex than the left. By consideration of relationships between these positron CT findings and clinical data such as present age, age of onset of illness, duration of illness, psychiatric symptoms, present drug amount, summed drug amount from administration, EEG and X-ray CT findings, significant correlation was recognized only between low frontal radioactivities and apathy-abulia as main symptom. Limitation on the explanation of the findings with the image alone was discussed. (author)

Atividade microbiana em um Latossolo degradado tratado com lodo de esgoto Microbial activity in a degraded Latosol treated with sewage sludge

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Gilberto Colodro

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Em geral, os solos degradados se apresentam com fraca atividade biológica, tendo em vista suas características físicas, baixa fertilidade e teores de matéria orgânica, devido principalmente à remoção ou degradação de sua camada superficial. O elevado teor de matéria orgânica facilmente decomposta do lodo de esgoto, que é uma fonte alternativa de resíduos orgânicos, aliado à sua elevada taxa dos principais elementos nutrientes às plantas, pode ser um fator importante do retorno ou incremento da atividade biológica dos solos degradados. Com a finalidade de se estudar as ações do lodo de esgoto na recuperação de um Latossolo degradado, utilizaram-se, como indicadores dos efeitos, o carbono na biomassa microbiana (Cmic, o carbono do CO2 (C-CO2 liberado e a relação entre o carbono microbiano e o carbono orgânico (Cmic/Corg; para isto, foram definidas duas doses de lodo de esgoto aplicadas em cobertura e incorporada, de 30 e 60 Mg ha-1 à base seca, juntamente com um tratamento com fertilizante mineral, utilizando-se o eucalipto como cultura teste. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente casualizado, com 4 tratamentos e 4 repetições. O lodo de esgoto promove aumento do C-CO2 liberado e do Cmic, os quais constituem indicativos de qualidade adequados ao monitoramento da recuperação do solo.The degraded soil shows, in general, poor biological activity, considering its physical characteristics, low fertility and organic matter, mainly due to removal or degradation of its superficial layer. The sewage sludge, due to its high content of easily decomposed organic matter can be an alternate source of organic residues and combined to its high content of the principal nutrients for the plants can be an important factor to promote biological activities in degraded soil. In order to study the actions of the sewage sludge in the recovery of a degraded Latosol, the carbon in the microbial biomass (Cmic, the carbon released CO2 (C-CO

Production and Extraction of [10C]-CO2 From Proton Bombardment of Molten 10B2O3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schueller, M.J.; Nickles, R.J.; Roberts, A.D.; Jensen, M.

2003-01-01

This work describes the production of 10C (t (1/2) = 19 s) from an enriched 10B2O3 target using a CTI RDS-112 11 MeV proton cyclotron. Proton beam heating is used to raise the target to a molten state (∼ 1300 deg. C), enabling the activity to diffuse to the surface of the melt. An infrared thermocouple monitors the melt temperature. Helium sweep gas then transports the activity to flow-through chemistry processing for human inhalation of 10CO2 for blood flow imaging with Positron Emission Tomography. The temperature-related diffusion of activity out of the white-hot molten glass target is discussed

Human activities affecting trace gases and climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braatz, B.; Ebert, C.

1990-01-01

The Earth's climate has been in a constant state of change throughout geologic time due to natural perturbations in the global geobiosphere. However, various human activities have the potential to cause future global warming over a relatively short amount of time. These activities, which affect the Earth's climate by altering the concentrations of trace gases in the atmosphere, include energy consumption, particularly fossil-fuel consumption; industrial processes (production and use of chlorofluorocarbons, halons, and chlorocarbons, landfilling of wastes, and cement manufacture); changes in land use patterns, particularly deforestation and biomass burning; and agricultural practices (waste burning, fertilizer usage, rice production, and animal husbandry). Population growth is an important underlying factor affecting the level of growth in each activity. This paper describes how the human activities listed above contribute to atmospheric change, the current pattern of each activity, and how levels of each activity have changed since the early part of this century

Cytochrome c oxidase inhibition by calcium at physiological ionic composition of the medium: Implications for physiological significance of the effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Vygodina, Tatiana V; Mukhaleva, Elizaveta; Azarkina, Natalia V; Konstantinov, Alexander A

2017-12-01

Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) from mammalian mitochondria binds Ca 2+ and Na + in a special cation binding site. Binding of Ca 2+ brings about partial inhibition of the enzyme while Na + competes with Ca 2+ for the binding site and protects the enzyme from the inhibition [Vygodina, T., Kirichenko, A. and Konstantinov, A.A. (2013). Direct Regulation of Cytochrome c oxidase by Calcium Ions. PLoS One 8(9): e74436]. In the original studies, the inhibition was found to depend significantly on the ionic composition of the buffer. Here we describe inhibition of CcO by Ca 2+ in media containing the main ionic components of cytoplasm (150mM KCl, 12mM NaCl and 1mM MgCl 2 ). Under these conditions, Ca 2+ inhibits CcO with effective K i of 20-26μM, that is an order of magnitude higher than determined earlier in the absence of Na + . At physiological value of ionic strength, the inhibition can be observed at any turnover number of CcO, rather than only at low TN (calcium matches closely the known value of "K m " for Ca 2+ -induced activation of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter. The inhibition of CcO by Ca 2+ is proposed to modulate mitochondrial Ca 2+ -uptake via the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, promote permeability transition pore opening and induce reduction of Mia40 in the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Low-sensitivity, low-bounce, high-linearity current-controlled oscillator suitable for single-supply mixed-mode instrumentation system.

Science.gov (United States)

Hwang, Yuh-Shyan; Kung, Che-Min; Lin, Ho-Cheng; Chen, Jiann-Jong

2009-02-01

A low-sensitivity, low-bounce, high-linearity current-controlled oscillator (CCO) suitable for a single-supply mixed-mode instrumentation system is designed and proposed in this paper. The designed CCO can be operated at low voltage (2 V). The power bounce and ground bounce generated by this CCO is less than 7 mVpp when the power-line parasitic inductance is increased to 100 nH to demonstrate the effect of power bounce and ground bounce. The power supply noise caused by the proposed CCO is less than 0.35% in reference to the 2 V supply voltage. The average conversion ratio KCCO is equal to 123.5 GHz/A. The linearity of conversion ratio is high and its tolerance is within +/-1.2%. The sensitivity of the proposed CCO is nearly independent of the power supply voltage, which is less than a conventional current-starved oscillator. The performance of the proposed CCO has been compared with the current-starved oscillator. It is shown that the proposed CCO is suitable for single-supply mixed-mode instrumentation systems.

Mapping of electrophysiological response to transcranial infrared laser stimulation on the human brain in vivo measured by electroencephalography (Conference Presentation)

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xinlong; Reddy, Divya Dhandapani; Gonzalez-Lima, F.; Liu, Hanli

2017-02-01

Transcranial infrared laser stimulation (TILS) is a non-destructive and non-thermal photobiomodulation therapy or process on the human brain; TILS uses infrared light from lasers or LEDs and has gained increased recognition for its beneficial effects on a variety of neurological and psychological conditions. While the mechanism of TILS has been assumed to stem from cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO), which is the last enzyme in the electron transportation chain and is the primary photoacceptor, no literature is found to report electrophysiological response to TILS. In this study, a 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) system was employed to monitor electrophysiological activities from 15 healthy human participants before, during and after TILS. A placebo experimental protocol was also applied for rigorous comparison. After recording a 3-minute baseline, we applied a 1064-nm laser with a power of 3.5W on the right forehead of each human participant for 8 minutes, followed by a 5-minute recovery period. In 64-channel EEG data analysis, we utilized several methods (root mean square, principal component analysis followed by independent component analysis, permutation conditional mutual information, and time-frequency wavelet analysis) to reveal differences in electrophysiological response to TILS between the stimulated versus placebo group. The analyzed results were further investigated using general linear model and paired t-test to reveal statistically meaningful responses induced by TILS. Moreover, this study will provide spatial mapping of human electrophysiological and possibly neural network responses to TILS for first time, indicating the potential of EEG to be an effective method for monitoring neurological improvement induced by TILS.

Decision Support System Development for Human Extravehicular Activity

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The extension of human presence into deep space will depend on how successfully human planetary extravehicular activities (EVAs) are conducted without real-time...

RESERVAS DE CARBONO E NITROGÊNIO MINERAL NA ENCOSTA DO AÇUDE NAMORADOS NO SEMI-ÁRIDO PARAIBANO

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Kallianna Dantas Araujo

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The semiarid is characterized for presenting precipitations concentrated in short period of time, form that to most of the year the ground are displayed the strong insolation and to the raised hídrico deficit. On the other hand, the estacional variation of the climate affects the water content of the ground and as consequence the biological activity and the losses of C, mineral N and C-CO2.The purpose of this research was to analyze the losses of C, mineral N and C-CO2 of the ground in a microbasin, that passes for a process of environmental degradation, located in the Fazenda Experimental Bacia Escola/CCA/UFPB in São João do Cariri - PB, during the period of a translation, of the years of 2003 and 2004. It was defined a toposequence and chosen points of determination for the evaluation of the reserves of carbon, mineral nitrogen and microbic activity by means of the C-CO2 production. The biggest amounts of C had been verified in the areas of pediment and the minors in the area of side slopes; The amounts of mineral N was not influenced by the position of the ground in the toposeqüência; The biggest liberation of C-CO2 happened in the areas of pediment followed by the flood plain and half hillside, places with the biggest amount of of water in the soil.

Modeling and Visualization of Human Activities for Multicamera Networks

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Aswin C. Sankaranarayanan

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Multicamera networks are becoming complex involving larger sensing areas in order to capture activities and behavior that evolve over long spatial and temporal windows. This necessitates novel methods to process the information sensed by the network and visualize it for an end user. In this paper, we describe a system for modeling and on-demand visualization of activities of groups of humans. Using the prior knowledge of the 3D structure of the scene as well as camera calibration, the system localizes humans as they navigate the scene. Activities of interest are detected by matching models of these activities learnt a priori against the multiview observations. The trajectories and the activity index for each individual summarize the dynamic content of the scene. These are used to render the scene with virtual 3D human models that mimic the observed activities of real humans. In particular, the rendering framework is designed to handle large displays with a cluster of GPUs as well as reduce the cognitive dissonance by rendering realistic weather effects and illumination. We envision use of this system for immersive visualization as well as summarization of videos that capture group behavior.

Case-Crossover Analysis of Air Pollution Health Effects: A Systematic Review of Methodology and Application

Science.gov (United States)

Carracedo-Martínez, Eduardo; Taracido, Margarita; Tobias, Aurelio; Saez, Marc; Figueiras, Adolfo

2010-01-01

Background Case-crossover is one of the most used designs for analyzing the health-related effects of air pollution. Nevertheless, no one has reviewed its application and methodology in this context. Objective We conducted a systematic review of case-crossover (CCO) designs used to study the relationship between air pollution and morbidity and mortality, from the standpoint of methodology and application. Data sources and extraction A search was made of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. Reports were classified as methodologic or applied. From the latter, the following information was extracted: author, study location, year, type of population (general or patients), dependent variable(s), independent variable(s), type of CCO design, and whether effect modification was analyzed for variables at the individual level. Data synthesis The review covered 105 reports that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Of these, 24 addressed methodological aspects, and the remainder involved the design’s application. In the methodological reports, the designs that yielded the best results in simulation were symmetric bidirectional CCO and time-stratified CCO. Furthermore, we observed an increase across time in the use of certain CCO designs, mainly symmetric bidirectional and time-stratified CCO. The dependent variables most frequently analyzed were those relating to hospital morbidity; the pollutants most often studied were those linked to particulate matter. Among the CCO-application reports, 13.6% studied effect modification for variables at the individual level. Conclusions The use of CCO designs has undergone considerable growth; the most widely used designs were those that yielded better results in simulation studies: symmetric bidirectional and time-stratified CCO. However, the advantages of CCO as a method of analysis of variables at the individual level are put to little use. PMID:20356818

A human activity approach to User Interfaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bødker, Susanne

1989-01-01

the work situations in which computer-based artifacts are used: The framework deals with the role of the user interface in purposeful human work. Human activity theory is used in this analysis. The purpose of this article is to make the reader curious and hopefully open his or her eyes to a somewhat...

Human activities threatening the biodiversity of the Uzungwa Scarp ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Studies of human activities in the Uzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve, Udzungwa Mountains, were conducted in March-April and September 1997, in the western and southern parts of the forest. Different human activities, such as timber and pole cutting and withies harvesting, as well as the collection of non-timber forest ...

Detection of cardiac activity changes from human speech

Science.gov (United States)

Tovarek, Jaromir; Partila, Pavol; Voznak, Miroslav; Mikulec, Martin; Mehic, Miralem

2015-05-01

Impact of changes in blood pressure and pulse from human speech is disclosed in this article. The symptoms of increased physical activity are pulse, systolic and diastolic pressure. There are many methods of measuring and indicating these parameters. The measurements must be carried out using devices which are not used in everyday life. In most cases, the measurement of blood pressure and pulse following health problems or other adverse feelings. Nowadays, research teams are trying to design and implement modern methods in ordinary human activities. The main objective of the proposal is to reduce the delay between detecting the adverse pressure and to the mentioned warning signs and feelings. Common and frequent activity of man is speaking, while it is known that the function of the vocal tract can be affected by the change in heart activity. Therefore, it can be a useful parameter for detecting physiological changes. A method for detecting human physiological changes by speech processing and artificial neural network classification is described in this article. The pulse and blood pressure changes was induced by physical exercises in this experiment. The set of measured subjects was formed by ten healthy volunteers of both sexes. None of the subjects was a professional athlete. The process of the experiment was divided into phases before, during and after physical training. Pulse, systolic, diastolic pressure was measured and voice activity was recorded after each of them. The results of this experiment describe a method for detecting increased cardiac activity from human speech using artificial neural network.

Detection and genetic characterization of Canine parvovirus and Canine coronavirus strains circulating in district of Tirana in Albania.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavalli, Alessandra; Desario, Costantina; Kusi, Ilir; Mari, Viviana; Lorusso, Eleonora; Cirone, Francesco; Kumbe, Ilirjan; Colaianni, Maria Loredana; Buonavoglia, Domenico; Decaro, Nicola

2014-07-01

An epidemiological survey for Canine parvovirus 2 (CPV-2) and Canine coronavirus (CCoV) was conducted in Albania. A total of 57 fecal samples were collected from diarrheic dogs in the District of Tirana during 2011-2013. The molecular assays detected 53 and 31 CPV- and CCoV-positive specimens, respectively, with mixed CPV-CCoV infections diagnosed in 28 dogs. The most frequently detected CPV type was 2a, whereas IIa was the predominant CCoV subtype. A better comprehension of the CPV-CCoV epidemiology in eastern European countries will help to assess the most appropriate vaccination strategies to prevent disease due to infections with these widespread agents of acute gastroenteritis in the dog.

Organizational citizenship behavior, organizational justice, job stress, and workfamily conflict: Examination of their interrelationships with respondents from a non-Western culture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aharon Tziner

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Este estudio propone dos modelos plausibles referentes a una serie de interrelaciones. 1 El primer modelo plantea una relación positiva entre (i justicia organizacional y conducta cívica organizacional (CCO, (ii estrés y CCO y (iii conflicto trabajo-familia y estrés. Este primer modelo indica que las variables CCO y estrés mediatizan la relación entre justicia organizacional y conflicto trabajo-familia. 2 El segundo modelo propone una relación positiva entre (i justicia organizacional y CCO, (ii conflicto trabajo-familia y CCO y (iii conflicto trabajo-familia y estrés. Este segundo modelo apunta al CCO y al conflicto trabajo-familia como mediadores de la justicia organizacional y el estrés. En síntesis, utilizando una muestra árabe nuestros resultados apoyan en parte ambos modelos conceptuales: en ambos se han confirmado la primera y tercera hipótesis, es decir, que hay asociaciones positivas respectivamente entre justicia organizacional y CCO y entre conflicto trabajo-familia y estrés. No obstante, en cada modelo se encontró una asociación significativa negativa más que positiva en la segunda hipótesis que predecía una correlación positiva entre CCO y estrés.

Enhanced casein kinase II activity in human tumour cell cultures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prowald, K; Fischer, H; Issinger, O G

1984-01-01

Casein kinase II (CKII) activity is enhanced as much as 2-3 fold in established and 4-5-fold in transformed human cell lines when compared to that of fibroblasts and primary human tumour cell cultures where CKII activity never exceeded a basic level. The high activity of CKII in transformed cells...

Human activity understanding for robot-assisted living

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hu, N.

2016-01-01

This thesis investigated the problem of understanding human activities, at different levels of granularity and taking into account both the variability in activities and annotator disagreement. To be able to capture the large variations within each of the action classes, we propose a model that uses

European Surveillance for Pantropic Canine Coronavirus

Science.gov (United States)

Cordonnier, Nathalie; Demeter, Zoltan; Egberink, Herman; Elia, Gabriella; Grellet, Aurélien; Le Poder, Sophie; Mari, Viviana; Martella, Vito; Ntafis, Vasileios; von Reitzenstein, Marcela; Rottier, Peter J.; Rusvai, Miklos; Shields, Shelly; Xylouri, Eftychia; Xu, Zach; Buonavoglia, Canio

2013-01-01

Highly virulent pantropic canine coronavirus (CCoV) strains belonging to subtype IIa were recently identified in dogs. To assess the distribution of such strains in Europe, tissue samples were collected from 354 dogs that had died after displaying systemic disease in France (n = 92), Hungary (n = 75), Italy (n = 69), Greece (n = 87), The Netherlands (n = 27), Belgium (n = 4), and Bulgaria (n = 1). A total of 124 animals tested positive for CCoV, with 33 of them displaying the virus in extraintestinal tissues. Twenty-four CCoV strains (19.35% of the CCoV-positive dogs) detected in internal organs were characterized as subtype IIa and consequently assumed to be pantropic CCoVs. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the 5′ end of the spike protein gene showed that pantropic CCoV strains are closely related to each other, with the exception of two divergent French viruses that clustered with enteric strains. PMID:23100349

Human Activity Recognition as Time-Series Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyesuk Kim

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a system that can recognize daily human activities with a Kinect-style depth camera. Our system utilizes a set of view-invariant features and the hidden state conditional random field (HCRF model to recognize human activities from the 3D body pose stream provided by MS Kinect API or OpenNI. Many high-level daily activities can be regarded as having a hierarchical structure where multiple subactivities are performed sequentially or iteratively. In order to model effectively these high-level daily activities, we utilized a multiclass HCRF model, which is a kind of probabilistic graphical models. In addition, in order to get view-invariant, but more informative features, we extract joint angles from the subject’s skeleton model and then perform the feature transformation to obtain three different types of features regarding motion, structure, and hand positions. Through various experiments using two different datasets, KAD-30 and CAD-60, the high performance of our system is verified.

Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response

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Kandhasamy Sowndhararajan

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The influence of fragrances such as perfumes and room fresheners on the psychophysiological activities of humans has been known for a long time, and its significance is gradually increasing in the medicinal and cosmetic industries. A fragrance consists of volatile chemicals with a molecular weight of less than 300 Da that humans perceive through the olfactory system. In humans, about 300 active olfactory receptor genes are devoted to detecting thousands of different fragrance molecules through a large family of olfactory receptors of a diverse protein sequence. The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity. Electrophysiological studies have revealed that various fragrances affected spontaneous brain activities and cognitive functions, which are measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG. The EEG is a good temporal measure of responses in the central nervous system and it provides information about the physiological state of the brain both in health and disease. The EEG power spectrum is classified into different frequency bands such as delta (0.5–4 Hz, theta (4–8 Hz, alpha (8–13 Hz, beta (13–30 Hz and gamma (30–50 Hz, and each band is correlated with different features of brain states. A quantitative EEG uses computer software to provide the topographic mapping of the brain activity in frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital brain regions. It is well known that decreases of alpha and beta activities and increases of delta and theta activities are associated with brain pathology and general cognitive decline. In the last few decades, many scientific studies were conducted to investigate the effect of inhalation of aroma on human brain functions. The studies have suggested a significant role for olfactory stimulation in the alteration of cognition, mood, and social behavior. This review aims to evaluate the available literature regarding the influence of fragrances on the

Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response

Science.gov (United States)

Sowndhararajan, Kandhasamy; Kim, Songmun

2016-01-01

The influence of fragrances such as perfumes and room fresheners on the psychophysiological activities of humans has been known for a long time, and its significance is gradually increasing in the medicinal and cosmetic industries. A fragrance consists of volatile chemicals with a molecular weight of less than 300 Da that humans perceive through the olfactory system. In humans, about 300 active olfactory receptor genes are devoted to detecting thousands of different fragrance molecules through a large family of olfactory receptors of a diverse protein sequence. The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity. Electrophysiological studies have revealed that various fragrances affected spontaneous brain activities and cognitive functions, which are measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG is a good temporal measure of responses in the central nervous system and it provides information about the physiological state of the brain both in health and disease. The EEG power spectrum is classified into different frequency bands such as delta (0.5–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz) and gamma (30–50 Hz), and each band is correlated with different features of brain states. A quantitative EEG uses computer software to provide the topographic mapping of the brain activity in frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital brain regions. It is well known that decreases of alpha and beta activities and increases of delta and theta activities are associated with brain pathology and general cognitive decline. In the last few decades, many scientific studies were conducted to investigate the effect of inhalation of aroma on human brain functions. The studies have suggested a significant role for olfactory stimulation in the alteration of cognition, mood, and social behavior. This review aims to evaluate the available literature regarding the influence of fragrances on the

The significance of human factors in nuclear activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weil, L.; Berg, H.P.

1999-01-01

Human factors is an aspect increasingly investigated in the last few years in efforts and programmes for enhancing the operational safety of nuclear systems. Methodology has been elaborated for analysis and evaluation of human reliability, or development of instruments supporting the decisions to be taken by the operators at the man-control room interface of nuclear installations, as well as initial approaches to introduce organisational factors which may influence the man-machine function allocation, and thus are an element of the safety culture concept. The significance of human factors in nuclear activities, as well as activities at the national and international level for optimisation of the man-machine interface and the man-organisation interface are discussed. (orig./CB) [de

Towards discrete wavelet transform-based human activity recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Khare, Manish; Jeon, Moongu

2017-06-01

Providing accurate recognition of human activities is a challenging problem for visual surveillance applications. In this paper, we present a simple and efficient algorithm for human activity recognition based on a wavelet transform. We adopt discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients as a feature of human objects to obtain advantages of its multiresolution approach. The proposed method is tested on multiple levels of DWT. Experiments are carried out on different standard action datasets including KTH and i3D Post. The proposed method is compared with other state-of-the-art methods in terms of different quantitative performance measures. The proposed method is found to have better recognition accuracy in comparison to the state-of-the-art methods.

Predicting human activities in sequences of actions in RGB-D videos

Science.gov (United States)

Jardim, David; Nunes, Luís.; Dias, Miguel

2017-03-01

In our daily activities we perform prediction or anticipation when interacting with other humans or with objects. Prediction of human activity made by computers has several potential applications: surveillance systems, human computer interfaces, sports video analysis, human-robot-collaboration, games and health-care. We propose a system capable of recognizing and predicting human actions using supervised classifiers trained with automatically labeled data evaluated in our human activity RGB-D dataset (recorded with a Kinect sensor) and using only the position of the main skeleton joints to extract features. Using conditional random fields (CRFs) to model the sequential nature of actions in a sequence has been used before, but where other approaches try to predict an outcome or anticipate ahead in time (seconds), we try to predict what will be the next action of a subject. Our results show an activity prediction accuracy of 89.9% using an automatically labeled dataset.

The influence of human activity in the Arctic on climate and climate impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huntington, H.P. [23834 The Clearing Dr., Eagle River, AK 99577 (United States); Boyle, M. [Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6S 1K4 (Canada); Flowers, G.E. [Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6 (Canada); Weatherly, J.W. [Snow and Ice Division, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755 (United States); Hamilton, L.C. [Department of Sociology, University of New Hampshire, 20 College Road, Durham, NH 03824 (United States); Hinzman, L. [Water and Environment Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 755860, Fairbanks, AK 99775 (United States); Gerlach, C. [Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757720, Fairbanks, AK 99775 (United States); Zulueta, R. [Department of Biology, Global Change Research Group, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, PS-240, San Diego, CA 92182 (United States); Nicolson, C. [Department of Natural Resources Conservation, University of Massachusetts, 160 Holdsworth Way, Amherst, MA , 01003 (United States); Overpeck, J. [Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, University of Arizona, 715 North Park Avenue, 2nd Floor, Tucson, AZ, 85721 (United States)

2007-05-15

Human activities in the Arctic are often mentioned as recipients of climate-change impacts. In this paper we consider the more complicated but more likely possibility that human activities themselves can interact with climate or environmental change in ways that either mitigate or exacerbate the human impacts. Although human activities in the Arctic are generally assumed to be modest, our analysis suggests that those activities may have larger influences on the arctic system than previously thought. Moreover, human influences could increase substantially in the near future. First, we illustrate how past human activities in the Arctic have combined with climatic variations to alter biophysical systems upon which fisheries and livestock depend. Second, we describe how current and future human activities could precipitate or affect the timing of major transitions in the arctic system. Past and future analyses both point to ways in which human activities in the Arctic can substantially influence the trajectory of arctic system change.

Exploring Human Activity Patterns Using Taxicab Static Points

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Jiang

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the patterns of human activities within a geographical space by adopting the taxicab static points which refer to the locations with zero speed along the tracking trajectory. We report the findings from both aggregated and individual aspects. Results from the aggregated level indicate the following: (1 Human activities exhibit an obvious regularity in time, for example, there is a burst of activity during weekend nights and a lull during the week. (2 They show a remarkable spatial drifting pattern, which strengthens our understanding of the activities in any given place. (3 Activities are heterogeneous in space irrespective of their drifting with time. These aggregated results not only help in city planning, but also facilitate traffic control and management. On the other hand, investigations on an individual level suggest that (4 activities witnessed by one taxicab will have different temporal regularity to another, and (5 each regularity implies a high level of prediction with low entropy by applying the Lempel-Ziv algorithm.

A Pattern Mining Approach to Sensor-based Human Activity Recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gu, Tao; Wang, Liang; Wu, Zhanqing

2011-01-01

Recognizing human activities from sensor readings has recently attracted much research interest in pervasive computing due to its potential in many applications such as assistive living and healthcare. This task is particularly challenging because human activities are often performed in not only...

Humpback Dolphin (Genus Sousa) Behavioural Responses to Human Activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Piwetz, Sarah; Lundquist, David; Würsig, Bernd

2015-01-01

Humpback dolphins (genus Sousa) use shallow, near-shore waters throughout their range. This coastal distribution makes them vulnerable to recreational and commercial disturbances, especially near heavily populated and industrialized areas. Most research focusing on Sousa and human activities has emphasized direct impacts and threats, involving injury and death, with relatively little focus on indirect effects on dolphins, such as changes in behaviour that may lead to deleterious effects. Understanding behaviour is important in resolving human-wildlife conflict and is an important component of conservation. This chapter gives an overview of animal behavioural responses to human activity with examples from diverse taxa; reviews the scientific literature on behavioural responses of humpback dolphins to human activity throughout their range, including marine vessel traffic, dolphin tourism, cetacean-fishery interactions, noise pollution, and habitat alteration; and highlights information and data gaps for future humpback dolphin research to better inform behaviour-based management decisions that contribute to conservation efforts. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

Human Activity Differentially Redistributes Large Mammals in the Canadian Rockies National Parks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Kimo. Rogala

2011-09-01

Full Text Available National parks are important for conservation of species such as wolves (Canis lupus and elk (Cervus canadensis. However, topography, vegetation conditions, and anthropogenic infrastructure within parks may limit available habitat. Human activity on trails and roads may lead to indirect habitat loss, further limiting available habitat. Predators and prey may respond differentially to human activity, potentially disrupting ecological processes. However, research on such impacts to wildlife is incomplete, especially at fine spatial and temporal scales. Our research investigated the relationship between wolf and elk distribution and human activity using fine-scale Global Positioning System (GPS wildlife telemetry locations and hourly human activity measures on trails and roads in Banff, Kootenay, and Yoho National Parks, Canada. We observed a complex interaction between the distance animals were located from trails and human activity level resulting in species adopting both mutual avoidance and differential response behaviors. In areas < 50 m from trails human activity led to a mutual avoidance response by both wolves and elk. In areas 50 - 400 m from trails low levels of human activity led to differential responses; wolves avoided these areas, whereas elk appeared to use these areas as a predation refugia. These differential impacts on elk and wolves may have important implications for trophic dynamics. As human activity increased above two people/hour, areas 50 - 400 m from trails were mutually avoided by both species, resulting in the indirect loss of important montane habitat. If park managers are concerned with human impacts on wolves and elk, or on these species' trophic interactions with other species, they can monitor locations near trails and roads and consider hourly changes of human activity levels in areas important to wildlife.

Human Activity Recognition from Body Sensor Data using Deep Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Hassan, Mohammad Mehedi; Huda, Shamsul; Uddin, Md Zia; Almogren, Ahmad; Alrubaian, Majed

2018-04-16

In recent years, human activity recognition from body sensor data or wearable sensor data has become a considerable research attention from academia and health industry. This research can be useful for various e-health applications such as monitoring elderly and physical impaired people at Smart home to improve their rehabilitation processes. However, it is not easy to accurately and automatically recognize physical human activity through wearable sensors due to the complexity and variety of body activities. In this paper, we address the human activity recognition problem as a classification problem using wearable body sensor data. In particular, we propose to utilize a Deep Belief Network (DBN) model for successful human activity recognition. First, we extract the important initial features from the raw body sensor data. Then, a kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) are performed to further process the features and make them more robust to be useful for fast activity recognition. Finally, the DBN is trained by these features. Various experiments were performed on a real-world wearable sensor dataset to verify the effectiveness of the deep learning algorithm. The results show that the proposed DBN outperformed other algorithms and achieves satisfactory activity recognition performance.

Structural and magnetic properties of [001] CoCr2O4 thin films

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Guzman, Roger; Heuver, Jeroen; Matzen, Sylvia; Magen, Cesar; Noheda, Beatriz

2017-01-01

The spinel CoCr2O4 (CCO) is one of the few bulk multiferroics with net magnetic moment. However, studies on the properties of CCO thin films are scarce. Here, we investigate the interplay between microstructure and magnetism of a series of CCO epitaxial thin films by means of x-ray diffraction,

Human prostatic cancer cells, PC3, elaborate mitogenic activity which selectively stimulates human bone cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perkel, V.S.; Mohan, S.; Herring, S.J.; Baylink, D.J.; Linkhart, T.A.

1990-01-01

Prostatic cancer typically produces osteoblastic metastases which are not attended by marrow fibrosis. In the present study we sought to test the hypothesis that prostatic cancer cells produce factor(s) which act selectively on human osteoblasts. Such a paracrine mechanism would explain the observed increase in osteoblasts, unaccompanied by an increase in marrow fibroblasts. To test this hypothesis we investigated the mitogenic activity released by the human prostatic tumor cell line, PC3. PC3 cells have been reported previously to produce mitogenic activity for cells that was relatively specific for rat osteoblasts compared to rat fibroblasts. However, the effects of this activity on human cells has not been examined previously. PC3-conditioned medium (CM) (5-50 micrograms CM protein/ml) stimulated human osteoblast proliferation by 200-950% yet did not stimulate human fibroblast proliferation ([3H]thymidine incorporation). PC3 CM also increased cell numbers in human osteoblast but not fibroblast cell cultures. To determine whether the osteoblast-specific mitogenic activity could be attributed to known bone growth factors, specific assays for these growth factors were performed. PC3 CM contained 10 pg insulin-like growth factor (IGF) I, less than 2 pg IGF II, 54 pg basic fibroblast growth factor, and 16 pg transforming growth factor beta/microgram CM protein. None of these growth factors alone or in combination could account for the observed osteoblast-specific PC3 cell-derived mitogenic activity. Furthermore, when 5 micrograms/ml PC3 CM was tested in combination with maximally effective concentrations of either basic fibroblast growth factor, IGF I, IGF II, or transforming growth factor beta, it produced an additive effect suggesting that PC3 CM stimulates osteoblast proliferation by a mechanism independent of these bone mitogens

Juvenile Hormone Analogues, Methoprene and Fenoxycarb Dose-Dependently Enhance Certain Enzyme Activities in the Silkworm Bombyx Mori (L

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Rajeswara Rao

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Use of Juvenile Hormone Analogues (JHA in sericulture practices has been shown to boost good cocoon yield; their effect has been determined to be dose-dependent. We studied the impact of low doses of JHA compounds such as methoprene and fenoxycarb on selected key enzymatic activities of the silkworm Bombyx mori. Methoprene and fenoxycarb at doses of 1.0 μg and 3.0fg/larvae/48 hours showed enhancement of the 5th instar B. mori larval muscle and silkgland protease, aspartate aminotransaminase (AAT and alanine aminotransaminase (ALAT, adenosine triphosphate synthase (ATPase and cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO activity levels, indicating an upsurge in the overall oxidative metabolism of the B.mori larval tissues.

Taurine promotes cognitive function in prenatally stressed juvenile rats via activating the Akt-CREB-PGC1α pathway.

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Ning; Sun, Qinru; Su, Qian; Dang, Shaokang; Chen, Guomin

2016-12-01

Substantial evidence has shown that the oxidative damage to hippocampal neurons is associated with the cognitive impairment induced by adverse stimuli during gestation named prenatal stress (PS). Taurine, a conditionally essential amino acid, possesses multiple roles in the brain as a neuromodulator or antioxidant. In this study, to explore the roles of taurine in PS-induced learning and memory impairment, prenatal restraint stress was set up and Morris water maze (MWM) was employed for testing the cognitive function in the one-month-old rat offspring. The mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) level，mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), ATP and cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) activity and apoptosis-related proteins in the hippocampus were detected. The activity of the Akt-cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB)-peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC1α) pathway in the hippocampus was measured. The results showed that high dosage of taurine administration in the early postnatal period attenuated impairment of spatial learning and memory induced by PS. Meanwhile, taurine administration diminished the increase in mitochondrial ROS, and recovered the reduction of MMP, ATP level and the activities of CcO, superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) and catalase induced by PS in the hippocampus. In addition, taurine administration recovered PS-suppressed SOD2 expression level. Taurine administration blocked PS-induced decrease in the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax and increase in the ratio of cleaved caspase-3/full-length caspase-3. Notably, taurine inhibited PS-decreased phosphorylation of Akt (pAkt) and phosphorylation of CREB (pCREB), which consequently enhanced the mRNA and protein levels of PGC1α. Taken together, these results suggest that high dosage of taurine administration during the early postnatal period can significantly improve the cognitive function in prenatally stressed juvenile rats via activating the Akt-CREB-PGC1α pathway. Therefore

Taurine promotes cognitive function in prenatally stressed juvenile rats via activating the Akt-CREB-PGC1α pathway

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ning Jia

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Substantial evidence has shown that the oxidative damage to hippocampal neurons is associated with the cognitive impairment induced by adverse stimuli during gestation named prenatal stress (PS. Taurine, a conditionally essential amino acid, possesses multiple roles in the brain as a neuromodulator or antioxidant. In this study, to explore the roles of taurine in PS-induced learning and memory impairment, prenatal restraint stress was set up and Morris water maze (MWM was employed for testing the cognitive function in the one-month-old rat offspring. The mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS level，mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP, ATP and cytochrome c oxidase (CcO activity and apoptosis-related proteins in the hippocampus were detected. The activity of the Akt-cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB-peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor–γ coactivator-1α (PGC1α pathway in the hippocampus was measured. The results showed that high dosage of taurine administration in the early postnatal period attenuated impairment of spatial learning and memory induced by PS. Meanwhile, taurine administration diminished the increase in mitochondrial ROS, and recovered the reduction of MMP, ATP level and the activities of CcO, superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2 and catalase induced by PS in the hippocampus. In addition, taurine administration recovered PS-suppressed SOD2 expression level. Taurine administration blocked PS-induced decrease in the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax and increase in the ratio of cleaved caspase-3/full-length caspase-3. Notably, taurine inhibited PS-decreased phosphorylation of Akt (pAkt and phosphorylation of CREB (pCREB, which consequently enhanced the mRNA and protein levels of PGC1α. Taken together, these results suggest that high dosage of taurine administration during the early postnatal period can significantly improve the cognitive function in prenatally stressed juvenile rats via activating the Akt-CREB-PGC1�

RNA-Guided Activation of Pluripotency Genes in Human Fibroblasts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xiong, Kai; Zhou, Yan; Blichfeld, Kristian Aabo

2017-01-01

-associated protein 9 (dCas9)-VP64 (CRISPRa) alone, or a combination of dCas9-VP64 and MS2-P65-HSF1 [synergistic activation mediator (SAM) system] mediated activation of five pluripotency genes: KLF4 (K), LIN28 (L), MYC (M), OCT4 (O), and SOX2 (S) in human cells (HEK293T, HeLa, HepG2, and primary fibroblasts...... could be obtained from these SAM fibroblasts. In conclusion, our study showed that CRISPR/Cas9-based ATFs are potent to activate and maintain transcription of endogenous human pluripotent genes. However, future improvements of the system are still required to improve activation efficiency and cellular...

CoCOasis: The Collaborative Creativity Oasis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wendrich, Robert E.; Kitchen, Andrew; Guerrero, J.E.

2013-01-01

Cocoas is (CCO) aims to improve education (learning) and foster creativity in design disciplines, through the use of ICT provided by human-computer based expert systems, while reducing the 'skills gap' when students transfer from the current education system into the 21st Century Skills industry.

Magnetogastrographic detection of gastric electrical response activity in humans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Irimia, Andrei; Richards, William O; Bradshaw, L Alan

2006-01-01

The detection and characterization of gastric electrical activity has important clinical applications, including the early diagnosis of gastric diseases in humans. In mammals, this phenomenon has two important features: an electrical control activity (ECA) that manifests itself as an electric slow wave (with a frequency of 3 cycles per minute in humans) and an electrical response activity (ERA) that is characterized by spiking potentials during the plateau phase of the ECA. Whereas the ECA has been recorded in humans both invasively and non-invasively (magnetogastrography-MGG), the ERA has never been detected non-invasively in humans before. In this paper, we report on our progress towards the non-invasive detection of ERA from the human stomach using a procedure that involves the application of principal component analysis to MGG recordings, which were acquired in our case from ten normal human patients using a Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) magnetometer. Both pre- and post-prandial recordings were acquired for each patient and 20 min of recordings (10 min of pre-prandial and 10 min of post-prandial data) were analysed for each patient. The mean percentage of ECA slow waves that were found to exhibit spikes of suspected ERA origin was 41% and 61% for pre- and post-prandial recordings, respectively, implying a 47% ERA increase post-prandially (P < 0.0001 at a 95% confidence level). The detection of ERA in humans is highly encouraging and points to the possible use of non-invasive ERA recordings as a valuable tool for the study of human gastric disorders

Impact of the human activities on the climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deque, M.

2007-01-01

In the framework of the A2 scenario of the GIEC, the possible impacts on the french climate, of the human activities are examined. It seems that the human activities imposed and will be able to impose a faster change of the climate than the natural changes. For the hundred coming years the main characteristics could be: an increase of the temperature, an increase of the rains in winter and a decrease in summer, a decrease of the water in soils expected in freezing areas and an increase of the drought periods. (A.L.B.)

Elevation of telomerase activity in chronic radiation ulcer of human skin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Xiaoying; Zhao Po; Wang Dewen; Yang Zhixiang

1997-01-01

Objective: To investigate the levels of telomerase activity in chronic radiation ulcers of human skin and the possible relationship between the enzyme and cancer transformation. Method: Using nonisotopic telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP), detections were performed in 20 cases of chronic radiation ulcers of human skin, 5 cases of normal skin tissues and 5 cases of carcinoma. Results: The positive rates for telomerase activity were 30.0%(6/20), 0(0/5) and 100%(5/5) in chronic radiation ulcers of human skin, normal skin and carcinoma, respectively. The telomerase activity in radiation ulcer was weaker than in carcinoma. Conclusion: The telomerase activity assay might be used as a marker for predicting the prognosis and the effect of treatment in chronic radiation ulcer of human skin

Human Reliability Assessment and Human Performance Evaluation: Research and Analysis Activities at the U.S. NRC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramey-Smith, A.M.

1998-01-01

The author indicates the themes of the six programs identified by the US NRC mission on human performance and human reliability activities. They aim at developing the technical basis to support human performance, at developing and updating a model of human performance and human reliability, at fostering national and international dialogue and cooperation efforts on human performance evaluation, at conducting operating events analysis and database development, and at providing support to human performance and human reliability inspection

The Activation Pathway of Human Rhodopsin in Comparison to Bovine Rhodopsin*

Science.gov (United States)

Kazmin, Roman; Rose, Alexander; Szczepek, Michal; Elgeti, Matthias; Ritter, Eglof; Piechnick, Ronny; Hofmann, Klaus Peter; Scheerer, Patrick; Hildebrand, Peter W.; Bartl, Franz J.

2015-01-01

Rhodopsin, the photoreceptor of rod cells, absorbs light to mediate the first step of vision by activating the G protein transducin (Gt). Several human diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa or congenital night blindness, are linked to rhodopsin malfunctions. Most of the corresponding in vivo studies and structure-function analyses (e.g. based on protein x-ray crystallography or spectroscopy) have been carried out on murine or bovine rhodopsin. Because these rhodopsins differ at several amino acid positions from human rhodopsin, we conducted a comprehensive spectroscopic characterization of human rhodopsin in combination with molecular dynamics simulations. We show by FTIR and UV-visible difference spectroscopy that the light-induced transformations of the early photointermediates are very similar. Significant differences between the pigments appear with formation of the still inactive Meta I state and the transition to active Meta II. However, the conformation of Meta II and its activity toward the G protein are essentially the same, presumably reflecting the evolutionary pressure under which the active state has developed. Altogether, our results show that although the basic activation pathways of human and bovine rhodopsin are similar, structural deviations exist in the inactive conformation and during receptor activation, even between closely related rhodopsins. These differences between the well studied bovine or murine rhodopsins and human rhodopsin have to be taken into account when the influence of point mutations on the activation pathway of human rhodopsin are investigated using the bovine or murine rhodopsin template sequences. PMID:26105054

Combination of Accumulated Motion and Color Segmentation for Human Activity Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Briassouli Alexia

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract The automated analysis of activity in digital multimedia, and especially video, is gaining more and more importance due to the evolution of higher-level video processing systems and the development of relevant applications such as surveillance and sports. This paper presents a novel algorithm for the recognition and classification of human activities, which employs motion and color characteristics in a complementary manner, so as to extract the most information from both sources, and overcome their individual limitations. The proposed method accumulates the flow estimates in a video, and extracts "regions of activity" by processing their higher-order statistics. The shape of these activity areas can be used for the classification of the human activities and events taking place in a video and the subsequent extraction of higher-level semantics. Color segmentation of the active and static areas of each video frame is performed to complement this information. The color layers in the activity and background areas are compared using the earth mover's distance, in order to achieve accurate object segmentation. Thus, unlike much existing work on human activity analysis, the proposed approach is based on general color and motion processing methods, and not on specific models of the human body and its kinematics. The combined use of color and motion information increases the method robustness to illumination variations and measurement noise. Consequently, the proposed approach can lead to higher-level information about human activities, but its applicability is not limited to specific human actions. We present experiments with various real video sequences, from sports and surveillance domains, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Combination of Accumulated Motion and Color Segmentation for Human Activity Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ioannis Kompatsiaris

2008-03-01

Full Text Available The automated analysis of activity in digital multimedia, and especially video, is gaining more and more importance due to the evolution of higher-level video processing systems and the development of relevant applications such as surveillance and sports. This paper presents a novel algorithm for the recognition and classification of human activities, which employs motion and color characteristics in a complementary manner, so as to extract the most information from both sources, and overcome their individual limitations. The proposed method accumulates the flow estimates in a video, and extracts “regions of activity” by processing their higher-order statistics. The shape of these activity areas can be used for the classification of the human activities and events taking place in a video and the subsequent extraction of higher-level semantics. Color segmentation of the active and static areas of each video frame is performed to complement this information. The color layers in the activity and background areas are compared using the earth mover's distance, in order to achieve accurate object segmentation. Thus, unlike much existing work on human activity analysis, the proposed approach is based on general color and motion processing methods, and not on specific models of the human body and its kinematics. The combined use of color and motion information increases the method robustness to illumination variations and measurement noise. Consequently, the proposed approach can lead to higher-level information about human activities, but its applicability is not limited to specific human actions. We present experiments with various real video sequences, from sports and surveillance domains, to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Antiproliferative activity of recombinant human interferon-λ2 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Antiproliferative activity of recombinant human interferon-λ2 expressed in stably ... The representing 26 kDa protein band of IFN-λ2 was detected by SDS-PAGE and ... The antiproliferative activity of hIFN-λ2 was determined by MTT assay.

Human activity and climate variability project: annual report 2001

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harle, K.J.; Heijnis, H.; Henderson-Sellers, A.; Sharmeen, S.; Zahorowski, W.

2002-01-01

Knowledge of the state of the Australian environment, including natural climate variability, prior to colonial settlement is vital if we are to define and understand the impact of over two hundred years of post-industrial human activity on our landscape. ANSTO, in conjunction with university partners, is leading a major research effort to provide natural archives of human activity and climate variability over the last 500 years in Australia, utilising a variety of techniques, including lead-210 and radiocarbon dating and analyses of proxy indicators (such as microfossils) as well as direct evidence (such as trace elements) of human activity and climate variability. The other major project objectives were to contribute to the understanding of the impact of human induced and natural aerosols in the East Asian region on climate through analysis and sourcing of fine particles and characterisation of air samples using radon concentrations and to contribute to the improvement of land surface parameterisation schemes and investigate the potential to use stable isotopes to improve global climate models and thus improve our understanding of future climate

Food & Fitness. Directory. Human Nutrition Activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC.

Activities of the following regulatory and food service agencies of the Department of Agriculture are described: (1) Agricultural Research Service; (2) Cooperative State Research Service; (3) Economic Research Service; (4) Human Nutrition Information Service; (5) Office of Grants and Program Systems; (6) Office of International Cooperation and…

The opportunity and strategy for quality and health-system improvement now and in the future.

Science.gov (United States)

Sherar, Michael; Maley, Oonagh

2015-01-01

Since 2004, Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) has played a leadership role in linking funding to quality of care, and in using evidence and administrative and clinical data to drive performance and quality improvement. This article describes how CCO has used its cancer and renal health system strategies to establish an environment of continuous health system improvement. The article also describes how CCO's Corporate Strategy is driving organizational improvement: evolving CCO's capacity and capability to drive quality and value across healthcare settings, and its ability to advance broader health system transformation in support of cancer and renal patients. Copyright © 2014 Longwoods Publishing.

A Multiscale Survival Process for Modeling Human Activity Patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Tianyang; Cui, Peng; Song, Chaoming; Zhu, Wenwu; Yang, Shiqiang

2016-01-01

Human activity plays a central role in understanding large-scale social dynamics. It is well documented that individual activity pattern follows bursty dynamics characterized by heavy-tailed interevent time distributions. Here we study a large-scale online chatting dataset consisting of 5,549,570 users, finding that individual activity pattern varies with timescales whereas existing models only approximate empirical observations within a limited timescale. We propose a novel approach that models the intensity rate of an individual triggering an activity. We demonstrate that the model precisely captures corresponding human dynamics across multiple timescales over five orders of magnitudes. Our model also allows extracting the population heterogeneity of activity patterns, characterized by a set of individual-specific ingredients. Integrating our approach with social interactions leads to a wide range of implications.

BACTERICIDAL ACTIVITY OF HUMAN SERA AGAINST ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

hi-tech

East African Medical Journal Vol. 77 No. 12 December 2000. BACTERICIDAL ACTIVITY OF HUMAN SERA AGAINST SALMONELLA TYPHI AND SALMONELLA PARATYPHI A, B, C. E.O. Igumbor, BSc, MSc, PhD, Department of Medical Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Zimbabwe P.O. Box Al78, Avondale, ...

Stretch activates human myometrium via ERK, caldesmon and focal adhesion signaling.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunping Li

2009-10-01

Full Text Available An incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for myometrial activation from the quiescent pregnant state to the active contractile state during labor has hindered the development of effective therapies for preterm labor. Myometrial stretch has been implicated clinically in the initiation of labor and the etiology of preterm labor, but the molecular mechanisms involved in the human have not been determined. We investigated the mechanisms by which gestation-dependent stretch contributes to myometrial activation, by using human uterine samples from gynecologic hysterectomies and Cesarean sections. Here we demonstrate that the Ca requirement for activation of the contractile filaments in human myometrium increases with caldesmon protein content during gestation and that an increase in caldesmon phosphorylation can reverse this inhibitory effect during labor. By using phosphotyrosine screening and mass spectrometry of stretched human myometrial samples, we identify 3 stretch-activated focal adhesion proteins, FAK, p130Cas, and alpha actinin. FAK-Y397, which signals integrin engagement, is constitutively phosphorylated in term human myometrium whereas FAK-Y925, which signals downstream ERK activation, is phosphorylated during stretch. We have recently identified smooth muscle Archvillin (SmAV as an ERK regulator. A newly produced SmAV-specific antibody demonstrates gestation-specific increases in SmAV protein levels and stretch-specific increases in SmAV association with focal adhesion proteins. Thus, whereas increases in caldesmon levels suppress human myometrium contractility during pregnancy, stretch-dependent focal adhesion signaling, facilitated by the ERK activator SmAV, can contribute to myometrial activation. These results suggest that focal adhesion proteins may present new targets for drug discovery programs aimed at regulation of uterine contractility.

A Novel Wearable Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition Approach Using Artificial Hydrocarbon Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Ponce, Hiram; Martínez-Villaseñor, María de Lourdes; Miralles-Pechuán, Luis

2016-07-05

Human activity recognition has gained more interest in several research communities given that understanding user activities and behavior helps to deliver proactive and personalized services. There are many examples of health systems improved by human activity recognition. Nevertheless, the human activity recognition classification process is not an easy task. Different types of noise in wearable sensors data frequently hamper the human activity recognition classification process. In order to develop a successful activity recognition system, it is necessary to use stable and robust machine learning techniques capable of dealing with noisy data. In this paper, we presented the artificial hydrocarbon networks (AHN) technique to the human activity recognition community. Our artificial hydrocarbon networks novel approach is suitable for physical activity recognition, noise tolerance of corrupted data sensors and robust in terms of different issues on data sensors. We proved that the AHN classifier is very competitive for physical activity recognition and is very robust in comparison with other well-known machine learning methods.

Human activity and the spread of Phytophthora ramorum

Science.gov (United States)

Hall J. Cushman; Michelle Cooper; Ross K. Meentemeyer; Shelly Benson

2008-01-01

Increasing numbers of studies are finding that humans can facilitate the spread of exotic plant species in protected wildlands. Hiking trails commonly serve as conduits for invaders and the number of exotic plant species occurring in protected areas is often correlated positively with visitation rates. Despite such evidence linking human activity to the spread of...

Influence of vestibular activation on respiration in humans

Science.gov (United States)

Monahan, Kevin D.; Sharpe, Melissa K.; Drury, Daniel; Ertl, Andrew C.; Ray, Chester A.

2002-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the semicircular canals and otolith organs on respiration in humans. On the basis of animal studies, we hypothesized that vestibular activation would elicit a vestibulorespiratory reflex. To test this hypothesis, respiratory measures, arterial blood pressure, and heart rate were measured during engagement of semicircular canals and/or otolith organs. Dynamic upright pitch and roll (15 cycles/min), which activate the otolith organs and semicircular canals, increased respiratory rate (Delta2 +/- 1 and Delta3 +/- 1 breaths/min, respectively; P < 0.05). Dynamic yaw and lateral pitch (15 cycles/min), which activate the semicircular canals, increased respiration similarly (Delta3 +/- 1 and Delta2 +/- 1, respectively; P < 0.05). Dynamic chair rotation (15 cycles/min), which mimics dynamic yaw but eliminates neck muscle afferent, increased respiration (Delta3 +/- 1; P < 0.05) comparable to dynamic yaw (15 cycles/min). Increases in respiratory rate were graded as greater responses occurred during upright (Delta5 +/- 2 breaths/min) and lateral pitch (Delta4 +/- 1) and roll (Delta5 +/- 1) performed at 30 cycles/min. Increases in breathing frequency resulted in increases in minute ventilation during most interventions. Static head-down rotation, which activates otolith organs, did not alter respiratory rate (Delta1 +/- 1 breaths/min). Collectively, these data indicate that semicircular canals, but not otolith organs or neck muscle afferents, mediate increased ventilation in humans and support the concept that vestibular activation alters respiration in humans.

a Three-Step Spatial-Temporal Clustering Method for Human Activity Pattern Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, W.; Li, S.; Xu, S.

2016-06-01

How people move in cities and what they do in various locations at different times form human activity patterns. Human activity pattern plays a key role in in urban planning, traffic forecasting, public health and safety, emergency response, friend recommendation, and so on. Therefore, scholars from different fields, such as social science, geography, transportation, physics and computer science, have made great efforts in modelling and analysing human activity patterns or human mobility patterns. One of the essential tasks in such studies is to find the locations or places where individuals stay to perform some kind of activities before further activity pattern analysis. In the era of Big Data, the emerging of social media along with wearable devices enables human activity data to be collected more easily and efficiently. Furthermore, the dimension of the accessible human activity data has been extended from two to three (space or space-time) to four dimensions (space, time and semantics). More specifically, not only a location and time that people stay and spend are collected, but also what people "say" for in a location at a time can be obtained. The characteristics of these datasets shed new light on the analysis of human mobility, where some of new methodologies should be accordingly developed to handle them. Traditional methods such as neural networks, statistics and clustering have been applied to study human activity patterns using geosocial media data. Among them, clustering methods have been widely used to analyse spatiotemporal patterns. However, to our best knowledge, few of clustering algorithms are specifically developed for handling the datasets that contain spatial, temporal and semantic aspects all together. In this work, we propose a three-step human activity clustering method based on space, time and semantics to fill this gap. One-year Twitter data, posted in Toronto, Canada, is used to test the clustering-based method. The results show that the

Affinity purification of recombinant human plasminogen activator ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Affinity purification of recombinant human plasminogen activator from ... Screening antibody was performed using rhPA milk in an ELISA-elution assay. ... useful for purifying other tPA mutants or other novel recombinant milkderived proteins.

Robust Indoor Human Activity Recognition Using Wireless Signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi; Jiang, Xinli; Cao, Rongyu; Wang, Xiyang

2015-07-15

Wireless signals-based activity detection and recognition technology may be complementary to the existing vision-based methods, especially under the circumstance of occlusions, viewpoint change, complex background, lighting condition change, and so on. This paper explores the properties of the channel state information (CSI) of Wi-Fi signals, and presents a robust indoor daily human activity recognition framework with only one pair of transmission points (TP) and access points (AP). First of all, some indoor human actions are selected as primitive actions forming a training set. Then, an online filtering method is designed to make actions' CSI curves smooth and allow them to contain enough pattern information. Each primitive action pattern can be segmented from the outliers of its multi-input multi-output (MIMO) signals by a proposed segmentation method. Lastly, in online activities recognition, by selecting proper features and Support Vector Machine (SVM) based multi-classification, activities constituted by primitive actions can be recognized insensitive to the locations, orientations, and speeds.

Robust Indoor Human Activity Recognition Using Wireless Signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi Wang

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Wireless signals–based activity detection and recognition technology may be complementary to the existing vision-based methods, especially under the circumstance of occlusions, viewpoint change, complex background, lighting condition change, and so on. This paper explores the properties of the channel state information (CSI of Wi-Fi signals, and presents a robust indoor daily human activity recognition framework with only one pair of transmission points (TP and access points (AP. First of all, some indoor human actions are selected as primitive actions forming a training set. Then, an online filtering method is designed to make actions’ CSI curves smooth and allow them to contain enough pattern information. Each primitive action pattern can be segmented from the outliers of its multi-input multi-output (MIMO signals by a proposed segmentation method. Lastly, in online activities recognition, by selecting proper features and Support Vector Machine (SVM based multi-classification, activities constituted by primitive actions can be recognized insensitive to the locations, orientations, and speeds.

Biologic activities of recombinant human-beta-defensin-4 toward cultured human cancer cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerashchenko, O L; Zhuravel, E V; Skachkova, O V; Khranovska, N N; Filonenko, V V; Pogrebnoy, P V; Soldatkina, M A

2013-06-01

The aim of the study was in vitro analysis of biological activity of recombinant human beta-defensin-4 (rec-hBD-4). hBD-4 cDNA was cloned into pGEX-2T vector, and recombinant plasmid was transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) cells. To purify soluble fusion GST-hBD-4 protein, affinity chromatography was applied. Rec-hBD-4 was cleaved from the fusion protein with thrombin, and purified by reverse phase chromatography on Sep-Pack C18. Effects of rec-hBD-4 on proliferation, viability, cell cycle distribution, substrate-independent growth, and mobility of cultured human cancer cells of A431, A549, and TPC-1 lines were analyzed by direct cell counting technique, MTT assay, flow cytofluorometry, colony forming assay in semi-soft medium, and wound healing assay. Rec-hBD-4 was expressed in bacterial cells as GST-hBD-4 fusion protein, and purified by routine 3-step procedure (affine chromatography on glutathione-agarose, cleavage of fusion protein by thrombin, and reverse phase chromatography). Analysis of in vitro activity of rec-hBD-4 toward three human cancer cell lines has demonstrated that the defensin is capable to affect cell behaviour in concentration-dependent manner. In 1-100 nM concentrations rec-hBD-4 significantly stimulates cancer cell proliferation and viability, and promotes cell cycle progression through G2/M checkpoint, greatly enhances colony-forming activity and mobility of the cells. Treatment of the cells with 500 nM of rec-hBD-4 resulted in opposite effects: significant suppression of cell proliferation and viability, blockage of cell cycle in G1/S checkpoint, significant inhibition of cell migration and colony forming activity. Recombinant human beta-defensin-4 is biologically active peptide capable to cause oppositely directed effects toward biologic features of cancer cells in vitro dependent on its concentration.

A novel multifunctional O-methyltransferase implicated in a dual methylation pathway associated with lignin biosynthesis in loblolly pine.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, L; Popko, J L; Zhang, X H; Osakabe, K; Tsai, C J; Joshi, C P; Chiang, V L

1997-05-13

S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)-dependent O-methyltransferases (OMTs) catalyze the methylation of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives for the synthesis of methylated plant polyphenolics, including lignin. The distinction in the extent of methylation of lignins in angiosperms and gymnosperms, mediated by substrate-specific OMTs, represents one of the fundamental differences in lignin biosynthesis between these two classes of plants. In angiosperms, two types of structurally and functionally distinct lignin pathway OMTs, caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferases (CAOMTs) and caffeoyl CoA 3-O-methyltransferases (CCoAOMTs), have been reported and extensively studied. However, little is known about lignin pathway OMTs in gymnosperms. We report here the first cloning of a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) xylem cDNA encoding a multifunctional enzyme, SAM:hydroxycinnamic Acids/hydroxycinnamoyl CoA Esters OMT (AEOMT). The deduced protein sequence of AEOMT is partially similar to, but clearly distinguishable from, that of CAOMTs and does not exhibit any significant similarity with CCoAOMT protein sequences. However, functionally, yeast-expressed AEOMT enzyme catalyzed the methylation of CAOMT substrates, caffeic and 5-hydroxyferulic acids, as well as CCoAOMT substrates, caffeoyl CoA and 5-hydroxyferuloyl CoA esters, with similar specific activities and was completely inactive with substrates associated with flavonoid synthesis. The lignin-related substrates were also efficiently methylated in crude extracts of loblolly pine secondary xylem. Our results support the notion that, in the context of amino acid sequence and biochemical function, AEOMT represents a novel SAM-dependent OMT, with both CAOMT and CCoAOMT activities and thus the potential to mediate a dual methylation pathway in lignin biosynthesis in loblolly pine xylem.

A novel multifunctional O-methyltransferase implicated in a dual methylation pathway associated with lignin biosynthesis in loblolly pine

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Laigeng; Popko, Jacqueline L.; Zhang, Xing-Hai; Osakabe, Keishi; Tsai, Chung-Jui; Joshi, Chandrashekhar P.; Chiang, Vincent L.

1997-01-01

S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM)-dependent O-methyltransferases (OMTs) catalyze the methylation of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives for the synthesis of methylated plant polyphenolics, including lignin. The distinction in the extent of methylation of lignins in angiosperms and gymnosperms, mediated by substrate-specific OMTs, represents one of the fundamental differences in lignin biosynthesis between these two classes of plants. In angiosperms, two types of structurally and functionally distinct lignin pathway OMTs, caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferases (CAOMTs) and caffeoyl CoA 3-O-methyltransferases (CCoAOMTs), have been reported and extensively studied. However, little is known about lignin pathway OMTs in gymnosperms. We report here the first cloning of a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) xylem cDNA encoding a multifunctional enzyme, SAM:hydroxycinnamic Acids/hydroxycinnamoyl CoA Esters OMT (AEOMT). The deduced protein sequence of AEOMT is partially similar to, but clearly distinguishable from, that of CAOMTs and does not exhibit any significant similarity with CCoAOMT protein sequences. However, functionally, yeast-expressed AEOMT enzyme catalyzed the methylation of CAOMT substrates, caffeic and 5-hydroxyferulic acids, as well as CCoAOMT substrates, caffeoyl CoA and 5-hydroxyferuloyl CoA esters, with similar specific activities and was completely inactive with substrates associated with flavonoid synthesis. The lignin-related substrates were also efficiently methylated in crude extracts of loblolly pine secondary xylem. Our results support the notion that, in the context of amino acid sequence and biochemical function, AEOMT represents a novel SAM-dependent OMT, with both CAOMT and CCoAOMT activities and thus the potential to mediate a dual methylation pathway in lignin biosynthesis in loblolly pine xylem. PMID:9144260

Physical activity and human health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulina Wojciechowska

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The dynamic development of the automotive industry, transport, and the media means that human life has become much easier. At the same time, the comfortable living conditions have decreased physical activity. Biologically conditioned, the need of activity has been minimised by the ever-increasing pace of life. As a result, it may lead to the loss of physical and mental health. Active recreation is not only an excellent source of activity, but also a source of satisfaction. Youths and adults should therefore spend their free time primarily on various forms of physical activity. Aim of the research : To evaluate the physical fitness of students who regularly practice physical exercise, those who occasionally practice, and those not practicing any form of physical activity. Material and methods : In the research we used a questionnaire of the Ruffier test and an orthostatic test. The study involved a group of 15 people aged 20–25 years. Participation in the study was entirely voluntary and anonymous. The study group consisted only of women. Results obtained from the questionnaire survey were fully reflected during exercise tests performed. Results and conclusions: Only regularly practiced physical activity has an effect on our body. Regular exercise increases our body’s physical capacity. Activity is the best means of prevention of lifestyle diseases. Youths and adults should spend their free time mainly doing various forms of physical activity.

Exploring Techniques for Vision Based Human Activity Recognition: Methods, Systems, and Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Zhang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available With the wide applications of vision based intelligent systems, image and video analysis technologies have attracted the attention of researchers in the computer vision field. In image and video analysis, human activity recognition is an important research direction. By interpreting and understanding human activity, we can recognize and predict the occurrence of crimes and help the police or other agencies react immediately. In the past, a large number of papers have been published on human activity recognition in video and image sequences. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the recent development of the techniques, including methods, systems, and quantitative evaluation towards the performance of human activity recognition.

Combining users' activity survey and simulators to evaluate human activity recognition systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Azkune, Gorka; Almeida, Aitor; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Chen, Liming

2015-04-08

Evaluating human activity recognition systems usually implies following expensive and time-consuming methodologies, where experiments with humans are run with the consequent ethical and legal issues. We propose a novel evaluation methodology to overcome the enumerated problems, which is based on surveys for users and a synthetic dataset generator tool. Surveys allow capturing how different users perform activities of daily living, while the synthetic dataset generator is used to create properly labelled activity datasets modelled with the information extracted from surveys. Important aspects, such as sensor noise, varying time lapses and user erratic behaviour, can also be simulated using the tool. The proposed methodology is shown to have very important advantages that allow researchers to carry out their work more efficiently. To evaluate the approach, a synthetic dataset generated following the proposed methodology is compared to a real dataset computing the similarity between sensor occurrence frequencies. It is concluded that the similarity between both datasets is more than significant.

Combining Users’ Activity Survey and Simulators to Evaluate Human Activity Recognition Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorka Azkune

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Evaluating human activity recognition systems usually implies following expensive and time-consuming methodologies, where experiments with humans are run with the consequent ethical and legal issues. We propose a novel evaluation methodology to overcome the enumerated problems, which is based on surveys for users and a synthetic dataset generator tool. Surveys allow capturing how different users perform activities of daily living, while the synthetic dataset generator is used to create properly labelled activity datasets modelled with the information extracted from surveys. Important aspects, such as sensor noise, varying time lapses and user erratic behaviour, can also be simulated using the tool. The proposed methodology is shown to have very important advantages that allow researchers to carry out their work more efficiently. To evaluate the approach, a synthetic dataset generated following the proposed methodology is compared to a real dataset computing the similarity between sensor occurrence frequencies. It is concluded that the similarity between both datasets is more than significant.

Combining Users' Activity Survey and Simulators to Evaluate Human Activity Recognition Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Azkune, Gorka; Almeida, Aitor; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Chen, Liming

2015-01-01

Evaluating human activity recognition systems usually implies following expensive and time-consuming methodologies, where experiments with humans are run with the consequent ethical and legal issues. We propose a novel evaluation methodology to overcome the enumerated problems, which is based on surveys for users and a synthetic dataset generator tool. Surveys allow capturing how different users perform activities of daily living, while the synthetic dataset generator is used to create properly labelled activity datasets modelled with the information extracted from surveys. Important aspects, such as sensor noise, varying time lapses and user erratic behaviour, can also be simulated using the tool. The proposed methodology is shown to have very important advantages that allow researchers to carry out their work more efficiently. To evaluate the approach, a synthetic dataset generated following the proposed methodology is compared to a real dataset computing the similarity between sensor occurrence frequencies. It is concluded that the similarity between both datasets is more than significant. PMID:25856329

Evaluation of perfluoroalkyl acid activity using primary mouse and human hepatocytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosen, Mitchell B.; Das, Kaberi P.; Wood, Carmen R.; Wolf, Cynthia J.; Abbott, Barbara D.; Lau, Christopher

2013-01-01

While perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) have been studied at length, less is known about the biological activity of other perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) detected in the environment. Using a transient transfection assay developed in COS-1 cells, our group has previously evaluated a variety of PFAAs for activity associated with activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα). Here we use primary heptatocytes to further assess the biological activity of a similar group of PFAAs using custom designed Taqman Low Density Arrays. Primary mouse and human hepatoyctes were cultured for 48 h in the presence of varying concentrations of 12 different PFAAs or Wy14,643, a known activator of PPARα. Total RNA was collected and the expression of 48 mouse or human genes evaluated. Gene selection was based on either in-house liver microarray data (mouse) or published data using primary hepatocytes (human). Gene expression in primary mouse hepatocytes was more restricted than expected. Genes typically regulated in whole tissue by PPARα agonists were not altered in mouse cells including Acox1, Me1, Acaa1a, Hmgcs1, and Slc27a1. Cyp2b10, a gene regulated by the constitutive androstane receptor and a transcript normally up-regulated by in vivo exposure to PFAAs, was also unchanged in cultured mouse hepatocytes. Cyp4a14, Ehhadh, Pdk4, Cpt1b, and Fabp1 were regulated as expected in mouse cells. A larger group of genes were differentially expressed in human primary hepatocytes, however, little consistency was observed across compounds with respect to which genes produced a significant dose response making the determination of relative biological activity difficult. This likely reflects weaker activation of PPARα in human versus rodent cells as well as variation among individual cell donors. Unlike mouse cells, CYP2B6 was up-regulated in human hepatocytes by a number of PFAAs as was PPARδ. Rankings were conducted on the limited

Water quality degradation effects on freshwater availability: Impacts to human activities

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Peters, N.E.; Meybeck, Michel

2000-01-01

The quality of freshwater at any point on the landscape reflects the combined effects of many processes along water pathways. Human activities on all spatial scales affect both water quality and quantity. Alteration of the landscape and associated vegetation has not only changed the water balance, but typically has altered processes that control water quality. Effects of human activities on a small scale are relevant to an entire drainage basin. Furthermore, local, regional, and global differences in climate and water flow are considerable, causing varying effects of human activities on land and water quality and quantity, depending on location within a watershed, geology, biology, physiographic characteristics, and climate. These natural characteristics also greatly control human activities, which will, in turn, modify (or affect) the natural composition of water. One of the most important issues for effective resource management is recognition of cyclical and cascading effects of human activities on the water quality and quantity along hydrologic pathways. The degradation of water quality in one part of a watershed can have negative effects on users downstream. Everyone lives downstream of the effects of some human activity. An extremely important factor is that substances added to the atmosphere, land, and water generally have relatively long time scales for removal or clean up. The nature of the substance, including its affinity for adhering to soil and its ability to be transformed, affects the mobility and the time scale for removal of the substance. Policy alone will not solve many of the degradation issues, but a combination of policy, education, scientific knowledge, planning, and enforcement of applicable laws can provide mechanisms for slowing the rate of degradation and provide human and environmental protection. Such an integrated approach is needed to effectively manage land and water resources.

Regulation of calcium homeostasis in activated human neutrophils ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objectives. The objectives of the current study were to: (i) present an integrated model for the restoration of calcium homeostasis in activated human neutrophils based on current knowledge and recent research; and (ii) identify potential targets for the modulation of calcium fluxes in activated neutrophils based on this model ...

Cost effectiveness of adding clostridial collagenase ointment to selective debridement in individuals with stage IV pressure ulcers.

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Carter, Marissa J; Gilligan, Adrienne M; Waycaster, Curtis R; Schaum, Kathleen; Fife, Caroline E

2017-03-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the cost effectiveness (from a payer's perspective) of adding clostridial collagenase ointment (CCO) to selective debridement compared with selective debridement alone (non-CCO) in the treatment of stage IV pressure ulcers among patients identified from the US Wound Registry. A 3-state Markov model was developed to determine costs and outcomes between the CCO and non-CCO groups over a 2-year time horizon. Outcome data were derived from a retrospective clinical study and included the proportion of pressure ulcers that were closed (epithelialized) over 2 years and the time to wound closure. Transition probabilities for the Markov states were estimated from the clinical study. In the Markov model, the clinical outcome is presented as ulcer-free weeks, which represents the time the wound is in the epithelialized state. Costs for each 4-week cycle were based on frequencies of clinic visits, debridement, and CCO application rates from the clinical study. The final model outputs were cumulative costs (in US dollars), clinical outcome (ulcer-free weeks), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) at 2 years. Compared with the non-CCO group, the CCO group incurred lower costs ($11,151 vs $17,596) and greater benefits (33.9 vs 16.8 ulcer-free weeks), resulting in an economically dominant ICER of -$375 per ulcer. Thus, for each additional ulcer-free week that can be gained, there is a concurrent cost savings of $375 if CCO treatment is selected. Over a 2-year period, an additional 17.2 ulcer-free weeks can be gained with concurrent cost savings of $6,445 for each patient. In this Markov model based on real-world data from the US Wound Registry, the addition of CCO to selective debridement in the treatment of pressure ulcers was economically dominant over selective debridement alone, resulting in greater benefit to the patient at lower cost.

Clostridial collagenase ointment and medicinal honey utilization for pressure ulcers in US hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Dreyfus, Jill; Delhougne, Gary; James, Roberta; Gayle, Julie; Waycaster, Curtis

2018-04-01

To describe the utilization of clostridial collagenase ointment (CCO) and medicinal honey debridement methods in real-world inpatient and outpatient hospital settings among pressure ulcer (PU) patients and compare the frequency of healthcare re-encounters between CCO- and medicinal honey-treated patients. De-identified hospital discharge records for patients receiving CCO or medicinal honey methods of debridement and having an ICD-9 code for PU were extracted from the US Premier Healthcare Database. Multivariable analysis was used to compare the frequency of inpatient and outpatient revisits up to 6 months after an index encounter for CCO- vs medicinal honey-treated PUs. The study identified 48,267 inpatients and 2,599 outpatients with PUs treated with CCO or medicinal honeys. Among study inpatients, n = 44,725 (93%) were treated with CCO, and n = 3,542 (7%) with medicinal honeys. CCO and medicinal honeys accounted for 1,826 (70%) and 773 (30%), respectively, of study outpatients. In adjusted models, those treated with CCO had lower odds for inpatient readmissions (OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.80-0.94) after inpatient index visits, and outpatient re-encounters both after inpatient (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.67-0.79) and outpatient (OR = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.64-0.95) index visits in 6 months of follow-up. The study was observational in nature, and did not adjust for reasons why patients were hospitalized initially, or why they returned to the facility. Although the study adjusted for differences in a variety of demographic, clinical, and hospital characteristics between the treatments, we are not able to rule out selection bias. Patients with CCO-treated PUs returned to inpatient and outpatient hospital settings less often compared with medicinal honey-treated PUs. These results from real-world administrative data help to gain a better understanding of the clinical characteristics of patients with PUs treated with these two debridement methods and

HuAc: Human Activity Recognition Using Crowdsourced WiFi Signals and Skeleton Data

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Linlin Guo

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The joint of WiFi-based and vision-based human activity recognition has attracted increasing attention in the human-computer interaction, smart home, and security monitoring fields. We propose HuAc, the combination of WiFi-based and Kinect-based activity recognition system, to sense human activity in an indoor environment with occlusion, weak light, and different perspectives. We first construct a WiFi-based activity recognition dataset named WiAR to provide a benchmark for WiFi-based activity recognition. Then, we design a mechanism of subcarrier selection according to the sensitivity of subcarriers to human activities. Moreover, we optimize the spatial relationship of adjacent skeleton joints and draw out a corresponding relationship between CSI and skeleton-based activity recognition. Finally, we explore the fusion information of CSI and crowdsourced skeleton joints to achieve the robustness of human activity recognition. We implemented HuAc using commercial WiFi devices and evaluated it in three kinds of scenarios. Our results show that HuAc achieves an average accuracy of greater than 93% using WiAR dataset.

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION IN HUMAN ACTIVITY OF THE INFORMATION AGE: HUMAN AND ICT

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Oleksandr Yu. Burov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In the article a brief overview of projects initiated by the U.S. National Science Foundation that related to new knowledge on integration and mutual development of social systems is proposed. The projects have a potential for transformation of science and researches, improvement of life quality and economy prosperity, as well as they should ensure outrunning development of information and communication technologies for all spheres of human activity: anthropocentric computerization, integration of information and informatics, robust intelligence, cyber-human systems, as well as two cross-technical areas - human and/or robots interaction, security and information protection.

Functional assessment of human enhancer activities using whole-genome STARR-sequencing.

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Liu, Yuwen; Yu, Shan; Dhiman, Vineet K; Brunetti, Tonya; Eckart, Heather; White, Kevin P

2017-11-20

Genome-wide quantification of enhancer activity in the human genome has proven to be a challenging problem. Recent efforts have led to the development of powerful tools for enhancer quantification. However, because of genome size and complexity, these tools have yet to be applied to the whole human genome.  In the current study, we use a human prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP as a model to perform whole human genome STARR-seq (WHG-STARR-seq) to reliably obtain an assessment of enhancer activity. This approach builds upon previously developed STARR-seq in the fly genome and CapSTARR-seq techniques in targeted human genomic regions. With an improved library preparation strategy, our approach greatly increases the library complexity per unit of starting material, which makes it feasible and cost-effective to explore the landscape of regulatory activity in the much larger human genome. In addition to our ability to identify active, accessible enhancers located in open chromatin regions, we can also detect sequences with the potential for enhancer activity that are located in inaccessible, closed chromatin regions. When treated with the histone deacetylase inhibitor, Trichostatin A, genes nearby this latter class of enhancers are up-regulated, demonstrating the potential for endogenous functionality of these regulatory elements. WHG-STARR-seq provides an improved approach to current pipelines for analysis of high complexity genomes to gain a better understanding of the intricacies of transcriptional regulation.

Human Activity-Understanding: A Multilayer Approach Combining Body Movements and Contextual Descriptors Analysis

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Consuelo Granata

2015-07-01

Full Text Available A deep understanding of human activity is key to successful human-robot interaction (HRI. The translation of sensed human behavioural signals/cues and context descriptors into an encoded human activity remains a challenge because of the complex nature of human actions. In this paper, we propose a multilayer framework for the understanding of human activity to be implemented in a mobile robot. It consists of a perception layer which exploits a D-RGB-based skeleton tracking output used to simulate a physical model of virtual human dynamics in order to compensate for the inaccuracy and inconsistency of the raw data. A multi-support vector machine (MSVM model trained with features describing the human motor coordination through temporal segments in combination with environment descriptors (object affordance is used to recognize each sub-activity (classification layer. The interpretation of sequences of classified elementary actions is based on discrete hidden Markov models (DHMMs (interpretation layer. The framework assessment was performed on the Cornell Activity Dataset (CAD-120 [1]. The performances of our method are comparable with those presented in [2] and clearly show the relevance of this model-based approach.

Feline and canine coronaviruses: common genetic and pathobiological features.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Poder, Sophie

2011-01-01

A new human coronavirus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was identified in 2003, which raised concern about coronaviruses as agents of serious infectious disease. Nevertheless, coronaviruses have been known for about 50 years to be major agents of respiratory, enteric, or systemic infections of domestic and companion animals. Feline and canine coronaviruses are widespread among dog and cat populations, sometimes leading to the fatal diseases known as feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) and pantropic canine coronavirus infection in cats and dogs, respectively. In this paper, different aspects of the genetics, host cell tropism, and pathogenesis of the feline and canine coronaviruses (FCoV and CCoV) will be discussed, with a view to illustrating how study of FCoVs and CCoVs can improve our general understanding of the pathobiology of coronaviruses.

Ensemble Manifold Rank Preserving for Acceleration-Based Human Activity Recognition.

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Tao, Dapeng; Jin, Lianwen; Yuan, Yuan; Xue, Yang

2016-06-01

With the rapid development of mobile devices and pervasive computing technologies, acceleration-based human activity recognition, a difficult yet essential problem in mobile apps, has received intensive attention recently. Different acceleration signals for representing different activities or even a same activity have different attributes, which causes troubles in normalizing the signals. We thus cannot directly compare these signals with each other, because they are embedded in a nonmetric space. Therefore, we present a nonmetric scheme that retains discriminative and robust frequency domain information by developing a novel ensemble manifold rank preserving (EMRP) algorithm. EMRP simultaneously considers three aspects: 1) it encodes the local geometry using the ranking order information of intraclass samples distributed on local patches; 2) it keeps the discriminative information by maximizing the margin between samples of different classes; and 3) it finds the optimal linear combination of the alignment matrices to approximate the intrinsic manifold lied in the data. Experiments are conducted on the South China University of Technology naturalistic 3-D acceleration-based activity dataset and the naturalistic mobile-devices based human activity dataset to demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the new nonmetric scheme for acceleration-based human activity recognition.

Activated human mast cells induce LOX-1-specific scavenger receptor expression in human monocyte-derived macrophages.

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Mervi Alanne-Kinnunen

Full Text Available Activated mast cells in atherosclerotic lesions degranulate and release bioactive compounds capable of regulating atherogenesis. Here we examined the ability of activated human primary mast cells to regulate the expression of the major scavenger receptors in cultured human primary monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDMs.Components released by immunologically activated human primary mast cells induced a transient expression of lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor (LOX-1 mRNA in HMDMs, while the expression of two other scavenger receptors, MSR1 and CD36, remained unaffected. The LOX-1-inducing secretory components were identified as histamine, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α, and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β1, which exhibited a synergistic effect on LOX-1 mRNA expression. Histamine induced a transient expression of LOX-1 protein. Mast cell -induced increase in LOX-1 expression was not associated with increased uptake of oxidized LDL by the macrophages.Mast cell-derived histamine, TNF-α, and TGF-β1 act in concert to induce a transient increase in LOX-1 expression in human primary monocyte-derived macrophages. The LOX-1-inducing activity potentially endows mast cells a hitherto unrecognized role in the regulation of innate immune reactions in atherogenesis.

Human Activity Recognition by Combining a Small Number of Classifiers.

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Nazabal, Alfredo; Garcia-Moreno, Pablo; Artes-Rodriguez, Antonio; Ghahramani, Zoubin

2016-09-01

We consider the problem of daily human activity recognition (HAR) using multiple wireless inertial sensors, and specifically, HAR systems with a very low number of sensors, each one providing an estimation of the performed activities. We propose new Bayesian models to combine the output of the sensors. The models are based on a soft outputs combination of individual classifiers to deal with the small number of sensors. We also incorporate the dynamic nature of human activities as a first-order homogeneous Markov chain. We develop both inductive and transductive inference methods for each model to be employed in supervised and semisupervised situations, respectively. Using different real HAR databases, we compare our classifiers combination models against a single classifier that employs all the signals from the sensors. Our models exhibit consistently a reduction of the error rate and an increase of robustness against sensor failures. Our models also outperform other classifiers combination models that do not consider soft outputs and an Markovian structure of the human activities.

A Flexible Approach for Human Activity Recognition Using Artificial Hydrocarbon Networks.

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Ponce, Hiram; Miralles-Pechuán, Luis; Martínez-Villaseñor, María de Lourdes

2016-10-25

Physical activity recognition based on sensors is a growing area of interest given the great advances in wearable sensors. Applications in various domains are taking advantage of the ease of obtaining data to monitor personal activities and behavior in order to deliver proactive and personalized services. Although many activity recognition systems have been developed for more than two decades, there are still open issues to be tackled with new techniques. We address in this paper one of the main challenges of human activity recognition: Flexibility. Our goal in this work is to present artificial hydrocarbon networks as a novel flexible approach in a human activity recognition system. In order to evaluate the performance of artificial hydrocarbon networks based classifier, experimentation was designed for user-independent, and also for user-dependent case scenarios. Our results demonstrate that artificial hydrocarbon networks classifier is flexible enough to be used when building a human activity recognition system with either user-dependent or user-independent approaches.

Differential Antifungal Activity of Human and Cryptococcal Melanins with Structural Discrepancies.

Science.gov (United States)

Correa, Néstor; Covarrubias, Cristian; Rodas, Paula I; Hermosilla, Germán; Olate, Verónica R; Valdés, Cristián; Meyer, Wieland; Magne, Fabien; Tapia, Cecilia V

2017-01-01

Melanin is a pigment found in all biological kingdoms, and plays a key role in protection against ultraviolet radiation, oxidizing agents, and ionizing radiation damage. Melanin exerts an antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and parasites. We demonstrated an antifungal activity of synthetic and human melanin against Candida sp. The members of the Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii species complexes are capsulated yeasts, which cause cryptococcosis. For both species melanin is an important virulence factor. To evaluate if cryptococcal and human melanins have antifungal activity against Cryptococcus species they both were assayed for their antifungal properties and physico-chemical characters. Melanin extracts from human hair and different strains of C. neoformans ( n = 4) and C. gattii ( n = 4) were investigated. The following minimum inhibitory concentrations were found for different melanins against C. neoformans and C. gattii were (average/range): 13.7/(7.8-15.6) and 19.5/(15.6-31.2) μg/mL, respectively, for human melanin; 273.4/(125->500) and 367.2/(125.5->500) μg/mL for C. neoformans melanin and 125/(62.5-250) and 156.2/(62-250) μg/mL for C. gattii melanin. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy we observed that human melanin showed a compact conformation and cryptococcal melanins exposed an amorphous conformation. Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed some differences in the signals related to C-C bonds of the aromatic ring of the melanin monomers. High Performance Liquid Chromatography established differences in the chromatograms of fungal melanins extracts in comparison with human and synthetic melanin, particularly in the retention time of the main compound of fungal melanin extracts and also in the presence of minor unknown compounds. On the other hand, MALDI-TOF-MS analysis showed slight differences in the spectra, specifically the presence of a minor intensity ion in synthetic and human melanin, as well as in some fungal melanin extracts. We

Profiling gene expression induced by protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2 activation in human kidney cells.

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Jacky Y Suen

Full Text Available Protease-Activated Receptor-2 (PAR2 has been implicated through genetic knockout mice with cytokine regulation and arthritis development. Many studies have associated PAR2 with inflammatory conditions (arthritis, airways inflammation, IBD and key events in tumor progression (angiogenesis, metastasis, but they have relied heavily on the use of single agonists to identify physiological roles for PAR2. However such probes are now known not to be highly selective for PAR2, and thus precisely what PAR2 does and what mechanisms of downstream regulation are truly affected remain obscure. Effects of PAR2 activation on gene expression in Human Embryonic Kidney cells (HEK293, a commonly studied cell line in PAR2 research, were investigated here by comparing 19,000 human genes for intersecting up- or down-regulation by both trypsin (an endogenous protease that activates PAR2 and a PAR2 activating hexapeptide (2f-LIGRLO-NH(2. Among 2,500 human genes regulated similarly by both agonists, there were clear associations between PAR2 activation and cellular metabolism (1,000 genes, the cell cycle, the MAPK pathway, HDAC and sirtuin enzymes, inflammatory cytokines, and anti-complement function. PAR-2 activation up-regulated four genes more than 5 fold (DUSP6, WWOX, AREG, SERPINB2 and down-regulated another six genes more than 3 fold (TXNIP, RARG, ITGB4, CTSD, MSC and TM4SF15. Both PAR2 and PAR1 activation resulted in up-regulated expression of several genes (CD44, FOSL1, TNFRSF12A, RAB3A, COPEB, CORO1C, THBS1, SDC4 known to be important in cancer. This is the first widespread profiling of specific activation of PAR2 and provides a valuable platform for better understanding key mechanistic roles of PAR2 in human physiology. Results clearly support the development of both antagonists and agonists of human PAR2 as potential disease modifying therapeutic agents.

Effect of losartan on human platelet activation.

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra-Cuesta, J I; Montón, M; Rodríguez-Feo, J A; Jiménez, A M; González-Fernández, F; Rico, L A; García, R; Gómez, J; Farré, J; Casado, S; López-Farré, A

1999-03-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that losartan can block the thromboxane A2 receptor on the vascular wall. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of losartan on human platelet activation. Platelets were obtained from 15 healthy men, aged 26-40 years. Platelet activation was measured by changes in the light transmission of platelet-rich plasma stimulated by the thromboxane A2 analog U46619 (5 x 10(-6) mol/l) or ADP (10(-5) mol/l). U46619-stimulated platelet aggregation was significantly inhibited by losartan in a dose-dependent manner. Only a high dose of EXP 3174 (5 x 10(-5) mol/l), the in vivo active metabolite of losartan, was able to attenuate U46619-induced platelet activation. Captopril, an angiotensin I converting inhibitor, failed to modify U46619-induced platelet aggregation. Furthermore, the binding of [3H]-U46619 to platelets was competitively inhibited by losartan, whereas only a high dose of EXP 3174 reduced the binding of [3H]-U46619. Captopril failed to modify the binding of [3H]-U46619 to platelets. Losartan also reduced the platelet activation induced by ADP (10(-5) mol/l), a platelet agonist partially dependent on thromboxane A2. In addition, when thromboxane A2 generation was blocked by aspirin, ADP-induced platelet aggregation was inhibited to a similar degree to the inhibition induced by losartan. Exogenous angiotensin II did not elicit any modification of either U46619- or ADP-stimulated platelet aggregation. Losartan decreased platelet aggregation by a thromboxane A2-dependent mechanism. EXP 3174 was less potent than losartan in reducing thromboxane A2-dependent platelet activation. Captopril and exogenous angiotensin II had no effect on human platelet activation. These results suggest that losartan reduced thromboxane A2-dependent platelet activation independently of its effect on angiotensin II.

Metabolic activity and collagen turnover in human tendon in response to physical activity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjaer, M; Langberg, H; Miller, B F

2005-01-01

Connective tissue of the human tendon plays an important role in force transmission. The extracellular matrix turnover of tendon is influenced by physical activity. Blood flow, oxygen demand, and the level of collagen synthesis and matrix metalloproteinases increase with mechanical loading. Gene...... of overuse tendon injuries occurring during sport, work or leisure-related activities....

Differential effects of human activity on Hawaiian spinner dolphins in their resting bays

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Heather L. Heenehan

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Hawaiian spinner dolphins display predictable daily behavior, using shallow bays to rest during the daytime, bays that are also frequented by humans. All previous research on the potential response of Hawaiian spinner dolphins to human activity has been conducted visually, at the surface. In this study we take a different approach by using passive acoustic monitoring to analyze dolphin behavior and assess whether human activity affects the behavior of the animals. We used days (n=99 and hours (n=641 when dolphins were confirmed present in visual surveys between January 9, 2011 and August 15, 2012 and metrics generated from concomitant 30-second sound recordings (n=9615. Previous research found that the dolphins were predictably silent during rest and that acoustic activity matched general activity of the dolphins with higher acoustic activity before and after rest, and silence during rest. The daily pattern of dolphin whistle activity in Bay 2 and 4 (Kealakekua and Kauhako matched what would be expected from this earlier work. However, in Bay 1 and 3 (Makako and Honaunau there was no drop in dolphin whistle activity during rest. After assessing the relationship between time of day and dolphin acoustic activity, data on human presence were used to determine how variability in the dolphins’ acoustic activity might be explained by human activity (i.e. the number of vessels, kayaks and swimmer snorkelers present. Bay 2, the bay with the most human activity, showed no relationship between dolphin whistle activity and human presence (either vessels, kayaks, or swimmer/snorkelers. Although the relationships were weak, Bay 1 displayed a positive relationship between dolphin whistle activity and the number of vessels and swimmer/snorkelers present in the bay. Bay 4 also showed a positive relationship between dolphin whistle activity and the number of swimmer snorkelers. We also documented less sound being added to the soundscape with each additional

Tactile interactions activate mirror system regions in the human brain.

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McKyton, Ayelet

2011-12-07

Communicating with others is essential for the development of a society. Although types of communications, such as language and visual gestures, were thoroughly investigated in the past, little research has been done to investigate interactions through touch. To study this we used functional magnetic resonance imaging. Twelve participants were scanned with their eyes covered while stroking four kinds of items, representing different somatosensory stimuli: a human hand, a realistic rubber hand, an object, and a simple texture. Although the human and the rubber hands had the same overall shape, in three regions there was significantly more blood oxygen level dependent activation when touching the real hand: the anterior medial prefrontal cortex, the ventral premotor cortex, and the posterior superior temporal cortex. The last two regions are part of the mirror network and are known to be activated through visual interactions such as gestures. Interestingly, in this study, these areas were activated through a somatosensory interaction. A control experiment was performed to eliminate confounds of temperature, texture, and imagery, suggesting that the activation in these areas was correlated with the touch of a human hand. These results reveal the neuronal network working behind human tactile interactions, and highlight the participation of the mirror system in such functions.

Human activity spaces and plague risks in three contrasting ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Since 1980 plague has been a human threat in the Western Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. However, the spatial-temporal pattern of plague occurrence remains poorly understood. The main objective of this study was to gain understanding of human activity patterns in relation to spatial distribution of fleas in Lushoto ...

Cytotoxic activities of Coriolus versicolor (Yunzhi) extracts on human ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

SERVER

2007-08-06

Aug 6, 2007 ... four human liver cancer (7703, HepG2, 7721, PLC) and four human breast cancer (Bcap37, ZR75-30,. MCF-7, T-47D) cell lines ... Key words: Coriolus versicolor, fruit body, polysaccharide, anti-tumor. INTRODUCTION. Coriolus ... somewhat in structure, composition, and physiological activity. The present ...

Selective activation of neuromuscular compartments within the human trapezius muscle

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holtermann, A; Roeleveld, K; Mork, P J

2009-01-01

of the human trapezius muscle can be independently activated by voluntary command, indicating neuromuscular compartmentalization of the trapezius muscle. The independent activation of the upper and lower subdivisions of the trapezius is in accordance with the selective innervation by the fine cranial and main...... branch of the accessory nerve to the upper and lower subdivisions. These findings provide new insight into motor control characteristics, learning possibilities, and function of the clinically relevant human trapezius muscle....

Ex-vivo α-galactosylceramide activation of NKT cells in humans and macaques.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, Caroline S; Cameron, Garth; Godfrey, Dale I; Kent, Stephen J

2012-08-31

NKT cells are key mediators of antiviral and anticancer immunity. Experiments in mice have demonstrated that activation of NKT cells in vivo induces the expression of multiple effector molecules critical to successful immunity. Human clinical trials have shown similar responses, although in vivo activation of NKT cells in humans or primate models are far more limited in number and scope. Measuring ex vivo activation of NKT cells by the CD1d-restricted glycolipid ligand α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) through cytokine expression profiles is a useful marker of NKT cell function, but for reasons that are unclear, this approach does not appear to work as well in humans and non-human primate macaque models in comparison to mice. We performed a series of experiments on human and macaque (Macaca nemestrina) fresh whole blood samples to define optimal conditions to detect NKT cell cytokine (TNF, IFNγ, IL-2) and degranulation marker (CD107a) expression by flow cytometry. We found that conditions previously described for mouse splenocyte NKT cell activation were suboptimal on human or macaque blood NKT cells. In contrast, a 6h incubation with brefeldin A added for the last 4h, in a 96-well plate based assay, and using an α-GalCer concentration of 1 μg/ml were optimal methods to stimulate NKT cells in fresh blood from both humans and macaques. Unexpectedly, we noted that blood NKT cells from macaques infected with SIV were more readily activated by α-GalCer than NKT cells from uninfected macaques, suggesting that SIV infection may have primed the NKT cells. In conclusion, we describe optimized methods for the ex vivo antigen-specific activation of human and macaque blood NKT cells. These assays should be useful in monitoring NKT cells in disease and in immunotherapy studies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding Usability Work as a Human Activity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørgaard, Mie

Three core themes are explored in eight papers: Usability work as a human activity, usability practice and methods, and persuasiveness of evaluation results and feedback. We explore how usability work is much more than methods and work procedures, and argue that maturing our understanding...

A THREE-STEP SPATIAL-TEMPORAL-SEMANTIC CLUSTERING METHOD FOR HUMAN ACTIVITY PATTERN ANALYSIS

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W. Huang

2016-06-01

Full Text Available How people move in cities and what they do in various locations at different times form human activity patterns. Human activity pattern plays a key role in in urban planning, traffic forecasting, public health and safety, emergency response, friend recommendation, and so on. Therefore, scholars from different fields, such as social science, geography, transportation, physics and computer science, have made great efforts in modelling and analysing human activity patterns or human mobility patterns. One of the essential tasks in such studies is to find the locations or places where individuals stay to perform some kind of activities before further activity pattern analysis. In the era of Big Data, the emerging of social media along with wearable devices enables human activity data to be collected more easily and efficiently. Furthermore, the dimension of the accessible human activity data has been extended from two to three (space or space-time to four dimensions (space, time and semantics. More specifically, not only a location and time that people stay and spend are collected, but also what people “say” for in a location at a time can be obtained. The characteristics of these datasets shed new light on the analysis of human mobility, where some of new methodologies should be accordingly developed to handle them. Traditional methods such as neural networks, statistics and clustering have been applied to study human activity patterns using geosocial media data. Among them, clustering methods have been widely used to analyse spatiotemporal patterns. However, to our best knowledge, few of clustering algorithms are specifically developed for handling the datasets that contain spatial, temporal and semantic aspects all together. In this work, we propose a three-step human activity clustering method based on space, time and semantics to fill this gap. One-year Twitter data, posted in Toronto, Canada, is used to test the clustering-based method. The

Effect of a pH Gradient on the Protonation States of Cytochrome c Oxidase: A Continuum Electrostatics Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Magalhães, Pedro R; Oliveira, A Sofia F; Campos, Sara R R; Soares, Cláudio M; Baptista, António M

2017-02-27

Cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) couples the reduction of dioxygen to water with transmembrane proton pumping, which leads to the generation of an electrochemical gradient. In this study we analyze how one of the components of the electrochemical gradient, the difference in pH across the membrane, or ΔpH, influences the protonation states of residues in CcO. We modified our continuum electrostatics/Monte Carlo (CE/MC) method in order to include the ΔpH and applied it to the study of CcO, in what is, to our best knowledge, the first CE/MC study of CcO in the presence of a pH gradient. The inclusion of a transmembrane pH gradient allows for the identification of residues whose titration behavior depends on the pH on both sides of the membrane. Among the several residues with unusual titration profiles, three are well-known key residues in the proton transfer process of CcO: E286 I , Y288 I , and K362 I . All three residues have been previously identified as being critical for the catalytic or proton pumping functions of CcO. Our results suggest that when the pH gradient increases, these residues may be part of a regulatory mechanism to stem the proton flow.

Nuclear factor-kappaB activation correlates with better prognosis and Akt activation in human gastric cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Byung Lan; Lee, Hye Seung; Jung, Jieun; Cho, Sung Jin; Chung, Hee-Yong; Kim, Woo Ho; Jin, Young-Woo; Kim, Chong Soon; Nam, Seon Young

2005-04-01

Because the biological significance of constitutive nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation in human gastric cancer is unclear, we undertook this study to clarify the regulatory mechanism of NF-kappaB activation and its clinical significance. Immunohistochemistry for NF-kappaB/RelA was done on 290 human gastric carcinoma specimens placed on tissue array slides. The correlations between NF-kappaB activation and clinicopathologic features, prognosis, Akt activation, tumor suppressor gene expression, or Bcl-2 expression were analyzed. We also did luciferase reporter assay, Western blot analysis, and reverse transcription-PCR using the SNU-216 human gastric cancer cell line transduced with retroviral vectors containing constitutively active Akt or the NF-kappaB repressor mutant of IkappaBalpha. Nuclear expression of RelA was found in 18% of the gastric carcinomas and was higher in early-stage pathologic tumor-node-metastasis (P = 0.019). A negative correlation was observed between NF-kappaB activation and lymphatic invasion (P = 0.034) and a positive correlation between NF-kappaB activation and overall survival rate of gastric cancer patients (P = 0.0228). In addition, NF-kappaB activation was positively correlated with pAkt (P = 0.047), p16 (P = 0.004), adenomatous polyposis coli (P Smad4 (P = 0.002), and kangai 1 (P Akt. NF-kappaB activation was frequently observed in early-stage gastric carcinoma and was significantly correlated with better prognosis and Akt activation. These findings suggest that NF-kappaB activation is a valuable prognostic variable in gastric carcinoma.

Monitoring Human Activity through Portable Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Sebestyen

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Monitoring human activity may be useful for medical supervision and for prophylactic purposes. Mobile devices like intelligent phones or watches have multiple sensors and wireless communication capabilities which can be used for this purpose. This paper presents some integrated solutions for determining and continuous monitoring of a person’s state. Aspects taken into consideration are: activity detection and recognition based on acceleration sensors, wireless communication protocols for data acquisition, web monitoring, alerts generation and statistical processing of multiple sensorial data. As practical implementations two case studies are presented, one using an intelligent phone and another using a mixed signal processor integrated in a watch.

Plasticizers May Activate Human Hepatic Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor α Less Than That of a Mouse but May Activate Constitutive Androstane Receptor in Liver

Science.gov (United States)

Ito, Yuki; Nakamura, Toshiki; Yanagiba, Yukie; Ramdhan, Doni Hikmat; Yamagishi, Nozomi; Naito, Hisao; Kamijima, Michihiro; Gonzalez, Frank J.; Nakajima, Tamie

2012-01-01

Dibutylphthalate (DBP), di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), and di(2-ethylhexyl)adipate (DEHA) are used as plasticizers. Their metabolites activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) α, which may be related to their toxicities. However, species differences in the receptor functions between rodents and human make it difficult to precisely extrapolate their toxicity from animal studies to human. In this paper, we compared the species differences in the activation of mouse and human hepatic PPARα by these plasticizers using wild-type (mPPARα) and humanized PPARα (hPPARα) mice. At 12 weeks old, each genotyped male mouse was classified into three groups, and fed daily for 2 weeks per os with corn oil (vehicle control), 2.5 or 5.0 mmol/kg DBP (696, 1392 mg/kg), DEHP (977, 1953 mg/kg), and DEHA (926, 1853 mg/kg), respectively. Generally, hepatic PPARα of mPPARα mice was more strongly activated than that of hPPARα mice when several target genes involving β-oxidation of fatty acids were evaluated. Interestingly, all plasticizers also activated hepatic constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) more in hPPARα mice than in mPPARα mice. Taken together, these plasticizers activated mouse and human hepatic PPARα as well as CAR. The activation of PPARα was stronger in mPPARα mice than in hPPARα mice, while the opposite was true of CAR. PMID:22792086

Plasticizers May Activate Human Hepatic Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor α Less Than That of a Mouse but May Activate Constitutive Androstane Receptor in Liver

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuki Ito

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Dibutylphthalate (DBP, di(2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP, and di(2-ethylhexyladipate (DEHA are used as plasticizers. Their metabolites activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR α, which may be related to their toxicities. However, species differences in the receptor functions between rodents and human make it difficult to precisely extrapolate their toxicity from animal studies to human. In this paper, we compared the species differences in the activation of mouse and human hepatic PPARα by these plasticizers using wild-type (mPPARα and humanized PPARα (hPPARα mice. At 12 weeks old, each genotyped male mouse was classified into three groups, and fed daily for 2 weeks per os with corn oil (vehicle control, 2.5 or 5.0 mmol/kg DBP (696, 1392 mg/kg, DEHP (977, 1953 mg/kg, and DEHA (926, 1853 mg/kg, respectively. Generally, hepatic PPARα of mPPARα mice was more strongly activated than that of hPPARα mice when several target genes involving β-oxidation of fatty acids were evaluated. Interestingly, all plasticizers also activated hepatic constitutive androstane receptor (CAR more in hPPARα mice than in mPPARα mice. Taken together, these plasticizers activated mouse and human hepatic PPARα as well as CAR. The activation of PPARα was stronger in mPPARα mice than in hPPARα mice, while the opposite was true of CAR.

Mitochondrial dysfunction in lyssavirus-induced apoptosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Gholami, Alireza; Kassis, Raïd; Real, Eléonore; Delmas, Olivier; Guadagnini, Stéphanie; Larrous, Florence; Obach, Dorothée; Prevost, Marie-Christine; Jacob, Yves; Bourhy, Hervé

2008-05-01

Lyssaviruses are highly neurotropic viruses associated with neuronal apoptosis. Previous observations have indicated that the matrix proteins (M) of some lyssaviruses induce strong neuronal apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanism(s) involved in this phenomenon is still unknown. We show that for Mokola virus (MOK), a lyssavirus of low pathogenicity, the M (M-MOK) targets mitochondria, disrupts the mitochondrial morphology, and induces apoptosis. Our analysis of truncated M-MOK mutants suggests that the information required for efficient mitochondrial targeting and dysfunction, as well as caspase-9 activation and apoptosis, is held between residues 46 and 110 of M-MOK. We used a yeast two-hybrid approach, a coimmunoprecipitation assay, and confocal microscopy to demonstrate that M-MOK physically associates with the subunit I of the cytochrome c (cyt-c) oxidase (CcO) of the mitochondrial respiratory chain; this is in contrast to the M of the highly pathogenic Thailand lyssavirus (M-THA). M-MOK expression induces a significant decrease in CcO activity, which is not the case with M-THA. M-MOK mutations (K77R and N81E) resulting in a similar sequence to M-THA at positions 77 and 81 annul cyt-c release and apoptosis and restore CcO activity. As expected, the reverse mutations, R77K and E81N, introduced in M-THA induce a phenotype similar to that due to M-MOK. These features indicate a novel mechanism for energy depletion during lyssavirus-induced apoptosis.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Lyssavirus-Induced Apoptosis▿ †

Science.gov (United States)

Gholami, Alireza; Kassis, Raïd; Real, Eléonore; Delmas, Olivier; Guadagnini, Stéphanie; Larrous, Florence; Obach, Dorothée; Prevost, Marie-Christine; Jacob, Yves; Bourhy, Hervé

2008-01-01

Lyssaviruses are highly neurotropic viruses associated with neuronal apoptosis. Previous observations have indicated that the matrix proteins (M) of some lyssaviruses induce strong neuronal apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanism(s) involved in this phenomenon is still unknown. We show that for Mokola virus (MOK), a lyssavirus of low pathogenicity, the M (M-MOK) targets mitochondria, disrupts the mitochondrial morphology, and induces apoptosis. Our analysis of truncated M-MOK mutants suggests that the information required for efficient mitochondrial targeting and dysfunction, as well as caspase-9 activation and apoptosis, is held between residues 46 and 110 of M-MOK. We used a yeast two-hybrid approach, a coimmunoprecipitation assay, and confocal microscopy to demonstrate that M-MOK physically associates with the subunit I of the cytochrome c (cyt-c) oxidase (CcO) of the mitochondrial respiratory chain; this is in contrast to the M of the highly pathogenic Thailand lyssavirus (M-THA). M-MOK expression induces a significant decrease in CcO activity, which is not the case with M-THA. M-MOK mutations (K77R and N81E) resulting in a similar sequence to M-THA at positions 77 and 81 annul cyt-c release and apoptosis and restore CcO activity. As expected, the reverse mutations, R77K and E81N, introduced in M-THA induce a phenotype similar to that due to M-MOK. These features indicate a novel mechanism for energy depletion during lyssavirus-induced apoptosis. PMID:18321977

Aloe vera extract activity on human corneal cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Woźniak, Anna; Paduch, Roman

2012-02-01

Ocular diseases are currently an important problem in modern societies. Patients suffer from various ophthalmologic ailments namely, conjunctivitis, dry eye, dacryocystitis or degenerative diseases. Therefore, there is a need to introduce new treatment methods, including medicinal plants usage. Aloe vera [Aloe barbadensis Miller (Liliaceae)] possesses wound-healing properties and shows immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory or antioxidant activities. NR uptake, MTT, DPPH• reduction, Griess reaction, ELISA and rhodamine-phalloidin staining were used to test toxicity, antiproliferative activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) reduction, nitric oxide (NO) and cytokine level, and distribution of F-actin in cells, respectively. The present study analyzes the effect of Aloe vera extracts obtained with different solvents on in vitro culture of human 10.014 pRSV-T corneal cells. We found no toxicity of ethanol, ethyl acetate and heptane extracts of Aloe vera on human corneal cells. No ROS reducing activity by heptane extract and trace action by ethanol (only at high concentration 125 µg/ml) extract of Aloe vera was observed. Only ethyl acetate extract expressed distinct free radical scavenging effect. Plant extracts decreased NO production by human corneal cells as compared to untreated controls. The cytokine (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and IL-10) production decreased after the addition of Aloe vera extracts to the culture media. Aloe vera contains multiple pharmacologically active substances which are capable of modulating cellular phenotypes and functions. Aloe vera ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts may be used in eye drops to treat inflammations and other ailments of external parts of the eye such as the cornea.

Differential Antifungal Activity of Human and Cryptococcal Melanins with Structural Discrepancies

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Néstor Correa

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Melanin is a pigment found in all biological kingdoms, and plays a key role in protection against ultraviolet radiation, oxidizing agents, and ionizing radiation damage. Melanin exerts an antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and parasites. We demonstrated an antifungal activity of synthetic and human melanin against Candida sp. The members of the Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii species complexes are capsulated yeasts, which cause cryptococcosis. For both species melanin is an important virulence factor. To evaluate if cryptococcal and human melanins have antifungal activity against Cryptococcus species they both were assayed for their antifungal properties and physico-chemical characters. Melanin extracts from human hair and different strains of C. neoformans (n = 4 and C. gattii (n = 4 were investigated. The following minimum inhibitory concentrations were found for different melanins against C. neoformans and C. gattii were (average/range: 13.7/(7.8–15.6 and 19.5/(15.6–31.2 μg/mL, respectively, for human melanin; 273.4/(125–>500 and 367.2/(125.5–>500 μg/mL for C. neoformans melanin and 125/(62.5–250 and 156.2/(62–250 μg/mL for C. gattii melanin. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy we observed that human melanin showed a compact conformation and cryptococcal melanins exposed an amorphous conformation. Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR showed some differences in the signals related to C-C bonds of the aromatic ring of the melanin monomers. High Performance Liquid Chromatography established differences in the chromatograms of fungal melanins extracts in comparison with human and synthetic melanin, particularly in the retention time of the main compound of fungal melanin extracts and also in the presence of minor unknown compounds. On the other hand, MALDI-TOF-MS analysis showed slight differences in the spectra, specifically the presence of a minor intensity ion in synthetic and human melanin, as well as in some fungal

Setting the scene: Human activities, environmental impacts and governance arrangements in Antarctica

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tin, T.; Lamers, M.A.J.; Liggett, D.; Maher, P.T.; Hughes, K.A.

2014-01-01

The scope and intensity of human activity in the Antarctic region has changed considerably over the past 100 years, resulting in significant modifications to the Antarctic environment and its ecosystems, and to the institutional arrangements governing human activities. Since the nineteenth century,

Nitric Oxide Reduction by Carbon Monoxide over Supported Hexaruthenium Cluster Catalysts. 1. The Active Site Structure That Depends on Supporting Metal Oxide and Catalytic Reaction Conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Minato, Taketoshi; Izumi, Yasuo; Aika, Ken-Ichi; Ishiguro, Atsushi; Nakajima, Takayuki; Wakatsuki, Yasuo

2003-08-28

Ruthenium site structures supported on metal oxide surfaces were designed by reacting organometallic Ru cluster [Ru6C(CO)16](2-) or [Ru6(CO)18](2-) with various metal oxides, TiO2, Al2O3, MgO, and SiO2. The surface Ru site structure, formed under various catalyst preparation and reaction conditions, was investigated by the Ru K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). Samples of [Ru6C(CO)16](2-)/TiO2(anatase) and [Ru6C(CO)16](2-)/TiO2(rutile) were found to retain the original Ru6C framework when heated in the presence of NO (2.0 kPa) or NO (2.0 kPa) + CO (2.0 kPa) at 423 K, i.e., catalytic reaction conditions for NO decomposition. At 523 K, the Ru-Ru bonds of the Ru6C framework were cleaved by the attack of NO. In contrast, the Ru site became spontaneously dispersed over TiO2 (anatase). When being supported over TiO2 (mesoporous), MgO, or Al2O3, the Ru6C framework split into fragments in gaseous NO or NO + CO even at 423 K. The Ru6 framework of [Ru6(CO)18](2-) was found to break easily into smaller ensembles in the presence of NO and/or CO at 423 K on support. Taking into consideration the realistic environments in which these catalysts will be used, we also examined the effect of water and oxygen. When water was introduced to the sample [Ru6C(CO)16](2-)/TiO2(anatase) at 423 K, it did not have any effects on the stabilized Ru6C framework structure. In the presence of oxygen gas, however, the Ru hexanuclear structure decomposed into isolated Ru cations bound to surface oxygen atoms of TiO2 (anatase).

Context-dependent spatially periodic activity in the human entorhinal cortex.

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Nadasdy, Zoltan; Nguyen, T Peter; Török, Ágoston; Shen, Jason Y; Briggs, Deborah E; Modur, Pradeep N; Buchanan, Robert J

2017-04-25

The spatially periodic activity of grid cells in the entorhinal cortex (EC) of the rodent, primate, and human provides a coordinate system that, together with the hippocampus, informs an individual of its location relative to the environment and encodes the memory of that location. Among the most defining features of grid-cell activity are the 60° rotational symmetry of grids and preservation of grid scale across environments. Grid cells, however, do display a limited degree of adaptation to environments. It remains unclear if this level of environment invariance generalizes to human grid-cell analogs, where the relative contribution of visual input to the multimodal sensory input of the EC is significantly larger than in rodents. Patients diagnosed with nontractable epilepsy who were implanted with entorhinal cortical electrodes performing virtual navigation tasks to memorized locations enabled us to investigate associations between grid-like patterns and environment. Here, we report that the activity of human entorhinal cortical neurons exhibits adaptive scaling in grid period, grid orientation, and rotational symmetry in close association with changes in environment size, shape, and visual cues, suggesting scale invariance of the frequency, rather than the wavelength, of spatially periodic activity. Our results demonstrate that neurons in the human EC represent space with an enhanced flexibility relative to neurons in rodents because they are endowed with adaptive scalability and context dependency.

Elevated personal exposure to particulate matter from human activities in a residence.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferro, Andrea R; Kopperud, Royal J; Hildemann, Lynn M

2004-01-01

Continuous laser particle counters collocated with time-integrated filter samplers were used to measure personal, indoor, and outdoor particulate matter (PM) concentrations for a variety of prescribed human activities during a 5-day experimental period in a home in Redwood City, CA, USA. The mean daytime personal exposures to PM(2.5) and PM(5) during prescribed activities were 6 and 17 times, respectively, as high as the pre-activity indoor background concentration. Activities that resulted in the highest exposures of PM(2.5), PM(5), and PM(10) were those that disturbed dust reservoirs on furniture and textiles, such as dry dusting, folding clothes and blankets, and making a bed. The vigor of activity and type of flooring were also important factors for dust resuspension. Personal exposures to PM(2.5) and PM(5) were 1.4 and 1.6 times, respectively, as high as the indoor concentration as measured by a stationary monitor. The ratio of personal exposure to the indoor concentration was a function of both particle size and the distance of the human activity from the stationary indoor monitor. The results demonstrate that a wide variety of indoor human resuspension activities increase human exposure to PM and contribute to the "personal cloud" effect.

Incorporating twitter-based human activity information in spatial analysis of crashes in urban areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Jie; Liu, Pan; Yu, Hao; Xu, Chengcheng

2017-09-01

The primary objective of this study was to investigate how to incorporate human activity information in spatial analysis of crashes in urban areas using Twitter check-in data. This study used the data collected from the City of Los Angeles in the United States to illustrate the procedure. The following five types of data were collected: crash data, human activity data, traditional traffic exposure variables, road network attributes and social-demographic data. A web crawler by Python was developed to collect the venue type information from the Twitter check-in data automatically. The human activities were classified into seven categories by the obtained venue types. The collected data were aggregated into 896 Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ). Geographically weighted regression (GWR) models were developed to establish a relationship between the crash counts reported in a TAZ and various contributing factors. Comparative analyses were conducted to compare the performance of GWR models which considered traditional traffic exposure variables only, Twitter-based human activity variables only, and both traditional traffic exposure and Twitter-based human activity variables. The model specification results suggested that human activity variables significantly affected the crash counts in a TAZ. The results of comparative analyses suggested that the models which considered both traditional traffic exposure and human activity variables had the best goodness-of-fit in terms of the highest R 2 and lowest AICc values. The finding seems to confirm the benefits of incorporating human activity information in spatial analysis of crashes using Twitter check-in data. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The anti-papillomavirus activity of human and bovine lactoferricin.

Science.gov (United States)

Mistry, Nitesh; Drobni, Peter; Näslund, Jonas; Sunkari, Vivekananda Gupta; Jenssen, Håvard; Evander, Magnus

2007-09-01

Human papillomavirus (HPV) cause common warts, laryngeal papilloma and genital condylomata and is necessary for the development of cervical cancer. We have previously found that lactoferrin has antiviral activity against HPV-16 and others have demonstrated that lactoferricin, an N-terminal fragment of lactoferrin, has inhibitory activities against several viruses. Two cell lines and two virus types, HPV-5 and HPV-16, were used to study if lactoferrin and lactoferricin could inhibit HPV pseudovirus (PsV) infection. We demonstrated that bovine lactoferrin (bLf) and human lactoferrin (hLf) were both potent inhibitors of HPV-5 and -16 PsV infections. Among the four lactoferricin derivatives we analyzed, a 15 amino acid peptide from bovine lactoferricin (bLfcin) 17-31 was the most potent inhibitor of both HPV-5 and HPV-16 PsV infection. Among the other derivatives, the human lactoferricin (hLfcin) 1-49 showed some antiviral activity against HPV PsV infection while bLfcin 17-42 inhibited only HPV-5 PsV infection in one of the cell lines. When we studied initial attachment of HPV-16, only bLfcin 17-42 and hLfcin 1-49 had an antiviral effect. This is the first time that lactoferricin was demonstrated to have an inhibitory effect on HPV infection and the antiviral activity differed depending on size, charge and structures of the lactoferricin.

Feline and Canine Coronaviruses: Common Genetic and Pathobiological Features

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sophie Le Poder

2011-01-01

Full Text Available A new human coronavirus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS was identified in 2003, which raised concern about coronaviruses as agents of serious infectious disease. Nevertheless, coronaviruses have been known for about 50 years to be major agents of respiratory, enteric, or systemic infections of domestic and companion animals. Feline and canine coronaviruses are widespread among dog and cat populations, sometimes leading to the fatal diseases known as feline infectious peritonitis (FIP and pantropic canine coronavirus infection in cats and dogs, respectively. In this paper, different aspects of the genetics, host cell tropism, and pathogenesis of the feline and canine coronaviruses (FCoV and CCoV will be discussed, with a view to illustrating how study of FCoVs and CCoVs can improve our general understanding of the pathobiology of coronaviruses.

Social touch modulates endogenous μ-opioid system activity in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Nummenmaa, Lauri; Tuominen, Lauri; Dunbar, Robin; Hirvonen, Jussi; Manninen, Sandra; Arponen, Eveliina; Machin, Anna; Hari, Riitta; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Sams, Mikko

2016-09-01

In non-human primates, opioid-receptor blockade increases social grooming, and the endogenous opioid system has therefore been hypothesized to support maintenance of long-term relationships in humans as well. Here we tested whether social touch modulates opioidergic activation in humans using in vivo positron emission tomography (PET). Eighteen male participants underwent two PET scans with [11C]carfentanil, a ligand specific to μ-opioid receptors (MOR). During the social touch scan, the participants lay in the scanner while their partners caressed their bodies in a non-sexual fashion. In the baseline scan, participants lay alone in the scanner. Social touch triggered pleasurable sensations and increased MOR availability in the thalamus, striatum, and frontal, cingulate, and insular cortices. Modulation of activity of the opioid system by social touching might provide a neurochemical mechanism reinforcing social bonds between humans. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prediction of Human Activity by Discovering Temporal Sequence Patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Kang; Fu, Yun

2014-08-01

Early prediction of ongoing human activity has become more valuable in a large variety of time-critical applications. To build an effective representation for prediction, human activities can be characterized by a complex temporal composition of constituent simple actions and interacting objects. Different from early detection on short-duration simple actions, we propose a novel framework for long -duration complex activity prediction by discovering three key aspects of activity: Causality, Context-cue, and Predictability. The major contributions of our work include: (1) a general framework is proposed to systematically address the problem of complex activity prediction by mining temporal sequence patterns; (2) probabilistic suffix tree (PST) is introduced to model causal relationships between constituent actions, where both large and small order Markov dependencies between action units are captured; (3) the context-cue, especially interactive objects information, is modeled through sequential pattern mining (SPM), where a series of action and object co-occurrence are encoded as a complex symbolic sequence; (4) we also present a predictive accumulative function (PAF) to depict the predictability of each kind of activity. The effectiveness of our approach is evaluated on two experimental scenarios with two data sets for each: action-only prediction and context-aware prediction. Our method achieves superior performance for predicting global activity classes and local action units.

Redox-controlled backbone dynamics of human cytochrome c revealed by 15N NMR relaxation measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sakamoto, Koichi; Kamiya, Masakatsu; Uchida, Takeshi; Kawano, Keiichi; Ishimori, Koichiro

2010-01-01

Research highlights: → The dynamic parameters for the backbone dynamics in Cyt c were determined. → The backbone mobility of Cyt c is highly restricted due to the covalently bound heme. → The backbone mobility of Cyt c is more restricted upon the oxidation of the heme. → The redox-dependent dynamics are shown in the backbone of Cyt c. → The backbone dynamics of Cyt c would regulate the electron transfer from Cyt c. -- Abstract: Redox-controlled backbone dynamics in cytochrome c (Cyt c) were revealed by 2D 15 N NMR relaxation experiments. 15 N T 1 and T 2 values and 1 H- 15 N NOEs of uniformly 15 N-labeled reduced and oxidized Cyt c were measured, and the generalized order parameters (S 2 ), the effective correlation time for internal motion (τ e ), the 15 N exchange broadening contributions (R ex ) for each residue, and the overall correlation time (τ m ) were estimated by model-free dynamics formalism. These dynamic parameters clearly showed that the backbone dynamics of Cyt c are highly restricted due to the covalently bound heme that functions as the stable hydrophobic core. Upon oxidation of the heme iron in Cyt c, the average S 2 value was increased from 0.88 ± 0.01 to 0.92 ± 0.01, demonstrating that the mobility of the backbone is further restricted in the oxidized form. Such increases in the S 2 values were more prominent in the loop regions, including amino acid residues near the thioether bonds to the heme moiety and positively charged region around Lys87. Both of the regions are supposed to form the interaction site for cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) and the electron pathway from Cyt c to CcO. The redox-dependent mobility of the backbone in the interaction site for the electron transfer to CcO suggests an electron transfer mechanism regulated by the backbone dynamics in the Cyt c-CcO system.

Elastolytic activity of human blood monocytes characterized by a new monoclonal antibody against human leucocyte elastase. Relationship to rheumatoid arthritis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, H S; Christensen, L D

1990-01-01

The leucocyte elastase of human blood monocytes was investigated by applying a new monoclonal antibody which did not block the enzyme activity against elastin. In a fixed population of mononuclear cells (MNC) and using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), the human leucocyte elastase (HLE...

Robust, synergistic regulation of human gene expression using TALE activators.

Science.gov (United States)

Maeder, Morgan L; Linder, Samantha J; Reyon, Deepak; Angstman, James F; Fu, Yanfang; Sander, Jeffry D; Joung, J Keith

2013-03-01

Artificial activators designed using transcription activator-like effector (TALE) technology have broad utility, but previous studies suggest that these monomeric proteins often exhibit low activities. Here we demonstrate that TALE activators can robustly function individually or in synergistic combinations to increase expression of endogenous human genes over wide dynamic ranges. These findings will encourage applications of TALE activators for research and therapy, and guide design of monomeric TALE-based fusion proteins.

Infection of cats with atypical feline coronaviruses harbouring a truncated form of the canine type I non-structural ORF3 gene.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Poder, Sophie; Pham-Hung d'Alexandry d'Orangiani, Anne-Laure; Duarte, Lidia; Fournier, Annie; Horhogea, Cristina; Pinhas, Carine; Vabret, Astrid; Eloit, Marc

2013-12-01

Feline and canine coronaviruses (FCoV and CCoV, respectively) are common pathogens of cats and dogs sometimes leading to lethal infections named feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) and canine pantropic coronavirus infection. FCoV and CCoV are each subdivided into two serotypes, FCoV-I/II and CCoV-I/II. A phylogenetic relationship is evident between, on one hand, CCoV-I/FCoV-I, and on the other hand, CCoV-II/FCoV-II, suggesting that interspecies transmission can occur. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of coronavirus (CoV)-infected cats according to their contact with dogs and to genetically analyse the CoV strains infecting cats. From 2003 to 2009, we collected 88 faecal samples from healthy cats and 11 ascitic fluids from FIP cats. We investigated the possible contact with dog in the household and collected dogs samples if appropriate. Out of 99 cat samples, 26 were coronavirus positive, with six cats living with at least one dog, thus showing that contact with dogs does not appear as a predisposing factor for cats CoV infections. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of FCoV strains were conducted using partial N and S sequences. Six divergent strains were identified with the N gene clustering with CCoV-I whereas the 3' end of S was related to FCoV-I. Further analysis on those six samples was attempted by researching the presence of the ORF3 gene, the latter being peculiar to CCoV-I to date. We succeeded to amplify the ORF3 gene in five samples out of six. Thus, our data strongly suggest the circulation of atypical FCoV strains harbouring the CCoV-I ORF3 gene among cats. Moreover, the ORF3 genes recovered from the feline strains exhibited shared deletions, never described before, suggesting that these deletions could be critical in the adaptation of these strains to the feline host. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

3D Data Acquisition Platform for Human Activity Understanding

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-02

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: In this project, we incorporated motion capture devices, 3D vision sensors, and EMG sensors to cross validate...multimodality data acquisition, and address fundamental research problems of representation and invariant description of 3D data, human motion modeling and...applications of human activity analysis, and computational optimization of large-scale 3D data. The support for the acquisition of such research

COURAGE AND FEAR IN THE CONTEXT OF OPPOSITION OF HUMAN ACTIVITY AND INACTIVITY: EXISTENTIAL ASPECT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dmytro Yu. Snitko

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to analyse fear and courage in the history of philosophy in the context of opposi-tion of human activity and inactivity that may lead to a profound understanding of the essence, causes and existen-tial aspects of human activity and inactivity. The implementation of the objective assumes the solution of the follow-ing tasks: analysis of philosophical interpretation of fear and courage; investigation of the relationship of fear and courage with active and passive forms of human being; revelation of existential dialectic of human activity and inac-tivity through the opposition of fear and courage. Methodology. The application of phenomenological approach and other methods of existential philosophy enabled to discover the importance of fear and courage for human existence. Significant contribution to the importance of the investigation of the fear-courage opposition in the context of hu-man activity and inactivity was made by M. Heidegger who pointed to the main modes of human being - «authen-tic» and «inauthentic» in the context of human activity and passivity. The application of hermeneutic method made possible the reconstruction of the reflection of fear-courage opposition in the history of philosophy. Scientific nov-elty. For the first time the analysis of the fear-courage opposition in the context of human activity and inactivity was carried out. Due to the analysis the fundamental existential character of the fear and courage opposition and its es-sential relationship with active and passive forms of human being were justified. Conclusions. In the course of this research it was found out that fear is closely connected with passive modes of human being. If classical philosophy placed emphasis on courage and associated fear with human mind and conscious decision, non-classical philosophy of the XIX century and existentialism focused on existential and ontological character of fear, its fundamental mean

COURAGE AND FEAR IN THE CONTEXT OF OPPOSITION OF HUMAN ACTIVITY AND INACTIVITY: EXISTENTIAL ASPECT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dmytro Yu. Snitko

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to analyse fear and courage in the history of philosophy in the context of opposition of human activity and inactivity that may lead to a profound understanding of the essence, causes and existential aspects of human activity and inactivity. The implementation of the objective assumes the solution of the following tasks: analysis of philosophical interpretation of  fear and courage; investigation of the relationship of fear and courage with active and passive forms of human being; revelation of existential dialectic of human activity and inactivity through the opposition of  fear and courage. Methodology. The application of phenomenological approach and other methods of existential philosophy enabled to discover the importance of fear and courage for human existence. Significant contribution to the importance of the investigation of the fear-courage opposition in the context of human activity and inactivity was made by M. Heidegger who pointed to the main modes of human being - «authentic» and «inauthentic» in the context of human activity and passivity. The application of hermeneutic method made possible the reconstruction of the reflection of fear-courage opposition in the history of philosophy. Scientific novelty. For the first time the analysis of the  fear-courage opposition in the context of human activity and inactivity was carried out. Due to the analysis the  fundamental existential character of the fear and courage opposition and its essential relationship with active and passive forms of human being were justified. Conclusions. In the course of this research it was found out that fear is closely connected with passive modes of human being.  If classical philosophy placed emphasis on courage and associated fear with  human mind and conscious decision,  non-classical philosophy of the XIX century and existentialism focused on existential and ontological character of fear, its fundamental meaning

SRS-A leukotrienes decrease the activity of human respiratory cilia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bisgaard, H; Pedersen, M

1987-01-01

We have studied the effects of the slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis (SRS-A) constituents leukotrienes (LT) C4 and D4 on the ciliary activity of human respiratory cells. The ciliary beat frequency on human nasal cells harvested by cell scraping from the inferior turbinate was measured...

Human Activity Recognition Using Hierarchically-Mined Feature Constellations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oikonomopoulos, A.; Pantic, Maja

In this paper we address the problem of human activity modelling and recognition by means of a hierarchical representation of mined dense spatiotemporal features. At each level of the hierarchy, the proposed method selects feature constellations that are increasingly discriminative and

Dioxin-like activity of environmental compounds in human blood and environmental samples

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Manhai; Bonefeld-Jørgensen, Eva Cecilie

2012-01-01

and humans. We found that some pesticides, plasticizers and phytoestrogens can activate the AhR, and the combined effect of compounds with no or weak AhR potency cannot be ignored. The significant DL-activity in the wastewater effluent indicates the treatment is not sufficient to prevent contamination...... of surface waters with dioxins. Our results from human studies suggest that the serum DL-activity reflect the complex mixture of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Greenlandic Inuit had lower serum DL-activity level compared to Europeans, probably due to long distance from the dioxin sources and UV...

Dioxin-like activity in environmental and human samples from Greenland and Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Long, Manhai; Bonefeld-Jørgensen, Eva Cecilie

2012-01-01

and humans. We found that some pesticides, plasticizers and phytoestrogens can activate the AhR, and the combined effect of compounds with no or weak AhR potency cannot be ignored. The significant DL-activity in the wastewater effluent indicates the treatment is not sufficient to prevent contamination...... of surface waters with dioxins. Our results from human studies suggest that the serum DL-activity reflect the complex mixture of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Greenlandic Inuit had lower serum DL-activity level compared to Europeans, probably due to long distance from the dioxin sources and UV...

Albinism-causing mutations in recombinant human tyrosinase alter intrinsic enzymatic activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolinska, Monika B; Kovaleva, Elena; Backlund, Peter; Wingfield, Paul T; Brooks, Brian P; Sergeev, Yuri V

2014-01-01

Tyrosinase (TYR) catalyzes the rate-limiting, first step in melanin production and its gene (TYR) is mutated in many cases of oculocutaneous albinism (OCA1), an autosomal recessive cause of childhood blindness. Patients with reduced TYR activity are classified as OCA1B; some OCA1B mutations are temperature-sensitive. Therapeutic research for OCA1 has been hampered, in part, by the absence of purified, active, recombinant wild-type and mutant human enzymes. The intra-melanosomal domain of human tyrosinase (residues 19-469) and two OCA1B related temperature-sensitive mutants, R422Q and R422W were expressed in insect cells and produced in T. ni larvae. The short trans-membrane fragment was deleted to avoid potential protein insolubility, while preserving all other functional features of the enzymes. Purified tyrosinase was obtained with a yield of >1 mg per 10 g of larval biomass. The protein was a monomeric glycoenzyme with maximum enzyme activity at 37°C and neutral pH. The two purified mutants when compared to the wild-type protein were less active and temperature sensitive. These differences are associated with conformational perturbations in secondary structure. The intramelanosomal domains of recombinant wild-type and mutant human tyrosinases are soluble monomeric glycoproteins with activities which mirror their in vivo function. This advance allows for the structure - function analyses of different mutant TYR proteins and correlation with their corresponding human phenotypes; it also provides an important tool to discover drugs that may improve tyrosinase activity and treat OCA1.

Albinism-causing mutations in recombinant human tyrosinase alter intrinsic enzymatic activity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monika B Dolinska

Full Text Available Tyrosinase (TYR catalyzes the rate-limiting, first step in melanin production and its gene (TYR is mutated in many cases of oculocutaneous albinism (OCA1, an autosomal recessive cause of childhood blindness. Patients with reduced TYR activity are classified as OCA1B; some OCA1B mutations are temperature-sensitive. Therapeutic research for OCA1 has been hampered, in part, by the absence of purified, active, recombinant wild-type and mutant human enzymes.The intra-melanosomal domain of human tyrosinase (residues 19-469 and two OCA1B related temperature-sensitive mutants, R422Q and R422W were expressed in insect cells and produced in T. ni larvae. The short trans-membrane fragment was deleted to avoid potential protein insolubility, while preserving all other functional features of the enzymes. Purified tyrosinase was obtained with a yield of >1 mg per 10 g of larval biomass. The protein was a monomeric glycoenzyme with maximum enzyme activity at 37°C and neutral pH. The two purified mutants when compared to the wild-type protein were less active and temperature sensitive. These differences are associated with conformational perturbations in secondary structure.The intramelanosomal domains of recombinant wild-type and mutant human tyrosinases are soluble monomeric glycoproteins with activities which mirror their in vivo function. This advance allows for the structure - function analyses of different mutant TYR proteins and correlation with their corresponding human phenotypes; it also provides an important tool to discover drugs that may improve tyrosinase activity and treat OCA1.

Immediate-early gene region of human cytomegalovirus trans-activates the promoter of human immunodeficiency virus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davis, M.G.; Kenney, S.C.; Kamine, J.; Pagano, J.S.; Huang, E.S.

1987-01-01

Almost all homosexual patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome are also actively infected with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). The authors have hypothesized that an interaction between HCMV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the agent that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, may exist at a molecular level and contribute to the manifestations of HIV infection. In this report, they demonstrate that the immediate-early gene region of HCMV, in particular immediate-early region 2, trans-activates the expression of the bacterial gene chloramphenicol acetyltransferase that is fused to the HIV long terminal repeat and carried by plasmid pHIV-CAT. The HCMV immediate-early trans-activator increases the level of mRNA from the plamid pHIV-CAT. The sequences of HIV that are responsive to trans-activation by the HDMV immediate-early region are distinct from HIV sequences that are required for response to the HIV tat. The stimulation of HIV gene expression by HDMV gene functions could enhance the consequences of HIV infection in persons with previous or concurrent HCMV infection

Report: EPA Prepared to Implement Strategic Human Capital Management Activities But Challenges Remain

Science.gov (United States)

Report #2004-P-00024, September 20, 2004. EPA’s headquarters and regional offices are prepared to implement strategic human capital management activities, but an alignment of office-level activities to the Agency’s Strategy for Human Capital is lacking.

Application of activity theory to analysis of human-related accidents: Method and case studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoon, Young Sik; Ham, Dong-Han; Yoon, Wan Chul

2016-01-01

This study proposes a new approach to human-related accident analysis based on activity theory. Most of the existing methods seem to be insufficient for comprehensive analysis of human activity-related contextual aspects of accidents when investigating the causes of human errors. Additionally, they identify causal factors and their interrelationships with a weak theoretical basis. We argue that activity theory offers useful concepts and insights to supplement existing methods. The proposed approach gives holistic contextual backgrounds for understanding and diagnosing human-related accidents. It also helps identify and organise causal factors in a consistent, systematic way. Two case studies in Korean nuclear power plants are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) was also applied to the case studies. The results of using HFACS were then compared with those of using the proposed method. These case studies showed that the proposed approach could produce a meaningful set of human activity-related contextual factors, which cannot easily be obtained by using existing methods. It can be especially effective when analysts think it is important to diagnose accident situations with human activity-related contextual factors derived from a theoretically sound model and to identify accident-related contextual factors systematically. - Highlights: • This study proposes a new method for analysing human-related accidents. • The method was developed based on activity theory. • The concept of activity system model and contradiction was used in the method. • Two case studies in nuclear power plants are presented. • The method is helpful to consider causal factors systematically and comprehensively.

Immunosuppressive activity of human cord-blood lipoproteins

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Forte, T.M.; Davis, P.A.; Curtiss, L.K.

1985-01-01

It is now known that the role of plasma lipoproteins is multifunctional. More recently it has been shown that lipoproteins may regulate immune responses as well. Low-density lipoproteins carrying apolipoprotein B (apoB) are known to suppress phytohemagglutinin (PHA) activated lymphocytes by inhibiting DNA synthesis. More recently, an immunoregulatory role has been described for another apolipoprotein, apoE, which is found in low quantities in normal plasma. In these studies with human umbilical-cord blood the authors were intrigued by two factors: the low level of LDL and hence apoB, and the elevated quantity of apoE. This study examines the hypothesis that apoE may regulate lymphocyte function in the human fetus

Human temporal cortical single neuron activity during working memory maintenance.

Science.gov (United States)

Zamora, Leona; Corina, David; Ojemann, George

2016-06-01

The Working Memory model of human memory, first introduced by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), has been one of the most influential psychological constructs in cognitive psychology and human neuroscience. However the neuronal correlates of core components of this model have yet to be fully elucidated. Here we present data from two studies where human temporal cortical single neuron activity was recorded during tasks differentially affecting the maintenance component of verbal working memory. In Study One we vary the presence or absence of distracting items for the entire period of memory storage. In Study Two we vary the duration of storage so that distractors filled all, or only one-third of the time the memory was stored. Extracellular single neuron recordings were obtained from 36 subjects undergoing awake temporal lobe resections for epilepsy, 25 in Study one, 11 in Study two. Recordings were obtained from a total of 166 lateral temporal cortex neurons during performance of one of these two tasks, 86 study one, 80 study two. Significant changes in activity with distractor manipulation were present in 74 of these neurons (45%), 38 Study one, 36 Study two. In 48 (65%) of those there was increased activity during the period when distracting items were absent, 26 Study One, 22 Study Two. The magnitude of this increase was greater for Study One, 47.6%, than Study Two, 8.1%, paralleling the reduction in memory errors in the absence of distracters, for Study One of 70.3%, Study Two 26.3% These findings establish that human lateral temporal cortex is part of the neural system for working memory, with activity during maintenance of that memory that parallels performance, suggesting it represents active rehearsal. In 31 of these neurons (65%) this activity was an extension of that during working memory encoding that differed significantly from the neural processes recorded during overt and silent language tasks without a recent memory component, 17 Study one, 14 Study two

Human Temporal Cortical Single Neuron Activity During Working Memory Maintenance

Science.gov (United States)

Zamora, Leona; Corina, David; Ojemann, George

2016-01-01

The Working Memory model of human memory, first introduced by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), has been one of the most influential psychological constructs in cognitive psychology and human neuroscience. However the neuronal correlates of core components of this model have yet to be fully elucidated. Here we present data from two studies where human temporal cortical single neuron activity was recorded during tasks differentially affecting the maintenance component of verbal working memory. In Study One we vary the presence or absence of distracting items for the entire period of memory storage. In Study Two we vary the duration of storage so that distractors filled all, or only one-third of the time the memory was stored. Extracellular single neuron recordings were obtained from 36 subjects undergoing awake temporal lobe resections for epilepsy, 25 in Study one, 11 in Study two. Recordings were obtained from a total of 166 lateral temporal cortex neurons during performance of one of these two tasks, 86 study one, 80 study two. Significant changes in activity with distractor manipulation were present in 74 of these neurons (45%), 38 Study one, 36 Study two. In 48 (65%) of those there was increased activity during the period when distracting items were absent, 26 Study One, 22 Study Two. The magnitude of this increase was greater for Study One, 47.6%, than Study Two, 8.1%, paralleling the reduction in memory errors in the absence of distracters, for Study One of 70.3%, Study Two 26.3% These findings establish that human lateral temporal cortex is part of the neural system for working memory, with activity during maintenance of that memory that parallels performance, suggesting it represents active rehearsal. In 31 of these neurons (65%) this activity was an extension of that during working memory encoding that differed significantly from the neural processes recorded during overt and silent language tasks without a recent memory component, 17 Study one, 14 Study two

Telomere elongation in immortal human cells without detectable telomerase activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Bryan, T M; Englezou, A; Gupta, J; Bacchetti, S; Reddel, R R

1995-09-01

Immortalization of human cells is often associated with reactivation of telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein enzyme that adds TTAGGG repeats onto telomeres and compensates for their shortening. We examined whether telomerase activation is necessary for immortalization. All normal human fibroblasts tested were negative for telomerase activity. Thirteen out of 13 DNA tumor virus-transformed cell cultures were also negative in the pre-crisis (i.e. non-immortalized) stage. Of 35 immortalized cell lines, 20 had telomerase activity as expected, but 15 had no detectable telomerase. The 15 telomerase-negative immortalized cell lines all had very long and heterogeneous telomeres of up to 50 kb. Hybrids between telomerase-negative and telomerase-positive cells senesced. Two senescent hybrids demonstrated telomerase activity, indicating that activation of telomerase is not sufficient for immortalization. Some hybrid clones subsequently recommenced proliferation and became immortalized either with or without telomerase activity. Those without telomerase activity also had very long and heterogeneous telomeres. Taken together, these data suggest that the presence of lengthened or stabilized telomeres is necessary for immortalization, and that this may be achieved either by the reactivation of telomerase or by a novel and as yet unidentified mechanism.

Chloride transport in human fibroblasts is activated by hypotonic shock

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rugolo, M.; Mastocola, T.; Flamigni, A.; Lenaz, G. (Universita' di Bologna (Italy))

1989-05-15

Incubation of human skin fibroblasts in hypotonic media induced the activation of {sup 36}Cl- efflux which was roughly proportional to the decrease in the osmolality of the media. The efflux of {sup 36}Cl- was insensitive to DIDS plus furosemide and inhibited by addition of a Cl- channel blocker such as 5-nitro-2-(3-phenyl propylamino) benzoic acid (NPPB). We propose that a conductive pathway for Cl- transport, almost silent in isotonic conditions, is activated by exposing human fibroblasts to hypotonic shock, this conclusion being supported by evidence that also {sup 36}Cl- influx was enhanced by hypotonic medium.

Activation of ERK mitogen-activated protein kinase in human cells by the mycotoxin patulin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, T.-S.; Yu, F.-Y.; Su, C.-C.; Kan, J.-C.; Chung, C.-P.; Liu, B.-H.

2005-01-01

Patulin (PAT), a mycotoxin produced by certain species of Penicillium and Aspergillus, is often detectable in moldy fruits and their derivative products. PAT led to a concentration-dependent and time-dependent increase in phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) in human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. Exposure of HEK293 cells to concentrations above 5 μM PAT for 30 min induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation; activation of ERK1/2 was also observed after 24 h incubation with 0.05 μM of PAT. Treatment of human PBMCs for 30 min with 30 μM PAT dramatically increased the phosphorylated ERK1/2 levels. Both MEK1/2 inhibitors, U0126 and PD98059, suppressed ERK1/2 activation in either HEK293 or MDCK cells. In HEK293 cells, U0126-mediated inhibition of PAT-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation resulted in a significant decrease in levels of DNA damage, expressed as tail moment values, in the single cell gel electrophoresis assay. Conversely, U0126 did not affect cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase release, and the DNA synthesis rate in PAT-treated cultures. Exposure of HEK293 cells for 90 min to 15 μM PAT elevated the levels of early growth response gene-1 (egr-1) mRNA, but not of c-fos, fosB, and junB mRNAs. These results indicate that in human cells, PAT causes a rapid and persistent activation of ERK1/2 and this signaling pathway plays an important role in mediating PAT-induced DNA damage and egr-1 gene expression

A Hierarchical Representation for Human Activity Recognition with Noisy Labels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hu, N.; Englebienne, G.; Lou, Z.; Kröse, B.

2015-01-01

Human activity recognition is an essential task for robots to effectively and efficiently interact with the end users. Many machine learning approaches for activity recognition systems have been proposed recently. Most of these methods are built upon a strong assumption that the labels in the

Economic analysis and budget impact of clostridial collagenase ointment compared with medicinal honey for treatment of pressure ulcers in the US

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mearns ES

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Elizabeth S Mearns,1 Michael Liang,1 Brendan L Limone,1 Adrienne M Gilligan,1 Jeffrey D Miller,1 Kathleen D Schaum,2 Curtis R Waycaster2 1Truven Health Analytics, an IBM Company, Cambridge, MA, USA; 2Smith & Nephew, Inc., Fort Worth, TX, USA Objectives: Pressure ulcer (PU treatment poses significant clinical and economic challenges to health-care systems. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of enzymatic debridement with clostridial collagenase ointment (CCO compared with autolytic debridement with medicinal honey (MH for PU treatment from a US payer/Medicare perspective in the hospital outpatient department setting.Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis using a Markov model was developed using a 1-week cycle length across a 1-year time horizon. The three health states were inflammation/senescence, granulation/proliferation (ie, patients achieving 100% granulation, and epithelialization. Data sources included the US Wound Registry, Medicare fee schedules, and other published clinical and cost studies about PU treatment.Results: In the base case analysis over a 1-year time horizon, CCO was the economically dominant strategy (ie, simultaneously conferring greater benefit at less cost. Patients treated with CCO experienced 22.7 quality-adjusted life weeks (QALWs at a cost of $6,161 over 1 year, whereas MH patients experienced 21.9 QALWs at a cost of $7,149. Patients treated with CCO achieved 11.5 granulation weeks and 6.0 epithelization weeks compared with 10.6 and 4.4 weeks for MH, respectively. The number of clinic visits was 40.1 for CCO vs 43.4 for MH, and the number of debridements was 12.3 for CCO compared with 17.6 for MH. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses determined CCO dominant in 72% of 10,000 iterations and cost-effective in 91%, assuming a benchmark willingness-to-pay threshold of $50,000/quality-adjusted life year ($962/QALW. The budget impact analysis showed that for every 1% of patients

Does solar activity affect human happiness?

Science.gov (United States)

Kristoufek, Ladislav

2018-03-01

We investigate the direct influence of solar activity (represented by sunspot numbers) on human happiness (represented by the Twitter-based Happiness Index). We construct four models controlling for various statistical and dynamic effects of the analyzed series. The final model gives promising results. First, there is a statistically significant negative influence of solar activity on happiness which holds even after controlling for the other factors. Second, the final model, which is still rather simple, explains around 75% of variance of the Happiness Index. Third, our control variables contribute significantly as well: happiness is higher in no sunspots days, happiness is strongly persistent, there are strong intra-week cycles and happiness peaks during holidays. Our results strongly contribute to the topical literature and they provide evidence of unique utility of the online data.

Atividade microbiana do solo em sistemas agroflorestais, monoculturas, mata natural e área desmatada Soil microbial activity in agroforest, monocultures, natural forest and deforested area systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastião Lourenço de Assis Júnior

2003-02-01

Full Text Available Este trabalho foi desenvolvido na Unidade Agroflorestal da Companhia Mineira de Metais (CMM, em Vazante, Estado de Minas Gerais, com o objetivo de estudar a atividade microbiana em diferentes ecossistemas, como sistemas agroflorestais (SAFs, monoculturas, área desmatada e mata natural, utilizando os métodos da respirometria no laboratório e da medida não-instantânea da taxa de evolução de CO2 no campo. A atividade biológica apresentou valores acumulados das taxas de respiração do solo, aos 20 dias, de 3,56 a 6,03 meq C-CO2/100 g de solo no laboratório e de 165,16 a 559,37 mg CO2/m-2.h no campo, na área desmatada e na mata nativa, respectivamente. Em ambos os ensaios, a atividade foi maior na mata nativa e nas pastagens, tanto em monocultivo quanto em SAFs. A atividade microbiana foi maior em SAF com arroz e eucalipto do que em arroz em monocultivo, pelo método no campo.This research was developed in the Agroforestry Unit of the "Companhia Mineira de Metais (CMM", Vazante, Minas Gerais, Brazil, to study microbial activity in different ecosystems such as agroforests, monocultures, deforested areas and native forests using the method of respirometry under laboratory conditions and CO2 evaluation rate evolution under field conditions. Biological activity showed accumulated values of respiration rates at 20 days of 3.56 to 6.03 meq C-CO2/100 g of soil in the laboratory, and 165.16 to 559.37 mg CO2/m-2.h in the field, in deforested area and native forest, respectively. Activity was higher in native forest and pasture than in monoculture or agroforestry, in both experiments. Microbial activity was higher in agroforestry with rice and eucalypt than with rice in monoculture, under field conditions.

Guinea pig complement potently measures vibriocidal activity of human antibodies in response to cholera vaccines.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kyoung Whun; Jeong, Soyoung; Ahn, Ki Bum; Yang, Jae Seung; Yun, Cheol-Heui; Han, Seung Hyun

2017-12-01

The vibriocidal assay using guinea pig complement is widely used for the evaluation of immune responses to cholera vaccines in human clinical trials. However, it is unclear why guinea pig complement has been used over human complement in the measurement of vibriocidal activity of human sera and there have not been comparison studies for the use of guinea pig complement over those from other species. Therefore, we comparatively investigated the effects of complements derived from human, guinea pig, rabbit, and sheep on vibriocidal activity. Complements from guinea pig, rabbit, and human showed concentration-dependent vibriocidal activity in the presence of quality control serum antibodies. Of these complements, guinea pig complement was the most sensitive and effective over a wide concentration range. When the vibriocidal activity of complements was measured in the absence of serum antibodies, human, sheep, and guinea pig complements showed vibriocidal activity up to 40-fold, 20-fold, and 1-fold dilution, respectively. For human pre- and post-vaccination sera, the most potent vibriocidal activity was observed when guinea pig complement was used. In addition, the highest fold-increases between pre- and post- vaccinated sera were obtained with guinea pig complement. Furthermore, human complement contained a higher amount of V. cholerae- and its lipopolysaccharide-specific antibodies than guinea pig complement. Collectively, these results suggest that guinea pig complements are suitable for vibriocidal assays due to their high sensitivity and effectiveness to human sera.

Assessment of physical activity of the human body considering the thermodynamic system.

Science.gov (United States)

Hochstein, Stefan; Rauschenberger, Philipp; Weigand, Bernhard; Siebert, Tobias; Schmitt, Syn; Schlicht, Wolfgang; Převorovská, Světlana; Maršík, František

2016-01-01

Correctly dosed physical activity is the basis of a vital and healthy life, but the measurement of physical activity is certainly rather empirical resulting in limited individual and custom activity recommendations. Certainly, very accurate three-dimensional models of the cardiovascular system exist, however, requiring the numeric solution of the Navier-Stokes equations of the flow in blood vessels. These models are suitable for the research of cardiac diseases, but computationally very expensive. Direct measurements are expensive and often not applicable outside laboratories. This paper offers a new approach to assess physical activity using thermodynamical systems and its leading quantity of entropy production which is a compromise between computation time and precise prediction of pressure, volume, and flow variables in blood vessels. Based on a simplified (one-dimensional) model of the cardiovascular system of the human body, we develop and evaluate a setup calculating entropy production of the heart to determine the intensity of human physical activity in a more precise way than previous parameters, e.g. frequently used energy considerations. The knowledge resulting from the precise real-time physical activity provides the basis for an intelligent human-technology interaction allowing to steadily adjust the degree of physical activity according to the actual individual performance level and thus to improve training and activity recommendations.

Carbohydrate metabolism of lymphocytes: modified methodology and comparisons of diabetics with non-diabetics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glassman, A.B.; Bennett, C.E.

1980-01-01

Changes in the hexose monophosphate shunt (HMPS) and Krebs cycle activity during lymphocyte blast transformation are reported in 50 patients with diabetes mellitus and 50 non-diabetics. A modified technique using 12 X 75 mm sterile tubes and micropipette tips stuffed with filter paper was used. The filter paper, soaked with hyamine hydroxide, absorbed radioactively labeled CO 2 produced from [ 14 C]- labeled glucose incorporated by cells. [ 14 C]CO 2 from glucose labeled at the C-1 position measured the activity of the HMPS. [ 14 C]CO 2 from glucose labeled at the C-2 position measured the HMPS activity associated with the feedback of pentose sugars. [ 14 C]-labeled CO 2 from glucose labeled at the C-6 position was used to measure Krebs cycle activity. A statistically significant decrease in HMPS activity was found in diabetic cells exposed to the mitogens phytohemagglutinin-P (PHA-P), concanavalin-A (CON-A) and pokeweed mitogen (PWM) (P<0.01). This decrease in HMPS activity and its relation to lymphocyte blast transformation may be related to the increased incidence of infection known to occur in patients with diabetes mellitus. (Auth.)

Disturbance of copper homeostasis is a mechanism for homocysteine-induced vascular endothelial cell injury.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daoyin Dong

Full Text Available Elevation of serum homocysteine (Hcy levels is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Previous studies suggested that Hcy interferes with copper (Cu metabolism in vascular endothelial cells. The present study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that Hcy-induced disturbance of Cu homeostasis leads to endothelial cell injury. Exposure of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs to concentrations of Hcy at 0.01, 0.1 or 1 mM resulted in a concentration-dependent decrease in cell viability and an increase in necrotic cell death. Pretreatment of the cells with a final concentration of 5 µM Cu in cultures prevented the effects of Hcy. Hcy decreased intracellular Cu concentrations. HPLC-ICP-MS analysis revealed that Hcy caused alterations in the distribution of intracellular Cu; more Cu was redistributed to low molecular weight fractions. ESI-Q-TOF detected the formation of Cu-Hcy complexes. Hcy also decreased the protein levels of Cu chaperone COX17, which was accompanied by a decrease in the activity of cytochrome c oxidase (CCO and a collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential. These effects of Hcy were all preventable by Cu pretreatment. The study thus demonstrated that Hcy disturbs Cu homeostasis and limits the availability of Cu to critical molecules such as COX17 and CCO, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and endothelial cell injury.

Screening vaccine formulations for biological activity using fresh human whole blood.

Science.gov (United States)

Brookes, Roger H; Hakimi, Jalil; Ha, Yukyung; Aboutorabian, Sepideh; Ausar, Salvador F; Hasija, Manvi; Smith, Steven G; Todryk, Stephen M; Dockrell, Hazel M; Rahman, Nausheen

2014-01-01

Understanding the relevant biological activity of any pharmaceutical formulation destined for human use is crucial. For vaccine-based formulations, activity must reflect the expected immune response, while for non-vaccine therapeutic agents, such as monoclonal antibodies, a lack of immune response to the formulation is desired. During early formulation development, various biochemical and biophysical characteristics can be monitored in a high-throughput screening (HTS) format. However, it remains impractical and arguably unethical to screen samples in this way for immunological functionality in animal models. Furthermore, data for immunological functionality lag formulation design by months, making it cumbersome to relate back to formulations in real-time. It is also likely that animal testing may not accurately reflect the response in humans. For a more effective formulation screen, a human whole blood (hWB) approach can be used to assess immunological functionality. The functional activity relates directly to the human immune response to a complete formulation (adjuvant/antigen) and includes adjuvant response, antigen response, adjuvant-modulated antigen response, stability, and potentially safety. The following commentary discusses the hWB approach as a valuable new tool to de-risk manufacture, formulation design, and clinical progression.

Chromosome abnormalities and the genetics of congenital corneal opacification.

Science.gov (United States)

Mataftsi, A; Islam, L; Kelberman, D; Sowden, J C; Nischal, K K

2011-01-01

Congenital corneal opacification (CCO) encompasses a broad spectrum of disorders that have different etiologies, including genetic and environmental. Terminology used in clinical phenotyping is commonly not specific enough to describe separate entities, for example both the terms Peters anomaly and sclerocornea have been ascribed to a clinical picture of total CCO, without investigating the presence or absence of iridocorneal adhesions. This is not only confusing but also unhelpful in determining valid genotype-phenotype correlations, and thereby revealing clues for pathogenesis. We undertook a systematic review of the literature focusing on CCO as part of anterior segment developmental anomalies (ASDA), and analyzed its association specifically with chromosomal abnormalities. Genes previously identified as being associated with CCO are also summarized. All reports were critically appraised to classify phenotypes according to described features, rather than the given diagnosis. Some interesting associations were found, and are discussed.

Statistics and risk philosophy in human activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Failla, L.

1983-01-01

Two leading interpretations of the use of statistics exist, the first one considering statistics as a physical law regulating the phenomena studied, and the other considering statistics as a method allowing to achieve exhaustive knowledge of the phenomena. The Author chooses the second theory, applies this concept of statistics to the risk involved in human activities and discusses the different kinds of risk in this field. The Author distinguishes between the risk that can be eliminated or at least reduced, and the risk inherent in the activity itself, that can never be completely eliminated -unless the activity is suppressed-; yet, also this kind of risk can be kept under control. Furthermore, she distinguishes between risks that can or cannot be foreseen. The Author supports the theory according to which the risk foreseen must be prevented through up-to-date techniques: this should be done coherently with the aim of the activity but independently of the economic cost. The theory considering risk probability as a physical law is mainly based on events happened in the past: it uses the occurrence probability as a law. This theory accepts the statistical risk and estimates its costs, including the ''human cost''. The Author examines the different statistical possibilities to study this specific phenomenon: so, the possibility to avoid the risks may arise along with -last but not least- the opportunity to eliminate or reduce the damage connected. On the contrary, statistics used as a physical law implies the acceptable of a given amount of risk compared with the cost of improving the technical conditions required to eliminate damages. In the end, a practical example of this theory is described

Activation of human herpesvirus replication by apoptosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Alka; Remick, Jill; Zeichner, Steven L

2013-10-01

A central feature of herpesvirus biology is the ability of herpesviruses to remain latent within host cells. Classically, exposure to inducing agents, like activating cytokines or phorbol esters that stimulate host cell signal transduction events, and epigenetic agents (e.g., butyrate) was thought to end latency. We recently showed that Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV, or human herpesvirus-8 [HHV-8]) has another, alternative emergency escape replication pathway that is triggered when KSHV's host cell undergoes apoptosis, characterized by the lack of a requirement for the replication and transcription activator (RTA) protein, accelerated late gene kinetics, and production of virus with decreased infectivity. Caspase-3 is necessary and sufficient to initiate the alternative replication program. HSV-1 was also recently shown to initiate replication in response to host cell apoptosis. These observations suggested that an alternative apoptosis-triggered replication program might be a general feature of herpesvirus biology and that apoptosis-initiated herpesvirus replication may have clinical implications, particularly for herpesviruses that almost universally infect humans. To explore whether an alternative apoptosis-initiated replication program is a common feature of herpesvirus biology, we studied cell lines latently infected with Epstein-Barr virus/HHV-4, HHV-6A, HHV-6B, HHV-7, and KSHV. We found that apoptosis triggers replication for each HHV studied, with caspase-3 being necessary and sufficient for HHV replication. An alternative apoptosis-initiated replication program appears to be a common feature of HHV biology. We also found that commonly used cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents activate HHV replication, which suggests that treatments that promote apoptosis may lead to activation of latent herpesviruses, with potential clinical significance.

Transposable element activity, genome regulation and human health.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lu; Jordan, I King

2018-03-02

A convergence of novel genome analysis technologies is enabling population genomic studies of human transposable elements (TEs). Population surveys of human genome sequences have uncovered thousands of individual TE insertions that segregate as common genetic variants, i.e. TE polymorphisms. These recent TE insertions provide an important source of naturally occurring human genetic variation. Investigators are beginning to leverage population genomic data sets to execute genome-scale association studies for assessing the phenotypic impact of human TE polymorphisms. For example, the expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analytical paradigm has recently been used to uncover hundreds of associations between human TE insertion variants and gene expression levels. These include population-specific gene regulatory effects as well as coordinated changes to gene regulatory networks. In addition, analyses of linkage disequilibrium patterns with previously characterized genome-wide association study (GWAS) trait variants have uncovered TE insertion polymorphisms that are likely causal variants for a variety of common complex diseases. Gene regulatory mechanisms that underlie specific disease phenotypes have been proposed for a number of these trait associated TE polymorphisms. These new population genomic approaches hold great promise for understanding how ongoing TE activity contributes to functionally relevant genetic variation within and between human populations. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

First forensic records of termite activity on non-fossilized human bones in Brazil

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R. A. Queiroz

Full Text Available Abstract The aim of this study was to describe the first records of termite activity on non-fossilized human bones in Brazil. The cases reported in this study resulted from forensic analysis of six human skeletons found in northeastern Brazil between 2012 and 2014. Traces of tunnels and nests commonly produced by termites were found on several human bone surfaces as well as the specimens and characteristic signs of osteophagic activity. In four cases, the species were identified: Amitermes amifer Silvestri, 1901, Nasutitermes corniger (Motschulsky, 1855 (on two skeletons, and Microcerotermes indistinctus Mathews, 1977. In two other cases, the activity of termites on bone surfaces was evidenced by remains of nests and tunnels produced by these insects. At least in the samples of human remains available for this report, the number of termites collected was greater on bones found during autumn, the rainy season in the Northeast of Brazil. The human bones examined showed termites like insects with lots of strength at bone degradation, capable of continuing the process of decomposition of human remains even in completely skeletonized bodies.

Activities of IAEA related to human interface in man-machine system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishiwaki, Yasushi

1988-01-01

The present paper outlines some activities of IAEA related to human interface in man-machine systems. It has been recognized for quite some time that in large and complex man-machine interactive systems human errors can contribute substantially to failures of these systems, and that the improvement in the human interface in man-machine systems is essential for the safety of the plant. Many important surveys have been made in some member countries. These studies and operational experience have shown that it is possible to substantially reduce this adverse impact of human errors in nuclear power plant operations by the application of human factors technology. This technology. This technology includes: (1) selection of people with the requisite skills and knowledge and providing them with job-relevant training, (2) maintenance of the necessary job qualifications for each person in the plant, (3) design of man-machine interfaces which are fully compatible with the capabilities and limitations of the people in the system, and (4) design of job operations, including written materials, to facilitate required quality of human performance. A review is made of education/training, operator support systems, human error data collection, analysis of safety significant events and future activities. (Nogami, K.)

A Review on Human Activity Recognition Using Vision-Based Method.

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Zhang, Shugang; Wei, Zhiqiang; Nie, Jie; Huang, Lei; Wang, Shuang; Li, Zhen

2017-01-01

Human activity recognition (HAR) aims to recognize activities from a series of observations on the actions of subjects and the environmental conditions. The vision-based HAR research is the basis of many applications including video surveillance, health care, and human-computer interaction (HCI). This review highlights the advances of state-of-the-art activity recognition approaches, especially for the activity representation and classification methods. For the representation methods, we sort out a chronological research trajectory from global representations to local representations, and recent depth-based representations. For the classification methods, we conform to the categorization of template-based methods, discriminative models, and generative models and review several prevalent methods. Next, representative and available datasets are introduced. Aiming to provide an overview of those methods and a convenient way of comparing them, we classify existing literatures with a detailed taxonomy including representation and classification methods, as well as the datasets they used. Finally, we investigate the directions for future research.

Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition Using Body-Worn Sensors

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Fernando Moya Rueda

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Human activity recognition (HAR is a classification task for recognizing human movements. Methods of HAR are of great interest as they have become tools for measuring occurrences and durations of human actions, which are the basis of smart assistive technologies and manual processes analysis. Recently, deep neural networks have been deployed for HAR in the context of activities of daily living using multichannel time-series. These time-series are acquired from body-worn devices, which are composed of different types of sensors. The deep architectures process these measurements for finding basic and complex features in human corporal movements, and for classifying them into a set of human actions. As the devices are worn at different parts of the human body, we propose a novel deep neural network for HAR. This network handles sequence measurements from different body-worn devices separately. An evaluation of the architecture is performed on three datasets, the Oportunity, Pamap2, and an industrial dataset, outperforming the state-of-the-art. In addition, different network configurations will also be evaluated. We find that applying convolutions per sensor channel and per body-worn device improves the capabilities of convolutional neural network (CNNs.

Physical Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors

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Ferhat Attal

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a review of different classification techniques used to recognize human activities from wearable inertial sensor data. Three inertial sensor units were used in this study and were worn by healthy subjects at key points of upper/lower body limbs (chest, right thigh and left ankle. Three main steps describe the activity recognition process: sensors’ placement, data pre-processing and data classification. Four supervised classification techniques namely, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN, Support Vector Machines (SVM, Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM, and Random Forest (RF as well as three unsupervised classification techniques namely, k-Means, Gaussian mixture models (GMM and Hidden Markov Model (HMM, are compared in terms of correct classification rate, F-measure, recall, precision, and specificity. Raw data and extracted features are used separately as inputs of each classifier. The feature selection is performed using a wrapper approach based on the RF algorithm. Based on our experiments, the results obtained show that the k-NN classifier provides the best performance compared to other supervised classification algorithms, whereas the HMM classifier is the one that gives the best results among unsupervised classification algorithms. This comparison highlights which approach gives better performance in both supervised and unsupervised contexts. It should be noted that the obtained results are limited to the context of this study, which concerns the classification of the main daily living human activities using three wearable accelerometers placed at the chest, right shank and left ankle of the subject.

Physical Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors.

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Attal, Ferhat; Mohammed, Samer; Dedabrishvili, Mariam; Chamroukhi, Faicel; Oukhellou, Latifa; Amirat, Yacine

2015-12-11

This paper presents a review of different classification techniques used to recognize human activities from wearable inertial sensor data. Three inertial sensor units were used in this study and were worn by healthy subjects at key points of upper/lower body limbs (chest, right thigh and left ankle). Three main steps describe the activity recognition process: sensors' placement, data pre-processing and data classification. Four supervised classification techniques namely, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM), and Random Forest (RF) as well as three unsupervised classification techniques namely, k-Means, Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM), are compared in terms of correct classification rate, F-measure, recall, precision, and specificity. Raw data and extracted features are used separately as inputs of each classifier. The feature selection is performed using a wrapper approach based on the RF algorithm. Based on our experiments, the results obtained show that the k-NN classifier provides the best performance compared to other supervised classification algorithms, whereas the HMM classifier is the one that gives the best results among unsupervised classification algorithms. This comparison highlights which approach gives better performance in both supervised and unsupervised contexts. It should be noted that the obtained results are limited to the context of this study, which concerns the classification of the main daily living human activities using three wearable accelerometers placed at the chest, right shank and left ankle of the subject.

Training Classifiers with Shadow Features for Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Simon; Song, Wei; Cho, Kyungeun; Wong, Raymond; Wong, Kelvin K L

2017-02-27

In this paper, a novel training/testing process for building/using a classification model based on human activity recognition (HAR) is proposed. Traditionally, HAR has been accomplished by a classifier that learns the activities of a person by training with skeletal data obtained from a motion sensor, such as Microsoft Kinect. These skeletal data are the spatial coordinates (x, y, z) of different parts of the human body. The numeric information forms time series, temporal records of movement sequences that can be used for training a classifier. In addition to the spatial features that describe current positions in the skeletal data, new features called 'shadow features' are used to improve the supervised learning efficacy of the classifier. Shadow features are inferred from the dynamics of body movements, and thereby modelling the underlying momentum of the performed activities. They provide extra dimensions of information for characterising activities in the classification process, and thereby significantly improve the classification accuracy. Two cases of HAR are tested using a classification model trained with shadow features: one is by using wearable sensor and the other is by a Kinect-based remote sensor. Our experiments can demonstrate the advantages of the new method, which will have an impact on human activity detection research.

High Accuracy Human Activity Recognition Based on Sparse Locality Preserving Projections.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Xiangbin; Qiu, Huiling

2016-01-01

Human activity recognition(HAR) from the temporal streams of sensory data has been applied to many fields, such as healthcare services, intelligent environments and cyber security. However, the classification accuracy of most existed methods is not enough in some applications, especially for healthcare services. In order to improving accuracy, it is necessary to develop a novel method which will take full account of the intrinsic sequential characteristics for time-series sensory data. Moreover, each human activity may has correlated feature relationship at different levels. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a three-stage continuous hidden Markov model (TSCHMM) approach to recognize human activities. The proposed method contains coarse, fine and accurate classification. The feature reduction is an important step in classification processing. In this paper, sparse locality preserving projections (SpLPP) is exploited to determine the optimal feature subsets for accurate classification of the stationary-activity data. It can extract more discriminative activities features from the sensor data compared with locality preserving projections. Furthermore, all of the gyro-based features are used for accurate classification of the moving data. Compared with other methods, our method uses significantly less number of features, and the over-all accuracy has been obviously improved.

Training Classifiers with Shadow Features for Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Fong

2017-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel training/testing process for building/using a classification model based on human activity recognition (HAR is proposed. Traditionally, HAR has been accomplished by a classifier that learns the activities of a person by training with skeletal data obtained from a motion sensor, such as Microsoft Kinect. These skeletal data are the spatial coordinates (x, y, z of different parts of the human body. The numeric information forms time series, temporal records of movement sequences that can be used for training a classifier. In addition to the spatial features that describe current positions in the skeletal data, new features called ‘shadow features’ are used to improve the supervised learning efficacy of the classifier. Shadow features are inferred from the dynamics of body movements, and thereby modelling the underlying momentum of the performed activities. They provide extra dimensions of information for characterising activities in the classification process, and thereby significantly improve the classification accuracy. Two cases of HAR are tested using a classification model trained with shadow features: one is by using wearable sensor and the other is by a Kinect-based remote sensor. Our experiments can demonstrate the advantages of the new method, which will have an impact on human activity detection research.

High Accuracy Human Activity Recognition Based on Sparse Locality Preserving Projections.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiangbin Zhu

Full Text Available Human activity recognition(HAR from the temporal streams of sensory data has been applied to many fields, such as healthcare services, intelligent environments and cyber security. However, the classification accuracy of most existed methods is not enough in some applications, especially for healthcare services. In order to improving accuracy, it is necessary to develop a novel method which will take full account of the intrinsic sequential characteristics for time-series sensory data. Moreover, each human activity may has correlated feature relationship at different levels. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a three-stage continuous hidden Markov model (TSCHMM approach to recognize human activities. The proposed method contains coarse, fine and accurate classification. The feature reduction is an important step in classification processing. In this paper, sparse locality preserving projections (SpLPP is exploited to determine the optimal feature subsets for accurate classification of the stationary-activity data. It can extract more discriminative activities features from the sensor data compared with locality preserving projections. Furthermore, all of the gyro-based features are used for accurate classification of the moving data. Compared with other methods, our method uses significantly less number of features, and the over-all accuracy has been obviously improved.

Application of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model for occupational therapy research.

Science.gov (United States)

Giesbrecht, Ed

2013-08-01

Theoretical models provide a framework for describing practice and integrating evidence into systematic research. There are few models that relate specifically to the provision of assistive technology in occupational therapy practice. The Human Activity Assistive Technology model is an enduring example that has continued to develop by integrating a social model of disability, concepts from occupational therapy theory and principles of assistive technology adoption and abandonment. This study first describes the core concepts of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model and reviews its development over three successive published versions. A review of the research literature reflects application of the model to clinical practice, study design, outcome measure selection and interpretation of results, particularly among occupational therapists. An evaluative framework is used to critique the adequacy of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model for practice and research, exploring attributes of clarity, simplicity, generality, accessibility and importance. Finally, recommendations are proposed for continued development of the model and research applications. Most of the existing research literature employs the Human Activity Assistive Technology model for background and study design; there is emerging evidence to support the core concepts as predictive factors. Although the concepts are generally simple, clear and applicable to occupational therapy practice and research, evolving terminology and outcomes become more complex with the conflation of integrated theories. The development of the Human Activity Assistive Technology model offers enhanced access and application for occupational therapists, but poses challenges to clarity among concepts. Suggestions are made for further development and applications of the model. © 2013 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Neutrophil activation during acetaminophen hepatotoxicity and repair in mice and humans

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Williams, C. David; Bajt, Mary Lynn [Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS (United States); Sharpe, Matthew R. [Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, KS (United States); McGill, Mitchell R. [Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS (United States); Farhood, Anwar [Department of Pathology, St. David' s North Austin Medical Center, Austin, TX 78756 (United States); Jaeschke, Hartmut, E-mail: hjaeschke@kumc.edu [Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS (United States)

2014-03-01

Following acetaminophen (APAP) overdose there is an inflammatory response triggered by the release of cellular contents from necrotic hepatocytes into the systemic circulation which initiates the recruitment of neutrophils into the liver. It has been demonstrated that neutrophils do not contribute to APAP-induced liver injury, but their role and the role of NADPH oxidase in injury resolution are controversial. C57BL/6 mice were subjected to APAP overdose and neutrophil activation status was determined during liver injury and liver regeneration. Additionally, human APAP overdose patients (ALT: > 800 U/L) had serial blood draws during the injury and recovery phases for the determination of neutrophil activation. Neutrophils in the peripheral blood of mice showed an increasing activation status (CD11b expression and ROS priming) during and after the peak of injury but returned to baseline levels prior to complete injury resolution. Hepatic sequestered neutrophils showed an increased and sustained CD11b expression, but no ROS priming was observed. Confirming that NADPH oxidase is not critical to injury resolution, gp91{sup phox}−/− mice following APAP overdose displayed no alteration in injury resolution. Peripheral blood from APAP overdose patients also showed increased neutrophil activation status after the peak of liver injury and remained elevated until discharge from the hospital. In mice and humans, markers of activation, like ROS priming, were increased and sustained well after active liver injury had subsided. The similar findings between surviving patients and mice indicate that neutrophil activation may be a critical event for host defense or injury resolution following APAP overdose, but not a contributing factor to APAP-induced injury. - Highlights: • Neutrophil (PMN) function increases during liver repair after acetaminophen overdose. • Liver repair after acetaminophen (APAP)-overdose is not dependent on NADPH oxidase. • Human PMNs do not appear

Acute activation, desensitization and smoldering activation of human acetylcholine receptors.

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Barbara G Campling

Full Text Available The behavioral effects of nicotine and other nicotinic agonists are mediated by AChRs in the brain. The relative contribution of acute activation versus chronic desensitization of AChRs is unknown. Sustained "smoldering activation" occurs over a range of agonist concentrations at which activated and desensitized AChRs are present in equilibrium. We used a fluorescent dye sensitive to changes in membrane potential to examine the effects of acute activation and chronic desensitization by nicotinic AChR agonists on cell lines expressing human α4β2, α3β4 and α7 AChRs. We examined the effects of acute and prolonged application of nicotine and the partial agonists varenicline, cytisine and sazetidine-A on these AChRs. The range of concentrations over which nicotine causes smoldering activation of α4β2 AChRs was centered at 0.13 µM, a level found in smokers. However, nicotine produced smoldering activation of α3β4 and α7 AChRs at concentrations well above levels found in smokers. The α4β2 expressing cell line contains a mixture of two stoichiometries, namely (α4β22β2 and (α4β22α4. The (α4β22β2 stoichiometry is more sensitive to activation by nicotine. Sazetidine-A activates and desensitizes only this stoichiometry. Varenicline, cytisine and sazetidine-A were partial agonists on this mixture of α4β2 AChRs, but full agonists on α3β4 and α7 AChRs. It has been reported that cytisine and varenicline are most efficacious on the (α4β22α4 stoichiometry. In this study, we distinguish the dual effects of activation and desensitization of AChRs by these nicotinic agonists and define the range of concentrations over which smoldering activation can be sustained.

The impact of human activities in the Wulan Delta Estuary, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Fadlillah, L. N.; Sunarto; Widyastuti, M.; Marfai, M. A.

2018-04-01

The increasing of human population in the watershed and the coastal area and the need of life exert pressure in the delta that provides various resources. Wulan Delta is one of active Delta in Central Java, Indonesia. It has been experienced multiple pressures because of natural factors and human factors. In order to provide the scientific solution and to analyze the impact of human intervention in delta, we collected several pieces of evidence based on secondary data and primary data. The secondary data is water quality data on sites 6 and 7, meanwhile the secondary data is the water quality data in site 1 to 5. This paper present a review and problems identification in Wulan Delta, based on hydrological condition, land use, and human activities in the delta. Meanwhile, the human intervention in the land which is land use exchange leads to several problems such as the land use changes, high sediment load, and water degradation. Almost 80% of Delta has been transformed into the fish pond by local communities.

Mapping Cumulative Impacts of Human Activities on Marine Ecosystems

OpenAIRE

, Seaplan

2018-01-01

Given the diversity of human uses and natural resources that converge in coastal waters, the potential independent and cumulative impacts of those uses on marine ecosystems are important to consider during ocean planning. This study was designed to support the development and implementation of the 2009 Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan. Its goal was to estimate and visualize the cumulative impacts of human activities on coastal and marine ecosystems in the state and federal waters off of Ma...

Alternative pathways of thromboplastin-dependent activation of human factor X in plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marlar, R.A.; Griffin, J.H.

1981-01-01

To determine the interrelationships of the major coagulation pathways, the activation of 3H-labeled factor X in normal and various deficient human plasmas was evaluated when clotting was triggered by dilute rabbit or human thromboplastin. Various dilutions of thromboplastin and calcium were added to plasma samples containing 3H-factor X, and the time course of factor X activation was determined. At a 1/250 dilution of rabbit brain thromboplastin, the rate of factor X activation in plasmas deficient in factor VIII or factor IX was 10% of the activation rate of normal plasma or of factor XI deficient plasma. Reconstitution of the deficient plasmas with factors VIII or IX, respectively, reconstituted normal factor X activation. Similar results were obtained when various dilutions of human thromboplastin replaced the rabbit thromboplastin. From these plasma experiments, it is inferred that the dilute thromboplastin-dependent activation of factor X requires factors VII, IX, and VIII. An alternative extrinsic pathway that involves factors IX and VIII may be the physiologic extrinsic pathway and hence help to explain the consistent clinical observations of bleeding diatheses in patients deficient in factors IX or VIII

Timing of nurses activities: human resources management

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Hamid Hosein Poor

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Costs of human resources include a high percentage of hospital’s costs; therefore, determination of number of real and optimal employees needed for organizations is very important. In the meantime, the optimal organization of nurses, as the biggest human resource in health care organizations, is of great importance. The present study aimed to assess the distribution of nurses’ activities in shifts and the results of productivity in human resources management in Imam Khomeini hospital in Shirvan. The present cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016. All nurses, working in three shifts of morning, afternoon, and evening in emergency unit and general units of Imam Khomeini hospital, Shirvan, were enrolled into the study through census methods. The instrument, used in this study, was the checklist of timing activities and patients’ satisfaction from nurses. The statistical software SPSS was used for analysis. Mean age of employees in these two units/wards was 31 years and mean duration of work experience was 5.24 years, The difference was significant between the two wards. necessity of the work, especially in emergency unit, are issues that need more assessment and need to be adjusted. Given the high volume of non-care matters of nursing staff, including writing services, including completing paper records and work with HIS (Hospital Information System, which has been emphasized in several studies, new definition of service and use of artificial intelligence with high efficacy is proposed. The status of the available equipment, availability, and efficiency of digital equipment and hoteling state of wards and hospitals also play an important factor in the distribution of time of nursing care activities. Employment of nurses to perform non-nursing duties, because of the shortage of other classes or lack of their permanent presence and based on Although there were differences in standard time of direct and indirect care in emergency unit and

Inflammatory aetiology of human myometrial activation tested using directed graphs.

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2005-07-01

Full Text Available THERE ARE THREE MAIN HYPOTHESES FOR THE ACTIVATION OF THE HUMAN UTERUS AT LABOUR: functional progesterone withdrawal, inflammatory stimulation, and oxytocin receptor activation. To test these alternatives we have taken information and data from the literature to develop causal pathway models for the activation of human myometrium. The data provided quantitative RT-PCR results on key genes from samples taken before and during labour. Principal component analysis showed that pre-labour samples form a homogenous group compared to those during labour. We therefore modelled the alternative causal pathways in non-labouring samples using directed graphs and statistically compared the likelihood of the different models using structural equations and D-separation approaches. Using the computer program LISREL, inflammatory activation as a primary event was highly consistent with the data (p = 0.925, progesterone withdrawal, as a primary event, is plausible (p = 0.499, yet comparatively unlikely, oxytocin receptor mediated initiation is less compatible with the data (p = 0.091. DGraph, a software program that creates directed graphs, produced similar results (p= 0.684, p= 0.280, and p = 0.04, respectively. This outcome supports an inflammatory aetiology for human labour. Our results demonstrate the value of directed graphs in determining the likelihood of causal relationships in biology in situations where experiments are not possible.

A Low Power, Parallel Wearable Multi-Sensor System for Human Activity Evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yuecheng; Jia, Wenyan; Yu, Tianjian; Luan, Bo; Mao, Zhi-Hong; Zhang, Hong; Sun, Mingui

2015-04-01

In this paper, the design of a low power heterogeneous wearable multi-sensor system, built with Zynq System-on-Chip (SoC), for human activity evaluation is presented. The powerful data processing capability and flexibility of this SoC represent significant improvements over our previous ARM based system designs. The new system captures and compresses multiple color images and sensor data simultaneously. Several strategies are adopted to minimize power consumption. Our wearable system provides a new tool for the evaluation of human activity, including diet, physical activity and lifestyle.

Human activities threaten coral reefs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tveitdal, Svein; Bjoerke, Aake

2002-01-01

Research indicates that 58 per cent of the coral reefs of the world are threatened by human activities. Pollution and global heating represent some of the threats. Coral reefs just beneath the surface of the sea are very sensitive to temperature changes. Since 1979, mass death of coral reefs has been reported increasingly often. More than 1000 marine species live in the coral reefs, among these are one fourth of all marine species of fish. It is imperative that the coral reefs be preserved, as coastal communities all over the world depend on them as sources of food and as they are the raw materials for important medicines. The article discusses the threats to the coral reefs in general and does not single out any particular energy-related activity as the principal threat. For instance, the El-Nino phenomenon of the Pacific Ocean is probably involved in mass death of coral reefs and in the North Sea large parts of deep-water reefs have been crushed by heavy beam trawlers fishing for bottom fish

Gemfibrozil, a lipid lowering drug, inhibits the activation of primary human microglia via peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor β.

Science.gov (United States)

Jana, Malabendu; Pahan, Kalipada

2012-08-01

Microglial activation participates in the pathogenesis of various neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. However, mechanisms by which microglial activation could be controlled are poorly understood. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) are transcription factors belonging to the nuclear receptor super family with diverse effect. This study underlines the importance of PPARβ/δ in mediating the anti-inflammatory effect of gemfibrozil, an FDA-approved lipid-lowering drug, in primary human microglia. Bacterial lipopolysachharides (LPS) induced the expression of various proinflammatory molecules and upregulated the expression of microglial surface marker CD11b in human microglia. However, gemfibrozil markedly suppressed proinflammatory molecules and CD11b in LPS-stimulated microglia. Human microglia expressed PPAR-β and -γ, but not PPAR-α. Interestingly, either antisense knockdown of PPAR-β or antagonism of PPAR-β by a specific chemical antagonist abrogated gemfibrozil-mediated inhibition of microglial activation. On the other hand, blocking of PPAR-α and -γ had no effect on gemfibrozil-mediated anti-inflammatory effect in microglia. These results highlight the fact that gemfibrozil regulates microglial activation by inhibiting inflammatory gene expression in a PPAR-β dependent pathway and further reinforce its therapeutic application in several neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Active Site Mapping of Human Cathepsin F with Dipeptide Nitrile Inhibitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitz, Janina; Furtmann, Norbert; Ponert, Moritz; Frizler, Maxim; Löser, Reik; Bartz, Ulrike; Bajorath, Jürgen; Gütschow, Michael

2015-08-01

Cleavage of the invariant chain is the key event in the trafficking pathway of major histocompatibility complex class II. Cathepsin S is the major processing enzyme of the invariant chain, but cathepsin F acts in macrophages as its functional synergist which is as potent as cathepsin S in invariant chain cleavage. Dedicated low-molecular-weight inhibitors for cathepsin F have not yet been developed. An active site mapping with 52 dipeptide nitriles, reacting as covalent-reversible inhibitors, was performed to draw structure-activity relationships for the non-primed binding region of human cathepsin F. In a stepwise process, new compounds with optimized fragment combinations were designed and synthesized. These dipeptide nitriles were evaluated on human cysteine cathepsins F, B, L, K and S. Compounds 10 (N-(4-phenylbenzoyl)-leucylglycine nitrile) and 12 (N-(4-phenylbenzoyl)leucylmethionine nitrile) were found to be potent inhibitors of human cathepsin F, with Ki values nitriles from our study, a 3D activity landscape was generated to visualize structure-activity relationships for this series of cathepsin F inhibitors. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Human hair identification by instrumental neutron activation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, S.Y.; Jang, S.G.; Chung, Y.S.

1998-01-01

Nondestructive neutron activation technique was used to analyze 17 elements (Al, As, Au, Ba, Br, Cl, Cu, Hg, I, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Sb, Sr, V and Zn) in 75 human hair samples in 5 different locations, respectively, from 15 glassware workers. The analytical results were treated further statistically to find the elemental distribution among different human hairs and to identify the individual's hair. The identifying probability of one's hair by the comparison of elemental concentrations is found to be 10 4 -10 6 times higher from the same person's than from any other person's. The standard deviation of the elemental concentrations of samples taken from 5 different locations of one person is about 5 time smaller than the standard deviation for individual's hair. These data support the possibility of using NAA of hair for human hair identification. (author)

Linguistic Human Rights Discourse in Deaf Community Activism

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Joseph J.

2015-01-01

The past three decades of activism for linguistic human rights (Skutnabb-Kangas 2000) have witnessed examples of language planning by various national and supranational actors in national and international spaces, with an exchange of ideas and strategies employed by national, regional, and worldwide organizations. In many countries a key goal of…

Activation of human T lymphocytes by Leishmania lipophosphoglycan

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kemp, M; Theander, T G; Handman, E

1991-01-01

This study describes Leishmania antigen-induced activation of lymphocytes isolated from Kenyan donors, previously treated for visceral leishmaniasis, and from Danish and Kenyan controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from cured Kala-Azar patients proliferated and produced Interferon......, the results suggest that human T lymphocytes can respond to glycolipid antigens....

Development and oversight of ethical health promotion quality assurance and evaluation activities involving human participants.

Science.gov (United States)

Sainsbury, Peter

2015-12-01

This paper considers the role of ethics and ethics review processes in the development of health promotion quality assurance and evaluation activities involving human participants. The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and associated documents provide the framework for the ethical conduct and independent review of research (including quality assurance and evaluation) involving humans in Australia. Identifying the level of risk to which participants may be exposed by participation in quality assurance and evaluation activities is essential for health promotion workers undertaking such activities. Organisations can establish processes other than review by a Human Research Ethics Committee for negligible and low risk research activities. Health promotion quality assurance and evaluation activities often involve negligible and low risk to participants. Seven triggers that indicate the need for ethics review of quality assurance and evaluation activities and a procedural checklist for developing ethical quality assurance and evaluation activities are provided. Health promotion workers should be familiar with the NHMRC's National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. When ethical considerations underpin the planning and conduct of all quality assurance and evaluation from the very beginning, the activity is the better for it, independent 'ethics approval' can mostly be secured without much trouble and workers' frustration levels are reduced. So what? Health promotion quality assurance and evaluation activities must be ethically justified. Health promotion workers should be familiar with the NHMRC's National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and should use it when developing health promotion quality assurance and evaluation activities.

Effects of Age, Season, Gender and Urban-Rural Status on Time-Activity: Canadian Human Activity Pattern Survey 2 (CHAPS 2)

OpenAIRE

Matz, Carlyn J.; Stieb, David M.; Davis, Karelyn; Egyed, Marika; Rose, Andreas; Chou, Benedito; Brion, Orly

2014-01-01

Estimation of population exposure is a main component of human health risk assessment for environmental contaminants. Population-level exposure assessments require time-activity pattern distributions in relation to microenvironments where people spend their time. Societal trends may have influenced time-activity patterns since previous Canadian data were collected 15 years ago. The Canadian Human Activity Pattern Survey 2 (CHAPS 2) was a national survey conducted in 2010–2011 to collect time-...

Basal metabolic rate and the mass of tissues differing in metabolic scope : Migration-related covariation between individual knots Calidris canutus

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weber, TP; Piersma, T; Weber, Thomas P.

To examine whether variability in the basal metabolic rate (BMR) of migrant shorebirds is a function of a variably sized metabolic machinery or of temporal changes in metabolic intensities at the tissue level, BMR, body composition and activity of cytochrome-c oxidase (CCO, a marker for maximum

Statins Activate Human PPAR Promoter and Increase PPAR mRNA Expression and Activation in HepG2 Cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Makoto Seo

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Statins increase peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR mRNA expression, but the mechanism of this increased PPAR production remains elusive. To examine the regulation of PPAR production, we examined the effect of 7 statins (atorvastatin, cerivastatin, fluvastatin, pitavastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin on human PPAR promoter activity, mRNA expression, nuclear protein levels, and transcriptional activity. The main results are as follows. (1 Majority of statins enhanced PPAR promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner in HepG2 cells transfected with the human PPAR promoter. This enhancement may be mediated by statin-induced HNF-4. (2 PPAR mRNA expression was increased by statin treatment. (3 The PPAR levels in nuclear fractions were increased by statin treatment. (4 Simvastatin, pravastatin, and cerivastatin markedly enhanced transcriptional activity in 293T cells cotransfected with acyl-coenzyme A oxidase promoter and PPAR/RXR expression vectors. In summary, these data demonstrate that PPAR production and activation are upregulated through the PPAR promoter activity by statin treatment.

Effects of Butyltins (BTs) on Mitogen-Activated-Protein Kinase Kinase Kinase (MAP3K) and Ras Activity in Human Natural Killer Cells

Science.gov (United States)

Celada, Lindsay J.; Whalen, Margaret M.

2013-01-01

Butyltins (BTs) contaminate the environment and are found in human blood. BTs, tributyltin (TBT) and dibutyltin (DBT), diminish the cytotoxic function and levels of key proteins of human natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells are an initial immune defense against tumors, virally-infected cells and antibody-coated cells and thus critical to human health. The signaling pathways that regulate NK cell functions include mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Studies have shown that exposure to BTs leads to the activation of specific MAPKs and MAPK kinases (MAP2Ks) in human NK cells. MAP2K kinases (MAP3Ks) are upstream activators of MAP2Ks, which then activate MAPKs. The current study examined if BT-induced activation of MAP3Ks was responsible for MAP2K and thus, MAPK activation. This study examines the effects of TBT and DBT on the total levels of two MAP3Ks, c-Raf and ASK1, as well as activating and inhibitory phosphorylation sites on these MAP3Ks. In addition, the immediate upstream activator of c-Raf, Ras, was examined for BT-induced alterations. Our results show significant activation of the MAP3K, c-Raf, in human NK cells within 10 minutes of TBT exposure and the MAP3K, ASK1, after one hour exposures to TBT. In addition, our results suggest that both TBT and DBT are impacting the regulation of c-Raf. PMID:24038145

Knockdown of MAGEA6 Activates AMP-Activated Protein Kinase (AMPK) Signaling to Inhibit Human Renal Cell Carcinoma Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Xueting; Xie, Jing; Huang, Hang; Deng, Zhexian

2018-01-01

Melanoma antigen A6 (MAGEA6) is a cancer-specific ubiquitin ligase of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). The current study tested MAGEA6 expression and potential function in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). MAGEA6 and AMPK expression in human RCC tissues and RCC cells were tested by Western blotting assay and qRT-PCR assay. shRNA method was applied to knockdown MAGEA6 in human RCC cells. Cell survival and proliferation were tested by MTT assay and BrdU ELISA assay, respectively. Cell apoptosis was tested by the TUNEL assay and single strand DNA ELISA assay. The 786-O xenograft in nude mouse model was established to test RCC cell growth in vivo. MAGEA6 is specifically expressed in RCC tissues as well as in the established (786-O and A498) and primary human RCC cells. MAGEA6 expression is correlated with AMPKα1 downregulation in RCC tissues and cells. It is not detected in normal renal tissues nor in the HK-2 renal epithelial cells. MAGEA6 knockdown by targeted-shRNA induced AMPK stabilization and activation, which led to mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) in-activation and RCC cell death/apoptosis. AMPK inhibition, by AMPKα1 shRNA or the dominant negative AMPKα1 (T172A), almost reversed MAGEA6 knockdown-induced RCC cell apoptosis. Conversely, expression of the constitutive-active AMPKα1 (T172D) mimicked the actions by MAGEA6 shRNA. In vivo, MAGEA6 shRNA-bearing 786-O tumors grew significantly slower in nude mice than the control tumors. AMPKα1 stabilization and activation as well as mTORC1 in-activation were detected in MAGEA6 shRNA tumor tissues. MAGEA6 knockdown inhibits human RCC cells via activating AMPK signaling. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

Communicative Constitution of Organizations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schoeneborn, Dennis; Vasquez, Consuelo

2017-01-01

The notion of the communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) is at the center of a growing theoretical development within organizational communication studies. CCO scholarship is based on the idea that organization emerges in and is sustained and transformed by communication. This entry...

Characterization of STAT3 activation and expression in canine and human osteosarcoma

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Li Pui-Kai

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Dysregulation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3 has been implicated as a key participant in tumor cell survival, proliferation, and metastasis and is often correlated with a more malignant tumor phenotype. STAT3 phosphorylation has been demonstrated in a subset of human osteosarcoma (OSA tissues and cell lines. OSA in the canine population is known to exhibit a similar clinical behavior and molecular biology when compared to its human counterpart, and is often used as a model for preclinical testing of novel therapeutics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential role of STAT3 in canine and human OSA, and to evaluate the biologic activity of a novel small molecule STAT3 inhibitor. Methods To examine STAT3 and Src expression in OSA, we performed Western blotting and RT-PCR. OSA cells were treated with either STAT3 siRNA or small molecule Src (SU6656 or STAT3 (LLL3 inhibitors and cell proliferation (CyQUANT, caspase 3/7 activity (ELISA, apoptosis (Western blotting for PARP cleavage and/or viability (Wst-1 were determined. Additionally, STAT3 DNA binding after treatment was determined using EMSA. Expression of STAT3 targets after treatment was demonstrated with Western blotting, RT-PCR, or gel zymography. Results Our data demonstrate that constitutive activation of STAT3 is present in a subset of canine OSA tumors and human and canine cell lines, but not normal canine osteoblasts. In both canine and human OSA cell lines, downregulation of STAT3 activity through inhibition of upstream Src family kinases using SU6656, inhibition of STAT3 DNA binding and transcriptional activities using LLL3, or modulation of STAT3 expression using siRNA, all resulted in decreased cell proliferation and viability, ultimately inducing caspase-3/7 mediated apoptosis in treated cells. Furthermore, inhibition of either Src or STAT3 activity downregulated the expression of survivin, VEGF, and MMP2, all known

Characterization of STAT3 activation and expression in canine and human osteosarcoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fossey, Stacey L; Liao, Albert T; McCleese, Jennifer K; Bear, Misty D; Lin, Jiayuh; Li, Pui-Kai; Kisseberth, William C; London, Cheryl A

2009-01-01

Dysregulation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) has been implicated as a key participant in tumor cell survival, proliferation, and metastasis and is often correlated with a more malignant tumor phenotype. STAT3 phosphorylation has been demonstrated in a subset of human osteosarcoma (OSA) tissues and cell lines. OSA in the canine population is known to exhibit a similar clinical behavior and molecular biology when compared to its human counterpart, and is often used as a model for preclinical testing of novel therapeutics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential role of STAT3 in canine and human OSA, and to evaluate the biologic activity of a novel small molecule STAT3 inhibitor. To examine STAT3 and Src expression in OSA, we performed Western blotting and RT-PCR. OSA cells were treated with either STAT3 siRNA or small molecule Src (SU6656) or STAT3 (LLL3) inhibitors and cell proliferation (CyQUANT), caspase 3/7 activity (ELISA), apoptosis (Western blotting for PARP cleavage) and/or viability (Wst-1) were determined. Additionally, STAT3 DNA binding after treatment was determined using EMSA. Expression of STAT3 targets after treatment was demonstrated with Western blotting, RT-PCR, or gel zymography. Our data demonstrate that constitutive activation of STAT3 is present in a subset of canine OSA tumors and human and canine cell lines, but not normal canine osteoblasts. In both canine and human OSA cell lines, downregulation of STAT3 activity through inhibition of upstream Src family kinases using SU6656, inhibition of STAT3 DNA binding and transcriptional activities using LLL3, or modulation of STAT3 expression using siRNA, all resulted in decreased cell proliferation and viability, ultimately inducing caspase-3/7 mediated apoptosis in treated cells. Furthermore, inhibition of either Src or STAT3 activity downregulated the expression of survivin, VEGF, and MMP2, all known transcriptional targets of STAT3. These data

Sympathetic activation during early pregnancy in humans

Science.gov (United States)

Jarvis, Sara S; Shibata, Shigeki; Bivens, Tiffany B; Okada, Yoshiyuki; Casey, Brian M; Levine, Benjamin D; Fu, Qi

2012-01-01

Sympathetic activity has been reported to increase in normotensive pregnant women, and to be even greater in women with gestational hypertension and preeclampsia at term. Whether sympathetic overactivity develops early during pregnancy, remaining high throughout gestation, or whether it only occurs at term providing the substrate for hypertensive disorders is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that sympathetic activation occurs early during pregnancy in humans. Eleven healthy women (29 ± 3 (SD) years) without prior hypertensive pregnancies were tested during the mid-luteal phase (PRE) and early pregnancy (EARLY; 6.2 ± 1.2 weeks of gestation). Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and haemodynamics were measured supine, at 30 deg and 60 deg upright tilt for 5 min each. Blood samples were drawn for catecholamines, direct renin, and aldosterone. MSNA was significantly greater during EARLY than PRE (supine: 25 ± 8 vs. 14 ± 8 bursts min−1, 60 deg tilt: 49 ± 14 vs. 40 ± 10 bursts min−1; main effect, P < 0.05). Resting diastolic pressure trended lower (P = 0.09), heart rate was similar, total peripheral resistance decreased (2172 ± 364 vs. 2543 ± 352 dyne s cm−5; P < 0.05), sympathetic vascular transduction was blunted (0.10 ± 0.05 vs. 0.36 ± 0.47 units a.u.−1 min−1; P < 0.01), and both renin (supine: 27.9 ± 6.2 vs. 14.2 ± 8.7 pg ml−1, P < 0.01) and aldosterone (supine: 16.7 ± 14.1 vs. 7.7 ± 6.8 ng ml−1, P = 0.05) were higher during EARLY than PRE. These results suggest that sympathetic activation is a common characteristic of early pregnancy in humans despite reduced diastolic pressure and total peripheral resistance. These observations challenge conventional thinking about blood pressure regulation during pregnancy, showing marked sympathetic activation occurring within the first few weeks of conception, and may provide the substrate for pregnancy induced cardiovascular complications. PMID:22687610

Human Error Probability Assessment During Maintenance Activities of Marine Systems

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Rabiul Islam

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Maintenance operations on-board ships are highly demanding. Maintenance operations are intensive activities requiring high man–machine interactions in challenging and evolving conditions. The evolving conditions are weather conditions, workplace temperature, ship motion, noise and vibration, and workload and stress. For example, extreme weather condition affects seafarers' performance, increasing the chances of error, and, consequently, can cause injuries or fatalities to personnel. An effective human error probability model is required to better manage maintenance on-board ships. The developed model would assist in developing and maintaining effective risk management protocols. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop a human error probability model considering various internal and external factors affecting seafarers' performance. Methods: The human error probability model is developed using probability theory applied to Bayesian network. The model is tested using the data received through the developed questionnaire survey of >200 experienced seafarers with >5 years of experience. The model developed in this study is used to find out the reliability of human performance on particular maintenance activities. Results: The developed methodology is tested on the maintenance of marine engine's cooling water pump for engine department and anchor windlass for deck department. In the considered case studies, human error probabilities are estimated in various scenarios and the results are compared between the scenarios and the different seafarer categories. The results of the case studies for both departments are also compared. Conclusion: The developed model is effective in assessing human error probabilities. These probabilities would get dynamically updated as and when new information is available on changes in either internal (i.e., training, experience, and fatigue or external (i.e., environmental and operational conditions

Effect of ligand activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-β/δ (PPARβ/δ) in human lung cancer cell lines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Pengfei; Borland, Michael G.; Zhu Bokai; Sharma, Arun K.; Amin, Shantu; El-Bayoumy, Karam; Gonzalez, Frank J.; Peters, Jeffrey M.

2008-01-01

There is compelling evidence that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-β/δ (PPARβ/δ) mediates terminal differentiation and is associated with inhibition of cell growth. However, it was recently suggested that growth of two human lung cancer cell lines is enhanced by PPARβ/δ. The goal of the present study was to provide insight in resolving this controversy. Therefore, the effect of ligand activation of PPARβ/δ in A549 and H1838 human lung cancer cell lines was examined using two high affinity PPARβ/δ ligands. Ligand activation of PPARβ/δ caused up-regulation of a known PPARβ/δ target gene, angiopoietin-like 4 (Angptl4) but did not influence expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) or phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt), and did not affect cell growth. Results from this study demonstrate that two human lung cancer cell lines respond to ligand activation of PPARβ/δ by modulation of target gene expression (Angptl4), but fail to exhibit significant modulation of cell proliferation

Human Research Program Science Management: Overview of Research and Development Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Charles, John B.

2007-01-01

An overview of research and development activities of NASA's Human Research Science Management Program is presented. The topics include: 1) Human Research Program Goals; 2) Elements and Projects within HRP; 3) Development and Maintenance of Priorities; 4) Acquisition and Evaluation of Research and Technology Proposals; and 5) Annual Reviews

Human innate responses and adjuvant activity of TLR ligands in vivo in mice reconstituted with a human immune system.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Liang; Zhang, Zheng; Li, Guangming; Li, Feng; Wang, Li; Zhang, Liguo; Zurawski, Sandra M; Zurawski, Gerard; Levy, Yves; Su, Lishan

2017-10-27

TLR ligands (TLR-Ls) represent a class of novel vaccine adjuvants. However, their immunologic effects in humans remain poorly defined in vivo. Using a humanized mouse model with a functional human immune system, we investigated how different TLR-Ls stimulated human innate immune response in vivo and their applications as vaccine adjuvants for enhancing human cellular immune response. We found that splenocytes from humanized mice showed identical responses to various TLR-Ls as human PBMCs in vitro. To our surprise, various TLR-Ls stimulated human cytokines and chemokines differently in vivo compared to that in vitro. For example, CpG-A was most efficient to induce IFN-α production in vitro. In contrast, CpG-B, R848 and Poly I:C stimulated much more IFN-α than CpG-A in vivo. Importantly, the human innate immune response to specific TLR-Ls in humanized mice was different from that reported in C57BL/6 mice, but similar to that reported in nonhuman primates. Furthermore, we found that different TLR-Ls distinctively activated and mobilized human plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), myeloid DCs (mDCs) and monocytes in different organs. Finally, we showed that, as adjuvants, CpG-B, R848 and Poly I:C can all enhance antigen specific CD4 + T cell response, while only R848 and Poly I:C induced CD8 + cytotoxic T cells response to a CD40-targeting HIV vaccine in humanized mice, correlated with their ability to activate human mDCs but not pDCs. We conclude that humanized mice serve as a highly relevant model to evaluate and rank the human immunologic effects of novel adjuvants in vivo prior to testing in humans. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AS THE GUARANTOR OF LEGAL PROTECTION OF A HUMAN IN THE FIELD OF AVIATION ACTIVITIES OF UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuriy Pyvovar

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The effectiveness of human rights protection in the Council of Europe largely depends on activities of the European Court, which demonstrates high standards of justice, particularly in matters of human rights protection in the field of aviation activities. The article offers a critical assessment of Ukrainian national legislation in terms of its internal legal consistency and compliance with international legal acts. Methods: The methods of legal analysis are used to study court decisions in the aviation field; methods of comparative legal analysis, forecasting and dialectical - in the study of problems in the further improvement of Ukrainian legislation. Also in article applied the theory of legal comparative, approaches to applying the analogy of legal and law in process of making decisions on similar court cases. Results: The article deals with the analysis of the European Court of Human Rights jurisdiction on cases of protection of human rights in the field of aviation activities. Two groups of cases in which Ukraine is a defendant are identified: a cases of international concern (in particular the Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777-200ER crash; b cases of national character (citizens of Ukraine against the State of Ukraine. The author's position on deciding the cases in the field of aviation activities is based on the principles of respect for the European Convention on Human Rights, 1950. Discussion: The conclusion about the necessity of amending some national laws, taking into account the legal positions of the European Court (in particular, regarding the right of airlines workers to strike is made, and the fact that the issues of States and airlines activities to respect human and civil rights in the field of aviation activities are covered by jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights and occupy an important place in its practice is indicated.

Molecular characterization of canine parvovirus and canine enteric coronavirus in diarrheic dogs on the island of St. Kitts: First report from the Caribbean region.

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro, Ryan; Nair, Rajeev; Peda, Andrea; Aung, Meiji Soe; Ashwinie, G S; Gallagher, Christa A; Malik, Yashpal S; Kobayashi, Nobumichi; Ghosh, Souvik

2017-08-15

Although canine parvovirus (CPV) and canine enteric coronavirus (CCoV) are important enteric pathogens of dogs and have been studied extensively in different parts of the world, there are no reports on these viruses from the Caribbean region. During 2015-2016, a total of 104 diarrheic fecal samples were collected from puppies and adult dogs, with or without hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts (KNA). By PCR, 25 (24%, n=104) samples tested positive for CPV. Based on analysis of the complete deduced VP2 amino acid sequences, 20 of the KNA CPV strains were assigned to new CPV-2a (also designated as CPV-2a-297A). On the other hand, the VP2 genes of the remaining 5 strains were partially characterized, or could not be sequenced. New CPV-2a was the predominant CPV variant in St. Kitts, contrasting the molecular epidemiology of CPV variants reported in most studies from nearby North and South American countries. By RT-PCR, CCoVs were detected in 5 samples (4.8%, n=104). Based on analysis of partial M-protein gene, the KNA CCoV strains were assigned to CCoV-I genotype, and were closely related to CCoV-I strains from Brazil. To our knowledge, this is the first report on detection and genetic diversity of CPV and CCoV in dogs from the Caribbean region, and underscores the importance of similar studies in the other Caribbean islands. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Endothelin receptors and activity differ in human, dog, and rabbit lung.

Science.gov (United States)

McKay, K O; Armour, C L; Black, J L

1996-01-01

In this study, we have examined dog and rabbit airways as potential models for human airways in regard to the activity of endothelin. The receptors involved in the response to endothelin-1 (ET-1) in airway tissue from human, rabbit, and dog lung were investigated, as was the mechanism responsible for the contraction to ET-1 in tissue from the three species. By using specific endothelin receptor agonists and antagonists, we have demonstrated that ETB receptors predominate in rabbit and human airways and ETA receptors in dog airways. The contraction to ET-1 is not dependent on cyclooxygenase products of arachidonic acid, as indomethacin had no effect on the response to ET-1. Extracellular calcium influx via voltage-dependent channels is necessary for contraction to ET-1 in rabbit and dog airways. These results are in contrast to our previously reported results in human airways, in which neither removal of extracellular calcium nor verapamil affected the ET-1 response. The sustained phase of the contraction to ET-1 in all three species may be mediated in part by activation of protein kinase C (PKC), as the inhibitor staurosporine significantly altered the time course of the response to endothelin. We therefore conclude that in rabbit airways ET-1 activates ETB receptors, triggers the influx of extracellular calcium through voltage-dependent channels, and induces a contractile response that is, in part, dependent upon stimulation of PKC. The same mechanism is triggered in dog bronchus; however, the receptors involved in this species are of the ETA type. Finally, in human airways, the contractile response to ET-1, while independent of extracellular calcium influx, is dependent upon PKC activation after binding of the peptide to ETB receptors.

Neuronal medium that supports basic synaptic functions and activity of human neurons in vitro

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bardy, C.; Hurk, M. van den; Eames, T.; Marchand, C.; Hernandez, R.V.; Kellogg, M.; Gorris, M.A.J.; Galet, B.; Palomares, V.; Brown, J.; Bang, A.G.; Mertens, J.; Bohnke, L.; Boyer, L.; Simon, S.; Gage, F.H.

2015-01-01

Human cell reprogramming technologies offer access to live human neurons from patients and provide a new alternative for modeling neurological disorders in vitro. Neural electrical activity is the essence of nervous system function in vivo. Therefore, we examined neuronal activity in media widely

IgE-dependent activation of human mast cells and fMLP-mediated activation of human eosinophils is controlled by the circadian clock.

Science.gov (United States)

Baumann, Anja; Feilhauer, Katharina; Bischoff, Stephan C; Froy, Oren; Lorentz, Axel

2015-03-01

Symptoms of allergic attacks frequently exhibit diurnal variations. Accordingly, we could recently demonstrate that mast cells and eosinophils - known as major effector cells of allergic diseases - showed an intact circadian clock. Here, we analyzed the role of the circadian clock in the functionality of mast cells and eosinophils. Human intestinal mast cells (hiMC) were isolated from intestinal mucosa; human eosinophils were isolated from peripheral blood. HiMC and eosinophils were synchronized by dexamethasone before stimulation every 4h around the circadian cycle by FcɛRI crosslinking or fMLP, respectively. Signaling molecule activation was examined using Western blot, mRNA expression by real-time RT-PCR, and mediator release by multiplex analysis. CXCL8 and CCL2 were expressed and released in a circadian manner by both hiMC and eosinophils in response to activation. Moreover, phosphorylation of ERK1/2, known to be involved in activation of hiMC and eosinophils, showed circadian rhythms in both cell types. Interestingly, all clock genes hPer1, hPer2, hCry1, hBmal1, and hClock were expressed in a similar circadian pattern in activated and unstimulated cells indicating that the local clock controls hiMC and eosinophils and subsequently allergic reactions but not vice versa. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Immunocapture and microplate-based activity and quantity measurement of pyruvate dehydrogenase in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaowen; Pervez, Hira; Andersen, Lars W; Uber, Amy; Montissol, Sophia; Patel, Parth; Donnino, Michael W

2015-01-01

Pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity is altered in many human disorders. Current methods require tissue samples and yield inconsistent results. We describe a modified method for measuring PDH activity from isolated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). RESULTS/METHODOLOGY: We found that PDH activity and quantity can be successfully measured in human PBMCs. Freeze-thaw cycles cannot efficiently disrupt the mitochondrial membrane. Processing time of up to 20 h does not affect PDH activity with proteinase inhibitor addition and a detergent concentration of 3.3% showed maximum yield. Sample protein concentration is correlated to PDH activity and quantity in human PBMCs from healthy subjects. Measuring PDH activity from PBMCs is a novel, easy and less invasive way to further understand the role of PDH in human disease.

Regulation of the human SLC25A20 expression by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha in human hepatoblastoma cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tachibana, Keisuke; Takeuchi, Kentaro; Inada, Hirohiko; Yamasaki, Daisuke; Ishimoto, Kenji; Tanaka, Toshiya; Hamakubo, Takao; Sakai, Juro; Kodama, Tatsuhiko; Doi, Takefumi

2009-01-01

Solute carrier family 25, member 20 (SLC25A20) is a key molecule that transfers acylcarnitine esters in exchange for free carnitine across the mitochondrial membrane in the mitochondrial β-oxidation. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that plays an important role in the regulation of β-oxidation. We previously established tetracycline-regulated human cell line that can be induced to express PPARα and found that PPARα induces the SLC25A20 expression. In this study, we analyzed the promoter region of the human slc25a20 gene and showed that PPARα regulates the expression of human SLC25A20 via the peroxisome proliferator responsive element.

Structure of human milk bile salt activated lipase

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baba, T.; Downs, D.; Jackson, K.W.; Tang, J.; Wang, Chi-Sun

1991-01-01

The structure and some functional sites of human milk bile salt activated lipase (BAL) were studied by cDNA cloning and chemical analysis of the enzyme. Eighteen cDNA clones of human BAL were identified from lactating human breast cDNA libraries in λgt11 and λgt10 with antibody and synthetic oligonucleotides as probes. The sequence of four clones was sufficient to construct a 3018-bp BAL cDNA structure. This sequence codes for an open reading frame of 742 amino acid residues. There is a putative signal sequence of 20 residues which is followed by the amino-terminal sequence of BAL, and the mature BAL contains 722 amino acid residues. The cDNA sequence also contains a 678-base 5'-untranslated sequence, a 97-base 3'-untranslated region, and a 14-base poly(A) tail. The sequence of a 1.8-kbp insert of clone G10-4A differs from that of the other cDNA in that it contains a deletion of 198 bases (1966-2163) corresponding to 66 amino acid residues. By use of BAL cDAN as probe, it was found that the major molecular species of BAL mRNA in human mammary gland HBL-100 cells had a size of 2.9 kb and two minor species had sizes of 3.8 and 5.1 kb by Northern blot analyses. These chemical studies established that the active site of human milk BAL is located at serine-194, the N-glycosylation site is present at asparagine-187, the O-glycosylation region is in the 16 repeating units near the C-terminus, and the heparin binding domain is in the N-terminal region. The authors have also determined the location of disulfide bridges as Cys64-Cys80 and Cys246-Cys257. The cyanogen bromide cleavage and the partial sequencing of CNBr peptides also confirmed the location of methionines in the polypeptide chain as well as the deduced cDNA sequence of BAL

Human activity recognition based on feature selection in smart home using back-propagation algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Hongqing; He, Lei; Si, Hao; Liu, Peng; Xie, Xiaolei

2014-09-01

In this paper, Back-propagation(BP) algorithm has been used to train the feed forward neural network for human activity recognition in smart home environments, and inter-class distance method for feature selection of observed motion sensor events is discussed and tested. And then, the human activity recognition performances of neural network using BP algorithm have been evaluated and compared with other probabilistic algorithms: Naïve Bayes(NB) classifier and Hidden Markov Model(HMM). The results show that different feature datasets yield different activity recognition accuracy. The selection of unsuitable feature datasets increases the computational complexity and degrades the activity recognition accuracy. Furthermore, neural network using BP algorithm has relatively better human activity recognition performances than NB classifier and HMM. Copyright © 2014 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enabling Collaborative Human-Machine (H-M) Decision Making in Time-critical Activities

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Self-adjusting autonomous systems (SAS) are spreading from well-defined control activities, such as manufacturing, to complex activities with multi-faceted human...

Oxidative Stress in Cardiac Mitochondria Caused by Copper Deficiency May Be Insufficient to Damage Mitochondrial Proteins

Science.gov (United States)

Copper (Cu) deficiency may promote the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the mitochondrial electron transport chain through inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) and increased reduction of respiratory complexes upstream from CCO. In the present study, respiration, H2O2 production and...

Mineralizable carbon, organic carbon and nitrogen in macroaggregates of an Oxisol under different systemsCarbono mineralizável, carbono orgânico e nitrogênio em macroagregados de Latossolo sob diferentes sistemas de uso do solo no Cerrado Goiano

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arcângelo Loss

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The crop-livestock integration system (CLIS associated to a no-tillage system (NTS may increase mineralizable carbon, organic carbon and nitrogen of soil macroaggregates when compared with only NTS area, without grazing. The aim of this study was to quantify mineralizable carbon, total organic carbon (TOC and nitrogen of macroaggregates in different land management systems in Cerrado region, Goias State. Were evaluated two areas with crop rotation: CLIS (Brachiaria+corn/bean/cotton/soybean and NTS (sunflower/millet/soy/corn. A Cerrado area with natural vegetation was taken as reference for the original soil. Undisturbed soil samples were taken at 0-5 and 5-10 cm depth, and then incubated in laboratory in a randomized design. There were evaluated the amount of C-CO2 detached from each sample daily (up to 37 days and total respiration of C-CO2 accumulated were also analyzed. Before and after incubation of soil aggregates (0 to 5 and 5 to 10 cm, the TOC, N and C/N were quantified. The CLIS area showed higher C-CO2 (0-5 cm immediately after incubation when compared to other areas. At 7 days after incubation, in the three systems, there was an increase of C-CO2 liberation and, after the 25th day the microbial respiration was stabilized. Comparing the cultivated areas, CLIS showed higher C-CO2 accumulation and the highest TOC, N (before and after incubation, and lower C/N ratio, before incubation. The CLIS increased higher C-CO2 accumulations than the NTS area. The integration of the factors crop rotation, cover crops (brachiaria and cattle grazing in the CLIS increase mineralizable carbon (C-CO2 accumulations, TOC and N in macroaggregates compared to the NTS area.A integração lavoura-pecuária (ILP em sistema plantio direto (SPD pode aumentar o teor de carbono mineralizável, carbono orgânico e nitrogênio dos macroagregados do solo quando comparada a áreas de SPD, sem pastejo. O objetivo deste trabalho foi quantificar o carbono mineralizável e

An electron spin resonance study of radicals formed from tetrolic acid by radiolysis in a freon matrix

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rhodes, C.J.

1989-01-01

In the present study, e.s.r. spectra have been observed following γ-irradiation of dilute frozen solutions of tetrolic acid, MeC≡CCO 2 H, in CFCl 3 at 77 K. A typical spectrum is shown which we interpret in terms of an isotropic quartet from the parent radical cation. MeC≡CCo 2 H +· , and an anisotropic triplet arising from the propargyl radical, ·CH 2 C≡CCO 2 H, formed by deprotonation of the parent cation. This appears to be the first example of an alkyne radical cation to be observed in a CFCl 3 matrix. (author)

Microwave electromagnetic and absorption properties of SiO2/C core/shell composites plated with metal cobalt

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Guozhu; Fang, Xumin; Wu, Hongyan; Wei, Hongyu; Li, Jingfa; Li, Kaipeng; Mei, Buqing; Xu, Yewen

2017-04-01

A facile method has been developed to fabricate magnetic core/shell SiO2/C/Co sub-microspheres via the pyrolysis of SiO2/PANI (polyaniline) and electroless plating method. The electromagnetic parameters of these SiO2/C and SiO2/C/Co composites were measured and the microwave reflection loss properties were evaluated in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. The results show that the dielectric loss of SiO2/C composite increases with the increase of carbonization temperature and the magnetic loss enhances due to the deposition of cobalt on the SiO2/C sub-microspheres. The reflection loss results exhibit that the microwave absorption properties of the SiO2/C/Co composites are more excellent than those of SiO2/C composites for each thickness. The maximum effective absorption bandwidth (reflection loss ≤ -10 dB) arrives at 5.0 GHz (13.0-18 GHz) for SiO2/C/Co composite with 1.5 mm of thickness and the minimum reflection loss value is -24.0 dB at 5.0 GHz with 4.0 mm of thickness. The microwave loss mechanism of the SiO2/C/Co composites was also discussed in this paper.

Sitting is the new smoking : online complex human activity recognition with smartphones and wearables

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shoaib, Muhammad

2017-01-01

Human activity recognition plays an important role in fitness tracking, health monitoring, context-aware feedback and self-management of smartphones and wearable devices. These devices are equipped with different sensors which can be used to recognize various human activities. A significant amount of

Active site of tripeptidyl peptidase II from human erythrocytes is of the subtilisin type

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tomkinson, B.; Wernstedt, C.; Hellman, U.; Zetterqvist, Oe.

1987-11-01

The present report presents evidence that the amino acid sequence around the serine of the active site of human tripeptidyl peptidase II is of the subtilisin type. The enzyme from human erythrocytes was covalently labeled at its active site with (/sup 3/H)diisopropyl fluorophosphate, and the protein was subsequently reduced, alkylated, and digested with trypsin. The labeled tryptic peptides were purified by gel filtration and repeated reversed-phase HPLC, and their amino-terminal sequences were determined. Residue 9 contained the radioactive label and was, therefore, considered to be the active serine residue. The primary structure of the part of the active site (residues 1-10) containing this residue was concluded to be Xaa-Thr-Gln-Leu-Met-Asx-Gly-Thr-Ser-Met. This amino acid sequence is homologous to the sequence surrounding the active serine of the microbial peptidases subtilisin and thermitase. These data demonstrate that human tripeptidyl peptidase II represents a potentially distinct class of human peptidases and raise the question of an evolutionary relationship between the active site of a mammalian peptidase and that of the subtilisin family of serine peptidases.

Clustering mechanism of ethanol-water mixtures investigated with photothermal microfluidic cantilever deflection spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Ghoraishi, M. S.; Hawk, J. E.; Phani, Arindam; Khan, M. F.; Thundat, T.

2016-04-01

The infrared-active (IR) vibrational mode of ethanol (EtOH) associated with the asymmetrical stretching of the C-C-O bond in pico-liter volumes of EtOH-water binary mixtures is calorimetrically measured using photothermal microfluidic cantilever deflection spectroscopy (PMCDS). IR absorption by the confined liquid results in wavelength dependent cantilever deflections, thus providing a complementary response to IR absorption revealing a complex dipole moment dependence on mixture concentration. Solvent-induced blue shifts of the C-C-O asymmetric vibrational stretch for both anti and gauche conformers of EtOH were precisely monitored for EtOH concentrations ranging from 20-100% w/w. Variations in IR absorption peak maxima show an inverse dependence on induced EtOH dipole moment (μ) and is attributed to the complex clustering mechanism of EtOH-water mixtures.

Neuronal medium that supports basic synaptic functions and activity of human neurons in vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Bardy, Cedric; van den Hurk, Mark; Eames, Tameji; Marchand, Cynthia; Hernandez, Ruben V; Kellogg, Mariko; Gorris, Mark; Galet, Ben; Palomares, Vanessa; Brown, Joshua; Bang, Anne G; Mertens, Jerome; Böhnke, Lena; Boyer, Leah; Simon, Suzanne; Gage, Fred H

2015-05-19

Human cell reprogramming technologies offer access to live human neurons from patients and provide a new alternative for modeling neurological disorders in vitro. Neural electrical activity is the essence of nervous system function in vivo. Therefore, we examined neuronal activity in media widely used to culture neurons. We found that classic basal media, as well as serum, impair action potential generation and synaptic communication. To overcome this problem, we designed a new neuronal medium (BrainPhys basal + serum-free supplements) in which we adjusted the concentrations of inorganic salts, neuroactive amino acids, and energetic substrates. We then tested that this medium adequately supports neuronal activity and survival of human neurons in culture. Long-term exposure to this physiological medium also improved the proportion of neurons that were synaptically active. The medium was designed to culture human neurons but also proved adequate for rodent neurons. The improvement in BrainPhys basal medium to support neurophysiological activity is an important step toward reducing the gap between brain physiological conditions in vivo and neuronal models in vitro.

A novel framework for intelligent surveillance system based on abnormal human activity detection in academic environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Nawashi, Malek; Al-Hazaimeh, Obaida M; Saraee, Mohamad

2017-01-01

Abnormal activity detection plays a crucial role in surveillance applications, and a surveillance system that can perform robustly in an academic environment has become an urgent need. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for an automatic real-time video-based surveillance system which can simultaneously perform the tracking, semantic scene learning, and abnormality detection in an academic environment. To develop our system, we have divided the work into three phases: preprocessing phase, abnormal human activity detection phase, and content-based image retrieval phase. For motion object detection, we used the temporal-differencing algorithm and then located the motions region using the Gaussian function. Furthermore, the shape model based on OMEGA equation was used as a filter for the detected objects (i.e., human and non-human). For object activities analysis, we evaluated and analyzed the human activities of the detected objects. We classified the human activities into two groups: normal activities and abnormal activities based on the support vector machine. The machine then provides an automatic warning in case of abnormal human activities. It also embeds a method to retrieve the detected object from the database for object recognition and identification using content-based image retrieval. Finally, a software-based simulation using MATLAB was performed and the results of the conducted experiments showed an excellent surveillance system that can simultaneously perform the tracking, semantic scene learning, and abnormality detection in an academic environment with no human intervention.

Legal regime of human activities in outer space law

Science.gov (United States)

Golda, Carlo

1994-01-01

Current developments in space activities increasingly involve the presence of humans on board spacecraft and, in the near future, on the Moon, on Mars, on board Space Stations, etc. With respect to these challenges, the political and legal issues connected to the status of astronauts are largely unclear and require a new doctrinal attention. In the same way, many legal and political questions remain open in the structure of future space crews: the need for international standards in the definition and training of astronauts, etc.; but, first of all, an international uniform legal definition of astronauts. Moreover, the legal structure for human life and operations in outer space can be a new and relevant paradigm for the definition of similar rules in all the situations and environments in which humans are involved in extreme frontiers. The present article starts from an overview on the existing legal and political definitions of 'astronauts', moving to the search of a more useful definition. This is followed by an analysis of the concrete problems created by human space activities, and the legal and political responses to them (the need for a code of conduct; the structure of the crew and the existing rules in the US and ex-USSR; the new legal theories on the argument; the definition and structure of a code of conduct; the next legal problems in fields such as privacy law, communications law, business law, criminal law, etc.).

Characterization of a plasminogen activator from human melanoma cells cultured in vitro

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heussen, C.

1982-08-01

This thesis describes the work that have been done on the isolation and characterization of a plasminogen activator, Mel-PA, that is released by human melanoma cells cultured in vitro. This enzyme was compared to the urinary plasminogen activator, urokinase. The human melanoma cell line released large amounts of Mel-PA into the surrounding medium when cultured under serum-free conditions. These cells released only one type of plasminogen activator. A technique was developed in which plasminogen activators were seperated electrophoretically and detected in polyacrylamide gel slabs. Mel-PA was concentrated and partially purified by affinity chromatography on benzamidine-sepharose. A study of the distribution of plasminogen activators in tissues and body fluids showed that all mammals examined had two immunochemically distinct plasminogen activators that corresponded, in their distribution, to the urokinase-like and Mel-PA like enzymes of man. A comparitive study of the kinetic behaviour of Mel-PA and urokinase showed numerous differences between the catalytic activities of these two enzymes

Impacts of human activity modes and climate on heavy metal "spread" in groundwater are biased.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ming; Qin, Xiaosheng; Zeng, Guangming; Li, Jian

2016-06-01

Groundwater quality deterioration has attracted world-wide concerns due to its importance for human water supply. Although more and more studies have shown that human activities and climate are changing the groundwater status, an investigation on how different groundwater heavy metals respond to human activity modes (e.g. mining, waste disposal, agriculture, sewage effluent and complex activity) in a varying climate has been lacking. Here, for each of six heavy metals (i.e. Fe, Zn, Mn, Pb, Cd and Cu) in groundwater, we use >330 data points together with mixed-effect models to indicate that (i) human activity modes significantly influence the Cu and Mn but not Zn, Fe, Pb and Cd levels, and (ii) annual mean temperature (AMT) only significantly influences Cu and Pb levels, while annual precipitation (AP) only significantly affects Fe, Cu and Mn levels. Given these differences, we suggest that the impacts of human activity modes and climate on heavy metal "spread" in groundwater are biased. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhanced bag of words using multilevel k-means for human activity recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Motasem Elshourbagy

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to enhance the bag of features in order to improve the accuracy of human activity recognition. In this paper, human activity recognition process consists of four stages: local space time features detection, feature description, bag of features representation, and SVMs classification. The k-means step in the bag of features is enhanced by applying three levels of clustering: clustering per video, clustering per action class, and clustering for the final code book. The experimental results show that the proposed method of enhancement reduces the time and memory requirements, and enables the use of all training data in the k-means clustering algorithm. The evaluation of accuracy of action classification on two popular datasets (KTH and Weizmann has been performed. In addition, the proposed method improves the human activity recognition accuracy by 5.57% on the KTH dataset using the same detector, descriptor, and classifier.

EVALUATION OF HUMAN RELIABILITY IN SELECTED ACTIVITIES IN THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika SUJOVÁ

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on evaluation of human reliability in the human – machine system in the railway industry. Based on a survey of a train dispatcher and of selected activities, we have identified risk factors affecting the dispatcher‘s work and the evaluated risk level of their influence on the reliability and safety of preformed activities. The research took place at the authors‘ work place between 2012-2013. A survey method was used. With its help, authors were able to identify selected work activities of train dispatcher’s risk factors that affect his/her work and the evaluated seriousness of its in-fluence on the reliability and safety of performed activities. Amongst the most important finding fall expressions of un-clear and complicated internal regulations and work processes, a feeling of being overworked, fear for one’s safety at small, insufficiently protected stations.

Technical note: A linear model for predicting δ13 Cprotein.

Science.gov (United States)

Pestle, William J; Hubbe, Mark; Smith, Erin K; Stevenson, Joseph M

2015-08-01

Development of a model for the prediction of δ(13) Cprotein from δ(13) Ccollagen and Δ(13) Cap-co . Model-generated values could, in turn, serve as "consumer" inputs for multisource mixture modeling of paleodiet. Linear regression analysis of previously published controlled diet data facilitated the development of a mathematical model for predicting δ(13) Cprotein (and an experimentally generated error term) from isotopic data routinely generated during the analysis of osseous remains (δ(13) Cco and Δ(13) Cap-co ). Regression analysis resulted in a two-term linear model (δ(13) Cprotein (%) = (0.78 × δ(13) Cco ) - (0.58× Δ(13) Cap-co ) - 4.7), possessing a high R-value of 0.93 (r(2)  = 0.86, P analysis of human osseous remains. These predicted values are ideal for use in multisource mixture modeling of dietary protein source contribution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The influence of periodic increases of human activity on crepuscular and nocturnal mammals: Testing the weekend effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Nix, Joshua H; Howell, Ryan G; Hall, Lucas K; McMillan, Brock R

2018-01-01

Human recreation can negatively affect wildlife, particularly on weekends when human activity is highest (i.e., the weekend effect). Much of what we understand about the weekend effect is based on research conducted on diurnal species, which have greater temporal overlap with humans. Because nocturnal species generally avoid times when humans are active, they are likely less affected by anthropogenic activity on weekends. Our objective was to test the weekend effect in relation to the degree of nocturnality of mammals in a recreational area. We predicted that as nocturnality increased, the effect of human activity would decrease. To address our objective, we placed 50 remote cameras along the Diamond Fork River in Utah from January to June 2015. We found that three out of the four focal species supported our predictions. Mule deer (crepuscular) reduced activity throughout our entire study area during weekends and avoided campgrounds. Beavers and mountain lions (both nocturnal) did not negatively respond to increased human activity. Raccoons (nocturnal) reduced activity during weekends, but only within campground areas. Our findings indicate that as the temporal overlap increases between wildlife and humans, so does the influence that humans have on wildlife. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Activity of upper limb muscles during human walking.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhtz-Buschbeck, Johann P; Jing, Bo

2012-04-01

The EMG activity of upper limb muscles during human gait has rarely been studied previously. It was examined in 20 normal volunteers in four conditions: walking on a treadmill (1) with unrestrained natural arm swing (Normal), (2) while volitionally holding the arms still (Held), (3) with the arms immobilized (Bound), and (4) with the arms swinging in phase with the ipsilateral legs, i.e. opposite-to-normal phasing (Anti-Normal). Normal arm swing involved weak rhythmical lengthening and shortening contractions of arm and shoulder muscles. Phasic muscle activity was needed to keep the unrestricted arms still during walking (Held), indicating a passive component of arm swing. An active component, possibly programmed centrally, existed as well, because some EMG signals persisted when the arms were immobilized during walking (Bound). Anti-Normal gait involved stronger EMG activity than Normal walking and was uneconomical. The present results indicate that normal arm swing has both passive and active components. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relating Eye Activity Measures to Human Controller Remnant Characteristics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Popovici, A; Zaal, P.M.T.; Pool, D.M.; Mulder, M.; Sawaragi, T

2016-01-01

This study attempts to partially explain the characteristics of the human perceptual remnant, following Levison’s representation of the remnant as an equivalent observation noise. Eye activity parameters are recorded using an eye tracker in two compensatory tracking tasks in which the visual

Immunocapture and microplate-based activity and quantity measurement of pyruvate dehydrogenase in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xiaowen; Pervez, Hira; Andersen, Lars W; Uber, Amy; Montissol, Sophia; Patel, Parth; Donnino, Michael W

2015-01-01

Background Pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity is altered in many human disorders. Current methods require tissue samples and yield inconsistent results. We describe a modified method for measuring PDH activity from isolated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Results/Methodology We found that PDH activity and quantity can be successfully measured in human PBMCs. Freeze-thaw cycles cannot efficiently disrupt the mitochondrial membrane. Processing time of up to 20 h does not affect PDH activity with proteinase inhibitor addition and a detergent concentration of 3.3% showed maximum yield. Sample protein concentration is correlated to PDH activity and quantity in human PBMCs from healthy subjects. Conclusion Measuring PDH activity from PBMCs is a novel, easy and less invasive way to further understand the role of PDH in human disease. PMID:25826140

Current status and issues of nuclear human resource development/General activities of Japan nuclear human resource development network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murakami, Hiroyuki; Hino, Sadami; Tsuru, Hisanori

2013-01-01

The Japan Nuclear Human Resource Development Network (JN-HRD Net) was established in November 2010 with the aim of developing a framework for mutual cooperation and information sharing among nuclear-related organizations. Although the tasks and goals of developing human resources in the nuclear field have been shifted since the accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, the necessity of fostering capable personnel in this field stays unchanged and the importance of our network activities has further emphasized. The meeting of JN-HRD Net was held on the 5th of February 2013, where its activities by each field were reported and views and opinions were actively exchanged between more than 90 participants. This paper briefly describes current status and issues of JN-HRD Net and its general activities conducted by the JN-HRD Net secretariat. (J.P.N.)

Human Protein C produces anticoagulation and increased fibrinolytic activity in the cat

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burdick, M.D.; Schaub, R.G.

1986-01-01

The effect of activated human Protein C (PCa) infusion on the coagulation and fibrinolytic systems of the Nembutal anesthetized cat was assessed. Human Protein C was activated by incubation with thrombin or by passage over a column of thrombin immobilized on CNBr Sepharose 4B. Cats were given bolus i.v. injections of either vehicle or PCa in a dose range of 3-16 μg/mL of calculated whole body volume. Citrated blood samples (9:1) were taken from a femoral vein prior to and at 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, 120, and 180 min. after PCa. Activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT) euglobulin clot lysis (ECLT) and I-125 fibrin release (FR) was measured. Vehicle treated cats had no change in any parameter. PCa produced a dose and time dependent prolongation of APTT while TT was unchanged. Anticoagulation was evident immediately after PCa infusion and began to normalize within 20 min. Fibrinolytic activity measured by ECLT and FR was also stimulated by PCa but was not evident until 40-60 minutes after PCa injection. The results show that human PCa induces anticoagulation effects in the cat similar to other species. However, stimulation of fibrinolysis requires a longer period of time before expression. This delay of fibrinolytic stimulation should be considered when assessing the effects of human Protein C in other species

Characterizing human activity induced impulse and slip-pulse excitations through structural vibration

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Shijia; Mirshekari, Mostafa; Fagert, Jonathon; Ramirez, Ceferino Gabriel; Chung, Albert Jin; Hu, Chih Chi; Shen, John Paul; Zhang, Pei; Noh, Hae Young

2018-02-01

Many human activities induce excitations on ambient structures with various objects, causing the structures to vibrate. Accurate vibration excitation source detection and characterization enable human activity information inference, hence allowing human activity monitoring for various smart building applications. By utilizing structural vibrations, we can achieve sparse and non-intrusive sensing, unlike pressure- and vision-based methods. Many approaches have been presented on vibration-based source characterization, and they often either focus on one excitation type or have limited performance due to the dispersion and attenuation effects of the structures. In this paper, we present our method to characterize two main types of excitations induced by human activities (impulse and slip-pulse) on multiple structures. By understanding the physical properties of waves and their propagation, the system can achieve accurate excitation tracking on different structures without large-scale labeled training data. Specifically, our algorithm takes properties of surface waves generated by impulse and of body waves generated by slip-pulse into account to handle the dispersion and attenuation effects when different types of excitations happen on various structures. We then evaluate the algorithm through multiple scenarios. Our method achieves up to a six times improvement in impulse localization accuracy and a three times improvement in slip-pulse trajectory length estimation compared to existing methods that do not take wave properties into account.

An implicit spatiotemporal shape model for human activity localization and recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oikonomopoulos, A.; Patras, I.; Pantic, Maja

2009-01-01

In this paper we address the problem of localisation and recognition of human activities in unsegmented image sequences. The main contribution of the proposed method is the use of an implicit representation of the spatiotemporal shape of the activity which relies on the spatiotemporal localization

Down-regulation of telomerase activity in DLD-1 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells by tocotrienol

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eitsuka, Takahiro; Nakagawa, Kiyotaka; Miyazawa, Teruo

2006-01-01

As high telomerase activity is detected in most cancer cells, inhibition of telomerase by drug or dietary food components is a new strategy for cancer prevention. Here, we investigated the inhibitory effect of vitamin E, with particular emphasis on tocotrienol (unsaturated vitamin E), on human telomerase in cell-culture study. As results, tocotrienol inhibited telomerase activity of DLD-1 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells in time- and dose-dependent manner, interestingly, with δ-tocotrienol exhibiting the highest inhibitory activity. Tocotrienol inhibited protein kinase C activity, resulting in down-regulation of c-myc and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) expression, thereby reducing telomerase activity. In contrast to tocotrienol, tocopherol showed very weak telomerase inhibition. These results provide novel evidence for First time indicating that tocotrienol acts as a potent candidate regulator of telomerase and supporting the anti-proliferative function of tocotrienol

The Evolution of Lineage-Specific Regulatory Activities in the Human Embryonic Limb

OpenAIRE

Cotney, Justin; Leng, Jing; Yin, Jun; Reilly, Steven K.; DeMare, Laura E.; Emera, Deena; Ayoub, Albert E.; Rakic, Pasko; Noonan, James P.

2013-01-01

The evolution of human anatomical features likely involved changes in gene regulation during development. However, the nature and extent of human-specific developmental regulatory functions remain unknown. We obtained a genome-wide view of cis-regulatory evolution in human embryonic tissues by comparing the histone modification H3K27ac, which provides a quantitative readout of promoter and enhancer activity, during human, rhesus, and mouse limb development. Based on increased H3K27ac, we find...

Coordinated Care Organizations: Neonatal and Infant Outcomes in Oregon.

Science.gov (United States)

Harvey, S Marie; Oakley, Lisa P; Yoon, Jangho; Luck, Jeff

2017-11-01

In 2012, Oregon's Medicaid program implemented a comprehensive accountable care model delivered through coordinated care organizations (CCOs). Because CCOs are expected to improve utilization of services and health outcomes, neonatal and infant outcomes may be important indicators of their impact. Estimating difference-in-differences models, we compared prepost CCO changes in outcomes (e.g., low birth weight, abnormal conditions, 5-minute Apgar score, congenital anomalies, and infant mortality) between Medicaid and non-Medicaid births among 99,924 infants born in Oregon during 2011 and 2013. We further examined differences in the impact of CCOs by ethnicity and rurality. Following CCO implementation the likelihood of low birth weight and abnormal conditions decreased by 0.95% and 1.08%, a reduction of 13.4% and 10.4% compared with the pre-CCO level for Medicaid enrollees, respectively. These reductions could be predictive of lifelong health benefits for infants and lower costs for acute care and are, therefore, important markers of success for the CCO model.

Use of human tissue to assess the oncogenic activity of melanoma-associated mutations.

Science.gov (United States)

Chudnovsky, Yakov; Adams, Amy E; Robbins, Paul B; Lin, Qun; Khavari, Paul A

2005-07-01

Multiple genetic alterations occur in melanoma, a lethal skin malignancy of increasing incidence. These include mutations that activate Ras and two of its effector cascades, Raf and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Induction of Ras and Raf can be caused by active N-Ras and B-Raf mutants as well as by gene amplification. Activation of PI3K pathway components occurs by PTEN loss and by AKT3 amplification. Melanomas also commonly show impairment of the p16(INK4A)-CDK4-Rb and ARF-HDM2-p53 tumor suppressor pathways. CDKN2A mutations can produce p16(INK4A) and ARF protein loss. Rb bypass can also occur through activating CDK4 mutations as well as by CDK4 amplification. In addition to ARF deletion, p53 pathway disruption can result from dominant negative TP53 mutations. TERT amplification also occurs in melanoma. The extent to which these mutations can induce human melanocytic neoplasia is unknown. Here we characterize pathways sufficient to generate human melanocytic neoplasia and show that genetically altered human tissue facilitates functional analysis of mutations observed in human tumors.

An Alternative to the Human Hemoglobin Test in the Investigation of Bloodstains Treated with Active Oxygen: The Human Glycophorin A Test

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Castelló

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In criminal investigations, there are three stages involved when studying bloodstains: search and orientation, confirmation, and individualization. Confirmatory tests have two aims: to show that the stain contains a human biological fluid and to confirm the type of biological fluid. The need to determine the nature of the evidence is reflected in the latest bibliography, where the possibility of employing mRNA and miRNA markers for this purpose is proposed. While these new proposals are being investigated, the kits for determining human hemoglobin currently provide a simple solution for resolving this issue. With these kits, the possibility of obtaining false positives and false negatives is well known. However, recently, a new problem has been detected. This involves the interference caused by new cleaning products that contain sodium percarbonate (or active oxygen when determining human hemoglobin. With the aim to resolve this problem, this work studied the ability of the human glycophorin A test to determine human blood in samples that have been treated with active oxygen. Our results show that the human glycophorin A test has a greater resistance to the destructive effect of the new detergents containing active oxygen; consequently, it provides an alternative to be taken into consideration in the confirmatory diagnoses of bloodstains.

Protein S binding to human endothelial cells is required for expression of cofactor activity for activated protein C

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hackeng, T. M.; Hessing, M.; van 't Veer, C.; Meijer-Huizinga, F.; Meijers, J. C.; de Groot, P. G.; van Mourik, J. A.; Bouma, B. N.

1993-01-01

An important feedback mechanism in blood coagulation is supplied by the protein C/protein S anticoagulant pathway. In this study we demonstrate that the binding of human protein S to cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) is required for the expression of cofactor activity of

Regulation of the human SLC25A20 expression by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha in human hepatoblastoma cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tachibana, Keisuke, E-mail: nya@phs.osaka-u.ac.jp [Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Takeuchi, Kentaro; Inada, Hirohiko [Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Yamasaki, Daisuke [Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); The Center for Advanced Medical Engineering and Informatics, Osaka University, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Ishimoto, Kenji [Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Tanaka, Toshiya; Hamakubo, Takao; Sakai, Juro; Kodama, Tatsuhiko [Laboratory for System Biology and Medicine, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8904 (Japan); Doi, Takefumi [Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, 1-6 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); The Center for Advanced Medical Engineering and Informatics, Osaka University, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)

2009-11-20

Solute carrier family 25, member 20 (SLC25A20) is a key molecule that transfers acylcarnitine esters in exchange for free carnitine across the mitochondrial membrane in the mitochondrial {beta}-oxidation. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR{alpha}) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that plays an important role in the regulation of {beta}-oxidation. We previously established tetracycline-regulated human cell line that can be induced to express PPAR{alpha} and found that PPAR{alpha} induces the SLC25A20 expression. In this study, we analyzed the promoter region of the human slc25a20 gene and showed that PPAR{alpha} regulates the expression of human SLC25A20 via the peroxisome proliferator responsive element.

Human dignity and the future of the voluntary active euthanasia debate in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordaan, Donrich W

2017-04-25

The issue of voluntary active euthanasia was thrust into the public policy arena by the Stransham-Ford lawsuit. The High Court legalised voluntary active euthanasia - however, ostensibly only in the specific case of Mr Stransham-Ford. The Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the High Court judgment on technical grounds, not on the merits. This means that in future the courts can be approached again to consider the legalisation of voluntary active euthanasia. As such, Stransham-Ford presents a learning opportunity for both sides of the legalisation divide. In particular, conceptual errors pertaining to human dignity were made in Stransham-Ford, and can be avoided in future. In this article, I identify these errors and propose the following three corrective principles to inform future debate on the subject: (i) human dignity is violable; (ii) human suffering violates human dignity; and (iii) the 'natural' causes of suffering due to terminal illness do not exclude the application of human dignity.

Human dignity and the future of the voluntary active euthanasia debate in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donrich W Jordaan

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The issue of voluntary active euthanasia was thrust into the public policy arena by the Stransham-Ford lawsuit. The High Court legalised voluntary active euthanasia – however, ostensibly only in the specific case of Mr Stransham-Ford. The Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the High Court judgment on technical grounds, not on the merits. This means that in future the courts can be approached again to consider the legalisation of voluntary active euthanasia. As such, Stransham-Ford presents a learning opportunity for both sides of the legalisation divide. In particular, conceptual errors pertaining to human dignity were made in Stransham-Ford, and can be avoided in future. In this article, I identify these errors and propose the following three corrective principles to inform future debate on the subject: (i human dignity is violable; (ii human suffering violates human dignity; and (iii the ‘natural’ causes of suffering due to terminal illness do not exclude the application of human dignity.

Contributions of climate change and human activities to runoff change in seven typical catchments across China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhai, Ran; Tao, Fulu

2017-12-15

Climate change and human activities are two major factors affecting water resource change. It is important to understand the roles of the major factors in affecting runoff change in different basins for watershed management. Here, we investigated the trends in climate and runoff in seven typical catchments in seven basins across China from 1961 to 2014. Then we attributed the runoff change to climate change and human activities in each catchment and in three time periods (1980s, 1990s and 2000s), using the VIC model and long-term runoff observation data. During 1961-2014, temperature increased significantly, while the trends in precipitation were insignificant in most of the catchments and inconsistent among the catchments. The runoff in most of the catchments showed a decreasing trend except the Yingluoxia catchment in the northwestern China. The contributions of climate change and human activities to runoff change varied in different catchments and time periods. In the 1980s, climate change contributed more to runoff change than human activities, which was 84%, 59%, -66%, -50%, 59%, 94%, and -59% in the Nianzishan, Yingluoxia, Xiahui, Yangjiaping, Sanjiangkou, Xixian, and Changle catchment, respectively. After that, human activities had played a more essential role in runoff change. In the 1990s and 2000s, human activities contributed more to runoff change than in the 1980s. The contribution by human activities accounted for 84%, -68%, and 67% in the Yingluoxia, Xiahui, and Sanjiangkou catchment, respectively, in the 1990s; and -96%, -67%, -94%, and -142% in the Nianzishan, Yangjiaping, Xixian, and Changle catchment, respectively, in the 2000s. It is also noted that after 2000 human activities caused decrease in runoff in all catchments except the Yingluoxia. Our findings highlight that the effects of human activities, such as increase in water withdrawal, land use/cover change, operation of dams and reservoirs, should be well managed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier

Inhibition by nucleosides of glucose-transport activity in human erythrocytes.

OpenAIRE

Jarvis, S M

1988-01-01

The interaction of nucleosides with the glucose carrier of human erythrocytes was examined by studying the effect of nucleosides on reversible cytochalasin B-binding activity and glucose transport. Adenosine, inosine and thymidine were more potent inhibitors of cytochalasin B binding to human erythrocyte membranes than was D-glucose [IC50 (concentration causing 50% inhibition) values of 10, 24, 28 and 38 mM respectively]. Moreover, low concentrations of thymidine and adenosine inhibited D-glu...

Metabolites of alectinib in human: their identification and pharmacological activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mika Sato-Nakai

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Two metabolites (M4 and M1b in plasma and four metabolites (M4, M6, M1a and M1b in faeces were detected through the human ADME study following a single oral administration of [14C]alectinib, a small-molecule anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor, to healthy subjects. In the present study, M1a and M1b, which chemical structures had not been identified prior to the human ADME study, were identified as isomers of a carboxylate metabolite oxidatively cleaved at the morpholine ring. In faeces, M4 and M1b were the main metabolites, which shows that the biotransformation to M4 and M1b represents two main metabolic pathways for alectinib. In plasma, M4 was a major metabolite and M1b was a minor metabolite. The contribution to in vivo pharmacological activity of these circulating metabolites was assessed from their in vitro pharmacological activity and plasma protein binding. M4 had a similar cancer cell growth inhibitory activity and plasma protein binding to that of alectinib, suggesting its contribution to the antitumor activity of alectinib, whereas the pharmacological activity of M1b was insignificant.

Complex Human Activity Recognition Using Smartphone and Wrist-Worn Motion Sensors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shoaib, M.; Bosch, S.; Durmaz, O.; Scholten, Johan; Havinga, Paul J.M.

2016-01-01

The position of on-body motion sensors plays an important role in human activity recognition. Most often, mobile phone sensors at the trouser pocket or an equivalent position are used for this purpose. However, this position is not suitable for recognizing activities that involve hand gestures, such

Isothiocyanates: An Overview of Their Antimicrobial Activity against Human Infections

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Letizia Romeo

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The use of plant-derived products as antimicrobial agents has been investigated in depth. Isothiocyanates (ITCs are bioactive products resulting from enzymatic hydrolysis of glucosinolates (GLs, the most abundant secondary metabolites in the botanical order Brassicales. Although the antimicrobial activity of ITCs against foodborne and plant pathogens has been well documented, little is known about their antimicrobial properties against human pathogens. This review collects studies that focus on this topic. Particular focus will be put on ITCs’ antimicrobial properties and their mechanism of action against human pathogens for which the current therapeutic solutions are deficient and therefore of prime importance for public health. Our purpose was the evaluation of the potential use of ITCs to replace or support the common antibiotics. Even though ITCs appear to be effective against the most important human pathogens, including bacteria with resistant phenotypes, the majority of the studies did not show comparable results and thus it is very difficult to compare the antimicrobial activity of the different ITCs. For this reason, a standard method should be used and further studies are needed.

Anthocyanin contents in the seed coat of black soya bean and their anti-human tyrosinase activity and antioxidative activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Jhan, J-K; Chung, Y-C; Chen, G-H; Chang, C-H; Lu, Y-C; Hsu, C-K

2016-06-01

The seed coat of black soya bean (SCBS) contains high amount of anthocyanins and shows antioxidant and anti-mushroom tyrosinase activities. The objectives of this study were to analyse the anthocyanins in SCBS with different solvents and to find the relationship between anthocyanin profile with anti-human and anti-mushroom tyrosinase activities. SCBS was extracted with hot water, 50 and 80% ethanol, 50 and 80% acetone and 50 and 80% acidified acetone. Total phenol and total flavonoid contents in the extracts were determined. Anthocyanins in the extracts were analysed using HPLC and LC/MS/MS. A genetically engineered human tyrosinase was used to evaluate the anti-tyrosinase potential of the extracts from SCBS. 80% acetone extract from SCBS obtained the highest total phenol, total flavonoid and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) contents among all the extracts, whereas the hot water extract showed the lowest antioxidant contents. Three anthocyanin compounds were found in all the extracts from SCBS, and the analysis of HPLC and LC/MS/MS indicated that they were C3G, delphinidin-3-O-glucoside (D3G) and peonidin-3-O-glucoside (P3G). The ratios of C3G (2.84 mg g(-1) ), D3G (0.34 mg g(-1) ) and P3G (0.35 mg g(-1) ) in 80% acidified acetone extract were 76.6, 9.1 and 9.3%, respectively. All the extracts from SCBS possessed anti-human tyrosinase activity. Moreover, a good correlation was found between the anti-human tyrosinase activities and C3G contents in the extracts. Antioxidants in SCBS also possess anti-human and anti-mushroom tyrosinase activities. © 2015 Society of Cosmetic Scientists and the Société Française de Cosmétologie.

Quantitation of fibroblast activation protein (FAP-specific protease activity in mouse, baboon and human fluids and organs

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Fiona M. Keane

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The protease fibroblast activation protein (FAP is a specific marker of activated mesenchymal cells in tumour stroma and fibrotic liver. A specific, reliable FAP enzyme assay has been lacking. FAP's unique and restricted cleavage of the post proline bond was exploited to generate a new specific substrate to quantify FAP enzyme activity. This sensitive assay detected no FAP activity in any tissue or fluid of FAP gene knockout mice, thus confirming assay specificity. Circulating FAP activity was ∼20- and 1.3-fold less in baboon than in mouse and human plasma, respectively. Serum and plasma contained comparable FAP activity. In mice, the highest levels of FAP activity were in uterus, pancreas, submaxillary gland and skin, whereas the lowest levels were in brain, prostate, leukocytes and testis. Baboon organs high in FAP activity included skin, epididymis, bladder, colon, adipose tissue, nerve and tongue. FAP activity was greatly elevated in tumours and associated lymph nodes and in fungal-infected skin of unhealthy baboons. FAP activity was 14- to 18-fold greater in cirrhotic than in non-diseased human liver, and circulating FAP activity was almost doubled in alcoholic cirrhosis. Parallel DPP4 measurements concorded with the literature, except for the novel finding of high DPP4 activity in bile. The new FAP enzyme assay is the first to be thoroughly characterised and shows that FAP activity is measurable in most organs and at high levels in some. This new assay is a robust tool for specific quantitation of FAP enzyme activity in both preclinical and clinical samples, particularly liver fibrosis.

The Effects of Context and Attention on Spiking Activity in Human Early Visual Cortex

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Self, Matthew W.; Peters, Judith C.; Possel, Jessy K.; Reithler, Joel; Goebel, Rainer; Ris, Peterjan; Jeurissen, Danique; Reddy, Leila; Claus, Steven; Baayen, Johannes C.; Roelfsema, Pieter R.

2016-01-01

Here we report the first quantitative analysis of spiking activity in human early visual cortex. We recorded multi-unit activity from two electrodes in area V2/V3 of a human patient implanted with depth electrodes as part of her treatment for epilepsy. We observed well-localized multi-unit receptive

The Effects of Context and Attention on Spiking Activity in Human Early Visual Cortex

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Self, Matthew W; Peters, Judith C; Possel, Jessy K; Reithler, Joel; Goebel, Rainer; Ris, Peterjan; Jeurissen, Danique; Reddy, Leila; Claus, Steven; Baayen, Johannes C; Roelfsema, Pieter R

Here we report the first quantitative analysis of spiking activity in human early visual cortex. We recorded multi-unit activity from two electrodes in area V2/V3 of a human patient implanted with depth electrodes as part of her treatment for epilepsy. We observed well-localized multi-unit receptive

Wearable-Based Human Activity Recognition Using an IoT Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diego Castro

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel system based on the Internet of Things (IoT to Human Activity Recognition (HAR by monitoring vital signs remotely. We use machine learning algorithms to determine the activity done within four pre-established categories (lie, sit, walk and jog. Meanwhile, it is able to give feedback during and after the activity is performed, using a remote monitoring component with remote visualization and programmable alarms. This system was successfully implemented with a 95.83% success ratio.

Active glass-type human augmented cognition system considering attention and intention

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Bumhwi; Ojha, Amitash; Lee, Minho

2015-10-01

Human cognition is the result of an interaction of several complex cognitive processes with limited capabilities. Therefore, the primary objective of human cognitive augmentation is to assist and expand these limited human cognitive capabilities independently or together. In this study, we propose a glass-type human augmented cognition system, which attempts to actively assist human memory functions by providing relevant, necessary and intended information by constantly assessing intention of the user. To achieve this, we exploit selective attention and intention processes. Although the system can be used in various real-life scenarios, we test the performance of the system in a person identity scenario. To detect the intended face, the system analyses the gaze points and change in pupil size to determine the intention of the user. An assessment of the gaze points and change in pupil size together indicates that the user intends to know the identity and information about the person in question. Then, the system retrieves several clues through speech recognition system and retrieves relevant information about the face, which is finally displayed through head-mounted display. We present the performance of several components of the system. Our results show that the active and relevant assistance based on users' intention significantly helps the enhancement of memory functions.

Organisations-trifft Kommunikationsforschung

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schoeneborn, Dennis

2013-01-01

This article introduces one emergent theoretical perspective from the North American research field of organizational communication that has come to be called “communication constitutes organization“ (CCO). The CCO perspective ascribes to communication a fundamental role in the constitution...... of organizations: Organizations basically consist of interconnected events of communication....

A Similarity Analysis of Audio Signal to Develop a Human Activity Recognition Using Similarity Networks

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Alejandra García-Hernández

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Human Activity Recognition (HAR is one of the main subjects of study in the areas of computer vision and machine learning due to the great benefits that can be achieved. Examples of the study areas are: health prevention, security and surveillance, automotive research, and many others. The proposed approaches are carried out using machine learning techniques and present good results. However, it is difficult to observe how the descriptors of human activities are grouped. In order to obtain a better understanding of the the behavior of descriptors, it is important to improve the abilities to recognize the human activities. This paper proposes a novel approach for the HAR based on acoustic data and similarity networks. In this approach, we were able to characterize the sound of the activities and identify those activities looking for similarity in the sound pattern. We evaluated the similarity of the sounds considering mainly two features: the sound location and the materials that were used. As a result, the materials are a good reference classifying the human activities compared with the location.

Actively learning human gaze shifting paths for semantics-aware photo cropping.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Luming; Gao, Yue; Ji, Rongrong; Xia, Yingjie; Dai, Qionghai; Li, Xuelong

2014-05-01

Photo cropping is a widely used tool in printing industry, photography, and cinematography. Conventional cropping models suffer from the following three challenges. First, the deemphasized role of semantic contents that are many times more important than low-level features in photo aesthetics. Second, the absence of a sequential ordering in the existing models. In contrast, humans look at semantically important regions sequentially when viewing a photo. Third, the difficulty of leveraging inputs from multiple users. Experience from multiple users is particularly critical in cropping as photo assessment is quite a subjective task. To address these challenges, this paper proposes semantics-aware photo cropping, which crops a photo by simulating the process of humans sequentially perceiving semantically important regions of a photo. We first project the local features (graphlets in this paper) onto the semantic space, which is constructed based on the category information of the training photos. An efficient learning algorithm is then derived to sequentially select semantically representative graphlets of a photo, and the selecting process can be interpreted by a path, which simulates humans actively perceiving semantics in a photo. Furthermore, we learn a prior distribution of such active graphlet paths from training photos that are marked as aesthetically pleasing by multiple users. The learned priors enforce the corresponding active graphlet path of a test photo to be maximally similar to those from the training photos. Experimental results show that: 1) the active graphlet path accurately predicts human gaze shifting, and thus is more indicative for photo aesthetics than conventional saliency maps and 2) the cropped photos produced by our approach outperform its competitors in both qualitative and quantitative comparisons.

Correlation between proliferative activity and cellular thickness of human mesenchymal stem cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katsube, Yoshihiro; Hirose, Motohiro; Nakamura, Chikashi; Ohgushi, Hajime

2008-01-01

A cell's shape is known to be related to its proliferative activity. In particular, large and flat mammalian adult stem cells seem to show slow proliferation, however using quantitative analysis to prove the phenomenon is difficult. We measured the proliferation and cellular thickness of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) by atomic force microscopy and found that MSCs with high proliferative activity were thick while those with low proliferative activity were thin, even though these MSCs were early passage cells. Further, low proliferative MSCs contained many senescence-associated β-galactosidase positive cells together with high senescence-associated gene expression. These findings suggest that the measurement of cellular thickness is useful for estimating the proliferative activity of human MSCs and is expected to be a practical tool for MSC applications in regenerative medicine

Environmental Health in Relation to Urban Planning and Human Physical Activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliver, L.H.L.; Siti Nur Afiqah Mohamed Musthafa; Dasimah Omar

2015-01-01

The world is changing everyday in a fast pace that makes majority of the urbanized areas becoming more congested and polluted by the development. The planning of the urban world has brought about a great impact towards the environment and health. With the large number of human population, urban areas will have various kinds of activities that contributed to the higher rate of pollutants compared to areas with less development. In a car oriented urban development pattern, majority of the population will choose automobiles as their transportation modes rather than walking or cycling. Due to that, the air emission in urban areas will increase rapidly, and reduce the physical activity. Air pollutants contribute to various health problems, especially respiratory infection. Besides, lacking of physical activities also increase the health risk. However, there is limited study on the relationship between urban land use setting and health in developing country. Thus, a study had been carried out to establish the relationship between urban setting and human health. It involved air quality data collection, observation on land use setting, and questionnaire survey on human health and the lifestyle. Findings from the relationship analysis had been discussed with suitable recommendation and conclusion. (author)

Focus-of-attention for human activity recognition from UAVs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burghouts, G.J.; Eekeren, A.W.M. van; Dijk, J.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a system to extract metadata about human activities from full-motion video recorded from a UAV. The pipeline consists of these components: tracking, motion features, representation of the tracks in terms of their motion features, and classification of each track as one of the

Downregulation of telomerase activity in human promyelocytic cell line using RNA interference.

Science.gov (United States)

Miri-Moghaddam, E; Deezagi, A; Soheili, Z S

2009-12-01

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex. It consists of two main components, human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and human telomerase RNA. High telomerase activity is present in most malignant cells, but it is barely detectable in majority of somatic cells. The direct correlation between telomerase reactivation and carcinogens has made hTERT a key target for anticancer therapeutic studies. In this study, for the first time, we evaluated the ability of the new generation of short interfering RNA (siRNA) to regulate telomerase activity in the human promyelocytic leukemia cell line (HL-60). Transient transfection cell line by hTERT siRNAs resulted in statistically significant suppression of hTERT messenger RNAs which were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, while the expressed hTERT protein levels were measured by flow cytometry. The results of telomeric repeat amplification protocol showed that telomerase activity was significantly reduced upon transfection of the HL-60 cell line with hTERT siRNAs. The results of this study showed that telomerase activity and cell proliferation were efficiently inhibited in the hTERT siRNA-treated leukemic cell line.

Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario Moreira-Arce

Full Text Available Diurnal human activity and domestic dogs in agro-forestry mosaics should theoretically modify the diurnal habitat use patterns of native carnivores, with these effects being scale-dependent. We combined intensive camera trapping data with Bayesian occurrence probability models to evaluate both diurnal and nocturnal patterns of space use by carnivores in a mosaic of land-use types in southern Chile. A total of eight carnivores species were recorded, including human-introduced dogs. During the day the most frequently detected species were the culpeo fox and the cougar. Conversely, during the night, the kodkod and chilla fox were the most detected species. The best supported models showed that native carnivores responded differently to landscape attributes and dogs depending on both the time of day as well as the spatial scale of landscape attributes. The positive effect of native forest cover at 250 m and 500 m radius buffers was stronger during the night for the Darwin's fox and cougar. Road density at 250 m scale negatively affected the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s fox, whereas at 500 m scale roads had a stronger negative effect on the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s foxes and cougars. A positive effect of road density on dog occurrence was evidenced during both night and day. Patch size had a positive effect on cougar occurrence during night whereas it affected negatively the occurrence of culpeo foxes and skunks during day. Dog occurrence had a negative effect on Darwin's fox occurrence during day-time and night-time, whereas its negative effect on the occurrence of cougar was evidenced only during day-time. Carnivore occurrences were not influenced by the proximity to a conservation area. Our results provided support for the hypothesis that diurnal changes to carnivore occurrence were associated with human and dog activity. Landscape planning in our study area should be focused in reducing both the levels of diurnal human activity in

Diurnal Human Activity and Introduced Species Affect Occurrence of Carnivores in a Human-Dominated Landscape.

Science.gov (United States)

Moreira-Arce, Dario; Vergara, Pablo M; Boutin, Stan

2015-01-01

Diurnal human activity and domestic dogs in agro-forestry mosaics should theoretically modify the diurnal habitat use patterns of native carnivores, with these effects being scale-dependent. We combined intensive camera trapping data with Bayesian occurrence probability models to evaluate both diurnal and nocturnal patterns of space use by carnivores in a mosaic of land-use types in southern Chile. A total of eight carnivores species were recorded, including human-introduced dogs. During the day the most frequently detected species were the culpeo fox and the cougar. Conversely, during the night, the kodkod and chilla fox were the most detected species. The best supported models showed that native carnivores responded differently to landscape attributes and dogs depending on both the time of day as well as the spatial scale of landscape attributes. The positive effect of native forest cover at 250 m and 500 m radius buffers was stronger during the night for the Darwin's fox and cougar. Road density at 250 m scale negatively affected the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s fox, whereas at 500 m scale roads had a stronger negative effect on the diurnal occurrence of Darwin´s foxes and cougars. A positive effect of road density on dog occurrence was evidenced during both night and day. Patch size had a positive effect on cougar occurrence during night whereas it affected negatively the occurrence of culpeo foxes and skunks during day. Dog occurrence had a negative effect on Darwin's fox occurrence during day-time and night-time, whereas its negative effect on the occurrence of cougar was evidenced only during day-time. Carnivore occurrences were not influenced by the proximity to a conservation area. Our results provided support for the hypothesis that diurnal changes to carnivore occurrence were associated with human and dog activity. Landscape planning in our study area should be focused in reducing both the levels of diurnal human activity in native forest remnants

Elemental analysis of human serum and serum protein fractions by thermal neutron activation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woittiez, J.R.W.

1984-01-01

Some applications of thermal neutron activation for the determination of elemental contents in human serum and human serum protein fractions are presented. Firstly total serum is dealt with, secondly serum protein fractions obtained by gel filtration are described. A brief review on the role of (trace) elements in human health and disease and a compilation of literature data for elemental contents in human serum, as obtained by neutron activation techniques, are given. The most important sources of statistical and systematic errors are evaluated. Results for the contents of sodium, potassium, magnesium, bromine, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, rubidium, cesium and antimony in serum are given, with emphasis on control of accuracy and precision. The possible relation between selenium in blood and cancer occurrence in humans is discussed. The results of elemental analyses from cancer patients and from a patient receiving a cytostatic treatment are presented. A survey of literature results for the determination of protein-bound elemental contents in serum is presented. Subsequently, results from a study on the behaviour of elements during gel filtration are discussed. Gel-element and protein-element interactions are studied. Finally the protein-bound occurrence of trace elements in human serum is determined by gel filtration and neutron activation analysis. Results for both desalting and fractionation are given, for the elements bromine, copper, manganese, vanadium, selenium, zinc, rubidium, iron and iodine. (Auth.)

Antagonistic activity of antibiotic producing Streptomyces sp. against fish and human pathogenic bacteria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nazmul Hossain

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this study, attempts were made to isolate Streptomyces sp. from soil samples of two different regions of Bangladesh and evaluate their antagonistic activity against fish and human pathogenic bacteria. A total of 10 isolates were identified as Streptomyces sp. based on several morphological, physiological and biochemical tests. Cross streak method was used to observe the antagonistic activity of the Streptomyces sp. isolates against different fish pathogens belonging to the genus Aeromonas, Pseudomonas and Edwardsiella and human clinical isolates belonging to the genus Klebsiella, Salmonella and Streptococcus. Seven Streptomyces sp. isolates showed antagonism against both fish and human pathogenic bacteria. Four isolates viz., N24, N26, N28 and N47 showed broad spectrum of antagonistic activity (80-100% against all genera of fish and human pathogenic bacteria. The isolate N49 exhibited highest spectrum of antagonism against all fish pathogens (90-100% but comparatively lower degree of antagonism against human pathogens (50-60%. Rest of the two isolates (N21 and N23 showed variability in their antagonism. Results showed that broad spectrum antibiotic(s could be developed from the isolates N24, N26, N28 and N47against several human and fish pathogens. The isolate N49 could be a potential source of antibiotic, especially for fish pathogenic bacteria.

Toshiba's activity concerning technology succession and human resource development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogura, Kenji; Hoshide, Akehiko

2008-01-01

Recently, from the viewpoint of the reduction of carbon-dioxide emission that cause global warming and the energy security, the importance of nuclear power generation is recognized again as an effective approach for solving the problems, and many nuclear power plants are planed to be constructed worldwide. On the other hand, the experienced engineers will face the time of the retirement in the near future and technology succession and human resource development has become important problems. In this paper, Toshiba's Nuclear Energy Systems and Services Division's activity concerning technology succession and human resource development will be introduced. (author)

AMP-activated protein kinase activation mediates CCL3-induced cell migration and matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression in human chondrosarcoma

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3 (CCL3), also known as macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, is a cytokine involved in inflammation and activation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. CCL3 has been detected in infiltrating cells and tumor cells. Chondrosarcoma is a highly malignant tumor that causes distant metastasis. However, the effect of CCL3 on human chondrosarcoma metastasis is still unknown. Here, we found that CCL3 increased cellular migration and expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 in human chondrosarcoma cells. Pre-treatment of cells with the MMP-2 inhibitor or transfection with MMP-2 specific siRNA abolished CCL3-induced cell migration. CCL3 has been reported to exert its effects through activation of its specific receptor, CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5). The CCR5 and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor or siRNA also attenuated CCL3-upregulated cell motility and MMP-2 expression. CCL3-induced expression of MMP-2 and migration were also inhibited by specific inhibitors, and inactive mutants of AMPK, p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 or p38-MAPK), and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) cascades. On the other hand, CCL3 treatment demonstrably activated AMPK, p38, and NF-κB signaling pathways. Furthermore, the expression levels of CCL3, CCR5, and MMP-2 were correlated in human chondrosarcoma specimens. Taken together, our results indicate that CCL3 enhances the migratory ability of human chondrosarcoma cells by increasing MMP-2 expression via the CCR5, AMPK, p38, and NF-κB pathways. PMID:24047437

Human-robot interaction: kinematics and muscle activity inside a powered compliant knee exoskeleton.

Science.gov (United States)

Knaepen, Kristel; Beyl, Pieter; Duerinck, Saartje; Hagman, Friso; Lefeber, Dirk; Meeusen, Romain

2014-11-01

Until today it is not entirely clear how humans interact with automated gait rehabilitation devices and how we can, based on that interaction, maximize the effectiveness of these exoskeletons. The goal of this study was to gain knowledge on the human-robot interaction, in terms of kinematics and muscle activity, between a healthy human motor system and a powered knee exoskeleton (i.e., KNEXO). Therefore, temporal and spatial gait parameters, human joint kinematics, exoskeleton kinetics and muscle activity during four different walking trials in 10 healthy male subjects were studied. Healthy subjects can walk with KNEXO in patient-in-charge mode with some slight constraints in kinematics and muscle activity primarily due to inertia of the device. Yet, during robot-in-charge walking the muscular constraints are reversed by adding positive power to the leg swing, compensating in part this inertia. Next to that, KNEXO accurately records and replays the right knee kinematics meaning that subject-specific trajectories can be implemented as a target trajectory during assisted walking. No significant differences in the human response to the interaction with KNEXO in low and high compliant assistance could be pointed out. This is in contradiction with our hypothesis that muscle activity would decrease with increasing assistance. It seems that the differences between the parameter settings of low and high compliant control might not be sufficient to observe clear effects in healthy subjects. Moreover, we should take into account that KNEXO is a unilateral, 1 degree-of-freedom device.

Activation of the lectin complement pathway on human renal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study aimed to investigate the roles of high glucose and mannose-binding lectin (MBL) on the activation of the lectin complement pathway (LCP) on human renal glomerular endothelial cells (HRGECs) in vitro. Flow cytometry analysis, immunofluorescence staining and Western blot were used to detect the cell surface ...

Human factors in remote control engineering development activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clarke, M.M.; Hamel, W.R.; Draper, J.V.

1983-01-01

Human factors engineering, which is an integral part of the advanced remote control development activities at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is described. First, work at the Remote Systems Development Facility (RSDF) has shown that operators can perform a wide variety of tasks, some of which were not specifically designed for remote systems, with a dextrous electronic force-reflecting servomanipulator and good television remote viewing capabilities. Second, the data collected during mock-up remote maintenance experiments at the RSDF have been analyzed to provide guidelines for the design of human interfaces with an integrated advanced remote maintenance system currently under development. Guidelines have been provided for task allocation between operators, remote viewing systems, and operator controls. 6 references, 5 figures, 2 tables

Human Spaceflight. Activities for the Primary Student. Aerospace Education Services Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartsfield, John W.; Hartsfield, Kendra J.

Since its beginning, the space program has caught the attention of young people. This space science activity booklet was designed to provide information and learning activities for students in elementary grades. It contains chapters on: (1) primitive beliefs about flight; (2) early fantasies of flight; (3) the United States human spaceflight…

Interaction of Human Enterochromaffin Cells with Human Enteric Adenovirus 41 Leads to Serotonin Release and Subsequent Activation of Enteric Glia Cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Westerberg, Sonja; Hagbom, Marie; Rajan, Anandi; Loitto, Vesa; Persson, B David; Allard, Annika; Nordgren, Johan; Sharma, Sumit; Magnusson, Karl-Eric; Arnberg, Niklas; Svensson, Lennart

2018-04-01

Human adenovirus 41 (HAdV-41) causes acute gastroenteritis in young children. The main characteristics of HAdV-41 infection are diarrhea and vomiting. Nevertheless, the precise mechanism of HAdV-41-induced diarrhea is unknown, as a suitable small-animal model has not been described. In this study, we used the human midgut carcinoid cell line GOT1 to investigate the effect of HAdV-41 infection and the individual HAdV-41 capsid proteins on serotonin release by enterochromaffin cells and on enteric glia cell (EGC) activation. We first determined that HAdV-41 could infect the enterochromaffin cells. Immunofluorescence staining revealed that the cells expressed HAdV-41-specific coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR); flow cytometry analysis supported these findings. HAdV-41 infection of the enterochromaffin cells induced serotonin secretion dose dependently. In contrast, control infection with HAdV-5 did not induce serotonin secretion in the cells. Confocal microscopy studies of enterochromaffin cells infected with HAdV-41 revealed decreased serotonin immunofluorescence compared to that in uninfected cells. Incubation of the enterochromaffin cells with purified HAdV-41 short fiber knob and hexon proteins increased the serotonin levels in the harvested cell supernatant significantly. HAdV-41 infection could also activate EGCs, as shown in the significantly altered expression of glia fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in EGCs incubated with HAdV-41. The EGCs were also activated by serotonin alone, as shown in the significantly increased GFAP staining intensity. Likewise, EGCs were activated by the cell supernatant of HAdV-41-infected enterochromaffin cells. IMPORTANCE The nonenveloped human adenovirus 41 causes diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and low-grade fever mainly in children under 2 years of age. Even though acute gastroenteritis is well described, how human adenovirus 41 causes diarrhea is unknown. In our study, we analyzed the effect of human adenovirus 41

Disturbances of electrodynamic activity affect abortion in human

Science.gov (United States)

Jandová, A.; Nedbalová, M.; Kobilková, J.; Čoček, A.; Dohnalová, A.; Cifra, M.; Pokorný, J.

2011-12-01

Biochemical research of biological systems is highly developed, and it has disclosed a spectrum of chemical reactions, genetic processes, and the pathological development of various diseases. The fundamental hypothesis of physical processes in biological systems, in particular of coherent electrically polar vibrations and electromagnetic activity, was formulated by H. Fröhlich he assumed connection of cancer process with degradation of coherent electromagnetic activity. But the questions of cellular structures capable of the coherent electrical polar oscillation, mechanisms of energy supply, and the specific role of the endogenous electromagnetic fields in transport, organisation, interactions, and information transfer remained open. The nature of physical disturbances caused by some diseases (including the recurrent abortion in humans and the cancer) was unknown. We have studied the reasons of recurrent abortions in humans by means of the cell mediated immunity (using immunologic active RNA prepared from blood of inbred laboratory mice strain C3H/H2K, infected with the lactate dehydrogenase elevating virus-LD V) and the cytogenetic examination from karyotype pictures. The recurrent abortion group contained women with dg. spontaneous abortion (n = 24) and the control group was composed of 30 healthy pregnant women. Our hypothesis was related to quality of endometrium in relation to nidation of the blastocyst. The energetic insufficiency (ATP) inhibits normal development of fetus and placenta. We hope that these ideas might have impact on further research, which could provide background for effective interdisciplinary cooperation of malignant and non-malignant diseases.

Disturbances of electrodynamic activity affect abortion in human

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jandová, A; Cifra, M; Pokorný, J; Nedbalová, M; Dohnalová, A; Kobilková, J; Cocek, A

2011-01-01

Biochemical research of biological systems is highly developed, and it has disclosed a spectrum of chemical reactions, genetic processes, and the pathological development of various diseases. The fundamental hypothesis of physical processes in biological systems, in particular of coherent electrically polar vibrations and electromagnetic activity, was formulated by H. Fröhlich; he assumed connection of cancer process with degradation of coherent electromagnetic activity. But the questions of cellular structures capable of the coherent electrical polar oscillation, mechanisms of energy supply, and the specific role of the endogenous electromagnetic fields in transport, organisation, interactions, and information transfer remained open. The nature of physical disturbances caused by some diseases (including the recurrent abortion in humans and the cancer) was unknown. We have studied the reasons of recurrent abortions in humans by means of the cell mediated immunity (using immunologic active RNA prepared from blood of inbred laboratory mice strain C3H/H2K, infected with the lactate dehydrogenase elevating virus-LD V) and the cytogenetic examination from karyotype pictures. The recurrent abortion group contained women with dg. spontaneous abortion (n = 24) and the control group was composed of 30 healthy pregnant women. Our hypothesis was related to quality of endometrium in relation to nidation of the blastocyst. The energetic insufficiency (ATP) inhibits normal development of fetus and placenta. We hope that these ideas might have impact on further research, which could provide background for effective interdisciplinary cooperation of malignant and non-malignant diseases.

Semi-synthetic salinomycin analogs exert cytotoxic activity against human colorectal cancer stem cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Klose, Johannes; Kattner, Sarah; Borgström, Björn; Volz, Claudia; Schmidt, Thomas; Schneider, Martin; Oredsson, Stina; Strand, Daniel; Ulrich, Alexis

2018-01-01

Salinomycin, a polyether antibiotic, is a well-known inhibitor of human cancer stem cells. Chemical modification of the allylic C20 hydroxyl of salinomycin has enabled access to synthetic analogs that display increased cytotoxic activity compared to the native structure. The aim of this study was to investigate the activity of a cohort of C20-O-acyl analogs of salinomycin on human colorectal cancer cell lines in vitro. Two human colorectal cancer cell lines (SW480 and SW620) were exposed to three C20-O-acylated analogs and salinomycin. The impact of salinomycin and its analogs on tumor cell number, migration, cell death, and cancer stem cell specifity was analyzed. Exposure of human colorectal cancer cells to the C20-O-acylated analogs of salinomycin resulted in reduced tumor cell number and impaired tumor cell migration at lower concentrations than salinomycin. When used at higher (micromolar) concentrations, these effects were accompanied by induction of apoptotic cell death. Salinomycin analogs further expose improved activity against cancer stem cells compared to salinomycin. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ionizing Radiation Activates AMP-Activated Kinase (AMPK): A Target for Radiosensitization of Human Cancer Cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanli, Toran; Rashid, Ayesha; Liu Caiqiong

2010-01-01

Purpose: Adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated kinase (AMPK) is a molecular energy sensor regulated by the tumor suppressor LKB1. Starvation and growth factors activate AMPK through the DNA damage sensor ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM). We explored the regulation of AMPK by ionizing radiation (IR) and its role as a target for radiosensitization of human cancer cells. Methods and Materials: Lung, prostate, and breast cancer cells were treated with IR (2-8 Gy) after incubation with either ATM or AMPK inhibitors or the AMPK activator metformin. Then, cells were subjected to either lysis and immunoblotting, immunofluorescence microscopy, clonogenic survival assays, or cell cycle analysis. Results: IR induced a robust phosphorylation and activation of AMPK in all tumor cells, independent of LKB1. IR activated AMPK first in the nucleus, and this extended later into cytoplasm. The ATM inhibitor KU-55933 blocked IR activation of AMPK. AMPK inhibition with Compound C or anti-AMPK α subunit small interfering RNA (siRNA) blocked IR induction of the cell cycle regulators p53 and p21 waf/cip as well as the IR-induced G2/M arrest. Compound C caused resistance to IR, increasing the surviving fraction after 2 Gy, but the anti-diabetic drug metformin enhanced IR activation of AMPK and lowered the surviving fraction after 2 Gy further. Conclusions: We provide evidence that IR activates AMPK in human cancer cells in an LKB1-independent manner, leading to induction of p21 waf/cip and regulation of the cell cycle and survival. AMPK appears to (1) participate in an ATM-AMPK-p21 waf/cip pathway, (2) be involved in regulation of the IR-induced G2/M checkpoint, and (3) may be targeted by metformin to enhance IR responses.

Human movement activity classification approaches that use wearable sensors and mobile devices

Science.gov (United States)

Kaghyan, Sahak; Sarukhanyan, Hakob; Akopian, David

2013-03-01

Cell phones and other mobile devices become part of human culture and change activity and lifestyle patterns. Mobile phone technology continuously evolves and incorporates more and more sensors for enabling advanced applications. Latest generations of smart phones incorporate GPS and WLAN location finding modules, vision cameras, microphones, accelerometers, temperature sensors etc. The availability of these sensors in mass-market communication devices creates exciting new opportunities for data mining applications. Particularly healthcare applications exploiting build-in sensors are very promising. This paper reviews different approaches of human activity recognition.

The spatial structure of transnational human activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Deutschmann, Emanuel

2016-09-01

Starting from conflictive predictions of hitherto disconnected debates in the natural and social sciences, this article examines the spatial structure of transnational human activity (THA) worldwide (a) across eight types of mobility and communication and (b) in its development over time. It is shown that the spatial structure of THA is similar to that of animal displacements and local-scale human motion in that it can be approximated by Lévy flights with heavy tails that obey power laws. Scaling exponent and power-law fit differ by type of THA, being highest in refuge-seeking and tourism and lowest in student exchange. Variance in the availability of resources and opportunities for satisfying associated needs appears to explain these differences. Over time (1960-2010), the Lévy-flight pattern remains intact and remarkably stable, contradicting the popular notion that socio-technological trends lead to a "death of distance." Humans have not become more "global" over time, they rather became more mobile in general, i.e. they move and communicate more at all distances. Hence, it would be more adequate to speak of "mobilization" than of "globalization." Longitudinal change occurs only in some types of THA and predominantly at short distances, indicating regional rather than global shifts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Subtype of Inhibitory Interneuron with Intrinsic Persistent Activity in Human and Monkey Neocortex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Wang

2015-03-01

Full Text Available A critical step in understanding the neural basis of human cognitive functions is to identify neuronal types in the neocortex. In this study, we performed whole-cell recording from human cortical slices and found a distinct subpopulation of neurons with intrinsic persistent activity that could be triggered by single action potentials (APs but terminated by bursts of APs. This persistent activity was associated with a depolarizing plateau potential induced by the activation of a persistent Na+ current. Single-cell RT-PCR revealed that these neurons were inhibitory interneurons. This type of neuron was found in different cortical regions, including temporal, frontal, occipital, and parietal cortices in human and also in frontal and temporal lobes of nonhuman primate but not in rat cortical tissues, suggesting that it could be unique to primates. The characteristic persistent activity in these inhibitory interneurons may contribute to the regulation of pyramidal cell activity and participate in cortical processing.

A survey on using domain and contextual knowledge for human activity recognition in video streams

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Onofri, L.; Soda, P.; Pechenizkiy, M.; Iannello, G.

2016-01-01

Human activity recognition has gained an increasing relevance in computer vision and it can be tackled with either non-hierarchical or hierarchical approaches. The former, also known as single-layered approaches, are those that represent and recognize human activities directly from the extracted

The stability of complement-mediated bactericidal activity in human serum against Salmonella.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Colette M O'Shaughnessy

Full Text Available The complement cascade includes heat-labile proteins and care is required when handling serum in order to preserve its functional integrity. We have previously used a whole human serum bactericidal assay to show that antibody and an intact complement system are required in blood for killing of invasive isolates of Salmonella. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the conditions under which human serum can be stored and manipulated while maintaining complement integrity. Serum bactericidal activity against Salmonella was maintained for a minimum of 35 days when stored at 4°C, eight days at 22°C and 54 hours at 37°C. Up to three freeze-thaw cycles had no effect on the persistence of bactericidal activity and hemolytic complement assays confirmed no effect on complement function. Delay in the separation of serum for up to four days from clotted blood stored at 22°C did not affect bactericidal activity. Dilution of serum resulted in an increased rate of loss of bactericidal activity and so serum should be stored undiluted. These findings indicate that the current guidelines concerning manipulation and storage of human serum to preserve complement integrity and function leave a large margin for safety with regards to bactericidal activity against Salmonella. The study provides a scheme for determining the requirements for serum handling in relation to functional activity of complement in other systems.

Using human brain activity to guide machine learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Ruth C; Scheirer, Walter J; Cox, David D

2018-03-29

Machine learning is a field of computer science that builds algorithms that learn. In many cases, machine learning algorithms are used to recreate a human ability like adding a caption to a photo, driving a car, or playing a game. While the human brain has long served as a source of inspiration for machine learning, little effort has been made to directly use data collected from working brains as a guide for machine learning algorithms. Here we demonstrate a new paradigm of "neurally-weighted" machine learning, which takes fMRI measurements of human brain activity from subjects viewing images, and infuses these data into the training process of an object recognition learning algorithm to make it more consistent with the human brain. After training, these neurally-weighted classifiers are able to classify images without requiring any additional neural data. We show that our neural-weighting approach can lead to large performance gains when used with traditional machine vision features, as well as to significant improvements with already high-performing convolutional neural network features. The effectiveness of this approach points to a path forward for a new class of hybrid machine learning algorithms which take both inspiration and direct constraints from neuronal data.

Genome-wide analysis of carotenoid cleavage oxygenase genes and their responses to various phytohormones and abiotic stresses in apple (Malus domestica).

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hongfei; Zuo, Xiya; Shao, Hongxia; Fan, Sheng; Ma, Juanjuan; Zhang, Dong; Zhao, Caiping; Yan, Xiangyan; Liu, Xiaojie; Han, Mingyu

2018-02-01

Carotenoid cleavage oxygenases (CCOs) are able to cleave carotenoids to produce apocarotenoids and their derivatives, which are important for plant growth and development. In this study, 21 apple CCO genes were identified and divided into six groups based on their phylogenetic relationships. We further characterized the apple CCO genes in terms of chromosomal distribution, structure and the presence of cis-elements in the promoter. We also predicted the cellular localization of the encoded proteins. An analysis of the synteny within the apple genome revealed that tandem, segmental, and whole-genome duplication events likely contributed to the expansion of the apple carotenoid oxygenase gene family. An additional integrated synteny analysis identified orthologous carotenoid oxygenase genes between apple and Arabidopsis thaliana, which served as references for the functional analysis of the apple CCO genes. The net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, and stomatal conductance of leaves decreased, while leaf stomatal density increased under drought and saline conditions. Tissue-specific gene expression analyses revealed diverse spatiotemporal expression patterns. Finally, hormone and abiotic stress treatments indicated that many apple CCO genes are responsive to various phytohormones as well as drought and salinity stresses. The genome-wide identification of apple CCO genes and the analyses of their expression patterns described herein may provide a solid foundation for future studies examining the regulation and functions of this gene family. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Structure-activity relationships of diverse xanthones against multidrug resistant human tumor cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Qiwen; Ma, Chenyao; Ma, Yun; Li, Xiang; Chen, Yong; Chen, Jianwei

2017-02-01

Thirteen xanthones were isolated naturally from the stem of Securidaca inappendiculata Hassk, and structure-activity relationships (SARs) of these compounds were comparatively predicted for their cytotoxic activity against three human multidrug resistant (MDR) cell lines MCF-7/ADR, SMMC-7721/Taxol, and A549/Taxol cells. The results showed that the selected xanthones exhibited different potent cytotoxic activity against the growth of different human tumor cell lines, and most of the xanthones exhibited selective cytotoxicity against SMMC-7721/Taxol cells. Furthermore, some tested xanthones showed stronger cytotoxicity than Cisplatin, which has been used in clinical application extensively. The SARs analysis revealed that the cytotoxic activities of diverse xanthones were affected mostly by the number and position of methoxyl and hydroxyl groups. Xanthones with more free hydroxyl and methoxyl groups increased the cytotoxic activity significantly, especially for those with the presence of C-3 hydroxyl and C-4 methoxyl groups. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Super Normal Vector for Human Activity Recognition with Depth Cameras.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xiaodong; Tian, YingLi

2017-05-01

The advent of cost-effectiveness and easy-operation depth cameras has facilitated a variety of visual recognition tasks including human activity recognition. This paper presents a novel framework for recognizing human activities from video sequences captured by depth cameras. We extend the surface normal to polynormal by assembling local neighboring hypersurface normals from a depth sequence to jointly characterize local motion and shape information. We then propose a general scheme of super normal vector (SNV) to aggregate the low-level polynormals into a discriminative representation, which can be viewed as a simplified version of the Fisher kernel representation. In order to globally capture the spatial layout and temporal order, an adaptive spatio-temporal pyramid is introduced to subdivide a depth video into a set of space-time cells. In the extensive experiments, the proposed approach achieves superior performance to the state-of-the-art methods on the four public benchmark datasets, i.e., MSRAction3D, MSRDailyActivity3D, MSRGesture3D, and MSRActionPairs3D.

Workshop on Human Activity at Scale in Earth System Models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Allen, Melissa R. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Aziz, H. M. Abdul [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Coletti, Mark A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Kennedy, Joseph H. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Nair, Sujithkumar S. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Omitaomu, Olufemi A. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2017-01-26

Changing human activity within a geographical location may have significant influence on the global climate, but that activity must be parameterized in such a way as to allow these high-resolution sub-grid processes to affect global climate within that modeling framework. Additionally, we must have tools that provide decision support and inform local and regional policies regarding mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. The development of next-generation earth system models, that can produce actionable results with minimum uncertainties, depends on understanding global climate change and human activity interactions at policy implementation scales. Unfortunately, at best we currently have only limited schemes for relating high-resolution sectoral emissions to real-time weather, ultimately to become part of larger regions and well-mixed atmosphere. Moreover, even our understanding of meteorological processes at these scales is imperfect. This workshop addresses these shortcomings by providing a forum for discussion of what we know about these processes, what we can model, where we have gaps in these areas and how we can rise to the challenge to fill these gaps.

THE HUMAN ACTIVITY AS AFFECTIVE-COGNITIVE UNIT: A HISTORIC-CULTURAL APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lígia Márcia Martins

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article puts in question the affectional-cognitive unit which sustains the human activity, with the purpose to light incorrectness of approaches which dichotomize reason and emotion. It asserts that such dissociations are founded in theorical-methodological principles which set bounds for explanations about the human psychism, so that the overcoming of referred dualisms puts on as a method matter. For making explicit that assertion, it resorted to Historic-Cultural Psychology, based on that it explains about the psychism as subjective image of objective reality, of Vygotskyan criticisms to Cartesian dualism and the need of a historic-cultural approach on emotion studies, intend to analyzing the human activity as a affective-cognitive unit and the imbricated relations that are waged, within it, among affections, emotions, feelings and thoughts. Once presented the interrelations between emotions and cognitions this exhibition argues that the concepts are necessary as a minimum unit of analysis both of thought and feelings.

Multiplexed activity-based protein profiling of the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus reveals large functional changes upon exposure to human serum.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiedner, Susan D; Burnum, Kristin E; Pederson, LeeAnna M; Anderson, Lindsey N; Fortuin, Suereta; Chauvigné-Hines, Lacie M; Shukla, Anil K; Ansong, Charles; Panisko, Ellen A; Smith, Richard D; Wright, Aaron T

2012-09-28

Environmental adaptability is critical for survival of the fungal human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus in the immunocompromised host lung. We hypothesized that exposure of the fungal pathogen to human serum would lead to significant alterations to the organism's physiology, including metabolic activity and stress response. Shifts in functional pathway and corresponding enzyme reactivity of A. fumigatus upon exposure to the human host may represent much needed prognostic indicators of fungal infection. To address this, we employed a multiplexed activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) approach coupled to quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics to measure broad enzyme reactivity of the fungus cultured with and without human serum. ABPP showed a shift from aerobic respiration to ethanol fermentation and utilization over time in the presence of human serum, which was not observed in serum-free culture. Our approach provides direct insight into this pathogen's ability to survive, adapt, and proliferate. Additionally, our multiplexed ABPP approach captured a broad swath of enzyme reactivity and functional pathways and provides a method for rapid assessment of the A. fumigatus response to external stimuli.

Multiplexed Activity-based Protein Profiling of the Human Pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus Reveals Large Functional Changes upon Exposure to Human Serum*

Science.gov (United States)

Wiedner, Susan D.; Burnum, Kristin E.; Pederson, LeeAnna M.; Anderson, Lindsey N.; Fortuin, Suereta; Chauvigné-Hines, Lacie M.; Shukla, Anil K.; Ansong, Charles; Panisko, Ellen A.; Smith, Richard D.; Wright, Aaron T.

2012-01-01

Environmental adaptability is critical for survival of the fungal human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus in the immunocompromised host lung. We hypothesized that exposure of the fungal pathogen to human serum would lead to significant alterations to the organism's physiology, including metabolic activity and stress response. Shifts in functional pathway and corresponding enzyme reactivity of A. fumigatus upon exposure to the human host may represent much needed prognostic indicators of fungal infection. To address this, we employed a multiplexed activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) approach coupled to quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics to measure broad enzyme reactivity of the fungus cultured with and without human serum. ABPP showed a shift from aerobic respiration to ethanol fermentation and utilization over time in the presence of human serum, which was not observed in serum-free culture. Our approach provides direct insight into this pathogen's ability to survive, adapt, and proliferate. Additionally, our multiplexed ABPP approach captured a broad swath of enzyme reactivity and functional pathways and provides a method for rapid assessment of the A. fumigatus response to external stimuli. PMID:22865858

Human serum activates CIDEB-mediated lipid droplet enlargement in hepatoma cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Singaravelu, Ragunath [Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 (Canada); National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6 (Canada); Lyn, Rodney K. [Department of Chemistry, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 (Canada); National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6 (Canada); Srinivasan, Prashanth [National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6 (Canada); Delcorde, Julie [Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 (Canada); National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6 (Canada); Steenbergen, Rineke H.; Tyrrell, D. Lorne [Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta (Canada); Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, Katz Centre for Pharmacy and Health Research, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2S2 (Canada); Pezacki, John P., E-mail: John.Pezacki@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca [Department of Chemistry, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 (Canada); National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6 (Canada)

2013-11-15

Highlights: •Human serum induced differentiation of hepatoma cells increases cellular lipid droplet (LD) size. •The observed increase in LD size correlates with increased PGC-1α and CIDEB expression. •Induction of CIDEB expression correlates with rescue of VLDL secretion and loss of ADRP. •siRNA knockdown of CIDEB impairs the human serum mediated increase in LD size. •This system represents a cost-efficient model to study CIDEB’s role in lipid biology. -- Abstract: Human hepatocytes constitutively express the lipid droplet (LD) associated protein cell death-inducing DFFA-like effector B (CIDEB). CIDEB mediates LD fusion, as well as very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) maturation. However, there are limited cell culture models readily available to study CIDEB’s role in these biological processes, as hepatoma cell lines express negligible levels of CIDEB. Recent work has highlighted the ability of human serum to differentiate hepatoma cells. Herein, we demonstrate that culturing Huh7.5 cells in media supplemented with human serum activates CIDEB expression. This activation occurs through the induced expression of PGC-1α, a positive transcriptional regulator of CIDEB. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy revealed a correlation between CIDEB levels and LD size in human serum treated Huh7.5 cells. Human serum treatment also resulted in a rapid decrease in the levels of adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP). Furthermore, individual overexpression of CIDEB was sufficient to down-regulate ADRP protein levels. siRNA knockdown of CIDEB revealed that the human serum mediated increase in LD size was CIDEB-dependent. Overall, our work highlights CIDEB’s role in LD fusion, and presents a new model system to study the PGC-1α/CIDEB pathway’s role in LD dynamics and the VLDL pathway.

Human serum activates CIDEB-mediated lipid droplet enlargement in hepatoma cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singaravelu, Ragunath; Lyn, Rodney K.; Srinivasan, Prashanth; Delcorde, Julie; Steenbergen, Rineke H.; Tyrrell, D. Lorne; Pezacki, John P.

2013-01-01

Highlights: •Human serum induced differentiation of hepatoma cells increases cellular lipid droplet (LD) size. •The observed increase in LD size correlates with increased PGC-1α and CIDEB expression. •Induction of CIDEB expression correlates with rescue of VLDL secretion and loss of ADRP. •siRNA knockdown of CIDEB impairs the human serum mediated increase in LD size. •This system represents a cost-efficient model to study CIDEB’s role in lipid biology. -- Abstract: Human hepatocytes constitutively express the lipid droplet (LD) associated protein cell death-inducing DFFA-like effector B (CIDEB). CIDEB mediates LD fusion, as well as very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) maturation. However, there are limited cell culture models readily available to study CIDEB’s role in these biological processes, as hepatoma cell lines express negligible levels of CIDEB. Recent work has highlighted the ability of human serum to differentiate hepatoma cells. Herein, we demonstrate that culturing Huh7.5 cells in media supplemented with human serum activates CIDEB expression. This activation occurs through the induced expression of PGC-1α, a positive transcriptional regulator of CIDEB. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy revealed a correlation between CIDEB levels and LD size in human serum treated Huh7.5 cells. Human serum treatment also resulted in a rapid decrease in the levels of adipose differentiation-related protein (ADRP). Furthermore, individual overexpression of CIDEB was sufficient to down-regulate ADRP protein levels. siRNA knockdown of CIDEB revealed that the human serum mediated increase in LD size was CIDEB-dependent. Overall, our work highlights CIDEB’s role in LD fusion, and presents a new model system to study the PGC-1α/CIDEB pathway’s role in LD dynamics and the VLDL pathway

Bacterial expression of human kynurenine 3-monooxygenase: Solubility, activity, purification☆

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, K.; Mole, D.J.; Binnie, M.; Homer, N.Z.M.; Zheng, X.; Yard, B.A.; Iredale, J.P.; Auer, M.; Webster, S.P.

2014-01-01

Kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) is an enzyme central to the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism. KMO has been implicated as a therapeutic target in several disease states, including Huntington’s disease. Recombinant human KMO protein production is challenging due to the presence of transmembrane domains, which localise KMO to the outer mitochondrial membrane and render KMO insoluble in many in vitro expression systems. Efficient bacterial expression of human KMO would accelerate drug development of KMO inhibitors but until now this has not been achieved. Here we report the first successful bacterial (Escherichia coli) expression of active FLAG™-tagged human KMO enzyme expressed in the soluble fraction and progress towards its purification. PMID:24316190

DMEM enhances tyrosinase activity in B16 mouse melanoma cells and human melanocytes

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Panpen Diawpanich

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Media components may affect the activities of cultured cells. In this study, tyrosinase activity was evaluated by using B16-F10 mouse melanoma cell lines (B16-F10 and primary human melanocytes cultured in different media. An optical density measurement and a L-dopa reaction assay were used as the determination of the tyrosinase activity. The study of B16-F10 found the optical density to be 2010, 2246 and 2961 in cells cultured in RPMI Medium 1640 (RPMI1640,Minimum Essential Medium (MEM and Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM, respectively. Moreover, compared to RPMI 1640 and MEM, DMEM showed the darkest color of melanin formation in culture media and in cells after the L-dopa reaction assay. Addition of kojic acid showed a significant inhibitory effect on tyrosinase activity in all media.Whereas MCDB153 showed no significant effect on human melanocytes, DMEM caused a dramatic increase in tyrosinase activity after 4 days of cultivation. Addition of kojic acid showed a significant tyrosinase inhibitory effect in DMEM only. Furthermore, an active ingredient in green tea, epigallocathechin gallate (EGCG could inhibit tyrosinase activity in both B16-F10 and human melanocytes cultured in DMEM. In summary, these results suggest that DMEM is a suitable medium that provides high detection sensitivity in a tyrosinase inhibition assay.

Xanthine oxidase activity regulates human embryonic brain cells growth

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Kevorkian G. A.

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Aim. Involvement of Xanthine Oxidase (XO; EC1.1.3.22 in cellular proliferation and differentiation has been suggested by the numerous investigations. We have proposed that XO might have undoubtedly important role during the development, maturation as well as the death of human embryos brain cells. Methods. Human abortion material was utilized for the cultivation of brain cells (E90. XO activity was measured by the formation of uric acid in tissue. Cell death was detected by the utility of Trypan Blue dye. Results. Allopurinol suppressed the XO activity in the brain tissue (0.12 ± 0.02; 0.20 ± 0.03 resp., p < 0.05. On day 12th the number of cells in the culture treated with the Allopurinol at the early stage of development was higher in comparison with the Control (2350.1 ± 199.0 vs 2123 ± 96 and higher in comparison with the late period of treatment (1479.6 ± 103.8, p < < 0.05. In all groups, the number of the dead cells was less than in Control, indicating the protective nature of Allopurinol as an inhibitor of XO. Conclusions. Allopurinol initiates cells proliferation in case of the early treatment of the human brain derived cell culture whereas at the late stages it has an opposite effect.

Energy-Efficient Real-Time Human Activity Recognition on Smart Mobile Devices

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Jin Lee

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, human activity recognition (HAR plays an important role in wellness-care and context-aware systems. Human activities can be recognized in real-time by using sensory data collected from various sensors built in smart mobile devices. Recent studies have focused on HAR that is solely based on triaxial accelerometers, which is the most energy-efficient approach. However, such HAR approaches are still energy-inefficient because the accelerometer is required to run without stopping so that the physical activity of a user can be recognized in real-time. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for HAR process that controls the activity recognition duration for energy-efficient HAR. We investigated the impact of varying the acceleration-sampling frequency and window size for HAR by using the variable activity recognition duration (VARD strategy. We implemented our approach by using an Android platform and evaluated its performance in terms of energy efficiency and accuracy. The experimental results showed that our approach reduced energy consumption by a minimum of about 44.23% and maximum of about 78.85% compared to conventional HAR without sacrificing accuracy.

Understanding the Functionality of Human Activity Hotspots from Their Scaling Pattern Using Trajectory Data

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Tao Jia

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Human activity hotspots are the clusters of activity locations in space and time, and a better understanding of their functionality would be useful for urban land use planning and transportation. In this article, using trajectory data, we aim to infer the functionality of human activity hotspots from their scaling pattern in a reliable way. Specifically, a large number of stopping locations are extracted from trajectory data, which are then aggregated into activity hotspots. Activity hotspots are found to display scaling patterns in terms of the sublinear scaling relationships between the number of stopping locations and the number of points of interest (POIs, which indicates economies of scale of human interactions with urban land use. Importantly, this scaling pattern remains stable over time. This finding inspires us to devise an allometric ruler to identify the activity hotspots, whose functionality could be reliably estimated using the stopping locations. Thereafter, a novel Bayesian inference model is proposed to infer their urban functionality, which examines the spatial and temporal information of stopping locations covering 75 days. Experimental results suggest that the functionality of identified activity hotspots are reliably inferred by stopping locations, such as the railway station.

Action Search: Learning to Search for Human Activities in Untrimmed Videos

KAUST Repository

Alwassel, Humam

2017-06-13

Traditional approaches for action detection use trimmed data to learn sophisticated action detector models. Although these methods have achieved great success at detecting human actions, we argue that huge information is discarded when ignoring the process, through which this trimmed data is obtained. In this paper, we propose Action Search, a novel approach that mimics the way people annotate activities in video sequences. Using a Recurrent Neural Network, Action Search can efficiently explore a video and determine the time boundaries during which an action occurs. Experiments on the THUMOS14 dataset reveal that our model is not only able to explore the video efficiently but also accurately find human activities, outperforming state-of-the-art methods.

Opinion formation in a social network: The role of human activity

Science.gov (United States)

Grabowski, Andrzej

2009-03-01

The model of opinion formation in human population based on social impact theory is investigated numerically. On the basis of a database received from the on-line game server, we examine the structure of social network and human dynamics. We calculate the activity of individuals, i.e. the relative time devoted daily to interactions with others in the artificial society. We study the influence of correlation between the activity of an individual and its connectivity on the process of opinion formation. We find that such correlations have a significant influence on the temperature of the phase transition and the effect of the mass media, modeled as an external stimulation acting on the social network.

Human Secretory IgM Antibodies Activate Human Complement and Offer Protection at Mucosal Surface.

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Michaelsen, T E; Emilsen, S; Sandin, R H; Granerud, B K; Bratlie, D; Ihle, O; Sandlie, I

2017-01-01

IgM molecules circulate in serum as large polymers, mainly pentamers, which can be transported by the poly-Ig receptor (pIgR) across epithelial cells to mucosal surfaces and released as secretory IgM (SIgM). The mucosal SIgM molecules have non-covalently attached secretory component (SC), which is the extracellular part of pIgR which is cleaved from the epithelial cell membrane. Serum IgM antibodies do not contain SC and have previously been shown to make a conformational change from 'a star' to a 'staple' conformation upon reaction with antigens on a cell surface, enabling them to activate complement. However, it is not clear whether SIgM similarly can induce complement activation. To clarify this issue, we constructed recombinant chimeric (mouse/human) IgM antibodies against hapten 5-iodo-4-hydroxy-3-nitro-phenacetyl (NIP) and in addition studied polyclonal IgM formed after immunization with a meningococcal group B vaccine. The monoclonal and polyclonal IgM molecules were purified by affinity chromatography on a column containing human SC in order to isolate joining-chain (J-chain) containing IgM, followed by addition of excess amounts of soluble SC to create SIgM (IgM J+ SC+). These SIgM preparations were tested for complement activation ability and shown to be nearly as active as the parental IgM J+ molecules. Thus, SIgM may offer protection against pathogens at mucosal surface by complement-mediated cell lysis or by phagocytosis mediated by complement receptors present on effector cells on mucosa. © 2016 The Foundation for the Scandinavian Journal of Immunology.

Fish invasions in the world's river systems: when natural processes are blurred by human activities.

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Fabien Leprieur

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Because species invasions are a principal driver of the human-induced biodiversity crisis, the identification of the major determinants of global invasions is a prerequisite for adopting sound conservation policies. Three major hypotheses, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, have been proposed to explain the establishment of non-native species: the "human activity" hypothesis, which argues that human activities facilitate the establishment of non-native species by disturbing natural landscapes and by increasing propagule pressure; the "biotic resistance" hypothesis, predicting that species-rich communities will readily impede the establishment of non-native species; and the "biotic acceptance" hypothesis, predicting that environmentally suitable habitats for native species are also suitable for non-native species. We tested these hypotheses and report here a global map of fish invasions (i.e., the number of non-native fish species established per river basin using an original worldwide dataset of freshwater fish occurrences, environmental variables, and human activity indicators for 1,055 river basins covering more than 80% of Earth's surface. First, we identified six major invasion hotspots where non-native species represent more than a quarter of the total number of species. According to the World Conservation Union, these areas are also characterised by the highest proportion of threatened fish species. Second, we show that the human activity indicators account for most of the global variation in non-native species richness, which is highly consistent with the "human activity" hypothesis. In contrast, our results do not provide support for either the "biotic acceptance" or the "biotic resistance" hypothesis. We show that the biogeography of fish invasions matches the geography of human impact at the global scale, which means that natural processes are blurred by human activities in driving fish invasions in the world's river systems

Geo-spatial Cognition on Human's Social Activity Space Based on Multi-scale Grids

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ZHAI Weixin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Widely applied location aware devices, including mobile phones and GPS receivers, have provided great convenience for collecting large volume individuals' geographical information. The researches on the human's society behavior space has attracts an increasingly number of researchers. In our research, based on location-based Flickr data From 2004 to May, 2014 in China, we choose five levels of spatial grids to form the multi-scale frame for investigate the correlation between the scale and the geo-spatial cognition on human's social activity space. The HT-index is selected as the fractal inspired by Alexander to estimate the maturity of the society activity on different scales. The results indicate that that the scale characteristics are related to the spatial cognition to a certain extent. It is favorable to use the spatial grid as a tool to control scales for geo-spatial cognition on human's social activity space.

Development of organophosphate hydrolase activity in a bacterial homolog of human cholinesterase

Science.gov (United States)

Legler, Patricia; Boisvert, Susanne; Compton, Jaimee; Millard, Charles

2014-07-01

We applied a combination of rational design and directed evolution (DE) to Bacillus subtilis p-nitrobenzyl esterase (pNBE) with the goal of enhancing organophosphorus acid anhydride hydrolase (OPAAH) activity. DE started with a designed variant, pNBE A107H, carrying a histidine homologous with human butyrylcholinesterase G117H to find complementary mutations that further enhance its OPAAH activity. Five sites were selected (G105, G106, A107, A190, and A400) within a 6.7 Å radius of the nucleophilic serine O?. All 95 variants were screened for esterase activity with a set of five substrates: pNP-acetate, pNP-butyrate, acetylthiocholine, butyrylthiocholine, or benzoylthiocholine. A microscale assay for OPAAH activity was developed for screening DE libraries. Reductions in esterase activity were generally concomitant with enhancements in OPAAH activity. One variant, A107K, showed an unexpected 7-fold increase in its kcat/Km for benzoylthiocholine, demonstrating that it is also possible to enhance the cholinesterase activity of pNBE. Moreover, DE resulted in at least three variants with modestly enhanced OPAAH activity compared to wild type pNBE. A107H/A190C showed a 50-fold increase in paraoxonase activity and underwent a slow time- and temperature-dependent change affecting the hydrolysis of OPAA and ester substrates. Structural analysis suggests that pNBE may represent a precursor leading to human cholinesterase and carboxylesterase 1 through extension of two vestigial specificity loops; a preliminary attempt to transfer the Ω-loop of BChE into pNBE is described. pNBE was tested as a surrogate scaffold for mammalian esterases. Unlike butyrylcholinesterase and pNBE, introducing a G143H mutation (equivalent to G117H) did not confer detectable OP hydrolase activity on human carboxylesterase 1. We discuss the importance of the oxyanion-hole residues for enhancing the OPAAH activity of selected serine hydrolases.

In-vitro archaeacidal activity of biocides against human-associated archaea.

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Saber Khelaifia

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Several methanogenic archaea have been detected in the human intestinal microbiota. These intestinal archaea may contaminate medical devices such as colonoscopes. However, no biocide activity has been reported among these human-associated archaea. METHODOLOGY: The minimal archaeacidal concentration (MAC of peracetic acid, chlorhexidine, squalamine and twelve parent synthetic derivatives reported in this study was determined against five human-associated methanogenic archaea including Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanobrevibacter oralis, Methanobrevibacter arboriphilicus, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanomassiliicoccus luminyensis and two environmental methanogens Methanobacterium beijingense and Methanosaeta concilii by using a serial dilution technique in Hungates tubes. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: MAC of squalamine derivative S1 was 0.05 mg/L against M. smithii strains, M. oralis, M. arboriphilicus, M. concilii and M. beijingense whereas MAC of squalamine and derivatives S2-S12 varied from 0.5 to 5 mg/L. For M. stadtmanae and M. luminyensis, MAC of derivative S1 was 0.1 mg/L and varied from 1 to ≥ 10 mg/L for squalamine and its parent derivatives S2-S12. Under the same experimental conditions, chlorhexidine and peracetic acid lead to a MAC of 0.2 and 1.5 mg/L, respectively against all tested archaea. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Squalamine derivative S1 exhibited a 10-200 higher archaeacidal activity than other tested squalamine derivatives, on the majority of human-associated archaea. As previously reported and due to their week corrosivity and their wide spectrum of antibacterial and antifungal properties, squalamine and more precisely derivative S1 appear as promising compounds to be further tested for the decontamination of medical devices contaminated by human-associated archaea.

Activation of the insular cortex during dynamic exercise in humans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Williamson, James; Nobrega, A C; McColl, R

1997-01-01

role as a site for regulation of autonomic activity. 2. Eight subjects were studied during voluntary active cycling and passively induced cycling. Additionally, four of the subjects underwent passive movement combined with electrical stimulation of the legs. 3. Increases in regional cerebral blood flow...... during active, but not passive cycling. There were no significant changes in rCBF for the right insula. Also, the magnitude of rCBF increase for leg primary motor areas was significantly greater for both active cycling and passive cycling combined with electrical stimulation compared with passive cycling...... alone. 5. These findings provide the first evidence of insular activation during dynamic exercise in humans, suggesting that the left insular cortex may serve as a site for cortical regulation of cardiac autonomic (parasympathetic) activity. Additionally, findings during passive cycling with electrical...

Human activated protein C variants in a rat model of arterial thrombosis

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Dahlbäck Björn

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Activated protein C (APC inhibits coagulation by degrading activated factor V (FVa and factor VIII (FVIIIa, protein S (PS functioning as a cofactor to APC. Methods By mutagenesis of the vitamin K-dependent Gla domain of APC, we have recently created an APC variant having enhanced anticoagulant activity due to increased affinity for negatively charged phospholipid membranes. In the present study, the potential antithrombotic effects of this APC variant, and of a variant APC that is additionally mutated in the serine protease domain, have been evaluated in a blind randomized study in a rat model of arterial thrombosis. In this model, we have previously found the combination of bovine APC and PS to be highly antithrombotic. Four treatment groups each containing 10 rats were, in a blind random fashion, given intravenous bolus injections of wild-type or mutant variants of APC (0.8 mg/kg together with human PS (0.6 mg/kg or human PS (0.6 mg/kg alone. A control group with 20 animals where given vehicle only. Results A trend to increased patency rates was noted in a group receiving one of the APC variants, but it did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion In conclusion, administration of human APC variants having enhanced anticoagulant efficacy together with human PS in a rat model of arterial thrombosis did not give an efficient antithrombotic effect. The lack of effect may be due to species-specific differences between the human protein C system and the rat hemostatic system.

Alterations in calcium metabolism during human monocyte activation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scully, S.P.

1984-01-01

Human peripheral blood monocytes have been prepared from plateletpheresis residues by counterflow centrifugal elutriation in sufficient quantities to enable quantitative studies of cell calcium. Kinetic analysis of 45 Ca exchange data in resting monocytes was compatible with a model of cellular calcium containing three exchangeable calcium pools. These pools are thought to represent a putative ectocellular pool, a putative cytoplasmic chelated pool, and a putative organelle sequestered pool. Exposure of monocytes to the plant lectin Con A at a concentration that maximally simulated superoxide production caused an increase in the size and a doubling in the exchange rate of the putative cytoplasmic pool without a change in the other cellular pools. The cytoplasmic ionized calcium, [Ca]/sub i/, measured with the fluorescent probe, Quin 2 rose from a resting level of 83 nM to 165 mN within 30 sec of exposure to Con A. This increase in cytoplasmic calcium preceded the release of superoxide radicals. Calcium transport and calcium ATPase activities were identified and characterized in plasma membrane vesicles prepared from monocytes. Both activities were strictly dependent on ATP and Mg, had a Km/sub Ca/ in the submicromolar range and were stimulated by calmodulin. Thus, it seems that monocyte calcium is in a dynamic steady state that is a balance between efflux and influx rates, and that the activation of these cells results in the transition to a new steady state. The alteration in [Ca]/sub i/ that accompany the new steady state are essential for superoxide production by human monocytes

HMM Adaptation for Improving a Human Activity Recognition System

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Rubén San-Segundo

2016-09-01

Full Text Available When developing a fully automatic system for evaluating motor activities performed by a person, it is necessary to segment and recognize the different activities in order to focus the analysis. This process must be carried out by a Human Activity Recognition (HAR system. This paper proposes a user adaptation technique for improving a HAR system based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs. This system segments and recognizes six different physical activities (walking, walking upstairs, walking downstairs, sitting, standing and lying down using inertial signals from a smartphone. The system is composed of a feature extractor for obtaining the most relevant characteristics from the inertial signals, a module for training the six HMMs (one per activity, and the last module for segmenting new activity sequences using these models. The user adaptation technique consists of a Maximum A Posteriori (MAP approach that adapts the activity HMMs to the user, using some activity examples from this specific user. The main results on a public dataset have reported a significant relative error rate reduction of more than 30%. In conclusion, adapting a HAR system to the user who is performing the physical activities provides significant improvement in the system’s performance.

Deep Recurrent Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition

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Abdulmajid Murad

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Adopting deep learning methods for human activity recognition has been effective in extracting discriminative features from raw input sequences acquired from body-worn sensors. Although human movements are encoded in a sequence of successive samples in time, typical machine learning methods perform recognition tasks without exploiting the temporal correlations between input data samples. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs address this issue by using convolutions across a one-dimensional temporal sequence to capture dependencies among input data. However, the size of convolutional kernels restricts the captured range of dependencies between data samples. As a result, typical models are unadaptable to a wide range of activity-recognition configurations and require fixed-length input windows. In this paper, we propose the use of deep recurrent neural networks (DRNNs for building recognition models that are capable of capturing long-range dependencies in variable-length input sequences. We present unidirectional, bidirectional, and cascaded architectures based on long short-term memory (LSTM DRNNs and evaluate their effectiveness on miscellaneous benchmark datasets. Experimental results show that our proposed models outperform methods employing conventional machine learning, such as support vector machine (SVM and k-nearest neighbors (KNN. Additionally, the proposed models yield better performance than other deep learning techniques, such as deep believe networks (DBNs and CNNs.

Human PrimPol activity is enhanced by RPA.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Jiménez, María I; Lahera, Antonio; Blanco, Luis

2017-04-10

Human PrimPol is a primase belonging to the AEP superfamily with the unique ability to synthesize DNA primers de novo, and a non-processive DNA polymerase able to bypass certain DNA lesions. PrimPol facilitates both mitochondrial and nuclear replication fork progression either acting as a conventional TLS polymerase, or repriming downstream of blocking lesions. In vivo assays have shown that PrimPol is rapidly recruited to sites of DNA damage by interaction with the human replication protein A (RPA). In agreement with previous findings, we show here that the higher affinity of RPA for ssDNA inhibits PrimPol activities in short ssDNA templates. In contrast, once the amount of ssDNA increases up to a length in which both proteins can simultaneously bind ssDNA, as expected during replicative stress conditions, PrimPol and RPA functionally interact, and their binding capacities are mutually enhanced. When using M13 ssDNA as template, RPA stimulated both the primase and polymerase activities of PrimPol, either alone or in synergy with Polε. These new findings supports the existence of a functional PrimPol/RPA association that allows repriming at the exposed ssDNA regions formed in the leading strand upon replicase stalling.

Deep Recurrent Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Murad, Abdulmajid; Pyun, Jae-Young

2017-11-06

Adopting deep learning methods for human activity recognition has been effective in extracting discriminative features from raw input sequences acquired from body-worn sensors. Although human movements are encoded in a sequence of successive samples in time, typical machine learning methods perform recognition tasks without exploiting the temporal correlations between input data samples. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) address this issue by using convolutions across a one-dimensional temporal sequence to capture dependencies among input data. However, the size of convolutional kernels restricts the captured range of dependencies between data samples. As a result, typical models are unadaptable to a wide range of activity-recognition configurations and require fixed-length input windows. In this paper, we propose the use of deep recurrent neural networks (DRNNs) for building recognition models that are capable of capturing long-range dependencies in variable-length input sequences. We present unidirectional, bidirectional, and cascaded architectures based on long short-term memory (LSTM) DRNNs and evaluate their effectiveness on miscellaneous benchmark datasets. Experimental results show that our proposed models outperform methods employing conventional machine learning, such as support vector machine (SVM) and k-nearest neighbors (KNN). Additionally, the proposed models yield better performance than other deep learning techniques, such as deep believe networks (DBNs) and CNNs.

Assessment of Nicotine Exposure From Active Human Cigarette Smoking Time

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Cahours Xavier

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The burning of a cigarette is a series of consecutive sequences of both passive and active burnings when a smoking cycle is applied to the cigarette. A previous study, using a smoking machine, showed that cigarette nicotine yields are dependent linearly on the difference between the time of smouldering (passive burning and the time of smoking (active burning. It is predicted that the smoker’s nicotine yield increases when the intensity of smoking increases, i.e., when the time to smoke a cigarette (smoking time decreases. Note that observations made on machines might not be comparable to human behaviours. The aim of this study was to determine whether nicotine mouth-level exposure could be predicted through measurement of human smoking time. A smoking behaviour study was conducted to compare human smoking nicotine yields obtained from both filter tip analysis and the cigarette burning time model. Results showed that smokers’ exposure to the smoke depends essentially on the speed at which the cigarette is smoked. An increase in human smoking intensity, resulting in a decrease in smoking time, generates an increase in smoke exposure, whatever the puff number, puff duration, puff volume and filter ventilation (open or blocked. The association of a machine smoking yield with a corresponding smoking time, and the time taken by a consumer to smoke the cigarette would provide information on the exposure to smoke constituents in a simple and effective manner.

Strategic analytics: towards fully embedding evidence in healthcare decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Garay, Jason; Cartagena, Rosario; Esensoy, Ali Vahit; Handa, Kiren; Kane, Eli; Kaw, Neal; Sadat, Somayeh

2015-01-01

Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) has implemented multiple information technology solutions and collected health-system data to support its programs. There is now an opportunity to leverage these data and perform advanced end-to-end analytics that inform decisions around improving health-system performance. In 2014, CCO engaged in an extensive assessment of its current data capacity and capability, with the intent to drive increased use of data for evidence-based decision-making. The breadth and volume of data at CCO uniquely places the organization to contribute to not only system-wide operational reporting, but more advanced modelling of current and future state system management and planning. In 2012, CCO established a strategic analytics practice to assist the agency's programs contextualize and inform key business decisions and to provide support through innovative predictive analytics solutions. This paper describes the organizational structure, services and supporting operations that have enabled progress to date, and discusses the next steps towards the vision of embedding evidence fully into healthcare decision-making. Copyright © 2014 Longwoods Publishing.

Improved synthesis and application of [(11) C]benzyl iodide in positron emission tomography radiotracer production.

Science.gov (United States)

Pekošak, Aleksandra; Filp, Ulrike; Rotteveel, Lonneke; Poot, Alex J; Windhorst, Albert D

2015-06-30

Positron emission tomography has increased the demand for new carbon-11 radiolabeled tracers and building blocks. A promising radiolabeling synthon is [(11) C]benzyl iodide ([(11) C]BnI), because the benzyl group is a widely present functionality in biologically active compounds. Unfortunately, synthesis of [(11) C]BnI has received little attention, resulting in limited application. Therefore, we investigated the synthesis in order to significantly improve, automate, and apply it for labeling of the dopamine D2 antagonist [(11) C]clebopride as a proof of concept. [(11) C]BnI was synthesized from [(11) C]CO2 via a Grignard reaction and purified prior the reaction with desbenzyl clebopride. According to a one-pot procedure, [(11) C]BnI was synthesized in 11 min from [(11) C]CO2 with high yield, purity, and specific activity, 52 ± 3% (end of the cyclotron bombardment), 95 ± 3%, and 123 ± 17 GBq/µmol (end of the synthesis), respectively. Changes in the [(11) C]BnI synthesis are reduced amounts of reagents, a lower temperature in the Grignard reaction, and the introduction of a solid-phase intermediate purification. [(11) C]Clebopride was synthesized within 28 min from [(11) C]CO2 in an isolated decay-corrected yield of 11 ± 3% (end of the cyclotron bombardment) with a purity of >98% and specific activity (SA) of 54 ± 4 GBq/µmol (n = 3) at the end of the synthesis. Conversion of [(11) C]BnI to product was 82 ± 11%. The reliable synthesis of [(11) C]BnI allows the broad application of this synthon in positron emission tomography radiopharmaceutical development. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[-25]A Similarity Analysis of Audio Signal to Develop a Human Activity Recognition Using Similarity Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

García-Hernández, Alejandra; Galván-Tejada, Carlos E; Galván-Tejada, Jorge I; Celaya-Padilla, José M; Gamboa-Rosales, Hamurabi; Velasco-Elizondo, Perla; Cárdenas-Vargas, Rogelio

2017-11-21

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is one of the main subjects of study in the areas of computer vision and machine learning due to the great benefits that can be achieved. Examples of the study areas are: health prevention, security and surveillance, automotive research, and many others. The proposed approaches are carried out using machine learning techniques and present good results. However, it is difficult to observe how the descriptors of human activities are grouped. In order to obtain a better understanding of the the behavior of descriptors, it is important to improve the abilities to recognize the human activities. This paper proposes a novel approach for the HAR based on acoustic data and similarity networks. In this approach, we were able to characterize the sound of the activities and identify those activities looking for similarity in the sound pattern. We evaluated the similarity of the sounds considering mainly two features: the sound location and the materials that were used. As a result, the materials are a good reference classifying the human activities compared with the location.

Correlation between the dielectric properties and biological activities of human ex vivo hepatic tissue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Hang; You, Fusheng; Fu, Feng; Dong, Xiuzhen; Shi, Xuetao; He, Yong; Yang, Min; Yan, Qingguo

2015-01-01

Dielectric properties are vital biophysical features of biological tissues, and biological activity is an index to ascertain the active state of tissues. This study investigated the potential correlation between the dielectric properties and biological activities of human hepatic tissue with prolonged ex vivo time through correlation and regression analyses. The dielectric properties of 26 cases of normal human hepatic tissue at 10 Hz to 100 MHz were measured from 15 min after isolation to 24 h at 37 °C with 90% humidity. Cell morphologies, including nucleus area (NA) and alteration rate of intercellular area (ICAR), were analyzed as indicators of biological activities. Conductivity, complex resistivity, and NA exhibited opposing changes 1 h after isolation. Relative permittivity and ex vivo time were not closely correlated (p > 0.05). The dielectric properties measured at low frequencies (i.e. <1 MHz) were more sensitive than those measured at high frequencies in reflecting the biological activity of ex vivo tissue. Highly significant correlations were found between conductivity, resistivity and the ex vivo time (p < 0.05) as well as conductivity and the cell morphology (p < 0.05). The findings indicated that establishing the correlation between the dielectric properties and biological activities of human hepatic tissue is of great significance for promoting the role of dielectric properties in biological science, particularly in human biology. (paper)

Bacterial expression of human kynurenine 3-monooxygenase: solubility, activity, purification.

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Wilson, K; Mole, D J; Binnie, M; Homer, N Z M; Zheng, X; Yard, B A; Iredale, J P; Auer, M; Webster, S P

2014-03-01

Kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) is an enzyme central to the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism. KMO has been implicated as a therapeutic target in several disease states, including Huntington's disease. Recombinant human KMO protein production is challenging due to the presence of transmembrane domains, which localise KMO to the outer mitochondrial membrane and render KMO insoluble in many in vitro expression systems. Efficient bacterial expression of human KMO would accelerate drug development of KMO inhibitors but until now this has not been achieved. Here we report the first successful bacterial (Escherichia coli) expression of active FLAG™-tagged human KMO enzyme expressed in the soluble fraction and progress towards its purification. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Through-wall bio-radio location and characterization of human activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu, Lei; Gui, Yong-Sheng; Hu, Can-Ming

2016-01-01

In this paper, a through-the-wall life detection system has been developed by using a broadband microwave technique. This system can not only determine and characterize human movement behind an obstacle but also determine the person’s position by employing the Fourier transform technique. The effectiveness of this system is shown by the experimental results where the presence of stationary and moving person behind an obstacle can be identified upto a distance of 17 and 30 m respectively. Since the movement of a human body is continuous, an averaged background subtraction technique has been developed which allows real time detection of human activities without requiring any prior knowledge of the environment, thus making the system suitable for practical applications. (paper)

Application of cultured human mast cells (CHMC) for the design and structure-activity relationship of IgE-mediated mast cell activation inhibitors.

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Argade, Ankush; Bhamidipati, Somasekhar; Li, Hui; Carroll, David; Clough, Jeffrey; Keim, Holger; Sylvain, Catherine; Rossi, Alexander B; Coquilla, Christina; Issakani, Sarkiz D; Masuda, Esteban S; Payan, Donald G; Singh, Rajinder

2015-01-01

Here we report the optimization of small molecule inhibitors of human mast cell degranulation via anti-IgE-mediated tryptase release following cross-linking and activation of IgE-loaded FcεR1 receptors. The compounds are selective upstream inhibitors of FcεR1-dependent human mast cell degranulation and proved to be devoid of activity in downstream ionomycin mediated degranulation. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) leading to compound 26 is outlined. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Novel Class of Small Molecule Agonists with Preference for Human over Mouse TLR4 Activation.

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Jason D Marshall

Full Text Available The best-characterized Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4 ligands are lipopolysaccharide (LPS and its chemically modified and detoxified variant, monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL. Although both molecules are active for human TLR4, they demonstrate a potency preference for mouse TLR4 based on data from transfected cell lines and primary cells of both species. After a high throughput screening process of small molecule libraries, we have discovered a new class of TLR4 agonist with a species preference profile differing from MPL. Products of the 4-component Ugi synthesis reaction were demonstrated to potently trigger human TLR4-transfected HEK cells but not mouse TLR4, although inclusion of the human MD2 with mTLR4 was able to partially recover activity. Co-expression of CD14 was not required for optimal activity of Ugi compounds on transfected cells, as it is for LPS. The species preference profile for the panel of Ugi compounds was found to be strongly active for human and cynomolgus monkey primary cells, with reduced but still substantial activity for most Ugi compounds on guinea pig cells. Mouse, rat, rabbit, ferret, and cotton rat cells displayed little or no activity when exposed to Ugi compounds. However, engineering the human versions of TLR4 and MD2 to be expressed in mTLR4/MD2 deficient mice allowed for robust activity by Ugi compounds both in vitro and in vivo. These findings extend the range of compounds available for development as agonists of TLR4 and identify novel molecules which reverse the TLR4 triggering preference of MPL for mouse TLR4 over human TLR4. Such compounds may be amenable to formulation as more potent human-specific TLR4L-based adjuvants than typical MPL-based adjuvants.

Radiochemical neutron activation analysis for trace elements evaluation of human milk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gill, K.P.; Zaidi, J.H.; Ahmad, S.

2003-01-01

The principal objective pursued in this study is to establish the base-line data on the status of elemental composition in human milk from Pakistani subjects of Rawalpindi/Islamabad area. Radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA) methodology was developed and successfully employed to determine the concentration of 18 minor and trace elements (essential, toxic and nonessential) in human milk. This methodology has significantly improved the detection limits of most of these elements due to suppression of Compton background. The data provide the base-line values of these elements in human milk of low- and medium-income group subjects of the region. The results obtained show good compatibility with the data reported by the WHO on elemental composition of human milk from different geological regions. (orig.)

Definitive characterization of human thymine glycol N-glycosylase activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higgins, S.A.; Frenkel, K.; Cummings, A.; Teebor, G.W.

1987-01-01

An N-glycosylase activity that released cis-[ 3 H]-5,6-dihydroxy-5,6-dihydrothymine (thymine glycol, TG) from chemically oxidized poly(dA-[ 3 H]dT) was unambiguously characterized both in extracts of HeLa cells and in purified Escherichia coli endonuclease III. This was accomplished by use of a microderivatization procedure that quantitatively converted cis-TG to 5-hydroxy-5-methylhydantoin (HMH). The reaction products were analyzed by high-pressure liquid chromatography before and after derivation by using cis-[ 14 C]TG and [ 14 C]HMH, which had been independently synthesized, as reference compounds. This technique facilitated construction of a v/[E]/sub t/ plot for the enzyme activity in HeLa cells, permitting estimation of its specific activity. The results obtained prove the existence of both human and bacterial N-glycosylase activities that effect removal of TG from DNA

Activity of the hypoxia-activated prodrug, TH-302, in preclinical human acute myeloid leukemia models.

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Portwood, Scott; Lal, Deepika; Hsu, Yung-Chun; Vargas, Rodrigo; Johnson, Megan K; Wetzler, Meir; Hart, Charles P; Wang, Eunice S

2013-12-01

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematologic neoplasm. Recent evidence has shown the bone marrow microenvironment in patients with AML to be intrinsically hypoxic. Adaptive cellular responses by leukemia cells to survive under low oxygenation also confer chemoresistance. We therefore asked whether therapeutic exploitation of marrow hypoxia via the hypoxia-activated nitrogen mustard prodrug, TH-302, could effectively inhibit AML growth. We assessed the effects of hypoxia and TH-302 on human AML cells, primary samples, and systemic xenograft models. We observed that human AML cells and primary AML colonies cultured under chronic hypoxia (1% O2, 72 hours) exhibited reduced sensitivity to cytarabine-induced apoptosis as compared with normoxic controls. TH-302 treatment resulted in dose- and hypoxia-dependent apoptosis and cell death in diverse AML cells. TH-302 preferentially decreased proliferation, reduced HIF-1α expression, induced cell-cycle arrest, and enhanced double-stranded DNA breaks in hypoxic AML cells. Hypoxia-induced reactive oxygen species by AML cells were also diminished. In systemic human AML xenografts (HEL, HL60), TH-302 [50 mg/kg intraperitoneally (i.p.) 5 times per week] inhibited disease progression and prolonged overall survival. TH-302 treatment reduced the number of hypoxic cells within leukemic bone marrows and was not associated with hematologic toxicities in nonleukemic or leukemic mice. Later initiation of TH-302 treatment in advanced AML disease was as effective as earlier TH-302 treatment in xenograft models. Our results establish the preclinical activity of TH-302 in AML and provide the rationale for further clinical studies of this and other hypoxia-activated agents for leukemia therapy. ©2013 AACR.

Two Overlapping Domains of a Lyssavirus Matrix Protein That Acts on Different Cell Death Pathways ▿

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Larrous, Florence; Gholami, Alireza; Mouhamad, Shahul; Estaquier, Jérôme; Bourhy, Hervé

2010-01-01

The lyssavirus matrix (M) protein induces apoptosis. The regions of the M protein that are essential for triggering cell death pathways are not yet clearly defined. We therefore compared the M proteins from two viruses that have contrasting characteristics in terms of cellular apoptosis: a genotype 3 lyssavirus, Mokola virus (MOK), and a genotype 1 rabies virus isolated from a dog from Thailand (THA). We identified a 20-amino-acid fragment (corresponding to positions 67 to 86) that retained the cell death activities of the full-length M protein from MOK via both the tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) activity. We found that the amino acids at positions 77 and 81 have an essential role in triggering these two cell death pathways. Directed mutagenesis demonstrated that the amino acid at position 77 affects CcO activity, whereas the amino acid at position 81 affects TRAIL-dependent apoptosis. Mutations in the full-length M protein that compromised induction of either of these two pathways resulted in delayed apoptosis compared with the time to apoptosis for the nonmutated control. PMID:20631119

Two overlapping domains of a lyssavirus matrix protein that acts on different cell death pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Larrous, Florence; Gholami, Alireza; Mouhamad, Shahul; Estaquier, Jérôme; Bourhy, Hervé

2010-10-01

The lyssavirus matrix (M) protein induces apoptosis. The regions of the M protein that are essential for triggering cell death pathways are not yet clearly defined. We therefore compared the M proteins from two viruses that have contrasting characteristics in terms of cellular apoptosis: a genotype 3 lyssavirus, Mokola virus (MOK), and a genotype 1 rabies virus isolated from a dog from Thailand (THA). We identified a 20-amino-acid fragment (corresponding to positions 67 to 86) that retained the cell death activities of the full-length M protein from MOK via both the tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) activity. We found that the amino acids at positions 77 and 81 have an essential role in triggering these two cell death pathways. Directed mutagenesis demonstrated that the amino acid at position 77 affects CcO activity, whereas the amino acid at position 81 affects TRAIL-dependent apoptosis. Mutations in the full-length M protein that compromised induction of either of these two pathways resulted in delayed apoptosis compared with the time to apoptosis for the nonmutated control.

Early development of synchrony in cortical activations in the human.

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Koolen, N; Dereymaeker, A; Räsänen, O; Jansen, K; Vervisch, J; Matic, V; Naulaers, G; De Vos, M; Van Huffel, S; Vanhatalo, S

2016-05-13

Early intermittent cortical activity is thought to play a crucial role in the growth of neuronal network development, and large scale brain networks are known to provide the basis for higher brain functions. Yet, the early development of the large scale synchrony in cortical activations is unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the early intermittent cortical activations seen in the human scalp EEG show a clear developmental course during the last trimester of pregnancy, the period of intensive growth of cortico-cortical connections. We recorded scalp EEG from altogether 22 premature infants at post-menstrual age between 30 and 44 weeks, and the early cortical synchrony was quantified using recently introduced activation synchrony index (ASI). The developmental correlations of ASI were computed for individual EEG signals as well as anatomically and mathematically defined spatial subgroups. We report two main findings. First, we observed a robust and statistically significant increase in ASI in all cortical areas. Second, there were significant spatial gradients in the synchrony in fronto-occipital and left-to-right directions. These findings provide evidence that early cortical activity is increasingly synchronized across the neocortex. The ASI-based metrics introduced in our work allow direct translational comparison to in vivo animal models, as well as hold promise for implementation as a functional developmental biomarker in future research on human neonates. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Amplification of a transcriptionally active DNA sequence in the human brain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yakovlev, A.G.; Sazonov, A.E.; Spunde, A.Ya.; Gindilis, V.M.

1986-01-01

The authors present their findings of tissue-specific amplification of a DNA fragment actively transcribed in the human brain. This genome fragment was found in the library complement of cDNA of the human brain and evidently belongs to a new class of moderate repetitions of DNA with an unstable copying capacity in the human genome. The authors isolated total cell RNA from various human tissues (brain, placenta), and rat tissues (brain, liver), by the method of hot phenol extraction with guanidine thiocynate. The poly(A + ) RNA fraction was isolated by chromatography. Synthesis of cDNA was done on a matrix of poly(A + ) RNA of human brain. The cDNA obtained was cloned in plasmid pBR322 for the PstI site using (dC/dG) sequences synthesized on the 3' ends of the vector molecule and cDNA respectively. In cloning 75 ng cDNA, the authors obtained approximately 10 5 recombinant. This library was analyzed by the hybridization method on columns with two radioactive ( 32 P) probes: the total cDNA preparation and the total nuclear DNA from the human brain. The number of copies of the cloned DNA fragment in the genome was determined by dot hybridization. Restricting fragments of human and rat DNA genomes homologous to the cloned cDNA were identified on radio-autographs. In each case, 10 micrograms of EcoRI DNA hydrolyzate was fractionated in 1% agarose gel. The probe was also readied with RNA samples fractionated in agarose gel with formaldehyde and transferred to a nitrocellulose filter under weak vacuum. The filter was hybridized with 0.1 micrograms DNA pAG 02, labeled with ( 32 P) to a specific activity of 0.5-1 x 10 9 counts/min x microgram. The autograph was exposed with amplifying screens at -70 0 C for 2 days

Active numerical model of human body for reconstruction of falls from height.

Science.gov (United States)

Milanowicz, Marcin; Kędzior, Krzysztof

2017-01-01

Falls from height constitute the largest group of incidents out of approximately 90,000 occupational accidents occurring each year in Poland. Reconstruction of the exact course of a fall from height is generally difficult due to lack of sufficient information from the accident scene. This usually results in several contradictory versions of an incident and impedes, for example, determination of the liability in a judicial process. In similar situations, in many areas of human activity, researchers apply numerical simulation. They use it to model physical phenomena to reconstruct their real course over time; e.g. numerical human body models are frequently used for investigation and reconstruction of road accidents. However, they are validated in terms of specific road traffic accidents and are considerably limited when applied to the reconstruction of other types of accidents. The objective of the study was to develop an active numerical human body model to be used for reconstruction of accidents associated with falling from height. Development of the model involved extension and adaptation of the existing Pedestrian human body model (available in the MADYMO package database) for the purposes of reconstruction of falls from height by taking into account the human reaction to the loss of balance. The model was developed by using the results of experimental tests of the initial phase of the fall from height. The active numerical human body model covering 28 sets of initial conditions related to various human reactions to the loss of balance was developed. The application of the model was illustrated by using it to reconstruct a real fall from height. From among the 28 sets of initial conditions, those whose application made it possible to reconstruct the most probable version of the incident was selected. The selection was based on comparison of the results of the reconstruction with information contained in the accident report. Results in the form of estimated

Anti-proliferation activity of terpenoids isolated from Euphorbia kansui in human cancer cells and their structure-activity relationship.

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Hou, Jin-Jun; Shen, Yao; Yang, Zhou; Fang, Lin; Cai, Lu-Ying; Yao, Shuai; Long, Hua-Li; Wu, Wan-Ying; Guo, De-An

2017-10-01

Euphorbia kansui is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of edema, pleural effusion, and asthma, etc. According to the previous researches, terpenoids in E. kansui possess various biological activities, e.g., anti-virus, anti-allergy, antitumor effects. In this work, twenty five terpenoids were isolated from E. kansui, including thirteen ingenane- and eight jatrophane-type diterpenoids (with two new compounds, kansuinin P and Q) and four triterpenoids. Eighteen of them were analyzed by MTS assay for in vitro anticancer activity in five human cancer cell lines. Structure-activity relationship for 12 ingenane-type diterpenoids in colorectal cancer Colo205 cells were preliminary studied. Significant anti-proliferation activities were observed in human melanoma cells breast cancer MDA-MB-435 cells and Colo205 cells. More than half of the isolated ingenane-type diterpenoids showed inhibitory activities in MDA-MB-435 cells. Eight ingenane- and one jatrophane-type diterpenoids possessed much lower IC 50 values in MDA-MB-435 cells than positive control staurosporine. Preliminary structure-activity relationship analysis showed that substituent on position 20 was important for the activity of ingenane-type diterpenoids in Colo205 cells and substituent on position 3 contributed more significant biological activity of the compounds than that on position 5 in both MDA-MB-435 and Colo205 cells. Copyright © 2017 China Pharmaceutical University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Human activities and climate and environment changes: an inevitable relation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanchez, Aretha

2009-01-01

The human interference in the environment and the consequent climate change is today a consensus. The climate change can be local, regional and global. The global climate change is mainly caused by the greenhouse gases, and consequently the climate change intervenes in the environment. The interference cycle emerges in several forms and results in several consequences. However, the Global Warming has certainly the most import global impact. The main cause of the increase in the temperature (Greenhouse Effect) is the intensive use of the fossil fuels. Thus, to minimize the climatic changes actions are necessary to reduce, to substitute and to use with more efficient the fossil fuels. Looking at the past, the old agriculturists may have released greenhouse gases since thousand years ago, thus, modifying slowly but in significant form the earth climate much before the Industrial Age. If this theory is confirmed, its consequences would be decisive for the man history in the planet. For example, in parts of the North America and Europe the current temperatures could be even four Celsius degrees smaller. This change in temperature is enough to hinder agricultural used of these regions and consequently to diminish the human development. The main focus of this work is to perform a retrospective in some of civilizations who collapse due to environmental problems and make a historical description of the human activities (agriculture and livestock) since the primordium of the man up to the Industrial Age, aiming at the man interference on the natural dynamics of the global climate and the environment. This work will show through data comparisons and inferences that the gases emissions from these activities had a significant magnitude comparatively by the emissions after the Industrial Age. It is also demonstrated that the climate and environment interference was inevitable because the human evolution was caused by these activities. Another important point of this work is to

A triboelectric motion sensor in wearable body sensor network for human activity recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Hui Huang; Xian Li; Ye Sun

2016-08-01

The goal of this study is to design a novel triboelectric motion sensor in wearable body sensor network for human activity recognition. Physical activity recognition is widely used in well-being management, medical diagnosis and rehabilitation. Other than traditional accelerometers, we design a novel wearable sensor system based on triboelectrification. The triboelectric motion sensor can be easily attached to human body and collect motion signals caused by physical activities. The experiments are conducted to collect five common activity data: sitting and standing, walking, climbing upstairs, downstairs, and running. The k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) clustering algorithm is adopted to recognize these activities and validate the feasibility of this new approach. The results show that our system can perform physical activity recognition with a successful rate over 80% for walking, sitting and standing. The triboelectric structure can also be used as an energy harvester for motion harvesting due to its high output voltage in random low-frequency motion.

Active role of a human genomic insert in replication of a yeast artificial chromosome.

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van Brabant, A J; Fangman, W L; Brewer, B J

1999-06-01

Yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) are a common tool for cloning eukaryotic DNA. The manner by which large pieces of foreign DNA are assimilated by yeast cells into a functional chromosome is poorly understood, as is the reason why some of them are stably maintained and some are not. We examined the replication of a stable YAC containing a 240-kb insert of DNA from the human T-cell receptor beta locus. The human insert contains multiple sites that serve as origins of replication. The activity of these origins appears to require the yeast ARS consensus sequence and, as with yeast origins, additional flanking sequences. In addition, the origins in the human insert exhibit a spacing, a range of activation efficiencies, and a variation in times of activation during S phase similar to those found for normal yeast chromosomes. We propose that an appropriate combination of replication origin density, activation times, and initiation efficiencies is necessary for the successful maintenance of YAC inserts.

Human activities on the deep seafloor in the North East Atlantic: an assessment of spatial extent.

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Angela R Benn

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Environmental impacts of human activities on the deep seafloor are of increasing concern. While activities within waters shallower than 200 m have been the focus of previous assessments of anthropogenic impacts, no study has quantified the extent of individual activities or determined the relative severity of each type of impact in the deep sea. METHODOLOGY: The OSPAR maritime area of the North East Atlantic was chosen for the study because it is considered to be one of the most heavily impacted by human activities. In addition, it was assumed data would be accessible and comprehensive. Using the available data we map and estimate the spatial extent of five major human activities in the North East Atlantic that impact the deep seafloor: submarine communication cables, marine scientific research, oil and gas industry, bottom trawling and the historical dumping of radioactive waste, munitions and chemical weapons. It was not possible to map military activities. The extent of each activity has been quantified for a single year, 2005. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Human activities on the deep seafloor of the OSPAR area of the North Atlantic are significant but their footprints vary. Some activities have an immediate impact after which seafloor communities could re-establish, while others can continue to make an impact for many years and the impact could extend far beyond the physical disturbance. The spatial extent of waste disposal, telecommunication cables, the hydrocarbon industry and marine research activities is relatively small. The extent of bottom trawling is very significant and, even on the lowest possible estimates, is an order of magnitude greater than the total extent of all the other activities. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: To meet future ecosystem-based management and governance objectives for the deep sea significant improvements are required in data collection and availability as well as a greater awareness of the relative impact of

Tracking a Subset of Skeleton Joints: An Effective Approach towards Complex Human Activity Recognition

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Muhammad Latif Anjum