Thrombospondin-1 CD47 Signalling: From Mechanisms to Medicine

Recent advances provide evidence that the cellular signalling pathway comprising the ligand-receptor duo of thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) and CD47 is involved in mediating a range of diseases affecting renal, vascular, and metabolic function, as well as cancer. In several instances, research has barely progressed past pre-clinical animal models of disease and early phase 1 clinical trials, while for cancers, anti-CD47 therapy has emerged from phase 2 clinical trials in humans as a crucial adjuvant therapeutic agent. This has important implications for interventions that seek to capitalize on targeting this pathway in diseases where TSP1 and/or CD47 play a role. Despite substantial progress made in our understanding of this pathway in malignant and cardiovascular disease, knowledge and translational gaps remain regarding the role of this pathway in kidney and metabolic diseases, limiting identification of putative drug targets and development of effective treatments. This review considers recent advances reported in the field of TSP1-CD47 signalling, focusing on several aspects including enzymatic production, receptor function, interacting partners, localization of signalling, matrix-cellular and cell-to-cell cross talk. The potential impact that these newly described mechanisms have on health, with a particular focus on renal and metabolic disease, is also discussed.     

The role of pressure on thin amorphous carbon films deposited using microwave surface wave plasma CVD

We report the effects of gas composition pressure (GCP) on the optical, structural and electrical properties of thin amorphous carbon (a-C) films grown on p-type silicon and quartz substrates by microwave surface wave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MW SWP CVD). The films, deposited at various GCPs ranging from 50 to 110 Pa, were studied by UV/VIS/NIR spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and current–voltage characteristics. The optical band gap of the a-C film was tailored to a relatively high range, 2.3–2.6 eV by manipulating GCPs from 50 to 110 Pa. Also, spin density strongly depended on the band gap of the a-C films. Raman spectra showed qualitative structured changes due to sp³/sp² carbon bonding network. The surfaces of the films are found to be very smooth and uniform (RMS roughness < 0.5 nm). The photovoltaic measurements under light illumination (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm²) show that short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor and photo-conversion efficiency of the film deposited at 50 Pa were 6.4 μA/cm², 126 mV, 0.164 and 1.4 × 10^− 4% respectively.     

Recognition of facial expressions based on salient geometric features and support vector machines

Facial expressions convey nonverbal cues which play an important role in interpersonal relations, and are widely used in behavior interpretation of emotions, cognitive science, and social interactions. In this paper we analyze different ways of representing geometric feature and present a fully automatic facial expression recognition (FER) system using salient geometric features. In geometric feature-based FER approach, the first important step is to initialize and track dense set of facial points as the expression evolves over time in consecutive frames. In the proposed system, facial points are initialized using elastic bunch graph matching (EBGM) algorithm and tracking is performed using Kanade-Lucas-Tomaci (KLT) tracker. We extract geometric features from point, line and triangle composed of tracking results of facial points. The most discriminative line and triangle features are extracted using feature selective multi-class AdaBoost with the help of extreme learning machine (ELM) classification. Finally the geometric features for FER are extracted from the boosted line, and triangles composed of facial points. The recognition accuracy using features from point, line and triangle are analyzed independently. The performance of the proposed FER system is evaluated on three different data sets: namely CK+, MMI and MUG facial expression data sets.     

Seasonal trend analysis of image time series

A procedure is introduced for the analysis of seasonal trends in time series of Earth observation imagery. Called Seasonal Trend Analysis (STA), the procedure is based on an initial stage of harmonic analysis of each year in the series to extract the annual and semi‐annual harmonics. Trends in the parameters of these harmonics over years are then analysed using a robust median‐slope procedure. Finally, images of these trends are used to create colour composites highlighting the amplitudes and phases of seasonality trends. The technique specifically rejects high‐frequency sub‐annual noise and is robust to short‐term interannual variability up to a period of 29% of the length of the series. It is, thus, a very effective procedure for focusing on the general nature of longer‐term trends in seasonality.     

A concurrent two-layer restoration scheme for GMPLS WDM networks

Next generation backbone networks will likely consist of IP routers as well as optical cross connects (OXCs) and will deploy an optical control plane protocol. Generalized Multi Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) has been proposed as the candidate of choice for the control plane. Optical fibers may carry large volumes of traffic and therefore adequate mechanisms must exist to enable the network to automatically recover from failures of fiber. In mission critical networks survivability becomes very important. We investigate the problem of autonomous recovery in such networks. The literature contains work in this area that investigates the problem of multilayer recovery. Such recovery had only been sequential in the sense that the published work recovers first in the optical domain, assuming the availability of redundant resources, and then proceeds to recover packet label switched paths. We report a recovery procedure for recovering packet label switch paths (packet LSPs) and lambda label switch paths (λLSP) concurrently. We have conducted an OPNET-based simulation study that compares the performance of the concurrent scheme with the previously published sequential two-layer recovery scheme. The study shows that the concurrent two-layer recovery scheme performs as much as forty-four percent faster than the sequential two-layer recovery scheme.     

An algebraic-Q4 turbulent eddy viscosity model: Boundary layer flow over a flat plate and flow in a pipe

An algebraic turbulent eddy viscosity model is proposed based on a length scale model coupled with the turbulent viscosity expression of the renormalization group theory of turbulence. The eddy viscosity is presented as a solution of a quartic equation. The new length scale model is based on boundary layer characteristics (displacement thickness, shape factor). The model is applied to transitional boundary layer flow over a flat plate and to flow in a smooth pipe. Predictions for the laminar-turbulent transition, and integral characteristics, such as the total skin friction coefficient, mean velocity profile across the boundary layer, and the friction coefficient in a pipe, are found to be in good agreement with experimental data.     

Development of pitch-based carbon–copper composites

Carbon–copper composites with varying copper to carbon ratio of 0.66–1.5 (by weight) were developed from coal-tar-pitch-derived green coke (as such or modified with natural graphite) as carbon source and electrolytic grade copper powder at different heat treatment temperatures (HTTs) of 1000–1400 °C. The physical, mechanical, and electrical properties differ depending upon the HTT and also on copper to carbon ratio (Cu/C). The composites prepared at HTT of 1100 °C having Cu/C ratio of 0.66 and 0.9 exhibited a high bending strength of 150 and 140 MPa, bulk density of 2.63 and 2.81 gm/cm³, electrical resistivity of 1.6 and 0.96 m Ω cm and shore hardness of 88 and 84, respectively, in spite of well-known inadequate wettability between copper and carbon. Increasing the temperature from 1100 °C for processing of the composites deteriorated the properties mainly due to the loss of copper through melting above 1100 °C as revealed by X-ray, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis and EDAX studies.     

Seasonal changes in bovine fertility: relation to developmental competence of oocytes, membrane properties and fatty acid composition of follicles

Follicle dynamics and oocyte viability in Holstein primiparous and multiparous cows and the relationships between fertility and the biochemical and physical properties of oocyte membranes with season were examined. The conception rates of primiparous (n = 70 885) and multiparous (n = 143 490) cows differed, peaking in the winter and decreasing in the summer. The number of follicles 3-8 mm in diameter per ovary was higher in winter (19.6) compared with summer (12.0). However, in winter the percentage of ovaries with fewer than ten follicles per ovary was 16%, in contrast to 50% in summer. After aspiration of follicles, 7.5 oocytes per ovary were found in winter and 5.0 oocytes per ovary in summer. Cleavage to the two- to four-cell stage after chemical activation was greater in winter than in summer; this was enhanced at the morula stage and embryo development to the blastocyst stage was significantly higher in winter than in summer. Determination of the lipid phase transition in oocyte membranes revealed a shift of 6 degrees C between summer and winter. Fatty acid composition of phospholipids from follicular fluid, granulosa cells and oocytes indicated that there was a higher percentage of saturated fatty acids during the summer and that the percentages of mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids were higher in oocytes and granulosa cells during the winter. Oocytes and granulosa cells had similar fatty acid compositions, in contrast to follicular fluid. These results may explain the differences in the ability of oocytes to develop to the blastocyst stage at different seasons. Thus, temperature changes may lead to changes in membrane properties, which, in turn, can influence oocyte function and fertility.