Transfer Level Research Articles

Cataract-linked serine mutations in the gap junction protein connexin50 expose a sorting signal that promotes its lysosomal degradation

Many human connexin50 (Cx50) mutants have been linked to cataracts including two carboxyl terminus serine mutants that are known phosphorylation sites in the lens (Cx50S258F and Cx50S259Y). To examine the behavior of these mutants and the role of phosphorylation at these positions, we stably transfected HeLa cells with cataract-linked and phosphorylation-mimicking (Cx50S258D and Cx50S259D) Cx50 mutants. We observed that gap junctional plaques were rarely detected in Cx50S258F-expressing and Cx50S259Y-expressing cells compared with wild-type cells. In contrast, gap junction abundance and size were greatly increased for Cx50S258D and Cx50S259D mutants. Cx50S258F and Cx50S259Y supported very low levels of gap junctional coupling, whereas Cx50S258D and Cx50S259D supported extensive intercellular communication. Furthermore, Cx50 levels as detected by immunoblotting were lower in Cx50S258F and Cx50S259Y mutants than in the wild-type or the aspartate substitution mutants, and chloroquine or ammonium chloride treatment significantly increased Cx50S258F and Cx50S259Y protein levels, implying participation of the lysosome in their increased degradation. Alanine substitution of amino acids within a predicted tyrosine-based sorting signal in Cx50S258F and Cx50S259Y increased levels of gap junctional plaques and intercellular transfer of neurobiotin. These results suggest that the absence of phosphorylatable serines at these positions exposes a sorting signal leading to lysosomal degradation of Cx50, whereas phosphorylation at these sites conceals this signal and allows targeting of Cx50 to the plasma membrane and stabilization of gap junction plaques. We propose that in the lens, degradation of Cx50S258F and Cx50S259Y decreases Cx50 levels at the plasma membrane and consequently Cx50 function, leading to cataracts.

Analyzing Security Vulnerabilities Induced by High-level Synthesis

High-level synthesis (HLS) is essential to map the high-level language (HLL) description (e.g., in C/C++) of hardware design to the corresponding Register Transfer Level (RTL) to produce hardware-independent design specifications with reduced design complexity for ASICs and FPGAs. Adopting HLS is crucial for industrial and government applications to lower development costs, verification efforts, and time-to-market. Current research practices focus on optimizing HLS for performance, power, and area constraints. However, the literature does not include an analysis of the security implications carried through HLS-generated RTL translations (e.g., from an untimed high-level sequential specification to a fully scheduled implementation). This article demonstrates the evidence of security vulnerabilities that emerge during the HLS translation of a high-level description of system-on-chip (SoC) intellectual properties to their corresponding RTL. The evidence provided in this manuscript highlights the need for (a) guidelines for high-level programmers to prevent these security issues at the design time and (b) automated HLS verification solutions that cover security in their optimization flow.

Cash transfer programs and child health and family economic outcomes: a systematic review.

ObjectivesFamily income is an important determinant of child and parental health. In Canada, cash transfer programs to families with children have existed since 1945. This systematic review aimed to examine the association between cash transfer programs to families with children and health outcomes in Canadian children (ages 0 to 18) as well as family economic outcomes.MethodsWe reviewed academic and grey literature published up to November 2021. Additional studies were identified through reference review. We included any study that examined children 0–18 years old and/or their parents, took place in Canada and reported Canada-specific data, and reported child, youth and/or parental health outcomes, as well as family economic outcomes. Risk of bias was assessed by two reviewers using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.SynthesisOur search yielded 23 studies meeting the inclusion criteria out of 7052 identified. Eight studies in total measured child health outcomes, including birth outcomes, child overall health, and developmental and behavioural outcomes, and four directly addressed parental health, including mental health, injuries, and obesity. Most studies reported generally positive associations, though some findings were specific to certain subgroups. Some studies also examined fertility and labour force participation outcomes, which described varying effects.ConclusionCash transfer programs to families with children in Canada are associated with better child and parental health outcomes. Additional research is needed to evaluate the mechanisms of effects, and to identify which types and levels of government transfers are most effective, and target populations, to optimize the positive effects of these benefits.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.17269/s41997-022-00610-2.

Numerical analysis of vane endwall film cooling and heat transfer with different mainstream turbulence intensities and blowing ratios

In present study, effects of mainstream turbulence intensity and blowing ratio on the endwall film cooling and heat transfer are numerically investigated. Upstream double-row streamwise cylindrical holes with inclination angel (θ) of 30 deg is applied. Four blowing ratios (M = 0.5, 1.0 1.5, 2.0) and three turbulence intensities (Tu = 5%, 15%, 25%) are studied. Distributions of film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient are presented together with vortex structure. Results show that with the increasing of blowing ratio, the strength of horseshoe vortex is significantly weakened and the level of film cooling effectiveness is obviously improved. In addition, the low heat transfer zone downstream the holes and upstream the leading edge is enlarged because of the increased momentum, while the high heat transfer zone at the exit of passage gradually shrinks. With the increasing of turbulence intensity, the variation of film cooling effectiveness is very limited, but the level of heat transfer near the pressure side in the second half of the vane passage obviously decreases. Moreover, a more uniform film coverage and heat transfer distribution is obtained at high turbulence intensities.

A Design of FPGA-Based Neural Network PID Controller for Motion Control System.

In the actual industrial production process, the method of adaptively tuning proportional–integral–derivative (PID) parameters online by neural network can adapt to different characteristics of different controlled objects better than the controller with PID. However, the commonly used microcontroller unit (MCU) cannot meet the application scenarios of real time and high reliability. Therefore, in this paper, a closed-loop motion control system based on BP neural network (BPNN) PID controller by using a Xilinx field programmable gate array (FPGA) solution is proposed. In the design of the controller, it is divided into several sub-modules according to the modular design idea. The forward propagation module is used to complete the forward propagation operation from the input layer to the output layer. The PID module implements the mapping of PID arithmetic to register transfer level (RTL) and is responsible for completing the output of control amount. The main state machine module generates enable signals that control the sequential execution of each sub-module. The error backpropagation and weight update module completes the update of the weights of each layer of the network. The peripheral modules of the control system are divided into two main parts. The speed measurement module completes the acquisition of the output pulse signal of the encoder and the measurement of the motor speed. The pulse width modulation (PWM) signal generation module generates PWM waves with different duty cycles to control the rotation speed of the motor. A co-simulation of Modelsim and Simulink is used to simulate and verify the system, and a test analysis is also performed on the development platform. The results show that the proposed system can realize the self-tuning of PID control parameters, and also has the characteristics of reliable performance, high real-time performance, and strong anti-interference. Compared with MCU, the convergence speed is far more than three orders of magnitude, which proves its superiority.

Improving antistatic and mechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene composites through polar adsorption and anchoring effect of organic salt

Matrix toughness and viscosity, fiber length, interface bonding, and crystalline structure play significant roles in tuning the antistatic and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) composites. However, there is no report available concerning the development of antistatic PP composites by considering all these factors. In this study, we fabricate antistatic long glass fiber reinforced polypropylene random copolymer composites filled with Li-TFSI (LGF/PPR/Li-TFSI) and explore how crystallization behavior due to Li-TFSI affects the interfacial strength and conductive mechanism. It is found that the polar effect promotes the adsorption of Li-TFSI on the surface of LGF to form a conductive track, and consequently, the three-dimensional conductive network formed by intertwined LGF effectively reduces the percolation threshold (i.e., 0.15 wt/wt%). Besides, the heterogeneous nucleation induced by Li-TFSI promotes the nucleation and crystal growth of PPR molecular chains on the surface of Li-TFS. Thus, Li-TFSI wrapped by spherulites improves the anchoring effect of the LGF on the PPR matrix. However, the anchorage degree is related to the close proximity of conductive particles, specifically, 0.05 wt/wt% Li-TFSI results in the highest level of stress transfer. Meanwhile, although the addition of 0.15 wt/wt% Li-TFSI causes a slight decrease in the interface strength, it leads to competitive nucleation between Li-TFSI and LGF, thereby generating thicker lamellae, which makes LGF/PPR/Li-TFSI the largest modulus. This study provides some new insights into the tailoring of material properties using Li-TFSI for antistatic PP composites.

Murine CXCR3+CXCR6+γδT Cells Reside in the Liver and Provide Protection Against HBV Infection.

Gamma delta (γδ) T cells play a key role in the innate immune response and serve as the first line of defense against infection and tumors. These cells are defined as tissue-resident lymphocytes in skin, lung, and intestinal mucosa. They are also relatively abundant in the liver; however, little is known about the residency of hepatic γδT cells. By comparing the phenotype of murine γδT cells in liver, spleen, thymus, and small intestine, a CXCR3+CXCR6+ γδT-cell subset with tissue-resident characteristics was found in liver tissue from embryos through adults. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells mediated retention of CXCR3+CXCR6+ γδT cells through the interactions between CXCR3 and CXCR6 and their chemokines. During acute HBV infection, CXCR3+CXCR6+ γδT cells produced high levels of IFN-γ and adoptive transfer of CXCR3+CXCR6+ γδT cells into acute HBV-infected TCRδ−/− mice leading to lower HBsAg and HBeAg expression. It is suggested that liver resident CXCR3+CXCR6+ γδT cells play a protective role during acute HBV infection. Strategies aimed at expanding and activating liver resident CXCR3+CXCR6+ γδT cells both in vivo or in vitro have great prospects for use in immunotherapy that specifically targets acute HBV infection.

Jet Impingement Heat Transfer Characteristics with Variable Extended Jet Holes under Strong Crossflow Conditions

In this paper, detailed flow patterns and heat transfer characteristics of a jet impingement system with extended jet holes are experimentally and numerically studied. The jet holes in the jet plate present an inline array of 16 × 5 rows in the streamwise (i.e., the crossflow direction) and spanwise directions, where the streamwise and spanwise distances between adjacent holes, which are normalized by the jet hole diameter (xn/d and yn/d), are 8 and 5, respectively. The jets impinge onto a smooth target plate with a normalized distance (zn/d) of 3.5 apart from the jet plate. The jet holes are extended by inserting stainless tubes throughout the jet holes and the extended lengths are varied in a range of 1.0d–2.5d, depending on the jet position in the streamwise direction. The experimental data is obtained by using the transient thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) technique for wide operating jet Reynolds numbers of (1.0 × 104)–(3.0 × 104). The numerical simulations are well-validated using the experimental data and provide further insight into the flow physics within the jet impingement system. Comparisons with a traditional baseline jet impingement scheme show that the extended jet holes generate much higher local heat transfer levels and provide more uniform heat transfer distributions over the target plate, resulting in the highest improvement of approximately 36% in the Nusselt number. Although the extended jet hole configuration requires a higher pumping power to drive the flow through the impingement system, the gain of heat transfer prevails over the penalty of flow losses. At the same pumping power consumption, the extended jet hole design also has more than 10% higher heat transfer than the baseline scheme.

Physical simulation of macroinstability behaviour of liquid level in oxygen coal combustion melting and separation furnace

ABSTRACT Through visualization experiments, the macroinstability behaviour in the molten pool of the oxygen coal combustion melting and separation furnace was analysed by a physical simulation. In the experiment, images were acquired using a high-speed camera and an image processing system was used to track the gas-phase change in the local area of the molten pool and regular fluctuation of the molten pool in real time. Among them, bubble as the carrier of jet energy transfer and liquid level fluctuation. A close connection was observed between the local area bubble motion, jet behaviour, and macroinstability characteristics of the liquid level. The effects of different variables on the local stirring of the molten pool and overall macroinstability were compared. The developed ironmaking process parameters were optimized. The optimal immersion depth of the oxygen lance was 15 mm, while the optimal diameter of the oxygen lance was 4 mm.

Peripheral Nerve: Health and Medicine in Cold War Latin America

Peripheral Nerve: Health and Medicine in Cold War Latin America

Natural resource windfalls and efficiency in local government expenditure: Evidence from Peru

AbstractWe study the role of natural resource windfalls in explaining the technical efficiency of public expenditure. Using a rich dataset of expenditure and public good provision for 1836 municipalities in Peru for the period 2001–2010, we estimate a nonmonotonic relationship between the efficiency of public good provision and the level of natural resource transfers. Local governments that were extremely favored by the boom in mineral prices were more efficient in using fiscal windfalls, whereas those that only benefited from modest transfers were more inefficient. These results can be explained by the increase in political competition associated with the boom. However, the fact that increases in efficiency were related to reductions in public good provision casts doubts on the beneficial effects of political competition in promoting efficiency.

Designing a Medical Supply Chain Network Considering the Risk of Supply and Flexible Production in Two-Stage Uncertain Conditions

In the green supply chain approach, all the links that are put together to provide a product or service are considered, and strategic and operational decisions are made to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire chain. At the same time, the environmental effects should be minimized. In this research, a nonlinear mixed-integer multiobjective model is developed to design a green closed-loop supply chain for medical products. In this supply chain, the echelons include supplier, manufacturer, warehouse, and customer in the forward supply chain and collection centers, repair services, and disposal centers in the reverse supply chain. In the proposed model, four objectives of customer satisfaction, environmental effects, supply risk, and total costs of the supply chain were considered. The developed model is implemented in a supply chain of medical products, and after optimizing the model, the main results including location and capacity of facilities, planning for flexible production, purchase of materials, service and maintenance plan, product transfer, and inventory level are determined and analyzed.

Investigating the Principal Transformational Leadership Strategy in Implementing Character Education at the Senior High School Level (SMA) in Indonesia

Character education (CE) in secondary schools is one of the educational programs aimed to anticipate the tendency of moral perversion, as a result of moral decadence. Various forms of moral deviations that occur among high school students result in them being alienated from life because they conflict with cultural norms, school discipline, and life ethics in society. This article aims to discuss the relation of character values reinforcement and the principal's transformational leadership strategy to shape student characters in a descriptive-critical manner. The objectives of this study are school strategies in optimizing the implementation of character education reinforcement. This research uses a qualitative method with a case study design. Meanwhile, the data validity measurement was based on the level of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. The results emphasize the importance of shaping student character as an anticipatory step to minimize moral distortions among high school students, and the effectiveness of the principal's transformational leadership role in optimizing the implementation of character education programs  (CEP) in schools.

Implementing Path of Zhengzhou University's Establishment of Football Academy

Under the new policy background of the 2020 "Opinions on Deepening the Integration of Sports and Education and Promoting the Healthy Development of Adolescents", as the highest educational institution in China, higher education institutions should shoulder the responsibility of cultivating high-quality talents to meet social needs. As the highest-quality higher education institution in Henan Province, Zhengzhou University's innovation and exploration of teaching methods and talent training models under the background of the integration of sports and education will play a leading role in the development of higher education in Henan Province. Through combing and analyzing the existing policy documents, firstly, explore the reasons, significance, and social background of the construction of the football academy; secondly, analyze the theoretical basis for the construction of the football academy in the context of relevant policies, and analyze the demand for talent training required by the policy. It was combining with the construction situation of my country’s football academy at this stage, implementing the specific requirements of the integration strategy of sports and education, establishing the guiding ideology of “diversified integration” after establishing the academy from the three levels of discipline establishment, talent training, and talent transfer. Investigate the needs of the talent market at the stage, determine the direction of talent training, and discuss how to set up specific majors for domestic enrollment after the establishment of the college. Based on this, it proposes the professional setting direction and specific curriculum arrangement and assessment methods for talent training from five aspects: education and teaching, sports competitions, sports medicine, sports media, economics, and management. Finally, it discusses the difficulties faced by students, teachers, and employment development after graduation in the process of football academy construction and how to use existing resources and related policy support to solve the difficulties. As an innovative way of running a school, the Football Academy provides new opportunities for the reform and innovation of sports talent cultivation. In the torrent of sports and education integration reform, make full use of existing resources, integrate and mobilize various high-quality resources in the region, and finally transform them into the winning resources for the new development of our school's sports discipline in this innovative school-running method. After the football academy is established, it will become a link between campus football and professional football in the province, and a breeding base for national high-quality football industry talents. It will also provide a strong impetus for the development of football in my country.

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ НОВИХ МЕТОДІВ ТРАНСФЕРУ ЗНАНЬ ДЛЯ НАВЧАННЯ ФАХІВЦІВ З ЕКСПОРТНОГО КОНТРОЛЮ

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of knowledge and technology transfer in the modern global economy. The article shows models of knowledge and technology transfer. The allocation of four levels of knowledge and technology transfer is proposed: 1) creation of knowledge and technologies; 2) exchange; 3) implementation; 4) commercialization. The main factors and methods of knowledge and technology transfer are identified. The significance of the educational program "Economic Security of Entrepreneurship" for the training of specialists in the field of technology transfer in Ukraine is shown.

Describing Transfers Originating Out-of-Facility for Nursing Home Residents.

Potentially avoidable hospitalizations are harmful to nursing home residents. Despite extensive care transitions research, no studies have described transfers originating outside the nursing home (eg, visiting family members or at a dialysis center). This article describes 82 out-of-facility (community) transfers and compares them to transfers originating within the nursing home (direct transfers). Secondary data analysis with multivariable model for community transfer risk factors. Eighty-two community transfers and 1362 transfers originating in the nursing home, involving 870 residents enrolled in the OPTIMISTIC demonstration project between January 1, 2015, and June 30,2016. Transfers were compared using data from the Minimum Data Set and root cause analyses performed at time of transfer. Multivariable associations were assessed at the transfer level to define risk factors for community transfers. Project nurses collected data on community transfers to inform a root cause analysis. Residents with community transfers were younger (74.4years vs 78.2years), with lower prevalence of cognitive impairment (44.8% vs 70.3%) and higher rates of heart failure (38.7% vs 23.3%) than residents with direct transfers. Community transfers were more likely due to cardiovascular illness (31.2% vs 8.7%), whereas less likely to be for cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric concerns (11.7% vs 22.7%). Nearly half (46%) of community transfers originated at dialysis centers. Residents transferred outside the nursing home were less likely to have documented limitations to care such as a do not resuscitate code status. Communication during community transfers was identified on root cause analyses as a potential area for improvement. Community transfers were more likely to occur in younger residents with higher rates of cardiovascular disease and lower rates of cognitive impairment. Improved communication between nursing home staff and outside providers as well as more extensive advance care planning for residents with cardiovascular disease may reduce community transfers.

Optimization of Multi-Core Accelerator Performance Based on Accurate Performance Estimation

Multicore accelerators have emerged to efficiently execute recent applications with complex computational dimensions. Compared to a single-core accelerator, a multicore accelerator handles a larger amount of communication and computation simultaneously. Since the conventional performance estimation algorithm tailored to single-core accelerators cannot estimate the performance of multicore accelerators accurately, we propose a novel performance estimation algorithm for a multicore accelerator. The proposed algorithm predicts a dynamic communication bandwidth of each direct memory access controller (DMAC) based on the runtime state of DMACs, making it possible to estimate the communication amounts handled by DMACs accurately by taking into account the temporal intervals. The proposed algorithm is evaluated for convolutional neural networks and wireless communications. The experimental results using a pre-register transfer level (RTL) simulator shows that the proposed algorithm can estimate the performance of a multicore accelerator with the estimation error of up to 2.8%, regardless of the system communication bandwidth. These results were also verified by the hardware implementations on Xilinx ZYNQ. In addition, the proposed algorithm is used to explore a design space of accelerator core dimensions, and the resulting optimal core dimension provides performance gains of 10.8% and 31.2%, compared to the conventional multicore accelerator and single-core accelerator, respectively. The source code is available on the GitHub repository: <uri xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://github.com/SDL-KU/OptAccTile</uri> .

Design of DCO-OFDM System for VLC on Chip at the Register-Transfer Level

This paper reports a System-on-Chip (SoC) architecture design for the DC-biased optical OFDM (DCO-OFDM) Visible Light Communication (VLC) transceiver. The proposed SoC comprises several Digital Signal Processing (DSP) blocks, i.e., Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Convolutional Encoder (CE), Viterbi Decoder, Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) Modulator/Demodulator, Interleaver/Deinterleaver, and Synchronizer. System was designed through the combination of two Intellectual Property (IP) types: designing IP from the scratch (custom-based IP) and employing available core accelerator IP served by the third party, which is Xilinx library (reuse-based IP). All DSP blocks were targeted for the FPGA development board (Xilinx Zynq SoC 7000), then combined with the ARM microprocessor. In this study, ARM microprocessors were used for various tasks, i.e., scheduling process, on-chip memory as a temporary data storage function, Analog-to-Digital Converter (A/D), Digital-to-Analog Converter (D/A), and Ethernet module as communication medium between SoCs and personal computer (PC). Testing was carried out on the Register Transfer Level (RTL) for hardware (H/W) and software (S/W) models implemented on ARM microprocessors. The system performances were measured through the point-to-point data communication scenarios between a PC transmitter and PC receiver. A 77 kbps of data communication speed and 2.9 ms of data processing latency were obtained using 100 MHz clock speed. The VLC on-chip was successfully demonstrated in RTL phase. This system is suitable for a low-rate communication system application, generally for joint VLC and Internet-things (IoT) technology, (then called as VLC/IoT).

Differences in recipient ability of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains in relation with their pathogenic potential.

Conjugation is recognized as a mechanism driving dissemination of antibacterial resistances and virulence factors among bacteria. In the presented work conjugative transfer frequency into clinical uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains (UPEC) isolated from patients with symptomatic urinary tract infections was investigated. From 93 obtained UPEC strains only 29 were suitable for conjugation experiments with the plasmid pOX38, a well-known F-plasmid derivative. The study was focused on comparison of conjugation frequencies in plankton and biofilm, including comparison of conjugation frequencies in high and low biofilm biomass with their virulence potential. It was shown that the conjugation frequency depended on the biofilm biomass and was significantly higher in thin (OD580<0.3) than in thick biofilm (OD580≥0.3). Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that higher conjugation frequencies in plankton and biofilm were directly positively correlated with the sum of virulence-associated genes of the recipient strain and presence of multidrug antibiotic resistances. On the other hand, the sum of insensitivities to different bacteriocins was negatively correlated with an increase in the conjugative transfer level. Our results obtained hence indicate that the evolution of potentially more pathogenic strains via conjugation is depended on the strains' ability to be a "good" recipient in the conjugative transfer, possibly due to the ability to form thinner biofilms.

An Efficient and Reliable Chaos-Based IoT Security Core for UDP/IP Wireless Communication

The ultimate focus of this paper is to provide a hyperchaos-based reconfigurable platform for the real-time securing of communicating embedded systems interconnected in networks according to the Internet of Things (IoT) standards. The proposed platform’s Register Transfer Level (RTL) architecture is entirely developed and designed from scratch using the VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL). The original idea consists of exploiting the nonlinearity of a discretized and optimized 4D Lorenz hyperchaotic system as an encryption keystream generator in a symmetric cryptosystem to secure wireless communicating embedded systems and adapted to the UDP/IP protocol. It was necessary to go through three essential steps to achieve this goal. First, a lightweight and energy-efficient hyperchaos-based encryption IP core is designed, implemented on an FPGA circuit and dedicated to IoT device security, denoted Hyperchaotic-based IoT Device Security Core (HC-IoT-DSC). The designed encryption IP core combines three subsystems: a multiple key size hyperchaotic key generator (HC-KG), a hyperchaotic synchronization by dynamic feedback modulation technique (HCS-DFM), and an online FIPS 140-2-based built-in self-security test (BISST) module. Second, a secure UDP/IP stack is totally implemented using the VHDL language. Third, the proposed architecture was integrated into real-world and real-time secure wireless communication at a distance of 2 km between two delocalized network nodes employing the Xilinx ML605 FPGA platform and the ZigBee E800-DTU module. A panoply of online/offline investigations and experiments were carried out intensely, deeply, and thoroughly to analyze, evaluate and validate the robustness and security aspects of the proposed scheme regarding all the aspects related to embedded system security. Notably, the evaluations were conducted in two phases for all the platform components before and after integrating the proposed security core in real-time wireless communication. The investigations and implementation findings validate that the proposed architecture can attain good performances, and confirm the feasibility of the adopted approach for IoT applications. Furthermore, the timing and power efficiency results present an excellent trade-off between design performance and high-security achievement.