Pectic Galactan Polysaccharide-Based Gene Delivery System for Targeting Neuroinflammation

Treating neuroinflammation-related injuries and disorders through manipulation of neuroinflammation functions is being heralded as a new therapeutic strategy. In this study, a novel pectic galactan (PG) polysaccharide based gene therapy approach is developed for targeting reactive gliosis in neuroinflammation. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a cell protein with a high affinity to β-galactoside sugars and is highly expressed in reactive gliosis. Since PG carries galactans, it can target reactive gliosis via specific carbohydrate interaction between galactan and Gal-3 on the cell membrane, and therefore can be utilized as a carrier for delivering genes to these cells. The carrier is synthesized by modifying quaternary ammonium groups on the PG. The resulting quaternized PG (QPG) is found to form complexes with plasmid DNA with a mean diameter of 100 nm and have the characteristics required for targeted gene therapy. The complexes efficiently condense large amounts of plasmid per particle and successfully bind to Gal-3. The in vivo study shows that the complexes are biocompatible and safe for administration and can selectively transfect reactive glial cells of an induced cortical lesion. The results confirm that this PG-based delivery system is a promising platform for targeting Gal-3 overexpressing neuroinflammation cells for treating neuroinflammation-related injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.     

RLS-based initialization for per-tone equalizers in DMT receivers

Per-tone equalization has recently been proposed as an alternative receiver structure for discrete multitone-based systems improving upon the well-known structure based on time-domain equalization. Fast initialization of all the equalizer coefficients has been identified as an open problem. In this letter, a recursive initialization scheme based on recursive least squares with inverse updating is presented for the per-tone equalizers. Simulation results show convergence with an acceptably small number of training symbols. Complexity calculations are made for per-tone equalization and for the case where tones are grouped. It is demonstrated with an example that in the latter case, initialization complexity becomes sufficiently low and comparable to complexity during data transmission.     

Combined RLS-LMS initialization for per tone equalizers in DMT-receivers

In discrete multitone receivers, the classical equalizer structure consists of a (real) time domain equalizer (TEQ) combined with complex one-tap frequency domain equalizers. An alternative receiver is based on a per tone equalization (PTEQ), which optimizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on each tone separately and, hence, the total bitrate. In this paper, a new initialization scheme for the PTEQ is introduced, based on a combination of least mean squares (LMS) and recursive least squares (RLS) adaptive filtering. It is shown that the proposed method has only slightly slower convergence than full square-root RLS (SR-RLS) while complexity as well as memory cost are reduced considerably. Hence, in terms of complexity and convergence speed, the proposed algorithm is in between LMS and RLS.     

Judge Nonverbal Communication on Trial: Do Mock Trial Jurors Notice?

This study investigated jurors' reactions to judges' nonverbal communication in mock trials. Participants in 80 mock juries viewed taped segments of direct and cross examination that varied the judges' level of nonverbal involvement. Comments about the judge were solicited in predeliberation questionnaires and unsolicited comments obtained from dialogue that occurred during mock jury deliberations. The investigation found that jurors are aware of nonverbal cues from judges, particularly negative behaviors. Although the high- and low-involved judges solicited roughly the same number of comments, more negative comments were made about the judge displaying low than high nonverbal involvement. The results also revealed that jurors made more negative comments than positive ones. Overall, jurors are most aware of a judge's lack of involvement and apparent bias. Discussion focuses on ways to minimize the influence of judge nonverbal communication on jurors.     

10GbE成为主流

数年来，具有10Gbps速度的下一代以太网一直处于即将成为主流的状况。一段时间以来，网络的某些区域已在使用光学技术，并且随着流量的增加，对10GbE数据速率的需求正在增长。但是，需要一种比上一代以太网复杂许多的技术，用于在100m长的铜缆上运行10GbE。这一要求导致了昂贵的MAC（媒体访问控制器）和交换芯片，以及昂贵而又不方便的PHY层接口芯片，由此限制了快速LAN用于那些覆盖数据中心内较短距离的高性能应用。     

The synthesis of 6-trifluoroethyl-l-lysine: a method to introduce functionality at C-6 of l-lysine

Described is a method of introducing trifluoroalkyl groups at C-6 of lysine. This chemistry has the potential to introduce a variety of functionality at C-6 of lysine.     

Dark cure studies of cationic photopolymerizations of epoxides: Characterization of kinetic rate constants at high conversions

The effective propagation rate constant (k_p; averaged over all the propagating active centers) was characterized for solvent‐free cationic photopolymerizations of phenyl glycidyl ether over the entire range of conversions, including the high conversion regime in which mass transfer limitations become important. The profile for the k_p as a function of conversion was found to exhibit a constant plateau value at low to intermediate conversions, followed by a monotonic increase above a threshold value of conversion. To explain this trend, it is proposed that at high conversion the diffusional mobility of the photoinitiator counterion is reduced whereas the mobility of the cationic active center remains high because of reactive diffusion. Therefore, with increasing conversion, the average distance between the active centers and counterions may increase, resulting in an increase in the propagation rate constant. The profiles for the k_p values were investigated as a function of the temperature, photoinitiator anion, and photoinitiator concentration. As the photoinitiator concentration was increased, the plateau value of the effective propagation rate constant decreased whereas the threshold conversion increased. All of the experimental trends are consistent with the proposed increase in ion separation at high conversions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 4409–4416, 2004