Search Results (7)

Tunnel lighting systems serving pedestrian and vehicular traffic must simultaneously satisfy visual performance requirements and energy efficiency constraints. This study investigates the optimization of tunnel lighting design using a sustainable engineering approach based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Specific Lighting Energy Consumption (SLEC). Software-assisted lighting simulations were performed for two tunnel geometries—straight and double-curved—and horizontal (Eh) and vertical (Ev) illuminance levels were evaluated at five representative locations. The resulting data were used to construct RSM-based predictive models and to assess energy performance through SLEC. The effects of mounting height, luminaire spacing, luminous flux, number of luminaires, and tunnel type were systematically analyzed. The results demonstrate that luminaire spacing is the dominant parameter influencing illuminance levels and energy consumption. An optimal configuration consisting of a 12 m luminaire spacing, 5 m mounting height, and 10,000–12,000 lm luminous flux achieved a favorable balance between lighting quality and energy efficiency. Additionally, straight tunnels exhibited higher illuminance uniformity at shorter spacings, whereas curved tunnels showed improved performance under wider spacing conditions. The proposed RSM–SLEC framework provides a robust, data-driven methodology for sustainable tunnel lighting design without compromising safety or visual comfort. Full article

Numerous factors influence the magnitude and effector phenotype of vaccine-induced CD8⁺ T cells, thereby potentially impacting treatment efficacy. Here, we investigate the effect of vaccination dose, route of immunization, presence of a target antigen-expressing tumor, and heterologous prime-boost with peptide vaccine partner following vaccination with antigen-armed VSV-GP. Our results indicate that a higher vaccine dose increases antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell proportions while altering the phenotype. The intravenous route induces the highest proportion of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells together with the lowest anti-viral response followed by the intraperitoneal, intramuscular, and subcutaneous routes. Moreover, the presence of a B16-OVA tumor serves as pre-prime, thereby increasing OVA-specific CD8⁺ T cells upon vaccination and thus altering the ratio of anti-tumor versus anti-viral CD8⁺ T cells. Interestingly, tumor-specific CD8⁺ T cells exhibit a different phenotype compared to bystander anti-viral CD8⁺ T cells. Finally, the heterologous combination of peptide and viral vaccine elicits the highest proportion of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cells in the tumor and tumor-draining lymph nodes. In summary, we provide a basic immune characterization of various factors that affect anti-viral and vaccine target-specific CD8⁺ T cell proportions and phenotypes, thereby enhancing our vaccinology knowledge for future vaccine regimen designs. Full article

In this study, we investigated the spore germination phenotype of Clostridium perfringens strains isolated from diarrheic animals (animal strains). The transcripts of germination-specific genes and their protein products were also measured. Our study found the following results: (i) animal strains spores germinated at a slower rate with AK (mixture of L-asparagine and KCl), L-cysteine, or L-lysine, but the extent of germination varied based on strains and germinants used; (ii) none of the amino acids (excluding L-cysteine and L-lysine) were identified as a universal germinant for spores of animal strains; (iii) animal strain spores germinated better at a pH range of 6.0–7.0; (iv) all tested germination-specific genes were expressed in animal strains; the levels of expression of major germinant receptor gene (gerKC) were higher and the cortex hydrolysis machinery genes (cspB and sleC) were lower in animal strains, compared to the food poisoning strain SM101; and (v) the levels of CspB and SleC were significantly lower in spores of animal strains compared to strain SM101, suggesting that these animal strains lack an efficient spore cortex hydrolysis machinery. In summary, our findings suggest that the poor or slow spore germination in C. perfringens animal strains might be due to incomplete spore cortex hydrolysis. Full article

Background: Some evidence indicates that adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have balance impairments. This study examined the associations between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), response inhibition (RI), and static balance in this population while off and on psychostimulant medication (PS). Methods: Participants (n = 40; 30 females; M age = 29.0; SD = 6.3 years) wore an ActiGraph GT9X–link around their waist to estimate MVPA levels (minutes/day). To assess RI, participants completed the Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D–KEFS) subtests Trail-Making Test (TMT) and Color–Word Interference Test (CWIT). To evaluate static balance, participants completed postural sway area (cm²) assessments in four conditions: feet-apart eyes-open (FAEO), feet-apart eyes-closed (FAEC), feet-together eyes-open (FTEO), and feet-together eyes-closed (FTEC). Participants also completed the single-leg standing tests (seconds) with eyes open (SLEO) and with eyes closed (SLEC). Results: When off medication, MVPA significantly predicted SLEC (β = 0.30; p = 0.017). MVPA and TMT significantly predicted FTEO, explaining ~19% of the variance in FTEO; both MVPA and TMT were significant predictors (β = –0.33, p = 0.027 and β = –0.31, p = 0.039, respectively). When on medication, TMT significantly predicted FAEC (β = 0.17; p = 0.047). Conclusions: MVPA and RI may be effective parameters in predicting static balance in adults with ADHD when off medication only. Full article

After exposure to an antigen, CD8 T cells reach a decision point about their fate: to become either short-lived effector cells (SLECs) or memory progenitor effector cells (MPECs). SLECs are specialized in providing an immediate effector function but have a shorter lifespan and lower proliferative capacity compared to MPECs. Upon encountering the cognate antigen during an infection, CD8 T cells rapidly expand and then contract to a level that is maintained for the memory phase after the peak of the response. Studies have shown that the contraction phase is mediated by TGFβ and selectively targets SLECs, while sparing MPECs. The aim of this study is to investigate how the CD8 T cell precursor stage determines TGFβ sensitivity. Our results demonstrate that MPECs and SLECs have differential responses to TGFβ, with SLECs being more sensitive to TGFβ than MPECs. This difference in sensitivity is associated with the levels of TGFβRI and RGS3, and the SLEC-related transcriptional activator T-bet binding to the TGFβRI promoter may provide a molecular basis for increased TGFβ sensitivity in SLECs. Full article

Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm that has been evolving into the wireless sensor networks to expand the scope of networked devices (or things). This evolution drives communication engineers to design secure and reliable communication at a low cost for many network applications such as radio frequency identification (RFID). In the RFID system, servers, readers, and tags communicate wirelessly. Therefore, mutual authentication is necessary to ensure secure communication. Normally, a central server supports the authentication of readers and tags by distributing and managing the credentials. Recent lightweight RFID authentication protocols have been proposed to satisfy the security features of RFID networks. Using a serverless RFID system is an alternative solution to using a central server. In this model, both the reader and the tag perform mutual authentication without the need for the central server. However, many security challenges arise from implementing lightweight authentication protocols in serverless RFID systems. We propose a new secure serverless RFID authentication protocol based on the famous elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). The protocol also maintains the confidentiality and privacy of the messages, tag information, and location. Although most of the current serverless protocols assume secure channels in the setup phase, we assume an insecure environment during the setup phase between the servers, readers, and tags. We ensure that the credentials can be renewed by any checkpoint server in the mobile RFID network. Thus, we implement ECC in the setup phase (renewal phase), to transmit and store the communication credentials of the server to multiple readers so that the tags can perform the mutual authentication successfully while far from the server. The proposed protocol is compared with other serverless frameworks proposed in the literature in terms of computation cost and attacks resistance. Full article

Nano-pulse stimulation (NPS), previously called nsPEFs, induced a vaccine-like effect after ablation of orthotopic N1-S1 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), protecting rats from subsequent challenges with N1-S1 cells. To determine immunity, immune cell phenotypes were analyzed in naïve, treated and protected rats. NPS provides a positive, post-ablation immuno-therapeutic outcome by alleviating immunosuppressive T regulatory cells (Treg) in the tumor microenvironment (TME), allowing dendritic cell influx and inducing dynamic changes in natural killer cells (NKs), NKT-cells and T-lymphocytes in blood, spleen and liver. NPS induced specific increases in NKs and NKT-cells expressing CD8 and activation receptors CD314-NKG2D and CD161 (NK1.1) in the TME after treatment, as well as some variable changes in CD4+ and CD8+ effector (Tem) and central memory (Tem) lymphocytes in blood and spleen. After orthotopic challenge, CD8+ T-cells were cytotoxic, inducing apoptosis in N1-S1 cells; additionally, in contrast to post-treatment immune responses, CD4+ and CD8+ memory precursor effector cells (MPECs) and short-lived effector cells (SLECs) were present, while still including CD8+ CD161 NK cells, but not involving CD8+ CD314-NKG2D+ NKs. This immunity was N1-S1-specific and was sustained for at least 8 months. NPS vaccinates rats in vivo against HCC by activating innate and adaptive immune memory mechanisms that prevent HCC recurrence. Full article