FOTA-MAC: A Novel Traffic Adaptive MAC Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks

Recently, Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a significant breakthrough in the healthcare sector due to their immense potential to revolutionize health outcomes. This type of network is able to support a diverse range of applications with traffic rates ranging from several bits per hour up to 10 megabits per second. The challenge lies in accommodating this wide range of applications and meeting their distinct requirements using a single suitably flexible medium access control protocol. In response to this challenge, our paper proposes a novel Traffic Adaptive MAC protocol designed specifically for the regular traffic of WBANs. This innovative protocol dynamically adapts its operation based on the observed traffic, leading to significant efficiency gains compared to the standardized MAC protocols IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.6. Our contribution aims to address the critical need for a tailored and adaptive MAC protocol that can seamlessly handle varying traffic loads within WBANs. By incorporating our protocol, we envision enhanced communication efficiency and improved performance, unlocking new possibilities for healthcare applications and ultimately revolutionizing the healthcare industry

A new highly efficient MAC protocol for WBAN: exceptional performance in the face of selfish behaviors

Over the last two decades, wireless body area networks (WBANs) have gained significant traction in healthcare applications. These networks facilitate connections among various sensors, which can be integrated into clothing, placed directly on the body, or implanted beneath the skin. While these sensors typically serve a single application, they generate traffic with diverse requirements. Managing this diversity necessitates tailored treatment to meet specific traffic needs while satisfying application requirements such as reliability and timeliness. In this paper, we propose a novel, flexible, and power-efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol designed to seamlessly complement existing solutions. Our protocol, available in two versions as an enhancement to the beacon-enabled mode of IEEE 802.15.4, aims to optimize quality of service (QoS) for periodic traffic applications within WBANs, irrespective of traffic and density conditions, without compromising energy efficiency. Our results demonstrate significant improvements compared to the standardized IEEE 802.15.4-MAC protocol across all test scenarios, even in the presence of selfish behaviors. These findings underscore the protocol’s efficacy in enhancing reliability and efficiency in wireless healthcare systems

Learning intrinsic excitability in medium spiny neurons

We present an unsupervised, local activation-dependent learning rule for intrinsic plasticity (IP) which affects the composition of ion channel conductances for single neurons in a use-dependent way. We use a single-compartment conductance-based model for medium spiny striatal neurons in order to show the effects of parametrization of individual ion channels on the neuronal activation function. We show that parameter changes within the physiological ranges are sufficient to create an ensemble of neurons with significantly different activation functions. We emphasize that the effects of intrinsic neuronal variability on spiking behavior require a distributed mode of synaptic input and can be eliminated by strongly correlated input. We show how variability and adaptivity in ion channel conductances can be utilized to store patterns without an additional contribution by synaptic plasticity (SP). The adaptation of the spike response may result in either "positive" or "negative" pattern learning. However, read-out of stored information depends on a distributed pattern of synaptic activity to let intrinsic variability determine spike response. We briefly discuss the implications of this conditional memory on learning and addiction.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

Production, Recovery and Characterization of an Enterocin with Anti-Listerial Activity Produced by Enterococcus hirae OS1

 Background and objective: Lactic acid bacteria, used in food processing for a long time, can produce various metabolites during their growth, including bacteriocins. These antimicrobials, used as natural bio-preservatives, enhance the food safety. The objective of this study was to assess lactic acid bacteria bacteriocins with anti-listerial activity and optimize their production and recovery process.Material and methods: Isolate was identified using conventional assays (morphological and biochemical characteristics) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Lactic acid bacteria bacteriocins were characterized based on their physicochemical properties (nature, pH stability and thermo-resistance). The production process was based on optimization of media components (growth media and addition of glucose, nitrogen source and tween 20) and culture conditions (temperature, pH, agitation and inoculum size). Furthermore, optimization of the recovery process was studied using ion exchange chromatography on amberlite IRC-50 (effects of resin size and NaCl eluent concentration).Results and conclusion: Enterococcus hirae OS1 was isolated from Moroccan raw cow milk as bacteriocinogenic strain. After optimization of the bacteriocin production process, results showed that the key parameters for increasing of production included temperature of 30°C, pH of 6.5 and inoculum size of 5%. Production with whey-based and economic food-grade substrate allowed high production of enterocin OS1 (1,600 AU ml-1) (P<0.001). Simultaneous addition of glucose (1%) and Tween 20 (1%) increased enterocin titer significantly (5,866 AU ml-1) (P<0.01). Recovery efficiency increased with use of 70% amberlite IRC-50 resin and elution with 2M NaCl. Indeed, recovery of 75.4% of bacteriocin was achieved in comparison to 15.7% of bacteriocin without optimization. This promises achieving high quantities of enterocin at low costs.Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest

Creación de la banda sonora de un videojuego

Treball de fi de grau - Curs 2021-2022En aquest projecte, es duu a terme el desenvolupament, la composició i la producció d’una peça musical del gènere chiptune, que formarà part de la banda sonora del videojoc Soccer Legends. Aquest gènere, cobra protagonisme en aquest treball, ja que, mitjançant aquest, s’introdueixen conceptes de la música i es desenvolupen idees com la nostàlgia per mitjà del so retro, l’ús d’eines digitals per la construcció musical o la funció narrativa de la música als videojocs

Singular Location and Signaling Profile of Adenosine A2A-Cannabinoid CB1 Receptor Heteromers in the Dorsal Striatum

The dorsal striatum is a key node for many neurobiological processes such as motor activity, cognitive functions, and affective processes. The proper functioning of striatal neurons relies critically on metabotropic receptors. Specifically, the main adenosine and endocannabinoid receptors present in the striatum, ie, adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) and cannabinoid CB1 receptor (CB1R), are of pivotal importance in the control of neuronal excitability. Facilitatory and inhibitory functional interactions between striatal A2AR and CB1R have been reported, and evidence supports that this cross-talk may rely, at least in part, on the formation of A2AR-CB1R heteromeric complexes. However, the specific location and properties of these heteromers have remained largely unknown. Here, by using techniques that allowed a precise visualization of the heteromers in situ in combination with sophisticated genetically-modified animal models, together with biochemical and pharmacological approaches, we provide a high resolution expression map and a detailed functional characterization of A2AR-CB1R heteromers in the dorsal striatum. Specifically, our data unveil that the A2AR-CB1R heteromer (i) is essentially absent from corticostriatal projections and striatonigral neurons, and, instead, is largely present in striatopallidal neurons, (ii) displays a striking G protein-coupled signaling profile, where co-stimulation of both receptors leads to strongly reduced downstream signaling, and (iii) undergoes an unprecedented dysfunction in Huntington’s disease, an archetypal disease that affects striatal neurons. Altogether, our findings may open a new conceptual framework to understand the role of coordinated adenosine-endocannabinoid signaling in the indirect striatal pathway, which may be relevant in motor function and neurodegenerative diseases

Homeostatic Plasticity of Striatal Neurons Intrinsic Excitability following Dopamine Depletion

The striatum is the major input structure of basal ganglia and is involved in adaptive control of behaviour through the selection of relevant informations. Dopaminergic neurons that innervate striatum die in Parkinson disease, leading to inefficient adaptive behaviour. Neuronal activity of striatal medium spiny neurons (MSN) is modulated by dopamine receptors. Although dopamine signalling had received substantial attention, consequences of dopamine depletion on MSN intrinsic excitability remain unclear. Here we show, by performing perforated patch clamp recordings on brain slices, that dopamine depletion leads to an increase in MSN intrinsic excitability through the decrease of an inactivating A-type potassium current, IA. Despite the large decrease in their excitatory synaptic inputs determined by the decreased dendritic spines density and the increase in minimal current to evoke the first EPSP, this increase in intrinsic excitability resulted in an enhanced responsiveness to their remaining synapses, allowing them to fire similarly or more efficiently following input stimulation than in control condition. Therefore, this increase in intrinsic excitability through the regulation of IA represents a form of homeostatic plasticity allowing neurons to compensate for perturbations in synaptic transmission and to promote stability in firing. The present observations show that this homeostatic ability to maintain firing rates within functional range also occurs in pathological conditions, allowing stabilizing neural computation within affected neuronal networks

Allosteric interactions between agonists and antagonists within the adenosine A2A receptor-dopamine D2 receptor heterotetramer

Adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR)-dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) heteromers are key modulators of striatal neuronal function. It has been suggested that the psychostimulant effects of caffeine depend on its ability to block an allosteric modulation within the A2AR-D2R heteromer, by which adenosine decreases the affinity and intrinsic efficacy of dopamine at the D2R. We describe novel unsuspected allosteric mechanisms within the heteromer by which not only A2AR agonists, but also A2AR antagonists, decrease the affinity and intrinsic efficacy of D2R agonists and the affinity of D2R antagonists. Strikingly, these allosteric modulations disappear on agonist and antagonist coadministration. This can be explained by a model that considers A2AR-D2R heteromers as heterotetramers, constituted by A2AR and D2R homodimers, as demonstrated by experiments with bioluminescence resonance energy transfer and bimolecular fluorescence and bioluminescence complementation. As predicted by the model, high concentrations of A2AR antagonists behaved as A2AR agonists and decreased D2R function in the brain

Striatal Pre- and Postsynaptic Profile of Adenosine A2A Receptor Antagonists

Striatal adenosine A2A receptors (A2ARs) are highly expressed in medium spiny neurons (MSNs) of the indirect efferent pathway, where they heteromerize with dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs). A2ARs are also localized presynaptically in cortico-striatal glutamatergic terminals contacting MSNs of the direct efferent pathway, where they heteromerize with adenosine A1 receptors (A1Rs). It has been hypothesized that postsynaptic A2AR antagonists should be useful in Parkinson's disease, while presynaptic A2AR antagonists could be beneficial in dyskinetic disorders, such as Huntington's disease, obsessive-compulsive disorders and drug addiction. The aim or this work was to determine whether selective A2AR antagonists may be subdivided according to a preferential pre- versus postsynaptic mechanism of action. The potency at blocking the motor output and striatal glutamate release induced by cortical electrical stimulation and the potency at inducing locomotor activation were used as in vivo measures of pre- and postsynaptic activities, respectively. SCH-442416 and KW-6002 showed a significant preferential pre- and postsynaptic profile, respectively, while the other tested compounds (MSX-2, SCH-420814, ZM-241385 and SCH-58261) showed no clear preference. Radioligand-binding experiments were performed in cells expressing A2AR-D2R and A1R-A2AR heteromers to determine possible differences in the affinity of these compounds for different A2AR heteromers. Heteromerization played a key role in the presynaptic profile of SCH-442416, since it bound with much less affinity to A2AR when co-expressed with D2R than with A1R. KW-6002 showed the best relative affinity for A2AR co-expressed with D2R than co-expressed with A1R, which can at least partially explain the postsynaptic profile of this compound. Also, the in vitro pharmacological profile of MSX-2, SCH-420814, ZM-241385 and SCH-58261 was is in accordance with their mixed pre- and postsynaptic profile. On the basis of their preferential pre- versus postsynaptic actions, SCH-442416 and KW-6002 may be used as lead compounds to obtain more effective antidyskinetic and antiparkinsonian compounds, respectively