Search results for "imulation"
showing 10 items of 7271 documents
Tillage Versus No-Tillage. Soil Properties and Hydrology in an Organic Persimmon Farm in Eastern Iberian Peninsula
2020
There is an urgent need to implement environmentally friendly agriculture management practices to achieve the Sustainable Goals for Development (SDGs) of the United Nations by 2030. Mediterranean agriculture is characterized by intense and millennia-old tillage management and as a consequence degraded soil. No-Tillage has been widely examined as a solution for soil degradation but No-Tillage relies more on the application of herbicides that reduce plant cover, which in turn enhances soil erosion. However, No-Tillage with weed cover should be researched to promote organic farming and sustainable agriculture. Therefore, we compare Tillage against No-Tillage using weed cover as an alternative …
Protection of Mice from Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease Requires CD28 Co-stimulation on Donor CD4+ Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells
2017
Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell plus T cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). In this study, we investigated the requirement for CD28 co-stimulation of donor CD4\(^{+}\) conventional (CD4\(^{+}\)CD25\(^{-}\)Foxp3\(^{-}\), Tconv) and regulatory (CD4\(^{+}\)CD25\(^{+}\)Foxp3\(^{+}\), Treg) T cells in aGvHD using tamoxifen-inducible CD28 knockout (iCD28KO) or wild-type (wt) littermates as donors of CD4\(^{+}\) Tconv and Treg. In the highly inflammatory C57BL/6 into BALB/c allo-HSCT transplantation model, CD28 depletion on donor CD4\(^{+}\) Tconv reduced clinical signs of aGvHD, but did not significantly pro…
Interleukin 10 restores lipopolysaccharide-induced alterations in synaptic plasticity probed by repetitive magnetic stimulation
2020
Systemic inflammation is associated with alterations in complex brain functions such as learning and memory. However, diagnostic approaches to functionally assess and quantify inflammation-associated alterations in synaptic plasticity are not well-established. In previous work, we demonstrated that bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced systemic inflammation alters the ability of hippocampal neurons to express synaptic plasticity, i.e., the long-term potentiation (LTP) of excitatory neurotransmission. Here, we tested whether synaptic plasticity induced by repetitive magnetic stimulation (rMS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used in clinical practice, is affected by LPS-induc…
Quantitative Prediction of the Landscape of T Cell Epitope Immunogenicity in Sequence Space
2019
Immunodominant T cell epitopes preferentially targeted in multiple individuals are the critical element of successful vaccines and targeted immunotherapies. However, the underlying principles of this "convergence" of adaptive immunity among different individuals remain poorly understood. To quantitatively describe epitope immunogenicity, here we propose a supervised machine learning framework generating probabilistic estimates of immunogenicity, termed "immunogenicity scores," based on the numerical features computed through sequence-based simulation approximating the molecular scanning process of peptides presented onto major histocompatibility complex (MHC) by the human T cell receptor (T…
Mismatch negativity (MMN) in freely-moving rats with several experimental controls.
2014
Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a scalp-recorded electrical potential that occurs in humans in response to an auditory stimulus that defies previously established patterns of regularity. MMN amplitude is reduced in people with schizophrenia. In this study, we aimed to develop a robust and replicable rat model of MMN, as a platform for a more thorough understanding of the neurobiology underlying MMN. One of the major concerns for animal models of MMN is whether the rodent brain is capable of producing a human-like MMN, which is not a consequence of neural adaptation to repetitive stimuli. We therefore tested several methods that have been used to control for adaptation and differential exogenou…
Might as well jump: Sound affects muscle activation in skateboarding
2014
The aim of the study is to reveal the role of sound in action anticipation and performance, and to test whether the level of precision in action planning and execution is related to the level of sensorimotor skills and experience that listeners possess about a specific action. Individuals ranging from 18 to 75 years of age - some of them without any skills in skateboarding and others experts in this sport - were compared in their ability to anticipate and simulate a skateboarding jump by listening to the sound it produces. Only skaters were able to modulate the forces underfoot and to apply muscle synergies that closely resembled the ones that a skater would use if actually jumping on a ska…
Flow Behavior of Chain and Star Polymers and Their Mixtures
2018
Star-shaped polymers show a continuous change of properties from flexible linear chains to soft colloids, as the number of arms is increased. To investigate the effect of macromolecular architecture on the flow properties, we employ computer simulations of single chain and star polymers as well as of their mixtures under Poiseuille flow. Hydrodynamic interactions are incorporated through the multi-particle collision dynamics (MPCD) technique, while a bead-spring model is used to describe the polymers. For the ultradilute systems at rest, the polymers are distributed uniformly in the slit channel, with a weak dependence on their number of arms. Once flow is applied, however, we find that the…
Motor Cortex Function in Fibromyalgia: A Study by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
2019
Previous studies indicated changes of motor cortex excitability in fibromyalgia (FM) patients and the positive results of transcranial stimulation techniques. The present study aimed to explore the metabolism of motor cortex in FM patients, in resting state and during slow and fast finger tapping, using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), an optical method which detects in real time the metabolism changes in the cortical tissue. We studied 24 FM patients and 24 healthy subjects. We found a significant slowness of motor speed in FM patients compared to controls. During resting state and slow movement conditions, the metabolism of the motor areas was similar between groups. The oxy…
Could Low-Frequency Electromyostimulation Training be an Effective Alternative to Endurance Training? An Overview in One Adult
2014
This preliminary study aimed to investigate the effects of a six-week low-frequency electromyostimulation training (10Hz) on the cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular systems. To that purpose, aerobic capacity, knee extensor muscles strength and architecture, muscle sympathetic nervous activity, blood pressure and heart rate have been evaluated in one healthy male subject (33 year-old, 1.73 m, 73 kg). Results showed improvement of aerobic capacity (+4.5% and +11.5% for maximal oxygen uptake and ventilatory threshold) and muscle strength (+11% and +16% for voluntary and evoked force). Moreover, for the first time, this study demonstrated low-frequency training effects on muscle architectu…
Effects of between-set interventions on neuromuscular function during isokinetic maximal concentric contractions of the knee extensors
2011
The presents study investigated the effects of between-set interventions on neuromuscular function of the knee extensors during six sets of 10 isokinetic (120°·s(-1)) maximal concentric contractions separated by three minutes. Twelve healthy men (age: 23.9 ± 2.4 yrs) were tested for four different between-set recovery conditions applied during two minutes: passive recovery, active recovery (cycling), electromyostimulation and stretching, in a randomized, crossover design. Before, during and at the end of the isokinetic session, torque and thigh muscles electromyographic activity were measured during maximal voluntary contractions and electrically-evoked doublets. Activation level was calcul…