Many animals keep track of their angular heading over time while navigating through their environment. However, a neural-circuit architecture for computing heading has not been experimentally defined in any species. Here we describe a set of clockwise- and anticlockwise-shifting neurons in the Drosophila central complex whose wiring and physiology provide a means to rotate an angular heading estimate based on the fly's angular velocity. We show that each class of shifting neurons exists in two subtypes, with spatiotemporal activity profiles that suggest different roles for each subtype at the start and end of tethered-walking turns. Shifting neurons are required for the heading system to properly track the fly's heading in the dark, and stimulation of these neurons induces predictable shifts in the heading signal. The central features of this biological circuit are analogous to those of computational models proposed for head-direction cells in rodents and may shed light on how neural systems, in general, perform integration.

PURPOSE Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are an important immunotherapy for B cell lymphoma, and provide evidence that the immune system may be harnessed as an effective lymphoma treatment approach. ALT-803 is a super-agonist IL-15 mutant and IL-15Rα–Fc fusion complex that activates the IL-15 receptor constitutively expressed on NK cells. We hypothesized that ALT-803 would enhance anti-CD20 mAb-directed NK cell responses and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We tested this hypothesis by adding ALT-803 immunostimulation to anti-CD20 mAb triggering of NK cells in vitro and in vivo. Cell lines and primary human lymphoma cells were utilized as targets for primary human NK cells. Two complementary in vivo mouse models were used, which included human NK cell xenografts in NOD-SCID-γc−/− mice. REULTS We demonstrate that short-term ALT-803 stimulation significantly increased degranulation, IFN-γ production, and ADCC by human NK cells against B-cell lymphoma cell lines or primary follicular lymphoma cells. ALT-803 augmented cytotoxicity and the expression of granzyme B and perforin, providing one potential mechanism for this enhanced functionality. Moreover, in two distinct in vivo B cell lymphoma models, the addition of ALT-803 to anti-CD20 mAb therapy resulted in significantly reduced tumor cell burden and increased survival. Long-term ALT-803 stimulation of human NK cells induced proliferation and NK cell subset changes with preserved ADCC. CONCLUSIONS ALT-803 represents a novel immunostimulatory drug that enhances NK cell anti-lymphoma responses in vitro and in vivo, thereby supporting the clinical investigation of ALT-803 plus anti-CD20 mAbs in patients with indolent B cell lymphoma.

Blockchain technology started as the backbone for cryptocurriencies and it has emerged as one of the most interesting technologies of the last decade. It is a new paradigm able to modify the way how industries transact. Today, the industries’ concern is about their ability to handle a high volume of data transactions per second while preserving both decentralization and security. Both decentralization and security are guaranteed by the mathematical strength of cryptographic primitives. There are two main approaches to achieve consensus: the Proof-of-Work based blockchains—PoW—and the Proof-of-Stake—PoS. Both of them come with some pros and drawbacks, but both rely on cryptography. In this survey, we present a review of the main consensus procedures, including the new consensus proposed by Algorand: Pure Proof-of-Stake—Pure PoS. In this article, we provide a framework to compare the performances of PoW, PoS and the Pure PoS, based on throughput and scalability.

BACKGROUND Autologous bone removed during craniectomy is often the material of choice in cranioplasty procedures. However, when the patient's own bone is not appropriate (infection and resorption), an alloplastic graft must be utilized. Common options include titanium mesh and polyetheretherketone (PEEK)-based custom flaps. Often, neurosurgeons must decide whether to use a titanium or custom implant, with limited direction from the literature. OBJECTIVE To compare surgical outcomes of synthetic cranioplasties performed with titanium or vs custom implants. METHODS Ten-year retrospective comparison of patients undergoing synthetic cranioplasty with titanium or custom implants. RESULTS A total of 82 patients were identified for review, 61 (74.4%) receiving titanium cranioplasty and 21 (25.6%) receiving custom implants. Baseline demographics and comorbidities of the 2 groups did not differ significantly, although multiple surgical characteristics did (size of defect, indication for craniotomy) and were controlled for via a 2:1 mesh-to-custom propensity matching scheme in which 36 titanium cranioplasty patients were compared to 18 custom implant patients. The cranioplasty infection rate of the custom group (27.8%) was significantly greater (P = .005) than that of the titanium group (0.0%). None of the other differences in measured complications reached significance. Discomfort, a common cause of reoperation in the titanium group, did not result in reoperation in any of the patients receiving custom implants. CONCLUSION Infection rates are higher among patients receiving custom implants compared to those receiving titanium meshes. The latter should be informed of potential postsurgical discomfort, which can be managed nonsurgically and is not associated with return to the operating room.

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The demand of cloud computing and 5G networks has increased in the current scenario due to their attractive features and also the security related to the data over the cloud. In the context of cloud security, there is a number of computationally hard methods available. One of the most popular methods used to secure data over the cloud is the identity-based encryption (IBE). It is an access policy that allows only authorized users to access legible data in order to avoid a malicious attack. IBE comprises of four stages, namely, setup, key generation or extract, encryption, and decryption. Key generation is one of the important and time-consuming phases in which a security key is generated. It is a computational and decisional hard problem for generating unbreakable and nonderivable secure keys. This paper proposes an enhanced identity-based encryption approach where a secure key is generated using part of an identity bit string in order to avoid leakage of users’ identity even if an adversary or attacker decodes the key or encrypted data. Experiment results show that the prosed algorithm takes less time in the encryption and decryption as compared to the competitive approach named efficient selective-ID secure identity-based encryption approach. One of the most important features of the proposed approach is that it hides the user’s identity by using the Lagrange coefficient, which consists of a polynomial interpolation function. The security of the system depends on the hardness of computing the bilinear Diffie-Hellman problem.

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