Leukocyte avidity is regulated by cytoskeletal constraints, which keep ␤ 2 integrins in an inactive mode. Releasing these constraints results in increased lateral mobility and clustering of integrins, effectively activating adhesion. At least part of the constraint on ␤ 2 integrins is due to actin; whether other cytoskeletal components are involved has not previously been investigated. Microtubules are a candidate for control of integrin rearrangement, because they modulate focal adhesions, which are sites of interaction between integrins and the cytoskeleton. Here we report that both depolymerization of microtubules by colchicine or nocodazole and stabilization of microtubules by taxol increased the lateral mobility of ␤ 2 integrins, activating adhesion. Increased integrin mobility was accompanied by an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation of paxillin, a biochemical event associated with activation of ␤ 2 integrins. Further, C3 exoenzyme, an inhibitor of Rho, blocked induction of integrin mobility by nocodazole, but not by taxol, suggesting that there are multiple microtubule-dependent pathways to integrin rearrangement, only some of which require Rho activity. Taken together, our data suggest that a dynamic microtubule system is required to regulate integrincytoskeleton interactions. Furthermore, these data demonstrate that microtubules participate in control of integrin rearrangement, one of the earliest steps in activation of integrin-mediated adhesion.

We identify herein a novel signaling function of the Toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4), the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) receptor mediating the innate immune response, in inducing the expression of CD11b/CD18 integrin in polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs). Studies were made in PMNs isolated from TLR4-deficient (TLR4(-/-)) and C57BL/6 [wild-type (WT)] mice. We observed increased CD11b expression in WT PMNs within 3 h after LPS challenge, whereas CD11b was not expressed in TLR4(-/-) PMNs above basal levels. TLR4-activated CD11b expression was cycloheximide sensitive and involved the activation of transcription factors, NF-kappaB and c-Jun/PU.1. TLR4(-/-) PMNs challenged with LPS were functionally defective as the result of the impaired CD11b expression in that they failed to adhere and did not migrate across endothelial cells in response to N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine. TLR4 also promoted increased binding of LPS to PMNs on the basis of expression of CD11b. Thus TLR4 signaling activates synthesis and upregulation of CD11b and is essential for PMN adhesion and transmigration. Our data suggest an important role of TLR4-activated CD11b expression in the mechanism of the PMN host-defense response to LPS.

An early event of beta(2) integrin activation is the increased diffusion rate of this molecule on the cell surface, thereby providing integrin molecules with a better chance to meet the ligands. The activation of protein kinase C (PKC) stimulates integrin diffusion by releasing the cytoskeletal constraint on integrin molecules. We report here that macrophage-enriched myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase substrate (MacMARCKS), a membrane-associated PKC substrate involved in integrin activation, is required for this PKC-stimulated diffusion of integrin molecules. Using the single-particle tracking technique, we observed that the activation of PKC stimulated an 11-fold increase in the diffusion rate of beta(2) integrins in wild type J774 macrophage cells but not in those expressing mutant MacMARCKS. Further evidence is provided from a MacMARCKS-deficient cell line in which phorbol esters failed to stimulate the diffusion of integrin. Transfection of wild type MacMARCKS into these cells restored the rapid diffusion rate of the beta(2) integrins. The phosphorylation of MacMARCKS is important because transfection of a nonphosphorylatable MacMARCKS mutant or the addition of staurosporine eliminates the rapid diffusion rate of integrin. Furthermore, adding cytochalasin D bypasses the MacMARCKS deficiency and stimulates beta(2) integrin diffusion, suggesting that MacMARCKS's involvement in integrin activation is prior or at the site of cytoskeleton. Therefore, we conclude that MacMARCKS is required for releasing the cytoskeletal constraint on integrin molecules during PKC-mediated integrin activation.

Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are small soluble proteins often associated with chemosensory organs in insects but include members involved in other functions, such as pheromone delivery and development. Although the CSPs of the sensory organs have been extensively studied, little is known on their functions in other parts of the body. A first screening of the available databases has identified 70 sequences encoding CSPs in the oriental locust Locusta migratoria manilensis. Applying proteomic analysis, we have identified 17 of them abundantly expressed in the female reproductive organs, but only one (CSP91) in male organs. Bacterially expressed CSP91 binds fatty acids with a specificity for oleic and linoleic acid, as well as medium-length alcohols and esters. The same acids have been detected as the main gas chromatographic peaks in the dichloromethane extracts of reproductive organs of both sexes. The abundance and the number of CSPs in female reproductive organs indicates important roles for these proteins. We cannot exclude that different functions can be associated with each of the 17 CSPs, including delivery of semiochemicals, solubilization of hormones, direct control of development, or other unknown tasks.

Fog computing, as a new paradigm, has many characteristics that are different from cloud computing. Due to the resources being limited, fog nodes/MEC hosts are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Lightweight intrusion detection system (IDS) is a key technique to solve the problem. Because extreme learning machine (ELM) has the characteristics of fast training speed and good generalization ability, we present a new lightweight IDS called sample selected extreme learning machine (SS-ELM). The reason why we propose "sample selected extreme learning machine" is that fog nodes/MEC hosts do not have the ability to store extremely large amounts of training data sets. Accordingly, they are stored, computed, and sampled by the cloud servers. Then, the selected sample is given to the fog nodes/MEC hosts for training. This design can bring down the training time and increase the detection accuracy. Experimental simulation verifies that SS-ELM performs well in intrusion detection in terms of accuracy, training time, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) value.

The popularity of biometrics and its widespread use introduces privacy risks. To mitigate these risks, solutions such as the helper-data system, fuzzy vault, fuzzy extractors, and cancellable biometrics were introduced, also known as the field of template protection. In parallel to these developments, fusion of multiple sources of biometric information have shown to improve the verification performance of the biometric system. In this work we analyze fusion of the protected template from two 3D recognition algorithms (multi-algorithm fusion) at feature-, score-, and decision-level. We show that fusion can be applied at the known fusion-levels with the template protection technique known as the Helper-Data System. We also illustrate the required changes of the Helper-Data System and its corresponding limitations. Furthermore, our experimental results, based on 3D face range images of the FRGC v2 dataset, show that indeed fusion improves the verification performance

Traditional criteria used in biometric performance evaluation do not cover all the performance aspects of biometric template protection (BTP) and the lack of well-defined metrics inhibits the proper evaluation of such methods. Previous work in the literature focuses, in general, on a limited set of criteria and methods. This paper provides the first holistic approach to the evaluation of biometric template protection that is able to cover a whole range of methods. We present a selection of well-defined criteria and some metrics that are compliant with the reference architecture for template protection as defined in the recently adopted standard ISO/IEC 24745 (2011), which is applicable to nearly all known BTP methods. The criteria have been grouped in three categories of performance: technical, protection, and operational.

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