Description T cell–derived IFNγ and CD40L/IL-21R signals are crucial for the differentiation of human T-bethighCD21low B cells. The factors behind autoimmune B cells T-bethighCD21low B cells are expanded in various autoimmune disorders and infections, but it is unclear how these cells develop. Determining essential factors related to T-bethighCD21low B cell development might allow for the therapeutic inhibition of these cells and the amelioration of autoimmunity. Here, Keller et al. used RNAseq, ATACseq, and flow cytometry of T-bethighCD21low B cells and ex vivo cell culture of CD21posB cells from healthy donors to identify the factors and cells that contribute to the establishment of T-bethighCD21low B cells. Samples from patients with monogenic immunodeficiencies corroborated that the combination of the B cell receptor and T cell–derived CD40 ligand, IL-21, and IFNγ signals to control differentiation of T-bethighCD21low B cells. These developmental pathways point to potential therapeutic targets for various autoimmune disease. Accumulation of human CD21low B cells in peripheral blood is a hallmark of chronic activation of the adaptive immune system in certain infections and autoimmune disorders. The molecular pathways underpinning the development, function, and fate of these CD21low B cells remain incompletely characterized. Here, combined transcriptomic and chromatin accessibility analyses supported a prominent role for the transcription factor T-bet in the transcriptional regulation of these T-bethighCD21low B cells. Investigating essential signals for generating these cells in vitro established that B cell receptor (BCR)/interferon-γ receptor (IFNγR) costimulation induced the highest levels of T-bet expression and enabled their differentiation during cell cultures with Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligand or CD40L/interleukin-21 (IL-21) stimulation. Low proportions of CD21low B cells in peripheral blood from patients with defined inborn errors of immunity (IEI), because of mutations affecting canonical NF-κB, CD40, and IL-21 receptor or IL-12/IFNγ/IFNγ receptor/signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) signaling, substantiated the essential roles of BCR- and certain T cell–derived signals in the in vivo expansion of T-bethighCD21low B cells. Disturbed TLR signaling due to MyD88 or IRAK4 deficiency was not associated with reduced CD21low B cell proportions. The expansion of human T-bethighCD21low B cells correlated with an expansion of circulating T follicular helper 1 (cTfh1) and T peripheral helper (Tph) cells, identifying potential sources of CD40L, IL-21, and IFNγ signals. Thus, we identified important pathways to target autoreactive T-bethighCD21low B cells in human autoimmune conditions, where these cells are linked to pathogenesis and disease progression.

Optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) has long been and is still considered the main test tool for characterizing fiber optic links, i.e. basically identify and localize refractive and reflective events such as breaks, splices and connectors, and measure their insertion/return loss. Specifically, sufficient dynamic range and thus alike signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) enable clear far-end visibility even of long fiber links. Moreover, under such conditions, the highest achievable optical bit-error-rate (BER) floor, is to the large extent determined by major reflective events such as the specific trace distortion caused by connectors and splices, each with significant return loss. Realizing this has provided the opportunity window to extend the standard OTDR capabilities list by the appropriate trace postprocessing to predict the BER floor. Accordingly, considering the SNR high, and thereby the inter-symbol interference dominant error generating mechanism, we applied the time-dispersion channel model that determines the BER floor by the rms delay spread of the (fiber) channel power-delay profile. We verified the BER floor prediction in the exemplar practical test situation, by measuring the actual BER on the same fiber link, and found the obtained values well matching the OTDR - based predicted ones.

In this paper, we observe a practical real-life 2-sections heterogeneous microwave radio-relay (RR) network comprising classic SDH and SDH NGN architecture, hybrid parallel and mutually independent transmission of native-Ethernet and TDM services, as well as all-IP network part, to experimentally benchmark them with the former testing of a 5-sections RR system connecting the same endpoints, with the goal to verify the previous results. Specifically, the main task of the both works was to answer whether quite a diverse RR system could satisfy the quality norms for Ethernet based services, meaning whether a tolerable RR unavailability will necessarily imply the according Ethernet QoS degradation? This question is addressed by the comprehensive in-service and out-of-service testing of an operational hybrid RR transmission system under test. After the undertaken extensive practical testing and appropriate analysis of the achieved results, it came out that the impact of RR - level impairments that determine the performance prediction, affected the Ethernet QoS to the extent of BER approaching the acceptability threshold values defining (un) availability. High consistency of the new RR system test results was found with the previous results, which therefore verifies the appropriateness of this approach.

Despite the potentialities of the quantum mechanics (QM)/fluctuating charge (FQ) approach to model the spectral properties of solvated systems, its extensive use has been hampered by the lack of reliable parametrizations of solvents other than water. In this paper, we substantially extend the applicability of QM/FQ to solvating environments of different polarities and hydrogen-bonding capabilities. The reliability and robustness of the approach are demonstrated by challenging the model to simulate solvatochromic shifts of four organic chromophores, which display large shifts when dissolved in apolar, aprotic or polar, protic solvents.

Solar Particle Events (SPEs) generate cosmic radiation of different magnitude in a time span of several hours or even days. This contributes to an increased probability of higher magnitude Single-Event Upsets (SEUs) occurrence in space applications. It is critical to establish early detection of SEU rate or Soft Error Rate (SRE) changes to enable timely radiation hardening measures. This research paper focuses on the high-accuracy detection of SPEs using the manually collected space data. Additionally, the prediction of SRE increase or decrease was established with the seven widely used supervised machine learning algorithms. Excellent performance of 97.82%, including a high F1-score, was achieved during the presence of SPE using $k$-Nearest Neighbor algorithms.

In the last several years, wireless Battery Management Systems (BMS) have slowly become a topic of interest from both academia and industry. It came from a necessity derived from the increased production and use in different systems, including electric vehicles. Wireless communication allows for a more flexible and cost-efficient sensor installation in battery packs. However, many wireless technologies, such as those that use the 2.4 GHz frequency band, suffer from interference limitations that need to be addressed. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to communication in BMS that relies on the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology for battery sensor readouts. Due to a vital concern over the counterfeited battery pack products, security measures are also considered. To this end, we propose the use of an effective and easy to integrate authentication schema that is supported by dedicated NFC devices. To test the usability of our design, a demonstrator using the targeted devices was implemented and evaluated.

There are no biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients with laryngeal carcinoma. Methylation changes of ASC/TMS1 and MyD88 genes, in healthy and cancer tissue, might be related with development and progression of cancer. The study explored is there a difference in gene’s methylation in healthy and tumor tissue and does it correlate with protein expression. The total of 36 patients were enrolled in the study. Methylation of bisulphite converted DNA was quantified by pyrosequencing in fresh frozen cancer and adjacent non-malignant tissues. The overall methylation of MyD88 gene is significantly higher in healthy tissue and this finding correlates with protein expression and the overall methylation of ASC/TMS1 gene is unchanged but the protein expression of ASC/TMS1 is significantly higher in cancer. The methylation status of the ASC/TMS1 and MyD88 genes are promising prognostic biomarker candidates and may lead to earlier detection of laryngeal cancer.