Background Chronic pain reportedly exerts complex effects on immune function. Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes that play a critical role in cellular and innate immunity. This study examined changes in the subset populations and cytotoxic activity of peripheral blood NK cells in patients with chronic pain. Methods Thirty patients with chronic moderate-to-severe pain (group P) and age-...

Several studies suggest that the N/OFQ (nociceptin/orphanin FQ)-NOP (N/OFQ peptide) receptor pathway is involved in airway physiology. We previously demonstrated a modulation of the endogenous N/OFQ levels in allergen-sensitized mice. Here, we investigated the effects of NOP receptor activation in allergen sensitization using a murine model of allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). ...

Technology scaling leads to the reliability issue as a primary concern in Networks-on-Chip (NoC) design. Due to routing algorithms, some routers may age much faster than others, which become a bottleneck for system lifetime. In this chapter, lifetime is modeled as a resource consumed over time. A metric lifetime budget is associated with each router, indicating the maximum allowed workload for ...

We evaluated the effect of buprenorphine, a mixed agonist for μ-opioid receptors and nociceptin/orphanin FQ peptide (NOP) receptors, in neuropathic rats, using the paw pressure test. Buprenorphine, administered i.p. at 50, but not 20, μg/kg, exhibited naloxone-reversible analgesic activity in naïve rats. In contrast, buprenorphine at 0.5 - 20 μg/kg produced a naloxonesensitive antihyperalgesic ...

A priori, WIRCam operations under the QSO/NOP mode might not seem to be extremely different than that of MegaCam. However, the data format and observation strategy for such a near-IR system introduce some very significant differences. Not only these differences might influence the software (and hardware) development on a lower level but they also are fundamental in designing and implementing th...

Weinvestigatedwhetherobject familiarizationwas related tonovel-object preference in thenovel-object preference (NOP) test in rats. In Experiment 1, we found that no significant correlation existed between the time spent investigating 2 identical copies of a sample object and the degree of preference for a novel object. In Experiment 2, rats investigated 2 identical sample objects for a total of...

In recent years, the study of social networks and analysis these in various fields have grown significantly. One most widely used is issue link prediction, which has recently been very popular among researchers. A a network means communication between members network, can include friendships, cooperation, writing joint article or even membership common place such as company club. The main purpo...

The nociceptin opioid receptor (NOP), the fourth member of family, and its endogenous peptide ligand, or orphanin FQ (N/OFQ), play a vital role in several central nervous system pathways regulating pain, reward, feeding, anxiety, motor control learning/memory. Both selective NOP agonists as well bifunctional at mu (MOP) have potential therapeutic applications CNS disorders related to these proc...

Moraxella catarrhalis (Mcat) is a prominent mucosal pathogen causing acute otitis media (AOM). We studied Mcat nasopharyngeal (NP) colonization, AOM frequency and mucosal antibody responses to four vaccine candidate Mcat proteins: outer membrane protein (OMP) CD, oligopeptide permease (Opp) A, hemagglutinin (Hag), and Pilin A clade 2 (PilA2) from stringently defined otitis prone (sOP) children,...

The considerable increase in oxygen requirements due to the high metabolic rate of the bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMEC) during lactation results in an augmented production of reactive nitrogen species (RNS), such as nitric oxide (NO), which may expose cows to increased oxidative stress. Vitamin A (VA) has been shown in several studies to enhance the antioxidant defence system against oxid...