Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard (LADS): A Communication Standard Based on OPC UA for Networked Laboratories.

In a similar vein to Industry 4.0 in manufacturing industries, digitisation is making inroads in the laboratory industry in the form of Laboratory 4.0, or networked laboratories. Companies can gain decisive competitive edges by automating their work processes and systems and networking them with each other and primary IT systems. A uniform communication standard such as OPC UA, a well-established global standard in the aforementioned manufacturing industries, is essential to a modular, scalable network of heterogeneous laboratory structures. Can the laboratory industry benefit from this standard and the years of development experience? In SPECTARIS, the German Industry Association for Optics, Photonics, Analytical and Medical Technologies, over 30 global market leaders, hidden champions and drivers of innovation in the laboratory industry put their heads together in the "Networked Laboratory Devices" working group and created the "Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard", or LADS for short. Unlike numerous other attempts to establish communication standards for laboratories, LADS is based on the advanced OPC UA standard and takes an agnostic approach to cover the variety of devices, systems and requirements in laboratories. In this context, "agnostic" refers to the generic design and display of potentially as-yet-unknown aspects of the flow of information or communication structures. For the first time, LADS allows for modular, scalable networking of heterogeneous laboratory structures, efficient data transfers and - currently unused - user, process and device-based data analysis (keywords: big data, predictive analytics, data science) - even taking normative requirements into consideration. This agnostic modelling makes LADS a future-proof communication solution for the laboratory industry, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Improvement of auditory hallucinations and reduction of primary auditory area's activation following TMS.

BACKGROUND: In the present case study, improvement of auditory hallucinations following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy was investigated with respect to activation changes of the auditory cortices. METHODS: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), activation of the auditory cortices was assessed prior to and after a 4-week TMS series of the left superior temporal gyrus in a schizophrenic patient with medication-resistant auditory hallucinations. RESULTS: Hallucinations decreased slightly after the third and profoundly after the fourth week of TMS. Activation in the primary auditory area decreased, whereas activation in the operculum and insula remained stable. CONCLUSIONS: Combination of TMS and repetitive fMRI is promising to elucidate the physiological changes induced by TMS.

Podocytes respond to mechanical stress in vitro.

Glomerular capillary pressure is thought to affect the structure and function of glomerular cells. However, it is unknown whether podocytes are intrinsically sensitive to mechanical forces. In the present study, differentiated mouse podocytes were cultured on flexible silicone membranes. Biaxial cyclic stress (0.5 Hz and 5% linear strain) was applied to the membranes for up to 3 d. Mechanical stress reduced the size of podocyte cell bodies, and processes became thin and elongated. Podocytes did not align in the inhomogeneous force field. Whereas the network of microtubules and that of the intermediate filament vimentin exhibited no major changes, mechanical stress induced a reversible reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton: transversal stress fibers (SF) disappeared and radial SF that were connected to an actin-rich center (ARC) formed. Epithelial and fibroblast cell lines did not exhibit a comparable stress-induced reorganization of the F-actin. Confocal and electron microscopy revealed an ellipsoidal and dense filamentous structure of the ARC. Myosin II, alpha-actinin, and the podocyte-specific protein synaptopodin were present in radial SF, but, opposite to F-actin, they were not enriched in the ARC. The formation of the ARC and of radial SF in response to mechanical stress was inhibited by nonspecific blockade of Ca(2+) influx with Ni(2+) (1 mM), by Rho kinase inhibition with Y-27632 (10 microM), but not by inhibition of stretch-activated cation channels with Gd(3+) (50 microM). In summary, mechanical stress induces a unique reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton in podocytes, featuring radial SF and an ARC, which differ in protein composition. The F-actin reorganization in response to mechanical stress depends on Ca(2+) influx and Rho kinase. The present study provides the first direct evidence that podocytes are mechanosensitive.