CD32-RNA Co-localizes with HIV-RNA in CD3+ Cells Found within Gut Tissues from Viremic and ART-Suppressed Individuals.

BackgroundIdentifying biomarkers for cells harboring replication-competent HIV is a major research priority. Recently, there have been mixed reports addressing the possibility that CD32-expressing T cells are enriched for HIV. There is growing evidence that CD32 expression increases with cellular activation that may be related to, but not necessarily specific for, infection with HIV. However, the relationship of CD32 expression to HIV-infection in subtypes of tissue-resident leukocytes is unclear.MethodsFirst, we used duplex chromogenic in situ hybridization to identify cells actively transcribing RNA for both CD32 and HIV on human gut tissues. Then we performed multiplexed immunofluorescence and in situ hybridization (mIFISH) on sections from the same tissues to determine the phenotype of individual cells co-expressing HIV-RNA and CD32-RNA.ResultsHIV-RNA+ cells were more abundant in tissues from viremic individuals than in those receiving suppressive anti-retroviral therapy (ART). However, staining by both methods indicated that a higher proportion of HIV-RNA+ cells co-expressed CD32-RNA in ART-suppressed individuals than in those with viremia. The majority of HIV-RNA+ cells were CD3+.ConclusionsOur data suggest that the transcription of CD32-RNA is correlated with HIV transcriptional activity in CD3+ cells found within human gut tissue. Whether or not up-regulation of CD32-RNA is a direct result of HIV transcription or more global T-cell activation remains unclear

Online Signature Verification: Improving Performance through Pre-classification Based on Global Features

In this paper, a pre-classification stage based on global features is incorporated to an online signature verification system for the purposes of improving its performance. The pre-classifier makes use of the discriminative power of some global features to discard (by declaring them as forgeries) those signatures for which the associated global feature is far away from its respective mean. For the remaining signatures, features based on a wavelet approximation of the time functions associated with the signing process, are extracted, and a Random Forest based classification is performed. The experimental results show that the proposed pre-classification approach, when based on the apppropriate global feature, is capable of getting error rate improvements with respect to the case where no pre-classification is performed. The approach also has the advantages of simplifying and speeding up the verification process.Fil: Parodi, Marianela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Rosario. Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y Sistemas; ArgentinaFil: Gómez, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Rosario. Centro Internacional Franco Argentino de Ciencias de la Información y Sistemas; Argentin

A turn-on fluorescent solid-sensor for Hg(II) detection

A rhodamine organosilane derivative (Rh-UTES) has been obtained by one-pot synthesis. The chemical structure of Rh-UTES was confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared (FTIR) techniques. To obtain an inorganic-organic hybrid sensor, Rh-UTES was covalently immobilized on a porous silicon microcavity (PSiMc) via triethoxysilane groups. The attachment of the organic derivative into PSiMc was confirmed by FTIR, specular reflectance, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The optical performance of Rh-UTES receptor for Hg2+ detection was investigated by fluorescent spectroscopy and microscopy. Upon the addition of increasing amounts of Hg2+ ions, a remarkable enhancement in emission intensity was produced in both systems. In the solid phase, an increase of integrated fluorescent emission of 0.12- and 0.15-fold after Hg2+ receptor coordination was observed. The light harvesting capability of PSiMc devices allowed obtaining an enhanced fluorescent emission after Rh-UTES immobilization (277-fold). The fluorescence microscopy of hybrid PSiMc sensor provided an optical qualitative test for Hg2+ detection.A rhodamine organosilane derivative (Rh-UTES) has been obtained by one-pot synthesis. The chemical structure of Rh-UTES was confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared (FTIR) techniques. To obtain an inorganic-organic hybrid sensor, Rh-UTES was covalently immobilized on a porous silicon microcavity (PSiMc) via triethoxysilane groups. The attachment of the organic derivative into PSiMc was confirmed by FTIR, specular reflectance, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The optical performance of Rh-UTES receptor for Hg2+ detection was investigated by fluorescent spectroscopy and microscopy. Upon the addition of increasing amounts of Hg2+ ions, a remarkable enhancement in emission intensity was produced in both systems. In the solid phase, an increase of integrated fluorescent emission of 0.12- and 0.15-fold after Hg2+ receptor coordination was observed. The light harvesting capability of PSiMc devices allowed obtaining an enhanced fluorescent emission after Rh-UTES immobilization (277-fold). The fluorescence microscopy of hybrid PSiMc sensor provided an optical qualitative test for Hg2+ detection

Chirping compact stars: gravitational radiation and detection degeneracy with binary systems A conceptual pathfinder for space-based gravitational-wave observatories

Compressible, Riemann S-type ellipsoids can emit gravitational waves (GWs) with a chirp-like behavior (hereafter chirping ellipsoids, CELs). We show that the GW frequency-amplitude evolution of CELs (mass $\sim 1$~M$_\odot$, radius $\sim10^3$~km, polytropic equation of state with index $n\approx 3$) is indistinguishable from that emitted by double white dwarfs (DWDs) and by extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) composed of an intermediate-mass (e.g.~$10^3~M_\odot$) black hole and a planet-like (e.g.~$10^{-4}~M_\odot$) companion, in a specific frequency interval within the detector sensitivity band in which the GWs of all these systems are quasi-monochromatic. We estimate that for reasonable astrophysical assumptions, the rates in the local Universe of CELs, DWDs and EMRIs in the mass range considered here, are very similar, posing a detection-degeneracy challenge for space-based GW detectors. The astrophysical implications of this CEL-binary detection degeneracy by space-based GW-detection facilities, are outlined.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Decentralized ellipsoidal state estimation for linear model predictive control of an irrigation canal

A centralized linear MPC is used to stabilize an irrigation system whose operation is represented by an integrator-delay model. Since not all the state variables can be measured, a decentralized ellipsoidal estimation strategy is proposed. This approach keeps the quality of a centralized estimation and reduces significantly the computation time for the systems considered. An adaptation of Test Canal 1, developed by the ASCE Task Committee on Canal Automation Algorithms, is used as a case study to show the performance of the proposed methodology.Fil: Rodriguez Aguilar, Leandro Pedro Faustino. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Maestre, J. M.. Universidad de Sevilla. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería; EspañaFil: Camacho, E. F.. Universidad de Sevilla. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería; EspañaFil: Sanchez, Mabel Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentin

Kinetic study of nordihydroguaiaretic acid recovery from Larrea tridentata by microwave-assisted extraction

Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) is a powerful antioxidant that can be found in plants like Larrea tridentata (Zygophyllaceae), also known as creosote bush, which grows in semidesert areas of Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico [1]. Several studies have demonstrated that NDGA has important biological activities with great interest in the health area, such as antiviral, cancer chemopreventive, and antitumorgenic activities [2]. Extraction of bioactive compounds from plants is conventionally performed using a heat‐reflux extraction method. However, different techniques have been developed in order to decrease extraction time and solvent consumption, as well as to increase the extraction yield and enhance the extracts quality [3]. The objective of this study was to develop a microwave‐assisted extraction (MAE) method for NDGA recovery from Larrea tridentata leaves, and compare the obtained results with those found by using the conventional heat‐reflux extraction (HRE)

Worst-case bounds on the quality of max-product fixed-points

We study worst-case bounds on the quality of any fixed point assignment of the max-product algorithm for Markov Random Fields (MRF). We start proving a bound independent of the MRF structure and parameters. Afterwards, we show how this bound can be improved for MRFs with particular structures such as bipartite graphs or grids. Our results provide interesting insight into the behavior of max-product. For example, we prove that max-product provides very good results (at least 90% of the optimal) on MRFs with large variable-disjoint cycles (MRFs in which all cycles are variable-disjoint, namely that they do not share any edge and in which each cycle contains at least 20 variables)