Total Progeny in a Subcritical Branching Process with two Types of Immigration

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 60J80, 60F05We consider subcritical Bellman-Harris branching processes with two types of immigration - one appears whenever the process hits zero state and an other one is in accordance of an independent renewal process. The law of large numbers (LLN) for the total progeny of these processes and Anscombe's type central limit theorem (CLT) for the total number of particles in the cycles completely finished by the moment t are obtained.The paper is supported by NFSI-Bulgaria, Grant No. MM-1101/2001

Study of Natural Aronia Melanocarpa Fruit Juice for Antibacterial and Antiviral Activity

Natural Aronia melanocarpa fruit juice (AMFJ) is rich in polyphenols most of which are anthocyanins. These compounds and other natural plant products are recently evaluated for their anti-infectious activity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the antibacterial and antiviral activity of AMFJ. AMFJ bacteriostatic activity on referent strains of S. aureus ATCC 25923, E. coli ATCC 25922 and P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 was assessed by counting the number of colonies after 24h incubation at 37°C using the microbial number method. AMFJ was not bacteriostatic for P. aeruginosa. The microbial number for E. coli was 0 ,3 6xl02 CFU/ml AMFJ and for N. aureus 0,87x10s CFU/ml AMFJ. Gram-positive bacteria should mainly be used as a test for further investigation of the bacteriostatic activity of AMFJ. AMFJ antiviral activity directed to the reproduction in ovo of influenza virus type A (H3N2) was investigated. AMFJ inhibited the reproduction of influenza virus in its initial stages, most probably, due to the formation of complex compounds between the virion, on one hand, and the polyphenols, on the other hand, which influenced the adsorption of the influenza virus on the cell surface

Cyber Intelligence in the Era of Big Data

Three key moments have to be solved for this complex problem proper ap- proaching: (i) selection of suitable formalism for fast and easy modelling, im- plementing both experts’ data and cyber incidents statistics on past and future cyberattacks trends; (ii) model quantification is necessary to be added, achieving a suitable machine interpretation for discrete optimization; (iii) some probabilistic elements have also to be considered, in order to achieve realistic models, practi- cal implementation decision support, benefitting from the “big data” knowledge context of the task. Practical implementation of these moments will be given further

A case of catheter related bacteremia caused by stenotrophomonas maltophilia

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (S. maltophilia) was considered to be an organism with limited pathogenic potential, which was rarely capable of causing diseases in human other than those who were in immunocompromised state. More recent studies have established that the bacterium can behave as a true pathogen. Bacteremia is one of the most common manifestations of S. maltophilia infection. Most cases are associated with risk factors, including infected intravenous devices, prior antibiotic therapy and prolonged hospitalization. We present a case of catheter related bacteremia due to S. maltophilia in a chronic haemodialyzed patient. The clinical significance of S. maltophilia, the susceptibility of this species to different classes of antimicrobial agents and the management of S. maltophilia infection are discussed

Papain-like protease regulates SARS-CoV-2 viral spread and innate immunity

The papain-like protease PLpro is an essential coronavirus enzyme required for processing viral polyproteins to generate a functional replicase complex and enable viral spread1,2. PLpro is also implicated in cleaving proteinaceous post-translational modifications on host proteins as an evasion mechanism against host anti-viral immune responses3–5. Here, we provide biochemical, structural and functional characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 PLpro (SCoV2-PLpro) and outline differences to SARS-CoV PLpro (SCoV-PLpro) in controlling host interferon (IFN) and NF-κB pathways. While SCoV2-PLpro and SCoV-PLpro share 83% sequence identity, they exhibit different host substrate preferences. In particular, SCoV2-PLpro preferentially cleaves the ubiquitin-like protein ISG15, whereas SCoV-PLpro predominantly targets ubiquitin chains. The crystal structure of SCoV2-PLpro in complex with ISG15 reveals distinctive interactions with the amino-terminal ubiquitin-like domain of ISG15, highlighting this high affinity and specificity. Furthermore, upon infection, SCoV2-PLpro contributes to the cleavage of ISG15 from interferon responsive factor 3 (IRF3) and attenuates type I interferon responses. Importantly, inhibition of SCoV2-PLpro with GRL-0617 impairs the virus-induced cytopathogenic effect, fosters the anti-viral interferon pathway and reduces viral replication in infected cells. These results highlight a dual therapeutic strategy in which targeting of SCoV2-PLpro can suppress SARS-CoV-2 infection and promote anti-viral immunity