Senior Recital:David Bostik, Horn

Kemp Recital Hall Saturday Afternoon April 16, 2005 1:30p.m

Junior Recital:David Bostik, French Horn

Kemp Recital Hall Wednesday Evening March 19, 2003 6:00p.m

Genetic Analysis of Cytokine Promoters in Nonhuman Primates: Implications for Th1/Th2 Profile Characteristics and SIV Disease Pathogenesis

The shift from a predominant synthesis of prototype Th1 cytokines to Th2 or Th0 type of cytokines by antigen activated PBMC's from HIV infected humans and SIV infected disease susceptible rhesus macaques (RM) has been shown to be associated with disease progression. Paradoxically, antigen activated PBMC's from sooty mangabeys (SM), which are naturally infected with SIV and are disease resistant despite high viral loads, maintain a predominant Th2 cytokine profile. It has been reasoned that the resistance to perturbations of cytokine synthesis by slow and/or nonprogressor HIV infected patients and SIV infected disease susceptible RM is secondary to inherited polymorphisms within the promoter regions for cytokines. Similar promoter polymorphisms could also contribute to the cytokine profile of PBMC's from SM. To address this issue promoter regions for the major Th1/Th2 cytokines from RM and SM were cloned and sequenced. Sequence analysis of promoter fragments of IL-4, IL-10, IL-12 p40, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha from the two monkey species showed varying degree of homology ranging from high degree of homology detected for IFN-gamma promoter (>99%) to relatively high degree of polymorphism detected for TNF-alpha promoter (94% homology). In addition, several variable regions within the promoters of IL-12 p40, IL-10 and TNF-alpha in the two species contain polymorphisms in sequences that constitute binding sites of known transcription factors (TF). Such differences are likely to differentially bind TF and thus either qualitatively and/or quantitatively affect the regulation of cytokine synthesis in these two species and potentially contribute to disease progression and/or resistance

Bubble Captcha - A Start of the New Direction of Text Captcha Scheme Development

CAPTCHA, A Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, iswell-known system widely used in all sorts of internet services around the world designated to secure the webfrom an automatic malicious activity. For almost two decades almost every system utilize a simple approach tothis problem containing a transcription of distorted letters from image to a text eld. The ground idea is to useimperfection of Optical Character Recognition algorithms against the computers. The development of OpticalCharacter recognition algorithms leads only to state, where the CAPTCHA schemes become more complex andhuman users have a great di culty with the transcription.This paper aims to present a new way of development of CAPTCHA schemes based more a human perception.The goal of this work is to implement new Captcha scheme and assess human capability to read unusual fontsnewer seen before

Distinct host cell proteins incorporated by SIV replicating in CD4+ T Cells from natural disease resistant versus non-natural disease susceptible hosts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Enveloped viruses including the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) replicating within host cells acquire host proteins upon egress from the host cells. A number of studies have catalogued such host proteins, and a few have documented the potential positive and negative biological functions of such host proteins. The studies conducted herein utilized proteomic analysis to identify differences in the spectrum of host proteins acquired by a single source of SIV replicating within CD4⁺T cells from disease resistant sooty mangabeys and disease susceptible rhesus macaques.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>While a total of 202 host derived proteins were present in viral preparations from CD4⁺T cells from both species, there were 4 host-derived proteins that consistently and uniquely associated with SIV replicating within CD4⁺T cells from rhesus macaques but not sooty mangabeys; and, similarly, 28 host-derived proteins that uniquely associated with SIV replicating within CD4⁺T cells from sooty mangabeys, but not rhesus macaques. Of interest was the finding that of the 4 proteins uniquely present in SIV preparations from rhesus macaques was a 26 S protease subunit 7 (MSS1) that was shown to enhance HIV-1 'tat" mediated transactivation. Among the 28 proteins found in SIV preparations from sooty mangabeys included several molecules associated with immune function such as CD2, CD3ε, TLR4, TLR9 and TNFR and a bioactive form of IL-13.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The finding of 4 host proteins that are uniquely associated with SIV replicating within CD4⁺T cells from disease susceptible rhesus macaques and 28 host proteins that are uniquely associated with SIV replicating within CD4⁺T cells from disease resistant sooty mangabeys provide the foundation for determining the potential role of each of these unique host-derived proteins in contributing to the polarized clinical outcome in these 2 species of nonhuman primates.</p

Machine Learning and Computer Vision Techniques in Bee Monitoring Applications

Machine learning and computer vision are dynamically growing fields, which have proven to be able to solve very complex tasks. They could also be used for the monitoring of the honeybee colonies and for the inspection of their health state, which could identify potentially dangerous states before the situation is critical, or to better plan periodic bee colony inspections and therefore save significant costs. In this paper, we present an overview of the state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning applications used for bee monitoring. We also demonstrate the potential of those methods as an example of an automated bee counter algorithm. The paper is aimed at veterinary and apidology professionals and experts, who might not be familiar with machine learning to introduce to them its possibilities, therefore each family of applications is opened by a brief theoretical introduction and motivation related to its base method. We hope that this paper will inspire other scientists to use the machine learning techniques for other applications in bee monitoring

Reactivation of Human Acetylcholinesterase and Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibited by Leptophos-Oxon with Different Oxime Reactivators in Vitro

We have evaluated in vitro the potency of 23 oximes to reactivate human erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibited by racemic leptophos-oxon (O-[4-bromo-2,5-dichlorophenyl]-O-methyl phenyl-phosphonate), a toxic metabolite of the pesticide leptophos. Compounds were assayed in concentrations of 10 and 100 μM. In case of leptophos-oxon inhibited AChE, the best reactivation potency was achieved with methoxime, trimedoxime, obidoxime and oxime K027. The most potent reactivators of inhibited BChE were K033, obidoxime, K117, bis-3-PA, K075, K074 and K127. The reactivation efficacy of tested oximes was lower in case of leptophos-oxon inhibited BChE