Finished Genome Sequence of Collimonas arenae Cal35.

We announce the finished genome sequence of soil forest isolate Collimonas arenae Cal35, which comprises a 5.6-Mbp chromosome and 41-kb plasmid. The Cal35 genome is the second one published for the bacterial genus Collimonas and represents the first opportunity for high-resolution comparison of genome content and synteny among collimonads

Identifying chemokines as therapeutic targets in renal disease: Lessons from antagonist studies and knockout mice

Chemokines, in concert with cytokines and adhesion molecules, play multiple roles in local and systemic immune responses. In the kidney, the temporal and spatial expression of chemokines correlates with local renal damage and accumulation of chemokine receptor-bearing leukocytes. Chemokines play important roles in leukocyte trafficking and blocking chemokines can effectively reduce renal leukocyte recruitment and subsequent renal damage. However, recent data indicate that blocking chemokine or chemokine receptor activity in renal disease may also exacerbate renal inflammation under certain conditions. An increasing amount of data indicates additional roles of chemokines in the regulation of innate and adaptive immune responses, which may adversively affect the outcome of interventional studies. This review summarizes available in vivo studies on the blockade of chemokines and chemokine receptors in kidney diseases, with a special focus on the therapeutic potential of anti-chemokine strategies, including potential side effects, in renal disease. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Identification of potential drug resistant mutations in HIV-1 infected patients with long-term undetectable viral load after receiving HAART

This journal suppl. entitled: HIV DART 2010 ... Final Program and Abstract BookSession - Drug Resistance and ModelingConference Theme: Frontiers in drug development for in antiretroviral therapiesBACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify potential drug resistant mutations in proviral DNA in HIV patients with long-term undetectable viral load after receiving HAART. METHOD: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were collected from 45 patients twice per year from 2005 to 2009. These patients have been receiving effective highly active antiretroviral therapy …published_or_final_versio

On the Hardware/Software Design and Implementation of a High Definition Multiview Video Surveillance System

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Application of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA sequence polymorphisms to the study of HBV transmission

Short sequences in hypervariable regions of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome can be used to identify different strains, providing a novel approach to the study of HBV transmission. The nucleotide sequence in positions 2551-2650 (1: EcoRI site) was determined for serum HBV DNA from 96 Chinese children living in Hong Kong and from 38 of their parents. HBV DNA was extracted and sequenced after amplification with the polymerase chain reaction, using as primers oligonucleotides corresponding to two conserved sequences. Among 82 unrelated children, 32 HBV DNA variants were present. One sequence was present in 33 children and 31 variants were found among the other 49. Siblings within each of nine families had the same variant; in three families siblings had different variants. Six of the eight fathers and 28 of the 30 mothers had HBV DNA sequences identical to those of their offspring. A total of 34 variants were found among the 134 individuals. The hypothesis of random assortment of sequences in parents and children was rejected (P < .00005). Thus, this new approach proves the occurrence of intrafamilial transmission of HBV among Chinese.published_or_final_versio

Enhanced structural and magnetic ordering of FePt/Mn-oxide bilayers by ion-beam bombardment and annealing

This journal issue contain selected papers of APDSC'10Poster Session - A. Magnetic Recording Technologies: PA-7Structural and magnetic properties of FePt thin films were affected strongly by capped MnO x layers prepared by ion-beam bombardment and post-annealing. As-deposited FePt/MnO x bilayer exhibited a magnetically soft fcc phase, and it turned to an ordered fct FePt phase with large coercivity (∼8 kOe) after annealing at 550°C. Increasing the %O 2/Ar in capped MnO x layer during deposition resulted in smaller ordered FePt grains separated by grain boundaries of MnO x. We found that the superlattice (001) peak is broadened considerably with larger amount of MnO x incorporated into FePt, likely due to the hindered formation of hard phase. Our results indicate that FePt/MnO x films deposited with lower %O 2/Ar, the oxygen atoms may occupy the interstitial positions in the FePt lattice to induce a local strain thus enhancing the FePt ordering. Further increased %O 2/Ar in capped MnO x layer, the excess oxygen atoms act a diffusion barrier effectively to inhibit the FePt grain growth and ordering. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference (APDSC'10), Hualien, Taiwan, 27-29 October 2010. In IEEE Transactions On Magnetics, 2011, v. 47 n. 3, p. 501-50

Tunable ultranarrow linewidth of cavity induced by interacting dark resonances

A scheme for getting a tunable ultranarrow linewidth of a cavity due to an embedded four-level atomic medium with double-dark resonances is proposed. It is shown that the steep dispersion induced by double-dark resonances in the transparency window leads to the ultranarrow transmission peak. Compared with the case of a single-dark-resonance system, the linewidth can be narrowed even by one order under proper conditions. Furthermore, the position of the ultranarrow peak can be engineered by varying the intensity and detuning of the control field.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Effects of general anesthetics on visceral pain transmission in the spinal cord

Current evidence suggests an analgesic role for the spinal cord action of general anesthetics; however, the cellular population and intracellular mechanisms underlying anti-visceral pain by general anesthetics still remain unclear. It is known that visceral nociceptive signals are transmited via post-synaptic dorsal column (PSDC) and spinothalamic tract (STT) neuronal pathways and that the PSDC pathway plays a major role in visceral nociception. Animal studies report that persistent changes including nociception-associated molecular expression (e.g. neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptors) and activation of signal transduction cascades (such as the protein kinase A [PKA]-c-AMP-responsive element binding [CREB] cascade)-in spinal PSDC neurons are observed following visceral pain stimulation. The clinical practice of interruption of the spinal PSDC pathway in patients with cancer pain further supports a role of this group of neurons in the development and maintenance of visceral pain. We propose the hypothesis that general anesthetics might affect critical molecular targets such as NK-1 and glutamate receptors, as well as intracellular signaling by CaM kinase II, protein kinase C (PKC), PKA, and MAP kinase cascades in PSDC neurons, which contribute to the neurotransmission of visceral pain signaling. This would help elucidate the mechanism of antivisceral nociception by general anesthetics at the cellular and molecular levels and aid in development of novel therapeutic strategies to improve clinical management of visceral pain

Service composition in stochastic settings

With the growth of the Internet-of-Things and online Web services, more services with more capabilities are available to us. The ability to generate new, more useful services from existing ones has been the focus of much research for over a decade. The goal is, given a specification of the behavior of the target service, to build a controller, known as an orchestrator, that uses existing services to satisfy the requirements of the target service. The model of services and requirements used in most work is that of a finite state machine. This implies that the specification can either be satisfied or not, with no middle ground. This is a major drawback, since often an exact solution cannot be obtained. In this paper we study a simple stochastic model for service composition: we annotate the tar- get service with probabilities describing the likelihood of requesting each action in a state, and rewards for being able to execute actions. We show how to solve the resulting problem by solving a certain Markov Decision Process (MDP) derived from the service and requirement specifications. The solution to this MDP induces an orchestrator that coincides with the exact solution if a composition exists. Otherwise it provides an approximate solution that maximizes the expected sum of values of user requests that can be serviced. The model studied although simple shades light on composition in stochastic settings and indeed we discuss several possible extensions