2,446 research outputs found

    Enhanced Search Method for Ontology Classification

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    The web ontology language (OWL) has become a W3C recommendation to publish and share ontologies on the semantic web. In order to infer implicit information (classification, satisfiability and realization) of OWL ontology, a number of OWL reasoners have been introduced. Ontology classification is to compute a partial ordering or hierarchy of named concepts in the ontology using the subsumption testing. Most of the reasoners use both top-down and bottom-up searches using subsumption testing for ontology classification. As subsumption testing is costly, it is important to ensure that the classification process uses the smallest number of tests. In this paper, we propose an enhanced method of optimizing the ontology classification process of ontology reasoning. Our work focuses on two key aspects: The first and foremost, we describe classical methods for ontology classification. Next, we present description of the enhanced method of optimizing the ontology classification and the detailed algorithm. We evaluate the effect of the enhanced method on four different types of test ontology. The enhanced search method shows 30% performance improvement as compared with the classical method according to the result of the experiment

    Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic studies of an antimicrobial protein from Pharbitis nil

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    An antimicrobial protein from seeds of Pharbitis nil (Pn-AMP) which shows an antifungal activity towards several agriculturally important plant pathogens has been crystallized in the presence of equimolar N-acetylglucosamine with sodium citrate as precipitant. The crystal belongs to the hexagonal space group P6(1)22 (or P6(5)22), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 29.33 (5), c = 133.44 (12) Angstrom. Native data were collected using a crystal at 100 K to a resolution of 1.78 Angstrom.open2

    Alleviating psoriatic skin inflammation through augmentation of Treg cells via CTLA-4 signaling peptide

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    Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by hyperplasia of keratinocytes and immune cell infiltration. The IL-17-producing T cells play a key role in psoriasis pathogenesis, while regulatory T (Treg) cells are diminished during psoriatic inflammation. Current psoriasis treatments largely focus on IL-17 and IL-23, however, few studies have explored therapeutic drugs targeting an increase of Treg cells to control immune homeostasis. In this study, we investigated the effects of a cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) signaling peptide (dNP2-ctCTLA-4) in Th17, Tc17, Ī³Ī“ T cells, Treg cells in vitro and a mouse model of psoriasis. Treatment with dNP2-ctCTLA-4 peptide showed a significant reduction of psoriatic skin inflammation with increased Treg cell proportion and reduced IL-17 production by T cells, indicating a potential role in modulating psoriatic skin disease. We compared dNP2-ctCTLA-4 with CTLA-4-Ig and found that only dNP2-ctCTLA-4 ameliorated the psoriasis progression, with increased Treg cells and inhibited IL-17 production from Ī³Ī“ T cells. In vitro experiments using a T cell-antigen presenting cell co-culture system demonstrated the distinct mechanisms of dNP2-ctCTLA-4 compared to CTLA-4-Ig in the induction of Treg cells. These findings highlight the therapeutic potential of dNP2-ctCTLA-4 peptide in psoriasis by augmenting Treg/Teff ratio, offering a new approach to modulating the disease
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