State–Space Forecasting of Schistosoma haematobium Time-Series in Niono, Mali

Adequate forecasting and early warning systems are based upon observations of human behavior, population, disease time-series, climate, environment, and/or a combination thereof, whichever option best compromises among realism, feasibility, robustness, and parsimony. Fully automatic and user-friendly state–space forecasting frameworks, incorporating myriad options (e.g., expert opinion, univariate, multivariate, and spatial-temporal), could considerably enhance disease control and hazard mitigation efforts in regions where vulnerability to neglected tropical diseases is pervasive and statistical expertise is scarce. The operational simplicity, generality, and flexibility of state–space frameworks, encapsulating multiple methods, could conveniently allow for 1) unsupervised model selection without disease-specific methodological tailoring, 2) on-line adaptation to disease time-series fluctuations, and 3) automatic switches between distinct forecasting methods as new time-series perturbations dictate. In this investigation, a univariate state–space framework with the aforementioned properties was successfully applied to the Schistosoma haematobium time-series for the district of Niono, Mali, to automatically generate contemporaneous on-line forecasts and hence, providing a basis for local re-organization and strengthening public health programs in this and potentially other Sahelian districts

Compressed representation of a partially defined integer function over multiple arguments

In OLAP (OnLine Analitical Processing) data are analysed in an n-dimensional cube. The cube may be represented as a partially defined function over n arguments. Considering that often the function is not defined everywhere, we ask: is there a known way of representing the function or the points in which it is defined, in a more compact manner than the trivial one

Immunization with Radiation-Attenuated Plasmodium berghei Sporozoites Induces Liver cCD8α+DC that Activate CD8+T Cells against Liver-Stage Malaria

Immunization with radiation (γ)-attenuated Plasmodia sporozoites (γ-spz) confers sterile and long-lasting immunity against malaria liver-stage infection. In the P. berghei γ-spz model, protection is linked to liver CD8+ T cells that express an effector/memory (TEM) phenotype, (CD44hiCD45RBloCD62Llo ), and produce IFN-γ. However, neither the antigen presenting cells (APC) that activate these CD8+ TEM cells nor the site of their induction have been fully investigated. Because conventional (c)CD8α+ DC (a subset of CD11c+ DC) are considered the major inducers of CD8+ T cells, in this study we focused primarily on cCD8α+ DC from livers of mice immunized with Pb γ-spz and asked whether the cCD8α+ DC might be involved in the activation of CD8+ TEM cells. We demonstrate that multiple exposures of mice to Pb γ-spz lead to a progressive and nearly concurrent accumulation in the liver but not the spleen of both the CD11c+NK1.1− DC and CD8+ TEM cells. Upon adoptive transfer, liver CD11c+NK1.1− DC from Pb γ-spz-immunized mice induced protective immunity against sporozoite challenge. Moreover, in an in vitro system, liver cCD8α+ DC induced naïve CD8+ T cells to express the CD8+ TEM phenotype and to secrete IFN-γ. The in vitro induction of functional CD8+ TEM cells by cCD8α+ DC was inhibited by anti-MHC class I and anti-IL-12 mAbs. These data suggest that liver cCD8α+ DC present liver-stage antigens to activate CD8+ TEM cells, the pre-eminent effectors against pre-erythrocytic malaria. These results provide important implications towards a design of anti-malaria vaccines

Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties

Peer reviewe

Precise determination of the mass of the Higgs boson and tests of compatibility of its couplings with the standard model predictions using proton collisions at 7 and 8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Study of double parton scattering using W+2-jet events in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for new physics in the multijet and missing transverse momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 Tev

Peer reviewe

Measurement of Higgs boson production and properties in the WW decay channel with leptonic final states

Peer reviewe

Measurements of the tt¯ charge asymmetry using the dilepton decay channel in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe