An explicit formula for the Berezin star product

We prove an explicit formula of the Berezin star product on Kaehler manifolds. The formula is expressed as a summation over certain strongly connected digraphs. The proof relies on a combinatorial interpretation of Englis' work on the asymptotic expansion of the Laplace integral.Comment: 19 pages, to appear in Lett. Math. Phy

Highly efficient synthesis of the tricyclic core of Taxol by cascade metathesis

An efficient enantioselective synthesis of the ABC tricyclic core of the anticancer drug Taxol is reported. The key step of this synthesis is a cascade metathesis reaction, which leads in one operation to the required tricycle if appropriate fine-tuning of the dienyne precursor is performed

Deformation quantization of compact Kähler manifolds by Berezin-Toeplitz quantization

For arbitrary compact quantizable Kähler manifolds it is shown how a natural formal deformation quantization (star product) can be obtained via Berezin-Toeplitz operators. Results on their semi-classical behaviour (their asymptotic expansion) due to Bordemann, Meinrenken and Schlichenmaier are used in an essential manner. It is shown that the star product is null on constants and fulfills parity. A trace is constructed and the relation to deformation quantization by geometric quantization is given

Road users rarely use explicit communication when interacting in today’s traffic: Implications for Automated Vehicles

To be successful, automated vehicles (AVs) need to be able to manoeuvre in mixed traffic in a way that will be accepted by road users, and maximises traffic safety and efficiency. A likely prerequisite for this success is for AVs to be able to communicate effectively with other road users in a complex traffic environment. The current study, conducted as part of the European project interACT, investigates the communication strategies used by drivers and pedestrians while crossing the road at six observed locations, across three European countries. In total, 701 road user interactions were observed and annotated, using an observation protocol developed for this purpose. The observation protocols identified 20 event categories, observed from the approaching vehicles/drivers and pedestrians. These included information about movement, looking behaviour, hand gestures, and signals used, as well as some demographic data. These observations illustrated that explicit communication techniques, such as honking, flashing headlights by drivers, or hand gestures by drivers and pedestrians, rarely occurred. This observation was consistent across sites. In addition, a follow-on questionnaire, administered to a sub-set of the observed pedestrians after crossing the road, found that when contemplating a crossing, pedestrians were more likely to use vehicle-based behaviour, rather than communication cues from the driver. Overall, the findings suggest that vehicle-based movement information such as yielding cues are more likely to be used by pedestrians while crossing the road, compared to explicit communication cues from drivers, although some cultural differences were observed. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to design of suitable external interfaces and communication of intent by future automated vehicles

Ventilator-associated pneumonia in children after cardiac surgery in The Netherlands

We conducted a retrospective cohort study in an academic tertiary care center to characterize ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in pediatric patients after cardiac surgery in The Netherlands. All patients following cardiac surgery and mechanically ventilated for ≥24 h were included. The primary outcome was development of VAP. Secondary outcomes were duration of mechanical ventilation and length of ICU stay. A total of 125 patients were enrolled. Their mean age was 16.5 months. The rate of VAP was 17.1/1,000 mechanical ventilation days. Frequently found organisms were Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Patients with VAP had longer duration of ventilation and longer ICU stay. Risk factors associated with the development of VAP were a PRISM III score of ≥10 and transfusion of fresh frozen plasma. The mean VAP rate in this population is higher than that reported in general pediatric ICU populations. Children with VAP had a prolonged need for mechanical ventilation and a longer ICU sta

Evolution of Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals

The science and policy of pharmaceuticals produced and/or delivered by plants has evolved over the past twenty-one years from a backyard remedy to regulated, purified products. After seemingly frozen at Phase I human clinical trials with six orally delivered plant-made vaccines not progressing past this stage over seven years, plant-made pharmaceuticals have made a breakthrough with several purified plant-based products advancing to Phase II trials and beyond. Though fraught with the usual difficulties of pharmaceutical development, pharmaceuticals made by plants have achieved pertinent milestones albeit slowly compared to other pharmaceutical production systems and are now at the cusp of reaching the consumer. Though the current economic climate begs for cautious investment as opposed to trail blazing, it is perhaps a good time to look to the future of plant-made pharmaceutical technology to assist in planning for future developments in order not to slow this technology’s momentum. To encourage continued progress, we highlight the advances made so far by this technology, particularly the change in paradigms, comparing developmental timelines, and summarizing the current status and future possibilities of plant-made pharmaceuticals

Combinatorial Analysis of Secretory Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) Expression in Plants

Delivery of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) to mucosal surfaces as a passive immunotherapy agent is a promising strategy to prevent infectious diseases. Recombinant sIgA production in plants requires the co-expression of four transcriptional units encoding the light chain (LC), heavy chain (HC), joining chain (JC) and secretory component (SC). As a way to optimize sIgA production in plants, we tested the combinatorial expression of 16 versions of a human sIgA against the VP8* rotavirus antigen in Nicotiana benthamiana, using the recently developed GoldenBraid multigene assembly system. Each sIgA version was obtained by combining one of the two types of HC (alpha 1 and alpha 2) with one of the two LC types (k and lambda) and linking or not a KDEL peptide to the HC and/or SC. From the analysis of the anti-VP8* activity, it was concluded that those sIgA versions carrying HC alpha 1 and LC lambda provided the highest yields. Moreover, ER retention significantly increased antibody production, particularly when the KDEL signal was linked to the SC. Maximum expression levels of 32.5 mu g IgA/g fresh weight (FW) were obtained in the best performing combination, with an estimated 33% of it in the form of a secretory complex.This work has been funded by Grant BIO2010-15384 from Plan Nacional I + D of the Spanish Ministry of Science. Juarez P. is a recipient of a FPU fellowship, and Sarrion-Perdigones A. and Huet-Trujillo E. are recipients of a FPI fellowship. We want to thank Monedero for kindly providing scFv and VP8* clones.Juárez Ortega, P.; Huet Trujillo, E.; Sarrion-Perdigones, A.; Falconi, E.; Granell Richart, A.; Orzáez Calatayud, DV. (2013). Combinatorial Analysis of Secretory Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) Expression in Plants. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 14(3):6205-6222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms14036205S62056222143Reichert, J. M., & Valge-Archer, V. E. (2007). Development trends for monoclonal antibody cancer therapeutics. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 6(5), 349-356. doi:10.1038/nrd2241Corthésy, B. (2010). Role of secretory immunoglobulin A and secretory component in the protection of mucosal surfaces. Future Microbiology, 5(5), 817-829. doi:10.2217/fmb.10.39Corthésy, B. (2003). Recombinant Secretory Immunoglobulin A in Passive Immunotherapy: Linking Immunology and Biotechnology. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 4(1), 51-67. doi:10.2174/1389201033378020Corthësy, B. (2008). Secretory immunoglobulin A: well beyond immune exclusion at mucosal surfaces. Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 31(2), 174-179. doi:10.1080/08923970802438441Sarrion-Perdigones, A., Juarez, P., Granell, A., & Orzaez, D. (2011). Production of Antibodies in Plants. Cell Engineering, 143-164. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1257-7_7Paul, M., Dolleweerd, C. van, Drake, P. M. W., Reljic, R., Thangaraj, H., Barbi, T., … Ma, J. K.-C. (2011). Molecular pharming. Human Vaccines, 7(3), 375-382. doi:10.4161/hv.7.3.14456Fischer, R., Stoger, E., Schillberg, S., Christou, P., & Twyman, R. M. (2004). Plant-based production of biopharmaceuticals. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 7(2), 152-158. doi:10.1016/j.pbi.2004.01.007Twyman, R. M., Stoger, E., Schillberg, S., Christou, P., & Fischer, R. (2003). Molecular farming in plants: host systems and expression technology. Trends in Biotechnology, 21(12), 570-578. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2003.10.002Saint-Jore-Dupas, C., Faye, L., & Gomord, V. (2007). From planta to pharma with glycosylation in the toolbox. Trends in Biotechnology, 25(7), 317-323. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2007.04.008Ma, J., Hiatt, A., Hein, M., Vine, N., Wang, F., Stabila, P., … Lehner, T. (1995). Generation and assembly of secretory antibodies in plants. Science, 268(5211), 716-719. doi:10.1126/science.7732380Ma, J. K.-C., Hikmat, B. Y., Wycoff, K., Vine, N. D., Chargelegue, D., Yu, L., … Lehner, T. (1998). Characterization of a recombinant plant monoclonal secretory antibody and preventive immunotherapy in humans. Nature Medicine, 4(5), 601-606. doi:10.1038/nm0598-601Weintraub, J. A., Hilton, J. F., White, J. M., Hoover, C. I., Wycoff, K. L., Yu, L., … Featherstone, J. D. B. (2005). Clinical Trial of a Plant-Derived Antibody on Recolonization of Mutans Streptococci. Caries Research, 39(3), 241-250. doi:10.1159/000084805Wycoff, K. (2005). Secretory IgA Antibodies from Plants. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 11(19), 2429-2437. doi:10.2174/1381612054367508Nicholson, L., Gonzalez-Melendi, P., Van Dolleweerd, C., Tuck, H., Perrin, Y., Ma, J. K.-C., … Stoger, E. (2004). A recombinant multimeric immunoglobulin expressed in rice shows assembly-dependent subcellular localization in endosperm cells. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 3(1), 115-127. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7652.2004.00106.xWieland, W. H., Lammers, A., Schots, A., & Orzáez, D. V. (2006). Plant expression of chicken secretory antibodies derived from combinatorial libraries. Journal of Biotechnology, 122(3), 382-391. doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2005.12.020Larrick, J. W., Yu, L., Naftzger, C., Jaiswal, S., & Wycoff, K. (2001). Production of secretory IgA antibodies in plants. Biomolecular Engineering, 18(3), 87-94. doi:10.1016/s1389-0344(01)00102-2FOLEY, R. C., RAISONS, R. L., & BEH, K. J. (1991). Monoclonal Antibody Against Sheep Kappa Light Chain. Hybridoma, 10(4), 507-515. doi:10.1089/hyb.1991.10.507Furtado, P. B., Whitty, P. W., Robertson, A., Eaton, J. T., Almogren, A., Kerr, M. A., … Perkins, S. J. (2004). Solution Structure Determination of Monomeric Human IgA2 by X-ray and Neutron Scattering, Analytical Ultracentrifugation and Constrained Modelling: A Comparison with Monomeric Human IgA1. Journal of Molecular Biology, 338(5), 921-941. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2004.03.007De Muynck, B., Navarre, C., & Boutry, M. (2010). Production of antibodies in plants: status after twenty years. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 8(5), 529-563. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7652.2009.00494.xMa, J. K.-C., Drake, P. M. W., & Christou, P. (2003). The production of recombinant pharmaceutical proteins in plants. Nature Reviews Genetics, 4(10), 794-805. doi:10.1038/nrg1177De Muynck, B., Navarre, C., Nizet, Y., Stadlmann, J., & Boutry, M. (2009). Different subcellular localization and glycosylation for a functional antibody expressed in Nicotiana tabacum plants and suspension cells. Transgenic Research, 18(3), 467-482. doi:10.1007/s11248-008-9240-1D�ring, K., Hippe, S., Kreuzaler, F., & Schell, J. (1990). Synthesis and self-assembly of a functional monoclonal antibody in transgenic Nicotiana tabacum. Plant Molecular Biology, 15(2), 281-293. doi:10.1007/bf00036914Wilde, C. D., Rycke, R. D., Beeckman, T., Neve, M. D., Montagu, M. V., Engler, G., & Depicker, A. (1998). Accumulation Pattern of IgG Antibodies and Fab Fragments in Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana Plants. Plant and Cell Physiology, 39(6), 639-646. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.pcp.a029416Schouten, A., Roosien, J., van Engelen, F. A., (Ineke) de Jong, G. A. M., (Tanja) Borst-Vrenssen, A. W. M., Zilverentant, J. F., … Bakker, J. (1996). The C-terminal KDEL sequence increases the expression level of a single-chain antibody designed to be targeted to both the cytosol and the secretory pathway in transgenic tobacco. Plant Molecular Biology, 30(4), 781-793. doi:10.1007/bf00019011Bencurova, M. (2004). Specificity of IgG and IgE antibodies against plant and insect glycoprotein glycans determined with artificial glycoforms of human transferrin. Glycobiology, 14(5), 457-466. doi:10.1093/glycob/cwh058Gomord, V., Fitchette, A.-C., Menu-Bouaouiche, L., Saint-Jore-Dupas, C., Plasson, C., Michaud, D., & Faye, L. (2010). Plant-specific glycosylation patterns in the context of therapeutic protein production. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 8(5), 564-587. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7652.2009.00497.xSarrion-Perdigones, A., Falconi, E. E., Zandalinas, S. I., Juárez, P., Fernández-del-Carmen, A., Granell, A., & Orzaez, D. (2011). GoldenBraid: An Iterative Cloning System for Standardized Assembly of Reusable Genetic Modules. PLoS ONE, 6(7), e21622. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021622Weber, E., Engler, C., Gruetzner, R., Werner, S., & Marillonnet, S. (2011). A Modular Cloning System for Standardized Assembly of Multigene Constructs. PLoS ONE, 6(2), e16765. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016765Monedero, V., Rodriguez-Diaz, J., Viana, R., Buesa, J., & Perez-Martinez, G. (2004). Selection of Single-Chain Antibodies against the VP8* Subunit of Rotavirus VP4 Outer Capsid Protein and Their Expression in Lactobacillus casei. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 70(11), 6936-6939. doi:10.1128/aem.70.11.6936-6939.2004Juárez, P., Presa, S., Espí, J., Pineda, B., Antón, M. T., Moreno, V., … Orzaez, D. (2011). Neutralizing antibodies against rotavirus produced in transgenically labelled purple tomatoes. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 10(3), 341-352. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7652.2011.00666.xLangley, R., Wines, B., Willoughby, N., Basu, I., Proft, T., & Fraser, J. D. (2005). The Staphylococcal Superantigen-Like Protein 7 Binds IgA and Complement C5 and Inhibits IgA-FcαRI Binding and Serum Killing of Bacteria. The Journal of Immunology, 174(5), 2926-2933. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.174.5.2926Sack, M., Paetz, A., Kunert, R., Bomble, M., Hesse, F., Stiegler, G., … Rademacher, T. (2007). Functional analysis of the broadly neutralizing human anti-HIV-1 antibody 2F5 produced in transgenic BY-2 suspension cultures. The FASEB Journal, 21(8), 1655-1664. doi:10.1096/fj.06-5863comRamessar, K., Rademacher, T., Sack, M., Stadlmann, J., Platis, D., Stiegler, G., … Christou, P. (2008). Cost-effective production of a vaginal protein microbicide to prevent HIV transmission. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(10), 3727-3732. doi:10.1073/pnas.0708841104Brandtzaeg, P., & Prydz, H. (1984). Direct evidence for an integrated function of J chain and secretory component in epithelial transport of immunoglobulins. Nature, 311(5981), 71-73. doi:10.1038/311071a0Johansen, Braathen, & Brandtzaeg. (2000). Role of J Chain in Secretory Immunoglobulin Formation. Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, 52(3), 240-248. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3083.2000.00790.xBraathen, R., Hohman, V. S., Brandtzaeg, P., & Johansen, F.-E. (2007). Secretory Antibody Formation: Conserved Binding Interactions between J Chain and Polymeric Ig Receptor from Humans and Amphibians. The Journal of Immunology, 178(3), 1589-1597. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.178.3.1589Murthy, A. K., Chaganty, B. K. R., Troutman, T., Guentzel, M. N., Yu, J.-J., Ali, S. K., … Arulanandam, B. P. (2011). Mannose-Containing Oligosaccharides of Non-Specific Human Secretory Immunoglobulin A Mediate Inhibition of Vibrio cholerae Biofilm Formation. PLoS ONE, 6(2), e16847. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016847Mathias, A., & Corthésy, B. (2011). N-Glycans on secretory component. Gut Microbes, 2(5), 287-293. doi:10.4161/gmic.2.5.18269Hu, L., Crawford, S. E., Czako, R., Cortes-Penfield, N. W., Smith, D. F., Le Pendu, J., … Prasad, B. V. V. (2012). Cell attachment protein VP8* of a human rotavirus specifically interacts with A-type histo-blood group antigen. Nature, 485(7397), 256-259. doi:10.1038/nature10996Yu, X., Dang, V. T., Fleming, F. E., von Itzstein, M., Coulson, B. S., & Blanchard, H. (2012). Structural Basis of Rotavirus Strain Preference toward N-Acetyl- or N-Glycolylneuraminic Acid-Containing Receptors. Journal of Virology, 86(24), 13456-13466. doi:10.1128/jvi.06975-11Haselhorst, T., Fleming, F. E., Dyason, J. C., Hartnell, R. D., Yu, X., Holloway, G., … von Itzstein, M. (2008). Sialic acid dependence in rotavirus host cell invasion. Nature Chemical Biology, 5(2), 91-93. doi:10.1038/nchembio.134Bonner, A., Almogren, A., Furtado, P. B., Kerr, M. A., & Perkins, S. J. (2008). The Nonplanar Secretory IgA2 and Near Planar Secretory IgA1 Solution Structures Rationalize Their Different Mucosal Immune Responses. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 284(8), 5077-5087. doi:10.1074/jbc.m807529200Yoo, E. M., & Morrison, S. L. (2005). IgA: An immune glycoprotein. Clinical Immunology, 116(1), 3-10. doi:10.1016/j.clim.2005.03.010Karnoup, A. S., Turkelson, V., & Anderson, W. H. K. (2005). O-Linked glycosylation in maize-expressed human IgA1. Glycobiology, 15(10), 965-981. doi:10.1093/glycob/cwi077Ramsland, P. A., Willoughby, N., Trist, H. M., Farrugia, W., Hogarth, P. M., Fraser, J. D., & Wines, B. D. (2007). Structural basis for evasion of IgA immunity by Staphylococcus aureus revealed in the complex of SSL7 with Fc of human IgA1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(38), 15051-15056. doi:10.1073/pnas.0706028104Almogren, A., Senior, B. W., & Kerr, M. A. (2007). A comparison of the binding of secretory component to immunoglobulin A (IgA) in human colostral S-IgA1 and S-IgA2. Immunology, 120(2), 273-280. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2567.2006.02498.xOrzaez, D., Mirabel, S., Wieland, W. H., & Granell, A. (2006). Agroinjection of Tomato Fruits. A Tool for Rapid Functional Analysis of Transgenes Directly in Fruit. Plant Physiology, 140(1), 3-11. doi:10.1104/pp.105.06822

Spin dynamics in semiconductors

This article reviews the current status of spin dynamics in semiconductors which has achieved a lot of progress in the past years due to the fast growing field of semiconductor spintronics. The primary focus is the theoretical and experimental developments of spin relaxation and dephasing in both spin precession in time domain and spin diffusion and transport in spacial domain. A fully microscopic many-body investigation on spin dynamics based on the kinetic spin Bloch equation approach is reviewed comprehensively.Comment: a review article with 193 pages and 1103 references. To be published in Physics Reports

Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76 TeV

The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{AA}}$ using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles strongly depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most suppressed with $R_{\rm{AA}}\approx0.13$ at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7 GeV/$c$. Above $p_{\rm T}=7$ GeV/$c$, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx0.4$ for $p_{\rm T}>30$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284