Chemokine expression and viral infection of the central nervous system: regulation of host defense and neuropathology.

An effective host response against viral infection of the central nervous system (CNS) is the principal factor dictating the outcome of infection. It is the responsibility of the immune response to contain and control viral replication. Paradoxically, it is the immune response that may also contribute to the development of neuropathology. We have used mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), apositive-strand RNA virus, infection of the CNS to understand the dynamic interaction between viral replication, protection, and pathology with an emphasis on understanding how chemokines participate in these interrelated processes. Herein, we demonstrate the complexity of the chemokine response to MHV infection of the CNS and the delicate balance that exists between host defense and development of disease

Outcomes for Young Children's Social Status from Playing Group Games: Experiences from a Primary School in Hong Kong

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Development and performance of iron based oxygen carriers containing calcium ferrites for chemical looping combustion and production of hydrogen

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is a cyclic process in which an oxygen carrier (OC), is firstly reduced by a fuel, e.g. syngas, and then oxidised in air to produce heat. If the OC is Fe2O3, the oxidation can take place in steam to produce hydrogen, i.e. chemical looping hydrogen production (CLH). This paper presents an investigation of CaO modified Fe2O3 OCs for CLC and CLH. The performance of the mechanically mixed OCs were examined in a thermogravimetric analyser and a fluidised bed. It was found that the addition of CaO gives cyclic stability and additional capacity to produce hydrogen via CLH, at the expense of reduced oxygen carrying capacity for CLC, owing to the formation of calcium ferrites, such as Ca2Fe2O5.The authors would like to thank Prof. Clare Grey for her invaluable help in the XRD analysis and Z. Saracevic for support in operating the gas adsorption analyser. This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC grant EP/I070912/1). The first author is grateful to IDB (Islamic Development Bank) - Cambridge International Scholarship body for financial support for PhD study. W. L acknowledges funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.11.06

Musical Features for Automatic Music Transcription Evaluation

This technical report gives a detailed, formal description of the features introduced in the paper: Adrien Ycart, Lele Liu, Emmanouil Benetos and Marcus T. Pearce. "Investigating the Perceptual Validity of Evaluation Metrics for Automatic Piano Music Transcription", Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (TISMIR), Accepted, 2020

Essential Role of NK Cells in IgG Therapy for Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

published_or_final_versio

Mechanism of faster NO scavenging by older stored red blood cells

The blood storage lesion involves morphological and biochemical changes of red blood cells (RBCs) that occur during storage. These include conversion of the biconcave disc morphology to a spherical one, decreased mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, varied mean corpuscular volume, reduced integrity of the erythrocyte membrane with formation of microparticles, and increased cell-free hemoglobin. We studied the extent that older stored red blood cells scavenge nitric oxide (NO) faster than fresher stored red blood cells. Using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and stopped-flow absorption spectroscopy to measure the rate of NO uptake and reaction with hemoglobin in red cells, we found that older stored red blood cells scavenge NO about 1.8 times faster than fresher ones. Based on these experimental data, we simulated NO scavenging by fresher or older stored red blood cells with a biconcave or spherical geometry, respectively, in order to explore the mechanism of NO scavenging related to changes that occur during blood storage. We found that red blood cells with a spherical geometry scavenges NO about 2 times slower than ones with a biconcave geometry, and a smaller RBC hemoglobin concentration or volume increases NO scavenging by red blood cells. Our simulations demonstrate that even the most extreme possible changes in mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and mean corpuscular volume that favor increased NO scavenging are insufficient to account for what is observed experimentally. Therefore, RBC membrane permeability must increase during storage and we find that the permeability is likely to increase between 5 and 70 fold. Simulations using a two-dimensional blood vessel show that even a 5-fold increase in membrane permeability to NO can reduce NO bioavailability at the smooth muscle. Background: Transfusion of older stored blood may be harmful. Results: Older stored red blood cells scavenge nitric oxide more than fresher cells. Conclusion: As stored red blood cells age, structural and biochemical changes occur that lead to faster scavenging. Significance: Increased nitric oxide scavenging by red blood cells as a function of storage age contributes to deleterious effects upon transfusion. © 2014 The Authors

Temporal Stream Logic: Synthesis beyond the Bools

Reactive systems that operate in environments with complex data, such as mobile apps or embedded controllers with many sensors, are difficult to synthesize. Synthesis tools usually fail for such systems because the state space resulting from the discretization of the data is too large. We introduce TSL, a new temporal logic that separates control and data. We provide a CEGAR-based synthesis approach for the construction of implementations that are guaranteed to satisfy a TSL specification for all possible instantiations of the data processing functions. TSL provides an attractive trade-off for synthesis. On the one hand, synthesis from TSL, unlike synthesis from standard temporal logics, is undecidable in general. On the other hand, however, synthesis from TSL is scalable, because it is independent of the complexity of the handled data. Among other benchmarks, we have successfully synthesized a music player Android app and a controller for an autonomous vehicle in the Open Race Car Simulator (TORCS.

A genome scan for parent-of-origin linkage effects in alcoholism

BACKGROUND: Alcoholism is a complex disease in which genomic imprinting may play an important role in its susceptibility. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a genome-wide search for loci that may have strong parent-of-origin linkage effects in alcoholism; to compare the linkage results between the microsatellites and the two single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) platforms. METHODS: Nonparametric linkage analyses were performed using ALLEGRO with the three sets of markers provided by the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 for the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism Problem 1 data. Both sex-averaged and sex-specific genetic maps were used. We also provided a valid statistical test to determine whether the parental allele sharing differed significantly. RESULTS: Significant maternal linkage effects (paternal imprinting) were observed on chromosome 12 using either the microsatellite markers or the two SNP panels. The two SNP sets did not improve the linkage signals compared to the results from the microsatellite markers on chromosome 12. Possible paternal linkage effects (maternal imprinting) on chromosome 7 and maternal linkage effects (paternal imprinting) on chromosome 10 were found using the two SNP panels. CONCLUSION: For diseases which may have parent-of-origin effects, linkage analysis looking at parental sharing separately may reduce locus heterogeneity and increase the ability to identify that which can not be identified with usual linkage analysis

A genome scan for parent-of-origin linkage effects in alcoholism

BACKGROUND: Alcoholism is a complex disease in which genomic imprinting may play an important role in its susceptibility. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a genome-wide search for loci that may have strong parent-of-origin linkage effects in alcoholism; to compare the linkage results between the microsatellites and the two single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) platforms. METHODS: Nonparametric linkage analyses were performed using ALLEGRO with the three sets of markers provided by the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 for the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism Problem 1 data. Both sex-averaged and sex-specific genetic maps were used. We also provided a valid statistical test to determine whether the parental allele sharing differed significantly. RESULTS: Significant maternal linkage effects (paternal imprinting) were observed on chromosome 12 using either the microsatellite markers or the two SNP panels. The two SNP sets did not improve the linkage signals compared to the results from the microsatellite markers on chromosome 12. Possible paternal linkage effects (maternal imprinting) on chromosome 7 and maternal linkage effects (paternal imprinting) on chromosome 10 were found using the two SNP panels. CONCLUSION: For diseases which may have parent-of-origin effects, linkage analysis looking at parental sharing separately may reduce locus heterogeneity and increase the ability to identify that which can not be identified with usual linkage analysis