Herpes Simplex Virus and Endothelium

Човекът е единственият естествен гостoприемник на Херпес Симплекс Вирус (ХСВ). Инфекцията с него води до разнообразни по форма, проявление и локализация очни изменения. Причинява рецидивиращи роговични инфекции-херпетичен кератит и кератоувеит, чийто усложнения са причина за намалено зрение.Цел: Да представим проява на локализирана роговична ендотелна декомпенсация, стромален оток, нови съдове и намалено зрение, при пациент с рецидивиращ хек ( >4 рецидива за 6 г.) след рутинна, некомплицирана факоемулсификация.Материал и методи: Представяме мъж на 53 г., с анамнеза за множество рецидиви на херпетичен стромален кератит, започнали преди 7 години и трайно намалено зрение в дясното око, поради цикатрикс и комплицирана катаракта. Роговичните изменения са документирани с фотография на преден очен сегмент, топография (Atlas 9000, Carl Zeis Meditec), анализатор на вълновия фронт ('NASCA, Carl Zeis Meditec) и ендотелен анализ (Pentacam, Oculus).Резултати: Анализът на топографията, вълновия фронт, ендотелната карта и съпоставката им с локализацията на процеса на фотографиите на предния очен сегмен ни дават обяснение за механизма на намалено зрение в очи с рецидивиращи стромални кератити.Заключение: Рецидивиращият ХСК може да бъде предпоставка за локализирана ендотелна декомпенсация, увеличена корнеална дебелина (в активната фаза), изразени цякатрициални промени при пореден пристъп, неоваскуларизация на роговицата след катарактална хирургия - всички те водещи до трайно намалено зрение. Считаме, че разбиранията ни за кратка медикаментозна профилактика при херпетичен стромален кератит ( 800 мг Aciclovir дневно в периода след острото възпаление) се нуждаят от съществена ревизия. Предвид отдалечеността във времето - 6 месеца след интервенцията, вероятността вътреочната хирургия да е отключващ фактор за поредния рецидив на HSV кератит е минимална.Human is the only natural host of herpes simplex virus (HSV). The infection caused by this double-strained DNA virus has various clinical forms and localizations in the eye. Most common is the corneal manifestation - keratitis and keratouveitis, which is often recurrent and results in low vision.Purpose: To explore a localized corneal endothelial decompensation, stromal oedema, neovascularization and low vision in ô€‰š patient with recurrent HSV keratitis (more than 4 recurrences in 6 years) six months after routine, uncomplicated cataract surgery.Material and methods: Male, 53-year-old with history of multiple recurrences of HSV keratitis, started 7 years ago, and reduced visual acuity in the right eye due to cicatricial corneal changes and complicated cataract.Findings are documented with anterior segment photography, topography (Atlas 9000, Carl Zeis Meditec), wavefront analyzer (WASCA, Carl Zeis Meditec) and endothelial analysis (Pentacam, Oculus).Results: Analysis of corneal topography, wavefront data, endothelial cell count and matching them with the localization of the lesion with anterior segment photography give us a possible explanation of the mechanisms leading to reduced vision in eyes with recurrent stromal keratitis.Conclusion: Recurrent HSV keratitis may be a prerequisite for localized endothelial decompensation, increased corneal thickness (in active phase), marked cicatricial scaring in the convalescent period, corneal neovascularization after cataract surgery - reasons for permanently reduced vision altogether.We believe that our understanding for short-term antiviral drug prophylaxis ( 800 mg per day after the acute phase of the infection )in herpetic stromal keratitis requires substantial revision. Given the remoteness in time - six months after the cataract surgery, the chance of a surgery trauma to be another triggering factor for recurrence of HSV keratitis is minimal

Few-Shot Out-of-Domain Transfer Learning of Natural Language Explanations in a Label-Abundant Setup

Training a model to provide natural language explanations (NLEs) for its predictions usually requires the acquisition of task-specific NLEs, which is time- and resource-consuming. A potential solution is the few-shot out-of-domain transfer of NLEs from a parent task with many NLEs to a child task. In this work, we examine the setup in which the child task has few NLEs but abundant labels. We establish four few-shot transfer learning methods that cover the possible fine-tuning combinations of the labels and NLEs for the parent and child tasks. We transfer explainability from a large natural language inference dataset (e-SNLI) separately to two child tasks: (1) hard cases of pronoun resolution, where we introduce the small-e-WinoGrande dataset of NLEs on top of the WinoGrande dataset, and (2) commonsense validation (ComVE). Our results demonstrate that the parent task helps with NLE generation and we establish the best methods for this setup

Variations in the squamous part of the occipital bone in medieval and contemporary cranial series from Bulgaria

The squamous part of the occipital bone is a place of many different variations. They are a result of faulty ossification in the occipital squama or due to the presence of sutural bones in the lambda region. As their differentiation is intricate because of the various criteria used, the issue of their recognition in the adult skull still remains difficult even though they can be clearly distinguished at a younger age. The aim of the present study was to compare the frequency of interparietal, preinterparietal and sutural bones in the lambda region in medieval male and female cranial series as well as between medieval and contemporary male series from Bulgaria. We also discuss the development of the occipital squama in order to set clearer criteria for further differentiation of such variations in the adult skull. In the reviewed 3 cranial series, the variations in the squamous portion of the occipital bone were observed with a low frequency. The incidence of preinterparietal bones was more common than the interparietal ones. The sutural bones in the lambda region were numerous in the series. No statistically significant sex or intergroup differences were established. So even if these anatomical variations are relatively rare, the understanding of them is of significance for many disciplines like anthropology, comparative and developmental anatomy, clinical and forensic medicine.

BPIFA1 Protein: An essential ingredient to the future of the Diagnostic Therapeutic strategy for Chronic Rhinosinuitis

A number of complex processes of interaction between the macroorganismand a great deal of pathological microorganisms take place in the mucosa of the nasal and paranasal sinuses. One of the primary mechanisms of the mucosa counteraction is utilizing the secretion proteins (9). The BPIFA1 (bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein fold–containing family member A1) protein is a characteristic representative of this group. It is a multifunctional protein with various defensive mechanisms. Recently, there has been an upraise in research regarding the BPIFA1 role when treating chronic rhinosinuitis. Experimental drugs for treating chronic diseases of the upper respiratory tract are being developed based on BPIFA1

Genetic diversity of Agrobacterium vitis strains, isolated from grapevines and wild grapes in Bulgaria, assessed by Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequences analysis of 16S-23S rDNA

Nineteen tumorigenic Agrobacterium vitis strains isolated from commercial vineyards and wild grapes at different locations in Bulgaria were studied in relation to the Ti plasmid type and chromosomal background. The PCR analysis showed that all but one of the strains harbor an octopine/cucumopine type of Ti plasmid and one carries a vitopine type. The genetic diversity among the studied strains and 20 more A. vitis strains originating from different geographic regions in Europe, Asia, USA and South Africa was assessed by Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequences (CAPS) analysis of 16S-23S rDNA region. The comparison of the obtained CAPS profiles and performed cluster analysis showed a high level of polymorphism among the studied strains distributed in totally 15 different groups within two main clusters. All Bulgarian strains are located in only three groups within one of the clusters. A high level of correlation between the chromosomal background and type of the carried Ti plasmids was found. The performed CAPS analysis demonstrated that all A. vitis strains isolated from wild grapes (V. vinifera ssp. silvestris) showed CAPS profiles identical with a number of strains isolated from commercial vineyards from different vine-growing regions in Bulgaria. A possible origin of this group of strains from an ancestral A. vitis strain, which initially inhabits wild grapes (V. vinifera ssp. silvestris) and later has been disseminated to cultivated grapevines is proposed

Neutron stars in Gauss-Bonnet gravity -- nonlinear scalarization and gravitational phase transitions

It was recently discovered that scalarized neutron stars in scalar-tensor theories can undergo a gravitational phase transition to a non-scalarized (GR) state. Surprisingly, even though the driving mechanism is totally different, the process resembles closely the first-order matter phase transition from confined nuclear matter to deconfined quark matter in neutron star cores. The studies until now were limited, though, to only one theory of gravity and a limited range of parameters. With the present paper, we aim at demonstrating that gravitational phase transitions are more common than expected. More specifically, we show that the phenomenon of nonlinear scalarization is present for neutron stars in Gauss-Bonnet gravity leading to the possibility of gravitational phase transition. Moreover, it can be observed for a wide range of parameters so no fine-tuning is needed. This solidifies the conjecture that gravitational phase transitions are an important phenomenon for compact objects and their astrophysical implications deserve an in-depth study.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

Mitochondrial DNA Suggests a Western Eurasian origin for Ancient (Proto-) Bulgarians

Ancient (proto-) Bulgarians have long been thought to as a Turkic population. However, evidence found in the past three decades show that this is not the case. Until now, this evidence does not include ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. In order to fill this void, we have collected human remains from the VIII-X century AD located in three necropolises in Bulgaria: Nojarevo (Silistra region) and Monastery of Mostich (Shumen region), both in Northeast Bulgaria and Tuhovishte (Satovcha region) in Southwest Bulgaria. The phylogenetic analysis of 13 ancient DNA samples (extracted from teeth) identified 12 independent haplotypes, which we further classified into mtDNA haplogroups found in present-day European and Western Eurasian populations. Our results suggest a Western Eurasian matrilineal origin for proto-Bulgarians as well as a genetic similarity between proto- and modern Bulgarians. Our future work will provide additional data which will further clarify proto-Bulgarian origins; thereby adding new clues to current understanding of European genetic evolution

Manifestation of pseudogap in ab-plane optical characteristics

A model in which a gap forms in the renormalized electronic density of state (DOS) with missing states recovered just above the pseudogap $\Delta_{pg}$, is able to give a robust description of the striking, triangular like, peak seen in the real part of the optical self-energy of underdoped cuprates. We use this model to explore the effect of the pseudogap on the real part of the optical conductivity and on the partial sum rule associated with it. An important result is that the optical spectral weight redistributes over a much larger frequency window than it does in the DOS.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

USING DNA AND ISOZYME MARKERS TO STUDY GENETIC RELATIONSHIP AMONG HIGH REGENERATIVE INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS OF HELIANTHUS EGGERTII SMALL. X HELIANTHUS ANNUUS L

ABSTRACT RAPD, AP-PCR, IFLP, SSR and isozymes marker