Complexities associated with expression of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) lytic origins of DNA replication.

EBV has two lytic origins (oriLyt) of DNA replication lying at divergent sites on the viral genome within a duplicated sequence (DS). The latter contains potential hairpin loops, ‘hinge’ elements and the promoters for transcripts from viral genes BHLF1 and LF3. These genes themselves consist largely of 125 and 102 bp repetitive sequences, respectively, and encode basic proteins. We have examined these genomic regions in detail in attempts to understand why lytic replication—necessary for virus survival—is so inefficient, and to identify controlling elements. Our studies uncovered a diverse family of promoters (P) for BHLF1 and LF3, only one pair of which (P1) proved sensitive to chemical inducing agents. The others (P2–P3/4), abutting the replication ‘core’ origin elements in DS and extending into 50-unique sequences, may play roles in the maintenance of viral latency. We further identified a family of overlapping small complementary-strand RNAs that transverse the replication ‘core’ origin elements in a manner suggesting a role for them as ‘antisense’ species and/or DNA replication primers. Our data are discussed in terms of alternative lytic replication models. We suggest our findings might prove useful in seeking better control over viral lytic replication and devising strategies for therapy

Vocal tract dimensional characteristics of professional female singers with different types of singing voices

This study investigated the relationship between the female singers' singing voice classification and their vocal tract length, volume, and vowel formant frequencies. Acoustic pharyngometer (ART) was used to measure the vocal tract length and volume of Twenty-seven sopranos, and Twenty-three mezzo-sopranos. The first three formant frequencies of vowels produced by these singers were also obtained. Results showed that sopranos had shorter oral and vocal tract length, smaller oral and vocal tract volume than mezzo-sopranos significantly. Sopranos had higher first three and averaged first three vowel formant frequencies than mezzo-sopranos generally. These preliminary findings indicated that, besides vocal tract length, vocal tract volume may also affect the formant frequencies of the singers, and thus the classification of different types of singing voices. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Quantification of vocal tract configuration of older children with Down syndrome: A pilot study

Objective: To quantify the vocal tract (VT) lumen of older children with Down syndrome using acoustic reflection (AR) technology. Design: Comparative study. Setting: Vocal tract lab with sound-proof booth. Participants: Ten children (4 males and 6 females), aged 9-17 years old diagnosed with Down syndrome. Ten typically developing children (4 males and 6 females) matched for age, gender, and race. Intervention: Each participant's vocal tract measurements were obtained by using an Eccovision Acoustic Pharyngometer. Main outcome measures: Six vocal tract dimensional parameters (oral length, oral volume, pharyngeal length, pharyngeal volume, total vocal tract length, and total vocal tract volume) from children with Down syndrome and the typically developing children were measured and compared. Results: Children with Down syndrome exhibited small oral cavities when compared to control group (F(1, 18) = 6.55, p = 0.02). They also demonstrated a smaller vocal tract volumes (F(1, 18) = 2.58, p = 0.13), although the results were not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Pharyngeal length, pharyngeal volume, and vocal tract length were not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusion: Children with Down syndrome had smaller oral cavities, and smaller vocal tract volumes. No significant differences were found for pharyngeal length, pharyngeal volume, and vocal tract length between these two groups. © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.postprin

Can favourable psychosocial working conditions in midlife moderate the risk of work exit for chronically ill workers? A 20-year follow-up of the Whitehall II study

OBJECTIVES: To investigate if favourable psychosocial working conditions can reduce the risk of work exit and specifically for workers with chronic disease. METHODS: Men and women (32%) aged 35-55, working and having no chronic disease at baseline of the Whitehall II study of London-based civil servants were selected (n=9040). We observed participants' exit from work through retirement, health-related exit and unemployment, new diagnosis of chronic disease (ie, coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer) and their psychosocial working conditions in midlife. Using cause-specific Cox models, we examined the association of chronic disease and favourable psychosocial working conditions and their interaction, with the three types of work exit. We adjusted for gender, occupational grade, educational level, remaining in civil service, spouse's employment status and mental health. RESULTS: Chronic disease significantly increased the risk of any type of work exit (HR 1.27) and specifically the risk of health-related exit (HR 2.42). High skill discretion in midlife reduced the risk of any type of work exit (HR 0.90), retirement (HR 0.91) and health-related exit (HR 0.68). High work social support in midlife decreased the risk of health-related exit (HR 0.79) and unemployment (HR 0.71). Favourable psychosocial working conditions in midlife did not attenuate the association between chronic disease and work exit significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The chronically ill have increased risks of work exit, especially through health-related exit routes. Chronic disease is an obstacle to extended working lives. Favourable working conditions directly relate to reduced risks of work exit

Analysis of propagation of multi-channel EEG in the test of sustained attention

Proceedings of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference, 2010, p. 1666-1669the psychological construct 'sustained attention' describes a basic component of attention characterized by the subject's readiness to detect rarely and unpredictably occurring signals over prolonged periods of time. In this study, six healthy volunteers underwent a sustained attention to response task (SART), while their electroencephalographic (EEG) were recorded contemporarily. Directed Transfer Function (DTF) was used as estimator for direction of propagation of EEG function coupling. The results of DTF showed that the information flux within EEG functional coupling changed when attention condition changed from inattention state to sustained attention state, principally at alpha and beta rhythms. The DTF could be used to evaluate sustained attention condition and they might be used for research on damage of attention mechanisms of ADHD and TBI diseases in future. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Effect of exogenous methyl jasmonate on growth, gas exchange and chlorophyll contents of soybean subjected to drought

Drought is considered as one of the major constraints to crop production worldwide. Methyl jasmonate (MJ) is a plant-signaling molecule that elicits a wide variety of plant responses ranging from morphological to molecular level. A pot-culture study was undertaken to investigate the possible role of MJ-treatment on growth, gas exchange and chlorophyll contents in soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill.) plants subjected to water stress. The soybean plants were grown under normal water supply conditions till blooming and were then subjected to moisture stress by withholding water followed by foliar application of MJ at the rate of 50 μM. Drought stress severely hampered the growth, leaf gas-exchange attributes as well as the photosynthetic pigment contents. It was evident from the experimental results that, MJ-treatment led to further impairment in growth by inhibiting the leaf gas exchange attributes and chlorophyll contents. It is worth noted that, MJ-treatment also hampered the performance of soybean crop under well-watered conditions. In all, MJ-treatment appeared to arrest the growth, impaired leaf gas-exchange attributes and caused the loss of chlorophyll contents of soybean plants under water deficit conditions.Key words: Chlorophyll contents, drought stress, growth, gas exchange, soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill.)

Optimal Investment in the Development of Oil and Gas Field

Let an oil and gas field consists of clusters in each of which an investor can launch at most one project. During the implementation of a particular project, all characteristics are known, including annual production volumes, necessary investment volumes, and profit. The total amount of investments that the investor spends on developing the field during the entire planning period we know. It is required to determine which projects to implement in each cluster so that, within the total amount of investments, the profit for the entire planning period is maximum. The problem under consideration is NP-hard. However, it is solved by dynamic programming with pseudopolynomial time complexity. Nevertheless, in practice, there are additional constraints that do not allow solving the problem with acceptable accuracy at a reasonable time. Such restrictions, in particular, are annual production volumes. In this paper, we considered only the upper constraints that are dictated by the pipeline capacity. For the investment optimization problem with such additional restrictions, we obtain qualitative results, propose an approximate algorithm, and investigate its properties. Based on the results of a numerical experiment, we conclude that the developed algorithm builds a solution close (in terms of the objective function) to the optimal one

Bayesian nonparametric mixtures of Exponential Random Graph Models for ensembles of networks

Ensembles of networks arise in various fields where multiple independent networks are observed, for example, a collection of student networks from different classes. However, there are few models that describe both the variations and characteristics of networks in an ensemble at the same time. In this manuscript, we propose to model ensembles of networks using a Dirichlet Process Mixture of Exponential Random Graph Models (DPM-ERGMs), which divides an ensemble into different clusters and models each cluster of networks using a separate Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM). By employing a Dirichlet process mixture, the number of clusters can be determined automatically and changed adaptively with the data provided. Moreover, in order to perform full Bayesian inference for DPM-ERGMs, we develop a Metropolis-within-slice sampling algorithm to address the problem of sampling from the intractable ERGMs on an infinite sample space. We also demonstrate the performance of DPM-ERGMs with both simulated and real datasets

Characteristics of TCM constitutions of adult Chinese women in Hong Kong and identification of related influencing factors: a cross-sectional survey

published_or_final_versio

XMM-Newton observation of the ultraluminous quasar SDSS J010013.02+280225.8 at redshift 6.326

A brief Chandra observation of the ultraluminous quasar SDSS J010013.02+280225.8 at redshift 6.326 showed it to be a relatively bright, soft X-ray source with a count rate of about 1 count ks−1. In this article, we present results for the quasar from a 65-ks XMM–Newton observation, which constrains its spectral shape well. The quasar is clearly detected with a total of ~460 net counts in the 0.2–10 keV band. The spectrum is characterized by a simple power-law model with a photon index of = 2.30+0.10 −0.10 and the intrinsic 2–10 keV luminosity is 3.14 × 1045 erg s−1. The 1σ upper limit to any intrinsic absorption column density is NH = 6.07 × 1022 cm−2. No significant iron emission lines were detected. We derive an X-rayto-optical flux ratio αox of −1.74 ± 0.01, consistent with the values found in other quasars of comparable ultraviolet luminosity. We did not detect significant flux variations either in the XMM–Newton exposure or between XMM–Newton and Chandra observations, which are separated by ∼8 months. The X-ray observation enables the bolometric luminosity to be calculated after modelling the spectral energy distribution: the accretion rate is found to be sub-Eddington