85 research outputs found
Comparison of the expression of cytokine genes in the bursal tissues of the chickens following challenge with infectious bursal disease viruses of varying virulence
BACKGROUND: Cytokines are important mediators and regulators of host responses against foreign antigen, with their main function to orchestrate the functional activities of the cells of the immune system. However little is known about the role of cytokines in pathogenesis and immune responses caused by infectious bursa disease virus (IBDV). The aim of this study was to examine the transcripts of cell-mediated immune response-related cytokine genes in the bursal tissues of chickens infected with IBDVs of varying virulence to gain an understanding of pathological changes and mechanisms of immunosuppression caused by IBDV infection and the immune responses evoked. RESULTS: Real-time quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the expression levels of both Th1 [interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukins (IL)-2 and IL-12p40] and Th2 (IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 and IL-10) cytokines were significantly up-regulated following challenge with the H strain (vvIBDV) and up to 2- and 30-fold, respectively (P < 0.05). Following infection with the Ts strain (cell-adapted virus) these cytokine transcripts were up-regulated at 5 days post-infection (dpi), 2- and 13-fold respectively (P < 0.05), while the expression levels of IL-2 and IL-4 were not significantly different (P > 0.05). A higher degree of cytokine expression was induced by the H strain compared with the Ts strain. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the expression of cell-mediated immune-related cytokine genes is strongly induced by IBDV, especially by the vvIBDV, H strain and reveal that these cytokines could play a crucial role in driving cellular immune responses during the acute phase of IBDV infection, and the cellular immune responses caused by IBDV of varying virulence are through different signaling pathways
Two Kinds of Biclique Attacks on Lightweight Block Cipher PRINCE
Inspired by the paper [10], using better differential characteristics in the biclique construction, we give another balanced biclique attack on full rounds PRINCE with the lower complexity in this paper. Our balanced biclique attack has 2^62.67 computational complexity and 2^32 data complexity. Furthermore, we first illustrate a star-based biclique attack on full rounds PRINCE cipher in this paper. Our star-based biclique attack has computational complexity 2^63.02 and the required data can be reduced to only a single plaintext-ciphertext pair, this is the optimal data complexity among the existing results of full round attack on PRINCE
Anomalous open orbits in Hofstadter spectrum of Chern insulator
The nontrivial band topology can influence the Hofstadter spectrum. We
investigate the Hofstadter spectrum for various models of Chern insulators
under a rational flux , here and
being an integer. We find two major features. First, the number of splitting
subbands is with Chern number . Second, the anomalous open-orbit
subbands with Chern numbers and emerge, which are beyond the
parameter window of the Diophantine equation studied by
Thouless-Kohmoto-Nightingale-den Nijs [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{49}, 405
(1982)]. These two findings are explained by semiclassical dynamics. We propose
that the number of splitting subbands can be utilized to determine Chern number
in cold atom systems, and the open-orbit subbands can provide routes to study
exotic features beyond the Landau level physics
Knowledge-Driven Semantic Segmentation for Waterway Scene Perception
Semantic segmentation as one of the most popular scene perception techniques has been studied for autonomous vehicles. However, deep learning-based solutions rely on the volume and quality of data and knowledge from specific scene might not be incorporated. A novel knowledge-driven semantic segmentation method is proposed for waterway scene perception. Based on the knowledge that water is irregular and dynamically changing, a Life Time of Feature (LToF) detector is designed to distinguish water region from surrounding scene. Using a Bayesian framework, the detector as the likelihood function is combined with U-Net based semantic segmentation to achieve an optimized solution. Finally, two public datasets and typical semantic segmentation networks, FlowNet, DeepLab and DVSNet are selected to evaluate the proposed method. Also, the sensitivity of these methods and ours to dataset is discussed
A new measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine: a randomized comparative trial for assessing the reactogenicity and immunogenicity of three consecutive production lots and comparison with a widely used MMR vaccine in measles primed children
AbstractObjectives: A multicenter, single-blind, randomized, controlled clinical study was conducted in healthy 15–18-month-old children in order to assess the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of three consecutive lots of a new measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, GSK MMR.Design: A total of 500 enrolled subjects were randomized into four groups to receive either a single dose of one of the three lots of GSK MMR (three groups — 125 subjects in each group) or Merck MMR vaccine (125 subjects). Once clinical consistency had been demonstrated, the data were pooled and compared with the widely used Merck vaccine. Solicited local and general symptoms were recorded using diary cards, and antibody levels were determined using ELISA assays.Results: No differences in the incidence of local and general symptoms or seroconversion rates were seen in the groups receiving different lots of GSK MMR. Compared with Merck MMR, there was a significantly lower incidence of local pain (P<0.001) and swelling (P=0.038) in infants receiving the GSK MMR vaccine. The incidences of all other solicited local and general symptoms were comparable between the two groups. No signs of suspected meningitis were reported. No serious adverse events were reported by the investigator to be related to vaccination. Equivalent seroconversion rates and post-vaccination GMTs were observed in the groups receiving the two MMR vaccines. In conclusion, the new GSK MMR vaccine administered in measles-primed children demonstrated satisfactory immunogenicity and safety profiles as good as the Merck MMR vaccine
Calculation of a Health Index of Oil-Paper Transformers Insulation with Binary Logistic Regression
This paper presents a new method for calculating the insulation health index (HI) of oil-paper transformers rated under 110 kV to provide a snapshot of health condition using binary logistic regression. Oil breakdown voltage (BDV), total acidity of oil, 2-Furfuraldehyde content, and dissolved gas analysis (DGA) are singled out in this method as the input data for determining HI. A sample of transformers is used to test the proposed method. The results are compared with the results calculated for the same set of transformers using fuzzy logic. The comparison results show that the proposed method is reliable and effective in evaluating transformer health condition
Ultraquantum magnetoresistance in Kramers Weyl semimetal candidate -Ag2Se
The topological semimetal -Ag2Se features a Kramers Weyl node at the
origin in momentum space and a quadruplet of spinless Weyl nodes, which are
annihilated by spin-orbit coupling. We show that single crystalline
-Ag2Se manifests giant Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the
longitudinal magnetoresistance which stem from a small electron pocket that can
be driven beyond the quantum limit by a field less than 9 T. This small
electron pocket is a remainder of the spin-orbit annihilatedWeyl nodes and thus
encloses a Berry-phase structure. Moreover, we observed a negative longitudinal
magnetoresistance when the magnetic field is beyond the quantum limit. Our
experimental findings are complemented by thorough theoretical band structure
analyses of this Kramers Weyl semimetal candidate, including first-principle
calculations and an effective k*p model.Comment: A new version based on arXiv:1502.0232
Autonomous Vessels in the Yangtze River: A Study on the Maritime Accidents Using Data-Driven Bayesian Networks
The prototypes of autonomous vessels are expected to come into service within the coming years, but safety concerns remain due to complex traffic and natural conditions (e.g., Yangtze River). However, the response of autonomous vessels to potential accidents is still uncertain. The accident prevention for autonomous vessels is unconvincing due to the lack of objective studies on the causation analysis for maritime accidents. This paper constitutes an attempt to cover the aforementioned gap by studying the potential causations for maritime accidents in the Yangtze River by using a Bayesian-based network training approach. More than two hundred accidents reported between 2013 and 2019 in the Yangtze River are collected. As a result, a Bayesian network (BN) is successfully established to describe the causations among different risk influencing factors. By analysing the BN, this study reveals that the occurrence of maritime accidents (e.g., collision, grounding) can be expected to reduce with the development of autonomous vessels as the crews are removed. However, the extent of the consequences from some accidents (e.g., fire, critical weathers) could be more serious than conventional ones. Therefore, more attention and thoughts are needed to ensure the safe navigation of autonomous vessels in the Yangtze River
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