Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Melatonin decreases brain apoptosis, oxidative stress, and CD200 expression and increased survival rate in mice infected by Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

Background Pro-inflammatory and oxidative events during brain Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus infection could lead to apoptosis and induce anti-inflammatory responses (increased expression of CD200). The aim of this study was to determine the effect of melatonin on brain apoptosis, oxidative stress, and CD200 molecule in mice and neuroblastoma cultures infected by Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus. Methods Mice were infected with 10 median lethal doses (LD50) of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, treated with melatonin (500 µg/kg bw; three days before infection and during all experimental time) and sacrificed on days 1, 3, and 5 postinfection. Brain samples were obtained at those periods of time. In addition, infected neuroblastoma cell cultures (multiplicity of infection [MOI]: 1) were treated with 0, 0.1, 0.5, and 1 mM of melatonin and analyzed at 2, 4, and 6 h. CD200 and apoptosis expressions were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and TUNEL assay, respectively. Nitrites and malondialdehyde were determined by appropriate biochemical methods. Results Increased brain expression of apoptosis, nitrite, and malondialdehyde productions and CD200 of infected mice were found. Melatonin diminished those expressions. Similarly, high apoptosis expression and nitrite and malondialdehyde productions on infected neuroblastoma cultures were diminished by melatonin. Melatonin increased the survival rate (25%) in Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus-infected animals compared with untreated infected mice (0%). Conclusions Neurological damage during brain Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus infection could be mediated by apoptosis and oxidative stress and CD200 molecule could be an important anti-inflammatory response. Melatonin could be beneficial reducing apoptosis and oxidative stress.
Performance Analysis of Orthogonal Space-Time Block Code With Minimum-Selection Generalized Selection Combining Receiver Over Rayleigh Fading

An orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) with a minimum-selection generalized selection combining (MS-GSC) receiver is proposed and analyzed. The motivation behind the proposition of this scheme is a reduction in complexity and processing power at the receiver, compared with a conventional OSTBC system utilizing the maximum-ratio-combining receiver. In addition, it was shown that the OSTBC/MS-GSC can achieve similar performance, compared with the OSTBC/GSC with reduced processing when the predetermined threshold is optimized. In the analysis of this OSTBC/MS-GSC system over a Rayleigh-fading channel, the moment-generating function is presented, where it can be conveniently used to numerically compute the symbol error rate (SER). The average number of branches that is being selected for processing at the receiver is computed and compared. The analytical results are validated by the simulation results.
A strategic decision value model for cloud computing in Saudi Arabia's public sector

Cloud computing is rapidly becoming the platform used by government agencies for delivering their services. However, for various reasons, cloud computing is still not widely adopted in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this paper seeks to propose a cloud decision value model for public organizations in Saudi Arabia. This model will attempt to factor in public organizations' business attributes, financial attributes, and technical attributes to provide a balanced view. The proposed model will support decision-makers in determining whether to invest in cloud computing or to continue with in-house capabilities.
Converge-and-Diverge: A Geographic Routing for Delay/Disruption-Tolerant Networks Using a Delegation Replication Approach

Routing in delay/disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs) is without the assumption of contemporaneous end-to-end connectivity to relay messages. Geographic routing is an alternative approach using real-time geographic information instead of network topology information. However, if considering the mobility of destination, its real-time geographic information is often unavailable due to sparse network density in DTNs. Using historical geographic information to overcome this problem, we propose the converge-and-diverge (CaD) by combining two routing phases that depend on the proximity to the movement range estimated for destination. The key insight is to promote message replication converging to the edge of this range and diverging to the entire area of this range to achieve fast delivery, given limited message lifetime. Furthermore, the concept of delegation replication (DR) is explored to overcome the limitation of routing decisions and the local maximum problem. Evaluation results under the Helsinki city scenario show an improvement of CaD in terms of delivery ratio, average delivery latency, and overhead ratio. Since geographic routing in DTNs has not received much attention, apart from the design of CaD, our novelty also focuses on exploring DR to overcome the limitation of routing decision and the local maximum problem, in addition to enhancing efficiency, as DR originally intended.
MxB Is Not Responsible for the Blocking of HIV-1 Infection Observed in Alpha Interferon-Treated Cells

ABSTRACT MxB restricts HIV-1 infection by directly interacting with the HIV-1 core, which is made of viral capsid; however, the contribution of MxB to the HIV-1 restriction observed in alpha interferon (IFN-α)-treated human cells is unknown. To understand this contribution, we used HIV-1 bearing the G208R capsid mutant (HIV-1-G208R), which overcomes the restriction imposed by cells expressing MxB. Here we showed that the reason why MxB does not block HIV-1-G208R is that MxB does not interact with HIV-1 cores bearing the mutation G208R. To understand whether MxB contributes to the HIV-1 restriction imposed by IFN-α-treated human cells, we challenged IFN-α-treated cells with HIV-G208R and found that MxB does not contribute to the restriction imposed by IFN-α-treated cells. To more directly test the contribution of MxB, we challenged IFN-α-treated human cells that are knocked out for the expression of MxB with HIV-1. These experiments suggested that MxB does not contribute to the HIV-1 restriction observed in IFN-α-treated human cells. IMPORTANCE MxB is a restriction factor that blocks HIV-1 infection in human cells. Although it has been postulated that MxB is the factor that blocks HIV-1 infection in IFN-α-treated cells, this is a hard concept to grasp due to the great number of genes that are induced by IFN-α in cells from the immune system. The work presented here elegantly demonstrates that MxB has minimal or no contribution to the ability of IFN-α-treated human cells to block HIV-1 infection. Furthermore, this work suggests the presence of novel restriction factors in IFN-α-treated human cells that block HIV-1 infection.
Cognitive Relay Networks: Opportunistic or Uncoded Decode-and-Forward Relaying?

This paper analyzes the outage performance of cognitive relay networks operating in the same frequency band of a primary transceiver. Different from previous works, opportunistic decode-and-forward (ODF) and uncoded decode-and-forward (UDF) relaying schemes are considered, in which the relay makes either a hard decision on whether or not to transmit or generates soft information of the received signal by using the maximum-likelihood (ML) detection. To facilitate the coexistence between the cognitive user (CU) and the primary user (PU), the transmit power of both the source and the relay should be optimized to minimize the outage probability of the CU, while satisfying both the outage probability constraint on the PU and their transmit power constraints. The resulting optimization problem for the ODF scheme is generally nonconvex, but the suboptimal solution can be obtained when the decoding rate threshold of the relay is sufficiently small. Whereas for the UDF scheme, the suboptimal solution is obtained by minimizing the upper bound of its outage probability. For comparison, traditional DF relaying with optimal power allocation and direct transmission are also investigated. Simulation results confirm the tightness of suboptimal solutions and the negligible performance gap for both the ODF and the UDF schemes, and demonstrate the performance improvement provided by both schemes, particularly when the relay is far from the primary receiver.
Outer Membrane Protein OmpW Is the Receptor for Typing Phage VP5 in the Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor Biotype

ABSTRACT Phage typing is used for the subtyping of clones of epidemic bacteria. In this study, we identified the outer membrane protein OmpW as the receptor for phage VP5, one of the typing phages for the Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor biotype. A characteristic 11-bp deletion in ompW was observed in all epidemic strains resistant to VP5, suggesting that this mutation event can be used as a tracing marker in cholera surveillance.
Real-Time Optimization for Power Management Systems of a Battery/Supercapacitor Hybrid Energy Storage System in Electric Vehicles

Batteries mounted on electric vehicles (EVs) are often damaged by high peak power and rapid charging/discharging cycles, which are originated from repetitive acceleration/deceleration of vehicles particularly in urban situations. To reduce battery damage, the battery/supercapacitor (SC) hybrid energy storage system (HESS) has been considered as a solution because the SC can act as a buffer against large magnitudes and rapid fluctuations in power. While the traditional purpose of employing the HESS in EVs is to minimize the magnitude/variation of battery power or power loss, the previous approaches proposed for controlling the HESS have some drawbacks; they neither consider these objectives simultaneously nor reflect real-time load dynamics for computing the SC reference voltage. In this paper, we present a power control framework consisting of two stages: one for computing the SC reference voltage and another for optimizing the power flowing through the HESS. In the presented framework, we propose a methodology for calculating the SC reference voltage considering the real-time load dynamics without given future operation profiles. In addition, we formulate the HESS power control problem as a convex optimization problem that minimizes the magnitude/fluctuation of battery power and power loss at the same time. The optimization problem is formulated so that it can be repeatedly solved by general solvers in polynomial time. Simulation results carried out on MATLAB show that the magnitude/variation of battery power and power loss can be concurrently reduced in real time by the proposed framework.
Star-QAM Signaling Constellations for Spatial Modulation

The performance of spatial modulation (SM)-assisted multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems is highly dependent on the specific amplitude/phase modulation (APM) signal constellation adopted. In this paper, we conceive new star-quadrature amplitude modulation (star-QAM)-aided SM schemes. Our goal is to minimize the system's average bit error probability (ABEP). More specifically, a new class of star-QAM constellations is introduced for SM, which is capable of flexibly adapting ring ratios of the amplitude levels. Then, under a specific MIMO configuration and a predetermined transmission rate, a simple and efficient ring-ratio optimization algorithm is proposed to minimize the ABEP. Moreover, to improve further the performance of our star-QAM-aided SM scheme, a diagonal precoding technique is proposed, and a low-complexity minimum-distance-based approach is conceived for extracting the precoding parameters. Our numerical results show that the proposed star-QAM-aided SM arrangement provides beneficial system performance improvements compared with the identical-throughput maximum-minimum distance (MMD) QAM and phase-shift keying (PSK) benchmarkers. Moreover, our precoding scheme is capable of further improving the attainable system performance at a modest feedback requirement.
A two-factor mobile authentication scheme for secure financial transactions

Many authentication schemes are based on parties possessing cryptographic keys often held on smart cards or other tamper-proof devices. Modern portable devices (e.g. PDAs, Smartphones) are enriched with advanced functionalities and thus could soon become both the preferred portable computing device (thereby substituting laptop computers) and a personal trusted device. This paper presents a novel two-factor authentication scheme whereby a Bluetooth-enabled handheld device is used to enforce basic password-based authentication thus improving convenience and usability. The main building block is a simple and efficient two-party authentication protocol based on a shared string (including the case of low entropy human memorable passwords) and on well known cryptographic primitives. The discussion relates to the banking sector but our scheme is readily adaptable to other more general contexts.
Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Potentiate Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Oncolysis in Prostate Cancer Cells by Modulating NF-κB-Dependent Autophagy

ABSTRACT Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is an oncolytic virus that induces cancer cell death through activation of the apoptotic pathway. Intrinsic resistance to oncolysis is found in some cell lines and many primary tumors as a consequence of residual innate immunity to VSV. In resistant-tumor models, VSV oncolytic potential can be reversibly stimulated by combination with epigenetic modulators, such as the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat. Based on this reversible effect of vorinostat, we reasoned that critical host genes involved in oncolysis may likewise be reversibly regulated by vorinostat. A transcriptome analysis in prostate cancer PC3 cells identified a subset of NF-κB target genes reversibly regulated by vorinostat, as well as a group of interferon (IFN)-stimulated genes (ISGs). Consistent with the induction of NF-κB target genes, vorinostat-mediated enhancement of VSV oncolysis increased hyperacetylation of NF-κB RELA/p65. Additional bioinformatics analysis revealed that NF-κB signaling also increased the expression of several autophagy-related genes. Kinetically, autophagy preceded apoptosis, and apoptosis was observed only when cells were treated with both VSV and vorinostat. VSV replication and cell killing were suppressed when NF-κB signaling was inhibited using pharmacological or genetic approaches. Inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine (3-MA) enhanced expression of ISGs, and either 3-MA treatment or genetic ablation of the autophagic marker Atg5 decreased VSV replication and oncolysis. Together, these data demonstrate that vorinostat stimulates NF-κB activity in a reversible manner via modulation of RELA/p65 signaling, leading to induction of autophagy, suppression of the IFN-mediated response, and subsequent enhancement of VSV replication and apoptosis.
Phenotypic and Functional Characterization of Herpes Simplex Virus Glycoprotein B Epitope-Specific Effector and Memory CD8+ T Cells from Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Individuals with Ocular Herpes

ABSTRACT Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein B (gB)-specific CD8+ T cells protect mice from herpes infection and disease. However, whether and which HSV-1 gB-specific CD8+ T cells play a key role in the “natural” protection seen in HSV-1-seropositive healthy asymptomatic (ASYMP) individuals (who have never had clinical herpes disease) remain to be determined. In this study, we have dissected the phenotypes and the functions of HSV-1 gB-specific CD8+ T cells from HLA-A*02:01 positive, HSV-1 seropositive ASYMP and symptomatic (SYMP) individuals (with a history of numerous episodes of recurrent ocular herpes disease). We found the following. (i) Healthy ASYMP individuals maintained a significantly higher proportion of differentiated HSV-1 gB-specific effector memory CD8+ T cells (TEM cells) (CD45RAlow CCR7low CD44high CD62Llow). In contrast, SYMP patients had frequent less-differentiated central memory CD8+ T cells (TCM cells) (CD45RAlow CCR7high CD44low CD62Lhigh). (ii) ASYMP individuals had significantly higher proportions of multifunctional effector CD8+ T cells which responded mainly to gB342–350 and gB561–569 “ASYMP” epitopes, and simultaneously produced IFN-γ, CD107a/b, granzyme B, and perforin. In contrast, effector CD8+ T cells from SYMP individuals were mostly monofunctional and were directed mainly against nonoverlapping gB17–25 and gB183–191 “SYMP” epitopes. (iii) Immunization of an HLA-A*02:01 transgenic mouse model of ocular herpes with “ASYMP” CD8+ TEM cell epitopes, but not with “SYMP” CD8+ TCM cell epitopes, induced a strong CD8+ T cell-dependent protective immunity against ocular herpes infection and disease. Our findings provide insights into the role of HSV-specific CD8+ TEM cells in protection against herpes and should be considered in the development of an effective vaccine. IMPORTANCE A significantly higher proportion of differentiated and multifunctional HSV-1 gB-specific effector memory CD8+ T cells (TEM cells) (CD45RAlow CCR7low CD44high CD62Llow) were found in healthy ASYMP individuals who are seropositive for HSV-1 but never had any recurrent herpetic disease, while there were frequent less-differentiated and monofunctional central memory CD8+ T cells (TCM cells) (CD45RAlow CCR7high CD44low CD62Lhigh) in SYMP patients. Immunization with “ASYMP” CD8+ TEM cell epitopes, but not with “SYMP” CD8+ TCM cell epitopes, induced a strong protective HSV-specific CD8+ T cell response in HLA-A*02:01 transgenic mice. These findings are important for the development of a safe and effective T cell-based herpes vaccine.
Structure and Receptor Binding Preferences of Recombinant Hemagglutinins from Avian and Human H6 and H10 Influenza A Virus Subtypes

ABSTRACT During 2013, three new avian influenza A virus subtypes, A(H7N9), A(H6N1), and A(H10N8), resulted in human infections. While the A(H7N9) virus resulted in a significant epidemic in China across 19 provinces and municipalities, both A(H6N1) and A(H10N8) viruses resulted in only a few human infections. This study focuses on the major surface glycoprotein hemagglutinins from both of these novel human viruses. The detailed structural and glycan microarray analyses presented here highlight the idea that both A(H6N1) and A(H10N8) virus hemagglutinins retain a strong avian receptor binding preference and thus currently pose a low risk for sustained human infections. IMPORTANCE Human infections with zoonotic influenza virus subtypes continue to be a great public health concern. We report detailed structural analysis and glycan microarray data for recombinant hemagglutinins from A(H6N1) and A(H10N8) viruses, isolated from human infections in 2013, and compare them with hemagglutinins of avian origin. This is the first structural report of an H6 hemagglutinin, and our results should further the understanding of these viruses and provide useful information to aid in the continuous surveillance of these zoonotic influenza viruses.
Combined Adenovirus Vector and Hepatitis C Virus Envelope Protein Prime-Boost Regimen Elicits T Cell and Neutralizing Antibody Immune Responses

ABSTRACT Despite the recent progress in the development of new antiviral agents, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a major global health problem, and there is a need for a preventive vaccine. We previously reported that adenoviral vectors expressing HCV nonstructural proteins elicit protective T cell responses in chimpanzees and were immunogenic in healthy volunteers. Furthermore, recombinant HCV E1E2 protein formulated with adjuvant MF59 induced protective antibody responses in chimpanzees and was immunogenic in humans. To develop an HCV vaccine capable of inducing both T cell and antibody responses, we constructed adenoviral vectors expressing full-length and truncated E1E2 envelope glycoproteins from HCV genotype 1b. Heterologous prime-boost immunization regimens with adenovirus and recombinant E1E2 glycoprotein (genotype 1a) plus MF59 were evaluated in mice and guinea pigs. Adenovirus prime and protein boost induced broad HCV-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses and functional Th1-type IgG responses. Immune sera neutralized luciferase reporter pseudoparticles expressing HCV envelope glycoproteins (HCVpp) and a diverse panel of recombinant cell culture-derived HCV (HCVcc) strains and limited cell-to-cell HCV transmission. This study demonstrated that combining adenovirus vector with protein antigen can induce strong antibody and T cell responses that surpass immune responses achieved by either vaccine alone. IMPORTANCE HCV infection is a major health problem. Despite the availability of new directly acting antiviral agents for treating chronic infection, an affordable preventive vaccine provides the best long-term goal for controlling the global epidemic. This report describes a new anti-HCV vaccine targeting the envelope viral proteins based on adenovirus vector and protein in adjuvant. Rodents primed with the adenovirus vaccine and boosted with the adjuvanted protein developed cross-neutralizing antibodies and potent T cell responses that surpassed immune responses achieved with either vaccine component alone. If combined with the adenovirus vaccine targeting the HCV NS antigens now under clinical testing, this new vaccine might lead to a stronger and broader immune response and to a more effective vaccine to prevent HCV infection. Importantly, the described approach represents a valuable strategy for other infectious diseases in which both T and B cell responses are essential for protection.
Systematic review of treatments for Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis using the SCORTEN score as a tool for evaluating mortality

Epidermal necrolysis, whether involving limited, that is, Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS), or large, that is, toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), areas of the skin surface, is associated with high mortality. A specific prognosis score (SCORTEN) accurately predicts mortality. Management of SJS and TEN mainly relies on supportive care but several treatments have been proposed, particularly corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG), to block the progression of the disease. The aim of this study was a pooled analysis of published series addressing the question of treatment efficacy by comparing the mortality observed to the mortality predicted by the SCORTEN score. A literature search was carried out through PubMed from January 2001 to December 2009. It found 47 original series including at least 10 patients. Among these, 13 containing a clear description of treatment(s) and an evaluation of SCORTEN score were analyzed allowing the calculation of a mortality ratio (MR) for each series and a pooled MR with 95% confidence interval (CI) for each treatment. The analyzed series comprised a total of 439 patients. Supportive care was used only in 199 patients with a pooled MR of 0.89 (CI 0.67–1.16, p = 0.43), corticosteroids were administered to 78 patients with a pooled MR of 0.92 (CI 0.53–1.48, p = 0.84), and IVIG in 162 with a pooled MR of 0.82 (CI 0.58–1.12, p = 0.23). In conclusion, even though this analysis had some limitations, it strongly suggested that neither corticosteroids nor IVIG provide any important reduction in the risk of dying from SJS and TEN.