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In this study, four strains of Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) were isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid of aborted fetuses or stillborn piglets collected randomly from a number of piggeries in central China. The E genes were cloned by RT–PCR and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis was performed with 48 JEV isolates previously reported in China and other countries, and showed that all four isolates can be classified into the subcluster of genotype III. The results strongly suggest that the genotype III of JEV is the major variant currently circulating in the swinery of central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated the development of a synthetic peptide-based immunochromatographic strip for differentiation of serotype O foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV)-infected pigs from vaccinated pigs. The study involved the synthesis of five peptides designed from the amino acid sequences of nonstructural proteins (NSP) of FMDV. For the test and control lines, staphylococcal protein A and rabbit against peptide-conjugated olvalbumin antibody immunoglobulin G were blotted on the nitrocellulose membrane.

Recently, the "multiple islands per read head" model has been proposed for patterned media storage systems. In this paper, we investigated the applications of nonbinary low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes to such channels. Different nonbinary LDPC codes are designed for different read head models. We have also investigated the iterative decoding/detection algorithms for such coded systems. Simulation results show that significant performance improvements in terms of the symbol error rate (SER) can be achieved, especially when iterative decoding/detection algorithms are implemented, whereby soft extrinsic messages are exchanged between the belief-propagation-based decoder for the nonbinary LDPC code and the Bahl-Cocke-Jelinek-Raviv (BCJR)-based detector for the patterned media storage channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the infectivity and propagation of two attenuated infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) strains in DT40 cells were investigated. The results showed that both of the tested strains, TAD and HN3, directly infect and proliferate in DT40 cells, requiring no adaptive passages. Unexpectedly, IBDV can be rapidly propagated and continuously harvested at high titers for a long time, accompanied by the rapid growth of host cells and showing no increase in pathogenicity. Our results provide further support to suggest that DT40 cells can be used as an ideal model for studying IBDV pathogenesis. Additionally, the DT40 cell line could also serve as a potential system for commercial IBDV vaccine preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We examine the notion of conditionals and the role of conditionals in inductive logics and arguments. We identify three mistakes commonly made in the study of, or motivation for, non-classical logics. A nonmonotonic consequence relation based on evidential probability is formulated. With respect to this acceptance relation some rules of inference of System P are unsound, and we propose refinements that hold in our framework. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Classical statistical inference is nonmonotonic: obtaining more evidence or obtaining more knowledge about the evidence one has can lead to the replacement of one statistical conclusion by another, or the complete withdrawal of the original conclusion. While it has long been argued that not all nonmonotonic inference can be accounted for in terms of relative frequencies or objective probabilities, there is no doubt that much nonmonotonic inference can be accounted for in this way. Here we seek to explore the close connection between classical statistical inference and default logic, treating statistical inference within the framework of default logic, and showing that nonmonotonic logic in general, and default logic in particular, needs to take account of certain features of statistical inference. Default logic must take account of statistics, but at the same time statistics can throw light on problematic cases of default inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is estimated that at least one million people die by suicide every year, showing the importance of suicide prevention and detection. In this study, an autoencoder and machine learning model was employed to predict people with suicidal ideation based on their structural brain imaging. The subjects in our generalized q-sampling imaging (GQI) dataset consisted of three groups: 41 depressive patients with suicidal ideation (SI), 54 depressive patients without suicidal thoughts (NS), and 58 healthy controls (HC). In the GQI dataset, indices of generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA), isotropic values of the orientation distribution function (ISO), and normalized quantitative anisotropy (NQA) were separately trained in different machine learning models. A convolutional neural network (CNN)-based autoencoder model, the supervised machine learning algorithm extreme gradient boosting (XGB), and logistic regression (LR) were used to discriminate SI subjects from NS and HC subjects. After five-fold cross validation, separate data were tested to obtain the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of each result. Our results showed that the best pattern of structure across multiple brain locations can classify suicidal ideates from NS and HC with a prediction accuracy of 85%, a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity of 75%. The algorithms developed here might provide an objective tool to help identify suicidal ideation risk among depressed patients alongside clinical assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles which have been published in the August 2004 edition of "International Journal of Intelligent Systems."

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs with profound regulatory roles in many areas of biology, including cancer. MicroRNA 155 (miR-155), one of the extensively studied multifunctional miRNAs, is important in several human malignancies such as diffuse large B cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Moreover, miR-155 orthologs KSHV-miR-K12-11 and MDV-miR-M4, encoded by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Marek's disease virus (MDV) respectively, are also involved in oncogenesis. In MDV-induced T-cell lymphomas and lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from them, MDV-miR-M4 is highly expressed. Using excellent disease models of infection in natural avian hosts, we showed previously that MDV-miR-M4 is critical for the induction of T-cell lymphomas as mutant viruses with precise deletions were significantly compromised in their oncogenicity. However, these studies did not elucidate whether continued expression of MDV-miR-M4 is essential for maintaining the transformed phenotype of tumor cells. Here using an in situ CRISPR/Cas9 editing approach, we deleted MDV-miR-M4 from the MDV-induced lymphoma-derived lymphoblastoid cell line MDCC-HP8. Precise deletion of MDV-miR M4 was confirmed by PCR, sequencing, quantitative RT-PCR and functional analysis. Continued proliferation of the MDV-miR-M4-deleted cell lines demonstrated that MDV miR-M4 expression is non-essential for maintaining the transformed phenotype, despite its initial critical role in the induction of lymphomas. Ability to examine the direct role of oncogenic miRNAs in situ in tumour cell lines is valuable in delineating distinct determinants and pathways associated with the induction or maintenance of transformation in cancer cells and will also contribute significantly to gain further insights into the biology of oncogenic herpesviruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To discuss the long-term postoperative results of bilateral lateral rectus recession (BLR) and unilateral lateral rectus recession-medial rectus resection (RR) in therapy of intermittent exotropia., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 213 cases of intermittent exotropia who underwent surgery between 2008 and 2010. The patients were grouped into BLR group and RR group. Motor outcomes were divided into three groups on the basis of the angle of deviation after surgery: overcorrection (esotropia/phoria >5(Δ)), orthophoria (esotropia/phoria ≤5(Δ) to exotropia/phoria ≤10(Δ)), and undercorrection/recurrence (exotropia/phoria >10(Δ)). Titmus test was used to evaluate stereoacuity, the stereoacuity <800s of arc meaned the patients had stereopsis. Surgical outcome including motor criteria and sensory status were compared at postoperative 6, 12, 24mo and at 36mo examination between groups., Results: At 12, 24mo after surgery, the motor outcomes had no difference (P>0.05) between groups. However, the motor outcomes at 6, 36mo were signally different in each group, indicating the success rate in RR group at 6mo was higher than that in BLR group (83.02% vs 82.24%, P<0.05) but the result was contrary at the 3y examination (60.75% vs 43.40%, P<0.05). No statistical significance were found in the sensory outcomes between the groups at mean of 3.7y follow-up., Conclusion: The motor outcomes in RR group were better than in BLR group at 6mo after surgery, while the 3y outcomes were better in BLR group. This may be due to the recurrence rate of the BLR was lower than the RR group's.

Objective: To analyze the surveillance data on hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) including the epidemiological characteristics and trend of the disease, in 2010., Methods: Descriptive methods were conducted to analyze the surveillance data in 2010 which were collected from the internet-based National Notifiable Disease Reporting System and 40 HFRS sentinels in China., Results: There were 9526 cases of HFRS reported in 2010 in the country with an annual morbidity of 0.71/10(5), which was higher than that reported in 2009. And the case fatality rate in 2010 was 1.24%. During the year 2010, most cases were reported in spring and autumn-winter season, with November as the peak month. The proportion of cases reported in autumn-winter season was higher than that in spring. The number of cases reported in males was higher than that in females among all the age groups, and similar pattern of mortality could be seen in most of the age groups. The percentage of cases over 60 years old had increased in recent years. Farmers were still under the highest risk. Density and the virus-carrying rate of animal hosts, as well as the infection rate were relatively stable and similar to the previous findings. As to the prevailing species, Apodemus agrarius and Rattus norvegicus were still the most common and leading animal hosts. However, the dominant species in sentinel of Yunnan were Rattus flavipectus and Eothenomys miletus respectively, and a new hantavirus called LUXV was found, namely Eothenomys miletus., Conclusion: HFRS cases were widely distributed in most provinces of China, but cases mainly focus on certain areas and present the nature of aggregation. The risk of outbreak could not be ruled out for variety of factors. Population characteristics and seasonal fluctuation had been changing.