Vaccinia virus (VV), currently used in humans as a live vaccine for smallpox, can interfere with host immunity via several discrete mechanisms. In this study, the effect of VV on MHC class II-mediated Ag presentation was investigated. Following VV infection, the ability of professional and nonprofessional APC to present Ag and peptides to CD4+ T cells was impaired. Viral inhibition of class II ...

This paper presents a VV&A solution to effectively address VV&A problems arising during the development of complex simulation systems. First, a VV&A process is presented along with the development of a computer support tool, HITVICE, which helps to organize and manage the different VV&A activities. Second, the optimal design method for VV&A schemes is presented to produce an optimal scheme, acc...

We develop techniques to investigate relativized hierarchical unambiguous computation. We apply our techniques to generalize known constructs involving relativized unambiguity based complexity classes (UP and Promise-UP) to new constructs involving arbitrary higher levels of the relativized unambiguous polynomial hierarchy (UPH). Our techniques are developed on constraints imposed by hierarchic...

Genetic modifications of the oncolytic vaccinia virus (VV) improve selective tumor cell infection and death, as well as activation of antitumor immunity. We have engineered a double recombinant VV, coding human GM-CSF, and apoptosis-inducing protein apoptin (VV-GMCSF-Apo) for comparing with the earlier constructed double recombinant VV-GMCSF-Lact, coding another apoptosis-inducing protein, lact...

Racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease are well established; however, there is limited information about survival differences following veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) in contemporary adult populations. The purpose of this study was to assess survival at discharge, 30 days, and at 1 year following institution of VV-ECMO in an ethnically diverse populat...

Patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease According to the Codon 129 Genotype We read with great interest the article by Tschampa et al analyzing the patterns of lesions, mostly on cortical areas, in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Although this study confirmed the high sensitivity of diffusion imaging, the authors did not find any differences between the 3 subtypes (MM, MV, VV) of...

We analyze and compute the semiclassical stress-energy flux components, outflux ${?{T}_{uu}?}_{\mathrm{ren}}$ influx ${?{T}_{vv}?}_{\mathrm{ren}}$ ($u$ $v$ being standard null Eddington coordinates), at inner horizon (IH) of a Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole (BH) mass $M$ charge $Q$, in near-extremal domain which $Q/M$ approaches 1. consider minimally-coupled massless quantum scalar field, both...

The type of cytokines produced during T cell responses determines susceptibility or resistance to many pathogens and influences the development of autoimmunity and allergy. To define the role of individual accessory molecules in cytokine production during primary immune responses, Drosophila cell lines expressing murine major histocompatibility complex class II molecules with defined combinatio...

BACKGROUND The visual vertical (VV) consists of repeated adjustments of a luminous rod to the earth vertical. How many trials are required to reach consistency in this measure? This question has never been addressed despite the widespread clinical use of the measurement in stroke rehabilitation. METHODS VV perception was assessed (10 trials) in 117 patients undergoing rehabilitation after a f...

Live-virus vaccines for smallpox are effective but have risks that are no longer acceptable for routine use in populations at minimal risk of infection. We have developed a mucosal, killed-vaccinia virus (VV) vaccine based on antimicrobial nanoemulsion (NE) of soybean oil and detergent. Incubation of VV with 10% NE for at least 60 min causes the complete disruption and inactivation of VV. Simpl...