AIMS A new diagnostic strategy to improve the detection of pathogens in heart valves (HVs) from patients with infective endocarditis (IE) was evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS Three hundred and fifty seven HVs surgically removed from 326 patients with proven IE or suspicious intra-operative findings, examined by 16S rDNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and culture were retrospectively analysed a...

A new human herpesvirus was recently identified in all forms of Kaposi's sarcoma (Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus [KSHV] or human herpesvirus 8), as well as in primary effusion (body cavity-based) lymphomas (PELs). A 12.3-kb-long KSHV clone was obtained from a PEL genomic library. Sequencing of this clone revealed extensive homology and colinearity with the right end of the herpesvirus ...

Hyperviscosity syndrome (HVS) is a rare manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis with few reported cases. Although plasmapheresis is effective as the first line treatment in life threatening manifestations such as pulmonary hypertension, stroke, retinal hemorrhages and congestive heart failure, data on effective maintenance immunosuppressive therapy is lacking. HVS is characterized by abnormal imm...

This paper discusses semantic processing using the Hidden Vector State (HVS) model. The HVS model extends the basic discrete Markov model by encoding context in each state as a vector. State transitions are then factored into a stack shift operation similar to those of a push-down automaton followed by a push of a new preterminal semantic category label. The key feature of the model is that it ...

Owl monkey peripheral blood mononuclear cells were treated with phytohemagglutinin and expanded in interleukin 2 (IL-2)-containing medium. The cells were then exposed to Herpesvirus saimiri (HVS strain S295C)-infected owl monkey kidney monolayer cells. Four to 6 weeks later, the lymphocytes showed increased clumping and cell growth and the ability to grow in the absence of IL-2. Control lymphoc...

Spoken dialogue system has an uncertain parameter during the speech recognition which controls its performance that vary for the different users as well as for the same user during multiple repetitions of even the same dialogue. This paper discusses how recognition errors in the users utterances can be handled by making use of semi-supervised learning techniques over the hidden vector state (HV...

Polyclonal hyperviscosity syndrome (HVS) is rare and has been reported in various disorders of immune dysregulation and lymphoid hyperplasia. IgG4-Related Disease (IgG4-RD) is an emerging disorder often associated with exuberant hypergammaglobulinemia, and this review of seven cases establishes IgG4-RD as an important cause of polyclonal HVS.