Regulatory Noncoding and Predicted Pathogenic Coding Variants of CCR5 Predispose to Severe COVID-19

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) found locus 3p21.31 associated with severe COVID-19. CCR5 resides at the same locus and, given its known biological role in other infection diseases, we investigated if common noncoding and rare coding variants, affecting CCR5, can predispose to severe COVID-19. We combined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that met the suggestive significance level (P ≤ 1 × 10⁻⁵) at the 3p21.31 locus in public GWAS datasets (6406 COVID-19 hospitalized patients and 902,088 controls) with gene expression data from 208 lung tissues, Hi-C, and Chip-seq data. Through whole exome sequencing (WES), we explored rare coding variants in 147 severe COVID-19 patients. We identified three SNPs (rs9845542, rs12639314, and rs35951367) associated with severe COVID-19 whose risk alleles correlated with low CCR5 expression in lung tissues. The rs35951367 resided in a CTFC binding site that interacts with CCR5 gene in lung tissues and was confirmed to be associated with severe COVID-19 in two independent datasets. We also identified a rare coding variant (rs34418657) associated with the risk of developing severe COVID-19. Our results suggest a biological role of CCR5 in the progression of COVID-19 as common and rare genetic variants can increase the risk of developing severe COVID-19 by affecting the functions of CCR5.     

Parallel computer vision on Polymorphic Torus architecture

Polymorphic Torus is a novel interconnection network for SIMD massively parallel computers, able to support effectively both local and global communication. Thanks to this characteristic, Polymorphic Torus is highly suitable for computer vision applications, since vision involves local communication at the low-level stage and global communication at the intermediate- and high-level stages. In this paper we evaluate the performance of Polymorphic Torus in the computer vision domain. We consider a set of basic vision tasks, namely,convolution, histogramming, connected component labeling, Hough transform, extreme point identification, diameter computation, andvisibility, and show how they can take advantage of the Polymorphic Torus communication capabilities. For each basic vision task we propose a Polymorphic Torus parallel algorithm, give its computational complexity, and compare such a complexity with the complexity of the same task inmesh, tree, pyramid, and hypercube interconnection networks. In spite of the fact that Polymorphic Torus has the same wiring complexity as mesh, the comparison shows that in all of the vision tasks under examination it achieves complexity lower than or at most equal to hypercube, which is the most powerful among the interconnection networks considered.     

Nuclear data sensitivity/uncertainty analysis for XT-ADS

The XT-ADS, an accelerator-driven system for an experimental demonstration, has been investigated in the framework of IP EUROTRANS FP6 project. In this study, the sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were performed to comprehend the reliability of the XT-ADS neutronic design.     

Parametric sensitivity and runaway in chemical reactors

In certain regions of operating conditions, chemical reactors may exhibit parametric sensitivity; i.e., small changes in one or more of the reactor input parameters lead to much larger changes in the output variables. Since such behaviour leads to deleterious performance, it is of practical interest to identify regions of parametric sensitivity in the reactor parameter space. Until recently, this could be done only to describe thermal runaway, and only for those systems where a temperature profile could be defined. Both of these limitations can be removed by consideringthe generalized criterion for parametric sensitivity, whereby sensitivity ofany output of the model toany input can be treated. Applications of the generalized criterion are discussed, with specific examples including pseudohomogeneous and heterogeneous model tubular reactors, a nonisothermal CSTR, and a polymerization reactor. Dedicated to Dr L K Doraiswamy — Gentleman, Scholar, Friend — on his sixtieth birthday.     

Paillier''s Trapdoor Function Hides up to O ( n ) Bits

At EuroCrypt '99 Paillier proposed a new encryption scheme based on higher residuosity classes. The new scheme was proven to be one-way under the assumption that computing N -residuosity classes in Z _N2 ^* is hard. Similarly the scheme can be proven to be semantically secure under a much stronger decisional assumption: given w ∈ Z _N2 ^* it is impossible to decide if w is an N -residue or not. In this paper we examine the bit security of Paillier's scheme. We prove that if computing residuosity classes is hard, then given a random w it is impossible to predict the least significant bit of its class significantly better than at random. This immediately yields a way to obtain semantic security without relying on the decisional assumption (at the cost of several invocations of Paillier's original function). In order to improve efficiency we then turn to the problem of simultaneous security of many bits. We prove that Paillier's scheme hides n-b (up to O(n) ) bits if one assumes that computing the class c of a random w remains hard even when we are told that c<2 ^b . We thoroughly examine the security of this stronger version of the intractability of the class problem. An important theoretical implication of our result is the construction of the first trapdoor function that hides super-logarithmically (up to O(n) ) many bits. We generalize our techniques to provide sufficient conditions for a trapdoor function to have this property.     

Liquid-crystallization induced reactions. Microstructure and morphology of copolyesters synthesized by transesterification of PET with some LCP monomers

The transesterification of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with a mixture of sebacic acid (S), 4,4′-diacetoxybiphenyl (B) and 4-acetoxybenzoic acid (H), carried out under conditions expectedly favoring the formation of a p(ET-SBH) random copolyester, produces biphasic materials with an isotropic matrix and a highly fibrous, liquid-crystalline dispersed phase. Spectroscopic, calorimetric, microscopic and diffractometric characterization of the fractions separated by solvent extraction has shown that the two phases consist of practically random copolyesters having different average composition. Interestingly, the degree of aromaticity of the matrix is even lower than that of PET, whereas that of the minor phase is appreciably higher than that calculated for the SBH copolyester that would be produced from the monomer mixture in the absence of PET. This unexpected result is interpreted on the basis of an enthalpy-driven progressive diffusion of aromatic-rich material toward the mesophase which segregates at an early stage of the polycondensation within the isotropic mixture of low molar mass oligomers initially produced by the PET acidolysis. Thus, an increasing differentiation, rather than an equilibration, of the composition of the two phases takes place. It is noteworthy that, despite the strong compositional difference, the two phases of these products show fairly good compatibility and interfacial adhesion.     

A comparison of bibliometric indicators for computer science scholars and journals on Web of Science and Google Scholar

Given the current availability of different bibliometric indicators and of production and citation data sources, the following two questions immediately arise: do the indicators’ scores differ when computed on different data sources? More importantly, do the indicator-based rankings significantly change when computed on different data sources? We provide a case study for computer science scholars and journals evaluated on Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. The study concludes that Google scholar computes significantly higher indicators’ scores than Web of Science. Nevertheless, citation-based rankings of both scholars and journals do not significantly change when compiled on the two data sources, while rankings based on the h index show a moderate degree of variation.     

Pathogenic Mutations Shift the Equilibria of α‐Synuclein Single Molecules towards Structured Conformers

α‐synuclein (α‐Syn) is an abundant brain protein whose mutations have been linked to early‐onset Parkinson's disease (PD). We recently demonstrated, by means of a single‐molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) methodology, that the conformational equilibrium of monomeric wild‐type (WT) α‐Syn shifts toward β‐containing structures in several unrelated conditions linked to PD pathogenicity. Herein, we follow the same methodology previously employed for WT α‐Syn to characterize the conformational heterogeneity of pathological α‐Syn mutants A30P, A53T, and E46K. Contrary to the bulk ensemble‐averaged spectroscopies so far employed to this end by different authors, our single‐molecule methodology monitored marked differences in the conformational behaviors of the mutants with respect to the WT sequence. We found that all the mutants have a much higher propensity than the WT to adopt a monomeric compact conformation that is compatible with the acquiring of β structure. Mutants A30P and A53T show a similar conformational equilibrium that is significantly different from that of E46K. Another class of conformations, stabilized by mechanically weak interactions (MWI), shows a higher variety in the mutants than in the WT protein. In the A30P mutant these interactions are relatively stronger, and therefore the corresponding conformations are possibly more structured. The more structured and globular conformations of the mutants can explain their higher propensity to aggregate with respect to the WT.     

A rapid spectroscopic method to detect the fraudulent treatment of tuna fish with carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) can be used to treat fresh meat and fish in order to retain its ‘fresh’ red colour appearance for a longer period of time. In fact, upon aging, myoglobin is oxidized to met-myoglobin with the concomitant blue-shift and broadening of the Soret maximum, which brings about a change in the colour of the fish, revealing that it is no longer fresh. The use of carbon monoxide, which reacts with the oxy-myoglobin to form a fairly stable cherry red carboxy-myoglobin complex may mask spoilage, because the CO-complex can be stable beyond the microbiological shelf life of the meat. The presence of CO in tuna fish has been investigated by optical spectroscopy as the formation of the CO adduct can be easily detected by the combined analysis of electronic absorption spectra in their normal and second derivative modes, monitoring the intense Soret band at 420 nm. The presence of met- and oxy-myoglobin can obscure the presence of small amounts of the CO adduct; however, it can be revealed by chemically reducing the met- and oxy-forms to the deoxy-form in an anaerobic environment. This spectroscopic method provides a qualitatively rapid laboratory screening procedure for food control to unmask the presence of CO in frozen or fresh fish.