The SARS-CoV-2 Delta-Omicron Recombinant Lineage (XD) Exhibits Immune-Escape Properties Similar to the Omicron (BA.1) Variant

Recently, a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 lineage, XD, emerged that harbors a spike gene that is largely derived from the Omicron variant BA.1 in the genetic background of the Delta variant. This finding raised concerns that the recombinant virus might exhibit altered biological properties as compared to the parental viruses and might pose an elevated threat to human health. Here, using pseudotyped particles, we show that ACE2 binding and cell tropism of XD mimics that of BA.1. Further, XD and BA.1 displayed comparable sensitivity to neutralization by antibodies induced upon vaccination with BNT162b2/Comirnaty (BNT) or BNT vaccination followed by breakthrough infection. Our findings reveal important biological commonalities between XD and Omicron BA.1 host cell entry and its inhibition by antibodies.     

Sustained Increase in Serum Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein after First ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Acute ischemic cardiac injury predisposes one to cognitive impairment, dementia, and depression. Pathophysiologically, recent positron emission tomography data suggest astroglial activation after experimental myocardial infarction (MI). We analyzed peripheral surrogate markers of glial (and neuronal) damage serially within 12 months after the first ST-elevation MI (STEMI). Serum levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) were quantified using ultra-sensitive molecular immunoassays. Sufficient biomaterial was available from 45 STEMI patients (aged 28 to 78 years, median 56 years, 11% female). The median (quartiles) of GFAP was 63.8 (47.0, 89.9) pg/mL and of NfL 10.6 (7.2, 14.8) pg/mL at study entry 0–4 days after STEMI. GFAP after STEMI increased in the first 3 months, with a median change of +7.8 (0.4, 19.4) pg/mL (p = 0.007). It remained elevated without further relevant increases after 6 months (+11.7 (0.6, 23.5) pg/mL; p = 0.015), and 12 months (+10.3 (1.5, 22.7) pg/mL; p = 0.010) compared to the baseline. Larger relative infarction size was associated with a higher increase in GFAP (ρ = 0.41; p = 0.009). In contrast, NfL remained unaltered in the course of one year. Our findings support the idea of central nervous system involvement after MI, with GFAP as a potential peripheral biomarker of chronic glial damage as one pathophysiologic pathway.     

On error-correcting fingerprinting codes for use with watermarking

Digital fingerprinting has been suggested for copyright protection. Using a watermarking scheme, a fingerprint identifying the buyer is embedded in every copy sold. If an illegal copy appears, it can be traced back to the guilty user. By using collusion-secure codes, the fingerprinting system is made secure against cut-and-paste attacks. In this paper we study the interface between the collusion-secure fingerprinting codes and the underlying watermarking scheme, and we construct several codes which are both error-correcting and collusion-secure. Error-correction makes the system robust against successful attacks on the watermarking layer.     

Automatic image annotation using visual content and folksonomies

Automatic image annotation is an important and challenging task, and becomes increasingly necessary when managing large image collections. This paper describes techniques for automatic image annotation that take advantage of collaboratively annotated image databases, so called visual folksonomies. Our approach applies two techniques based on image analysis: First, classification annotates images with a controlled vocabulary and second tag propagation along visually similar images. The latter propagates user generated, folksonomic annotations and is therefore capable of dealing with an unlimited vocabulary. Experiments with a pool of Flickr images demonstrate the high accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methods in the task of automatic image annotation. Both techniques were applied in the prototypical tag recommender “tagr”.     

Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Cannabigerol in Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial Fibroblasts and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Cultures Are Partly Mediated by TRPA1

Since its medical legalization, cannabis preparations containing the major phytocannabinoids (cannabidiol (CBD) and δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)) have been used by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to alleviate pain and inflammation. However, minor cannabinoids such as cannabigerol (CBG) also demonstrated anti-inflammatory properties, but due to the lack of studies, they are not widely used. CBG binds several cellular target proteins such as cannabinoid and α2-adrenergic receptors, but it also ligates several members of the transient potential receptor (TRP) family with TRPA1 being the main target. TRPA1 is not only involved in nnociception, but it also protects cells from apoptosis under oxidative stress conditions. Therefore, modulation of TRPA1 signaling by CBG might be used to modulate disease activity in RA as this autoimmune disease is accompanied by oxidative stress and subsequent activation of pro-inflammatory pathways. Rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts (RASF) were stimulated or not with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) for 72 h to induce TRPA1 protein. CBG increased intracellular calcium levels in TNF-stimulated RASF but not unstimulated RASF in a TRPA1-dependent manner. In addition, PoPo3 uptake, a surrogate marker for drug uptake, was enhanced by CBG. RASF cell viability, IL-6 and IL-8 production were decreased by CBG. In peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures (PBMC) alone or together with RASF, CBG-modulated interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, TNF and immunoglobulin M and G production which was dependent on activation stimulus (T cell-dependent or independent). However, effects on PBMCs were only partially mediated by TRPA1 as the antagonist A967079 did inhibit some but not all effects of CBG on cytokine production. In contrast, TRPA1 antagonism even enhanced the inhibitory effects of CBG on immunoglobulin production. CBG showed broad anti-inflammatory effects in isolated RASF, PBMC and PBMC/RASF co-cultures. As CBG is non-psychotropic, it might be used as add-on therapy in RA to reduce IL-6 and autoantibody levels.     

Consumption of fish from a contaminated lake strongly affects the concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers and hexabromocyclododecane in serum

Very high concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) have been reported in fish from Lake Mj?sa in Norway. This study was performed to examine the serum concentrations of PBDE and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) in consumers of fish from this lake and to investigate possible relationships between serum concentrations, self-reported fish intake and calculated total dietary PBDE exposure. Serum concentrations of the sum of the seven PBDE (BDE-28, 47, 99, 100, 153, 154 and 183) were significantly higher than those of a reference group of Norwegians eating only food with background levels of contamination (medians: 18 ng/g lipids men, 8.4 ng/g lipids women). The median dietary intake of Sum 7 PBDE was 2549 ng/day (30 ng/kg body weight/day), the highest dietary intake of PBDE reported. The contribution from fish caught from the contaminated lake comprised 98.7% of the total dietary exposure. For men, serum levels of PBDE were strongly correlated with the calculated dietary exposure, except for BDE-209. This suggests that sources other than the diet are important for human BDE-209 exposure. The median serum HBCD concentration was 4.1 and 2.6 ng/g lipids for men and women, respectively, and was also found to be associated with consumption of fish from Lake Mj?sa.     

Berechnungen beim Gebrauch von statischen Sekundärelektronenvervielfachern

Zusammenfassung Die Berechnung der Vervielfachungseigenschaften eines Elektronenvervielfachers gestaltet sich besonders einfach, wenn als charakterisierende Kurve die Vervielfacherkennlinie logV als Funktion vonU gewählt wird. Bei der Bestimmung der nötigen Stufenzahl zur Erreichung einer gewünschten Vervielfachung kann mit Vorteil die Stufenkennlinie logv als Funktion der Stufenspannungu herangezogen werden, wenn die Stufengüte gleich und unabhängig von der Stufenzahln ist. Auch die Vervielfachungsschwankungen bei schwankender Spannung lassen sich unter Verwendung einer solchen Kennlinie schnell und leicht ermitteln.     

RTS-MAC: A Relative Time Synchronization MAC Protocol for Low Duty Cycle Body Sensor Networks

Emerging applications in the medical field require body sensor networks to communicate in real-time in a very energy-efficient way. An example is the Artificial Accommodation System??a set of two small active medical implants aiming at restoring accommodation of the human eye??in which sensor data have to be exchanged continuously between both eyes. To achieve energy efficiency, it is essential to operate the radios with a very low duty cycle. Therefore, idle listening and general protocol overhead must be reduced as much as possible. In this paper, we present a relative time synchronization medium access control protocol (RTS-MAC), which keeps relative time synchronization between two or more sensor nodes in a very energy-efficient manner: RTS-MAC makes use of the periodic broadcast of regular data messages and exploits the inter-arrival times to predict future arrivals within tight boundaries. Thereby, no overhead is generated for synchronization purposes, and still, idle listening is reduced to a minimum, which solely depends on the short-term accuracy of the underlying clock systems. We implemented the proposed protocol using off-the-shelf components and employed the internal low-accuracy oscillators of the microcontrollers as clock sources. Thereby, we achieved very low duty cycles close to an ideal minimum. Further, our results indicate that through omitting external crystals in favor of a minimally larger battery, the battery life of a sensor node can be prolonged.