Thermodynamic view on decision-making process: emotions as a potential power vector of realization of the choice

This research is devoted to possible mechanisms of decision-making in frames of thermodynamic principles. It is also shown that the decision-making system in reply to emotion includes vector component which seems to be often a necessary condition to transfer system from one state to another. The phases of decision-making system can be described as supposed to be nonequilibrium and irreversible to which thermodynamics laws are applied. The mathematical model of a decision choice, proceeding from principles of the nonlinear dynamics considering instability of movement and bifurcation is offered. The thermodynamic component of decision-making process on the basis of vector transfer of energy induced by emotion at the given time is surveyed. It is proposed a three-modular model of decision making based on principles of thermodynamics. Here it is suggested that at entropy impact due to effect of emotion, on the closed system—the human brain,—initially arises chaos, then after fluctuations of possible alternatives which were going on—reactions of brain zones in reply to external influence, an order is forming and there is choice of alternatives, according to primary entrance conditions and a state of the closed system. Entropy calculation of a choice expectation of negative and positive emotion shows judgment possibility of existence of “the law of emotion conservation” in accordance with several experimental data.     

Transmission of peanut yellow spot virus (PYSV) by Thrips,Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood in groundnut †

Peanut yellow spot virus (PYSV) was efficiently transmitted by Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood in groundnut. Larvae could acquire the virus in 30 min and the maximum percentage transmission of 43.8% by individual insects resulted following two days AAP. Single adult Thrip transmitted the virus after minimum IAP of 30 minutes. The percentage transmission (33.3%) increased linearly with an increase in IAP up to 1.5 days and maximum up to 55 h of IAP (36.1%). PYSV persistently transmitted more than 75% of their life span.     

Therapeutic angiogenesis for revascularization in peripheral artery disease

Therapeutic angiogenesis for peripheral artery disease (PAD), achieved by gene and cell therapy, has recently raised a great deal of hope for patients who cannot undergo standard revascularizing treatment. Although pre-clinical studies gave very promising data, still clinical trials of gene therapy have not provided satisfactory results. On the other hand, cell therapy approach, despite several limitations, demonstrated more beneficial effects but initial clinical studies must be constantly validated by larger randomized, multi-center, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials. This review focuses on previous and recent gene and cell therapy studies for limb ischemia, including both experimental and clinical research, and summarizes some important papers published in this field. Moreover, it provides a short comment on combined gene and cell therapy approach on the example of heme oxygenase-1 overexpressing cells with therapeutic properties.     

Cloning Vectors Based on Cryptic Plasmids Isolated from Lactic Acid Bacteria:Their Characteristics and Potential Applications in Biotechnology

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are Gram positive bacteria, widely distributed in nature, and industrially important as they are used in a variety of industrial food fermentations. The use of genetic engineering techniques is an effective means of enhancing the industrial applicability of LAB. However, when using genetic engineering technology, safety becomes an essential factor for the application of improved LAB to the food industry. Cloning and expression systems should be derived preferably from LAB cryptic plasmids that generally encode genes for which functions can be proposed, but no phenotypes can be observed. However, some plasmid-encoded functions have been discovered in cryptic plasmids originating from Lactobacillus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Pediococcus spp. and can be used as selective marker systems in vector construction. This article presents information concerning LAB cryptic plasmids, and their structures, functions, and applications. A total of 134 cryptic plasmids collated are discussed.     

Using principal component analysis and support vector machine to predict protein structural class for low-similarity sequences via PSSM

The accurate identification of protein structure class solely using extracted information from protein sequence is a complicated task in the current computational biology. Prediction of protein structural class for low-similarity sequences remains a challenging problem. In this study, the new computational method has been developed to predict protein structural class by fusing the sequence information and evolution information to represent a protein sample. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, jackknife cross-validation tests are performed on two widely used benchmark data-sets, 1189 and 25PDB with sequence similarity lower than 40 and 25%, respectively. Comparison of our results with other methods shows that the proposed method by us is very promising and may provide a cost-effective alternative to predict protein structural class in particular for low-similarity data-sets.     

Towards Precision Medicine: Advances in Computational Approaches for the Analysis of Human Variants

Variations and similarities in our individual genomes are part of our history, our heritage, and our identity. Some human genomic variants are associated with common traits such as hair and eye color, while others are associated with susceptibility to disease or response to drug treatment. Identifying the human variations producing clinically relevant phenotypic changes is critical for providing accurate and personalized diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment for diseases. Furthermore, a better understanding of the molecular underpinning of disease can lead to development of new drug targets for precision medicine. Several resources have been designed for collecting and storing human genomic variations in highly structured, easily accessible databases. Unfortunately, a vast amount of information about these genetic variants and their functional and phenotypic associations is currently buried in the literature, only accessible by manual curation or sophisticated text text-mining technology to extract the relevant information. In addition, the low cost of sequencing technologies coupled with increasing computational power has enabled the development of numerous computational methodologies to predict the pathogenicity of human variants. This review provides a detailed comparison of current human variant resources, including HGMD, OMIM, ClinVar, and UniProt/Swiss-Prot, followed by an overview of the computational methods and techniques used to leverage the available data to predict novel deleterious variants. We expect these resources and tools to become the foundation for understanding the molecular details of genomic variants leading to disease, which in turn will enable the promise of precision medicine.     

Increased presence of the thermophilic mosquitoes and potential vectors Anopheles hyrcanus (Pallas 1771) and Culex modestus Ficalbi 1889 in Central Europe’s lower Dyje River basin (South Moravia,Czech Republic)

The presence of the thermophilic species Anopheles hyrcanus in the lower Dyje River basin has been regularly monitored since 2008. Mosquito trapping has been conducted mainly in summer using EVS traps with CO₂ as attractant. Anopheles hyrcanus and Culex modestus were studied in a group of ponds near the Czech–Austrian border. At the Sedlec location, occurrence of An. hyrcanus was low during 2008–2011, with around 1–9 individuals/trap/collection day. At the Lednice location on the edge of Mlýnský Pond, the first capture of An. hyrcanus occurred in 2010. In 2013, there was a sudden increase in the An. hyrcanus mosquito at all monitored locations. The largest presence was recorded at Sedlec and reached 524.4 individuals/trap/collection day. Culex modestus was one of the predominant species throughout the period. At Sedlec, the smallest finding was in 2009 (at 9.6 individuals) while the greatest was in 2010 (at 988.6 individuals/trap/collection day). At Lednice, the smallest finding was in 2011 (at 56.3 individuals) while the largest was in 2013 (at 3850 individuals/trap/collection day).     

Molecular detection of Leishmania infection in sand flies in border line of Iran–Turkmenistan: Restricted and permissive vectors

A molecular study was carried out to incriminate sand fly vectors of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in rural areas of Sarakhs district, Khorassane-Razavi Province, northeastern Iran, in 2011. Sand flies of Sergentomyia with three species and Phlebotomus with six species respectively comprised 73.3% and 26.7% of the specimens. Phlebotomus papatasi was the most common Phlebotomine species in outdoor and indoor resting places. Leishmania infection was found at least in 17 (22%) specimens including Ph. papatasi (n = 9 pool samples), Phlebotomus caucasicus (n = 6), Phlebotomus alexandri (n = 1), and Sergentomyia sintoni (n = 1). The parasites were found comprised Leishmania major (n = 5), Leishmania turanica (n = 10), and Leishmania gerbilli (n = 4). Infection of Ph. papatasi with both L. major and L. turanica supporting the new suggestion indicating that it is not restricted only with L. major. Circulation of L. major by Ph. alexandri, and both L. gerbilli and L. turanica by Ph. caucasicus, in addition to previous data indicating the ability of Ph. alexandri to circulate Leishmania infantum and Leishmania donovani, and Ph. caucasicus to circulate L. major, suggests that these two species can be permissive vectors. The results suggest that Ph. papatasi and Ph. alexandri are the primary and secondary vectors of CL where circulating L. major between human and reservoirs, whereas Ph. caucasicus is circulating L. turanica and L. gerbilli between the rodents in the region.     

Cathepsin L silencing enhances arsenic trioxide mediated in vitro cytotoxicity and apoptosis in glioblastoma U87MG spheroids

Despite improved treatment options, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains the most aggressive brain tumour with the shortest post-diagnostic survival. Arsenite (As₂O₃) is already being used in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), yet its effects on GBM have not been evaluated in detail. In U87MG cell monolayers, we have previously shown that arsenite cytotoxicity significantly increases upon transient inhibition of lysosomal protease Cathepsin L (CatL). As multicellular spheroids more closely represent in vivo tumours, we aimed to evaluate the impact of permanent CatL silencing on arsenite treatment in U87MG spheroids. CatL was stably silenced using shRNA expression plasmid packed lentiviruses. By using metabolic- and cell viability assays, we demonstrated that long-term CatL silencing significantly increased arsenite cytotoxicity in U87MG spheroids. Silenced CatL also increased arsenite-mediated apoptosis in spheroids via elevated p53 expression, Bax/Bcl2 ratio and caspase 3/7 activity, though with lower efficacy than in monolayers. Arsenite cytotoxicity was enhanced by lower CatL activity, since similar cytotoxicity increase was also observed using the novel CatL inhibitor AT094. The results have significant translational impact, since stable CatL silencing would enable the application of lower systemic doses of arsenite to achieve the desired cytotoxic effects on GBMs in vivo.