Gorenstein Fano polytopes arising from finite partially ordered sets will be introduced. Then we study the problem which partially ordered sets yield smooth Fano polytopes. Introduction An integral (or lattice) polytope is a convex polytope all of whose vertices have integer coordinates. Let P ⊂ R be an integral convex polytope of dimension d. • We say that P is a Fano polytope if the origin of...

OBJECTIVE We describe the effectiveness of a prime-boost vaccination regimen using the open-reading frame (ORFF) gene from the LD1 locus of Leishmania donovani. METHODS A group of BALB/c mice was immunized with the plasmid carrying the gene for ORFF (F/pcDNA 3.1) and given a booster dose of either the same DNA vaccine or a vaccine with a recombinant ORFF (rORFF) protein. Another group of BALB...

In Ehrhart theory, the h∗-vector of a rational polytope often provides insights into properties of the polytope that may be otherwise obscured. As an example, the Birkhoff polytope, also known as the polytope of real doubly-stochastic matrices, has a unimodal h∗-vector, but when even small modifications are made to the polytope, the same property can be very difficult to prove. In this paper, w...

An extension of the standard barycentric coordinate functions for simplices to arbitrary convex polytopes is described. The key to this extension is the construction, for a given convex polytope, of a unique polynomial associated with that polytope. This polynomial, the adjoint of the polytope, generalizes a previous two-dimensional construction described by Wachspress. The barycentric coordina...

Sin Nombre virus (SNV) and Andes virus (ANDV) cause most of the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases in North and South America, respectively. The chances of a patient surviving HPS are only two in three. Previously, we demonstrated that SNV and ANDV DNA vaccines encoding the virus envelope glycoproteins elicit high-titer neutralizing antibodies in laboratory animals, and (for ANDV) in non...

An important consideration in the development of a malaria vaccine for individuals living in areas of endemicity is whether vaccine-elicited immune responses can be boosted by natural infection. To investigate this question, we used Plasmodium berghei ANKA blood-stage parasites for the infection of mice that were previously immunized with a DNA vaccine encoding the P. berghei sexual-stage antig...

Universal polytope is the polytope de ned as the convex hull of the characteristic vectors of all triangulations for a given point con guration. The equality system de ning this polytope was found, but the system of inequalities are not known yet. Larger polytopes, corresponding to linear programming relaxations, have been used in practice. We show that (1) the universal polytope, the polytope ...

An outbreak of influenza H1N1 in 2009, representing the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century, was transmitted to over a million individuals and claimed 18,449 lives. The current status in many countries is to prepare influenza vaccine using cell-based or egg-based killed vaccine. However, traditional influenza vaccine platforms have several limitations. To overcome these limitations, ma...