A new learning algorithm, Learning by Choice of Internal Represetations (CHIR), was recently introduced. Whereas many algorithms reduce the learning process to minimizing a cost function over the weights, our method treats the internal representations as the fundamental entities to be determined. The algorithm applies a search procedure in the space of internal representations, and a cooperativ...

A striking characteristic of cystic fibrosis (CF) is susceptibility to life-limiting bacterial infections of the respiratory tract (13, 26). Members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex are a particular cause of anxiety to CF individuals (8, 14, 23) since they display high resistance to antibiotics and biocides (3, 32), possibly linked to their relatively large ( 8to 9-Mbp) genomes (16). At pres...

Paired Ig-like receptors (PIR) that can reciprocally modulate cellular activation have been described in mammals. In the present study, we searched expressed sequence tag databases for PIR relatives to identify chicken expressed sequence tags predictive of approximately 25% amino acid identity to mouse PIR. Rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE)-PCR extension of expressed sequence-tag sequence...

The chicken Ig-like receptors (CHIR) have been described as two Ig domain molecules with long cytoplasmic tails containing inhibitory motifs. In this study, we demonstrate that CHIR form a large family, with multiple members showing great sequence variability among members as well as a great diversity in domain organization and properties of the transmembrane and cytoplasmic segments. We charac...

Published online 20 December 2013 Ann. Ital. Chir 1 Pervenuto in Redazione Gennaio 2012. Accettato per la pubblicazione Marzo 2012 Correspondence to: Nunzia Cinzia Paladino, MD, Department of General, Emergency and Transplant Surgery (GENURTO), Unit of General and Emergency Surgery, Via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy (E-mail: [email protected]). Nunzia Cinzia Paladino, Gregorio Scerri...