HTLV-1 Tax-1 interacts with SNX27 to regulate cellular localization of the HTLV-1 receptor molecule, GLUT1

An estimated 10–20 million people worldwide are infected with human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), with endemic areas of infection in Japan, Australia, the Caribbean, and Africa. HTLV-1 is the causative agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1 associated myopathy/tropic spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). HTLV-1 expresses several regulatory and accessory genes that function at different stages of the virus life cycle. The regulatory gene Tax-1 is required for efficient virus replication, as it drives transcription of viral gene products, and has also been demonstrated to play a key role in the pathogenesis of the virus. Several studies have identified a PDZ binding motif (PBM) at the carboxyl terminus of Tax-1 and demonstrated the importance of this domain for HTLV-1 induced cellular transformation. Using a mass spectrometry-based proteomics approach we identified sorting nexin 27 (SNX27) as a novel interacting partner of Tax-1. Further, we demonstrated that their interaction is mediated by the Tax-1 PBM and SNX27 PDZ domains. SNX27 has been shown to promote the plasma membrane localization of glucose transport 1 (GLUT1), one of the receptor molecules of the HTLV-1 virus, and the receptor molecule required for HTLV-1 fusion and entry. We postulated that Tax-1 alters GLUT1 localization via its interaction with SNX27. We demonstrate that over expression of Tax-1 in cells causes a reduction of GLUT1 on the plasma membrane. Furthermore, we show that knockdown of SNX27 results in increased virion release and decreased HTLV-1 infectivity. Collectively, we demonstrate the first known mechanism by which HTLV-1 regulates a receptor molecule post-infection.</div

Labour Market Impact of Large Scale Internal Migration on Chinese Urban 'Native' Workers

Hundreds of millions of rural migrants have moved into Chinese cities since the early 1990s contributing greatly to economic growth, yet, they are often blamed for reducing urban 'native' workers’ employment opportunities, suppressing their wages and increasing pressure on infrastructure and other public facilities. This paper examines the causal relationship between rural-urban migration and urban native workers' labour market outcomes in Chinese cities. After controlling for the endogeneity problem our results show that rural migrants in urban China have modest positive or zero effects on the average employment and insignificant impact on earnings of urban workers. When examine the impact on unskilled labours we once again find it to be positive and insignificant. We conjecture that the reason for the lack of adverse effects is due partially to the labour market segregation between the migrants and urban natives, and partially due to the complementarities between the two groups of workers. Further investigation reveals that the increase in migrant inflow is related to the demand expansion and that if the economic growth continues, elimination of labour market segregation may not necessarily lead to an adverse impact of migration on urban native labour market outcomes.migration, native labour market outcomes, China

Let\u27s Get Moving: Labor\u27s survival depends on organizing industry-wide for justice and power

[Excerpt] Despite our almost universal lack of significant organizing victories, we continue to organize in basically the same way we have for the last 37 years. Labor\u27s model for organizing remains a site-by-site NLRB approach. We continue to fine-tune a model that most organizers know hasn\u27t worked in years. Depending on how you define success, it can be argued that our current method of organizing hasn\u27t worked in 37 years

B2C Mass Customization in the Classroom

The purpose of this article is to describe an internet-based mass customization assignment in Operations Management/Supply Chain Management classes where students utilize the Web site of a company that offers a customized product. Students evaluate the user interface, judge the value proposition of the product they demonstrate, and discuss issues of product design, process design and scheduling, inventory management, Supply Chain Management, marketing, and competitors. The students learn about mass customization from both the producer\u27s perspective and the consumer\u27s perspective. Through their own research and the class presentations students are able to develop a better understanding of the implementation requirements and challenges of mass customization. The assignment is highly interactive and has been successfully used in Operations Management and Supply Chain Management courses at under-graduate and graduate levels and at multiple universities. In addition, practitioners interested in implementing a mass customization process can use the assignment as a brainstorming or benchmarking exercise

Midi-review: Status of weak scale supersymmetry after LHC Run 2 and ton-scale noble liquid WIMP searches

While LHC has discovered a very Standard Model-like Higgs boson of mass m_h~ 125 GeV, no solid signal for physics beyond the Standard Model has emerged so far at LHC or at WIMP seach experiments. For the case of weak scale supersymmetry (SUSY), LHC has found rather generally that gluinos are beyond about 2.2 TeV whilst top squark must lie beyond 1.1 TeV. These limits contradict older simplistic notions of naturalness that emerged in the 1980s-1990s, leading to the rather pessimistic view that SUSY is now excluded except for perhaps some remaining narrow corners of parameter space. Yet, this picture ignores several important developments in SUSY/string theory that emerged in the 21st century: 1. the emergence of the string theory landscape and its solution to the cosmological constant problem, 2. a more nuanced view of naturalness including the notion of "stringy naturalness", 3. the emergence of anomaly-free discrete R-symmetries and their connection to R-parity, Peccei-Quinn symmetry, the SUSY mu problem and proton decay and 4. the importance of including a solution to the strong CP problem. Rather general considerations from the string theory landscape favor large values of soft terms, subject to the vacuum selection criteria that electroweak symmetry is properly broken (no CCB minima) and the resulting magnitude of the weak scale is not too far from our measured value. Then stringy naturalness predicts a Higgs mass m_h~ 125 GeV whilst sparticle masses are typically lifted beyond present LHC bounds. In light of these refinements in theory perspective confronted by LHC and dark matter search results, we review the most likely LHC, ILC and dark matter signatures that are expected to arise from weak scale SUSY as we understand it today.Comment: 47 pages; version 2 includes typo fixes and some added discussion; version 3 contains minor re-wording on weak scale limits from Agrawal et a

Time management issues in COTS distributed simulation: A case study

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) simulation packages are widely used in industry. Several international groups are currently investigating techniques to integrate distributed simulation facilities in these packages. Through the use of a case study developed with the Ford Motor Company, this paper investigates time management issues in COTS simulation packages. Time management is classified on the basis of the ordering of events that are externally produced to a federate and the ordering of these with events that occur within a COTS simulation package federate. Several approaches to the latter are discussed and one approach is presented as the most effective. Finally the paper presents a bounded buffer problem and proposes the classification of information sharing with respect to the certification of solution

Scheduling Coordination in a Supply Chain Using Advance Demand Information.

In an environment of mass customization where demand information can be placed in advance with sequencing orders, the question of the best use of this information arises in a supply chain. This situation led the authors to analyze the efficiency of current mechanisms of scheduling coordination when suppliers' processes are not completely reliable. Policies such as periodic replenishment or the kanban system, characterized by a replacement of the items to consume, cannot be exploited effectively with the current rules. This paper presents and justifies new scheduling coordination rules allowing synchronous production in an unreliable environment. This new approach has been benchmarked in the automotive industry as an appropriate method to avoid stockouts and decrease the safety stock.Chaîne logistique; Synchronisation de la production dans une chaîne logistique; kanban; Production synchrone; Point de Pénétration de commande;