Laboratory support during and after the Ebola virus endgame: Towards a sustained laboratory infrastructure

The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa is on the brink of entering a second phase in which the (inter)national efforts to slow down virus transmission will be engaged to end the epidemic. The response community must consider the longevity of their current laboratory support, as it is essential that diagnostic capacity in the affected countries be supported beyond the end of the epidemic. The emergency laboratory response should be used to support building structural diagnostic and outbreak surveillance capacity

Online, interactive user guidance for high-dimensional, constrained motion planning

We consider the problem of planning a collision-free path for a high-dimensional robot. Specifically, we suggest a planning framework where a motion-planning algorithm can obtain guidance from a user. In contrast to existing approaches that try to speed up planning by incorporating experiences or demonstrations ahead of planning, we suggest to seek user guidance only when the planner identifies that it ceases to make significant progress towards the goal. Guidance is provided in the form of an intermediate configuration $\hat{q}$, which is used to bias the planner to go through $\hat{q}$. We demonstrate our approach for the case where the planning algorithm is Multi-Heuristic A* (MHA*) and the robot is a 34-DOF humanoid. We show that our approach allows to compute highly-constrained paths with little domain knowledge. Without our approach, solving such problems requires carefully-crafting domain-dependent heuristics

Cross host transmission in the emergence of MERS coronavirus

Coronaviruses (CoVs) able to infect humans emerge through cross-host transmission from animals. There is substantial evidence that the recent Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV outbreak is fueled by zoonotic transmission from dromedary camels. This is largely based on the fact that closely related viruses have been isolated from this but not any other animal species. Given the widespread geographical distribution of dromedaries found seropositive for MERS-CoV, continued transmission may likely occur in the future. Therefore, a further understanding of the cross host transmission of MERS-CoV is needed to limit the risks this virus poses to man

Evolution of Axis Specification Mechanisms in Jawed Vertebrates: Insights from a Chondrichthyan

The genetic mechanisms that control the establishment of early polarities and their link with embryonic axis specification and patterning seem to substantially diverge across vertebrates. In amphibians and teleosts, the establishment of an early dorso-ventral polarity determines both the site of axis formation and its rostro-caudal orientation. In contrast, amniotes retain a considerable plasticity for their site of axis formation until blastula stages and rely on signals secreted by extraembryonic tissues, which have no clear equivalents in the former, for the establishment of their rostro-caudal pattern. The rationale for these differences remains unknown. Through detailed expression analyses of key development genes in a chondrichthyan, the dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula, we have reconstructed the ancestral pattern of axis specification in jawed vertebrates. We show that the dogfish displays compelling similarities with amniotes at blastula and early gastrula stages, including the presence of clear homologs of the hypoblast and extraembryonic ectoderm. In the ancestral state, these territories are specified at opposite poles of an early axis of bilateral symmetry, homologous to the dorso-ventral axis of amphibians or teleosts, and aligned with the later forming embryonic axis, from head to tail. Comparisons with amniotes suggest that a dorsal expansion of extraembryonic ectoderm, resulting in an apparently radial symmetry at late blastula stages, has taken place in their lineage. The synthesis of these results with those of functional analyses in model organisms supports an evolutionary link between the dorso-ventral polarity of amphibians and teleosts and the embryonic-extraembryonic organisation of amniotes. It leads to a general model of axis specification in gnathostomes, which provides a comparative framework for a reassessment of conservations both among vertebrates and with more distant metazoans

Long-term comparison of losartan and enalapril on kidney function in hypertensive type 2 diabetics with early nephropathy

Long-term comparison of losartan and enalapril on kidney function in hypertensive type 2 diabetics with early nephropathy.BackgroundThe objectives of this study were to compare the effects of the angiotensin II receptor blocker, losartan, to those of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, enalapril, on albuminuria and renal function in relationship to clinic and ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) in hypertensive type 2 diabetic subjects with early nephropathy. The tolerability of these agents and their effect on the metabolic profile were also evaluated.MethodsThe study was a one-year prospective, double-blind trial with losartan and enalapril administered alone or in combination with hydrochlorothiazide and other antihypertensive agents. ABP and renal and biochemical parameters were measured at baseline and after 12, 28, and 52 weeks of active treatment. Ninety-two hypertensive type 2 diabetics with early nephropathy completed the study.ResultsBoth losartan and enalapril administered alone or in combination with other agents induced significant reductions in sitting clinic (P < 0.05) and ABP (P < 0.002) without a statistical difference between groups. Geometric means for urinary albumin excretion (UAE) decreased significantly (P < 0.001) in patients treated with losartan from 64.1 to 41.5 μg/min and in those treated with enalapril from 73.9 to 33.5 μg/min after 52 weeks of therapy. A significant relationship (P < 0.05) between changes in systolic and diastolic ABP and the decrease in UAE at 52 weeks was seen in both groups. The decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was stabilized at the end of therapy and was identical in both treatment groups. Treatment with enalapril was associated with a significantly higher incidence of cough (P = 0.006) and a rise in serum uric acid (P = 0.002) compared with losartan.ConclusionsOur results indicate that a one-year course of antihypertensive therapy with either losartan or enalapril significantly reduces UAE in hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients with early nephropathy. The reduction in UAE with each treatment is similarly related to decrements in ABP. In addition, the rate of decline in GFR is similar in both treatment groups

Biomacromolecular charge chirality detected using chiral plasmonic nanostructures

The charge distributions of solvent exposed surfaces of complex biomolecules such has proteins are unique fingerprints. The chirality of these charge distributions result in stereo-specific electrostatic interactions which help define how proteins interact with each other, contributing to specificity in protein – protein interactions. Thus it is a key concept in understanding chemical processes in biology. There is currently no known spectroscopic phenomenon that allows rapid characterisation of chiral surface charge distributions. We show that this essential property that is currently “invisible” to optical spectroscopy, can be detected by monitoring asymmetries in the chiroptical response of protein-plasmonic nanostructure complexes. The unique capabilities of the phenomenon are utilised to discriminate between a structurally homologous series of proteins, type II dehydroquinase (DHQase) derived from different organisms. The proteins are indistinguishable with conventional structurally sensitive spectroscopy (i.e. circular dichroism). We show that discrimination between proteins can be achieved by detecting differences in chiral surface charge distributions. The phenomenon is explained with a simple model whereby the chiroptical properties of the plasmonic structures are perturbed by the induction of an enantiomeric mirror image charge distribution of the protein in the metal. This new phenomenon has broad impact, it is a powerful analytical tool for discriminating between structurally homologous biomaterials, but will also provide information relevant to macromolecular interactions