The owl spreads its wings: global and international education within the local from critical perspectives

Within an era of a New Knowledge Society, assumptions abound regarding the ‘goodness' and justice of global interconnections and distributions of knowledge through international educational organizations and structures worldwide. Just as George Bush Jr. in attempting to justify the invasion of Iraq made claim to the democratic goodness of the US ‘spreading their freedoms' in the interests of an all-encompassing democratization of the world, so the assumption that sharing educational knowledge, especially an ‘all-knowing North' with a ‘helpless South' is without question for the greater good of all humanity

BanLec, a banana lectin, is a potent inhibitor of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in in vitro assays

Poster Abstract Session - Viral Infections: Treatment and Prevention: no. 1159BACKGROUND: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) continues to cause human infections with multiple clusters two years after the onset of the epidemic. Though mild cases have been recognized, the infection is severe in those with co-morbidities and >30% of patients die from the infection. Our recent structure-based development of a fusion inhibitor is one of the few treatment options for MERS and it led us to hypothesize that other existing antivirals that block cellular entry may also be active against MERS-CoV. BanLec is a jacalin-related banana lectin that has potent anti-HIV activity through binding to glycosylated viral envelope proteins and blocking cellular entry. We assessed the anti-MER-CoV activity of BanLec in cell culture assays. METHODS: The anti-MERS-CoV activity of BanLec was assessed by cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition, viral yield reduction, and plaque reduction (PRA) assays in Vero, Calu-3, and/or HK2 cells. The cytotoxicity of BanLec was also assessed. RESULTS: The CC50 of BanLec was >10 nM in Vero and Calu-3 cells. CPE was completely absent in Vero and HK2 cells infected with MERS-CoV on 3 dpi with 30.00 nM of BanLec. In Calu-3 cells, CPE was completely absent at 90.00 nM of the drug. The EC50 of BanLec ranged from 3.99-4.82 nM (Table 1). The mean viral loads reduced by 7.13, 3.40, and 3.63 log10 copies/ml in Vero, Calu-3, and HK2 cells respectively (Fig. 1A to C). The highest percentage of plaque reduction at a concentration of >10 nM of BanLec were 100% and 59.5% in Vero cells and HK2 cells respectively (Fig. 2A & B). CONCLUSION: BanLec exhibits potent in vitro anti-MERS-CoV activity. The detailed mechanism and in vivo correlation of its antiviral activity should be further tested in animal models. The potential advantages of using BanLec for MERS include its high stability and the prospect of using it as a topical treatment or prophylaxis for exposed patients. (Table see attachment)BACKGROUND: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) continues to cause human infections with multiple clusters two years after the onset of the epidemic. Though mild cases have been recognized, the infection is severe in those with co-morbidities and >30% of patients die from the infection. Our recent structure-based development of a fusion inhibitor is one of the few treatment options for MERS and it led us to hypothesize that other existing antivirals that block cellular entry may also be active against MERS-CoV. BanLec is a jacalin-related banana lectin that has potent anti-HIV activity through binding to glycosylated viral envelope proteins and blocking cellular entry. We assessed the anti-MER-CoV activity of BanLec in cell culture assays. METHODS: The anti-MERS-CoV activity of BanLec was assessed by cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition, viral yield reduction, and plaque reduction (PRA) assays in Vero, Calu-3, and/or HK2 cells. The cytotoxicity of BanLec was also assessed. RESULTS: The CC50 of BanLec was >10 nM in Vero and Calu-3 cells. CPE was completely absent in Vero and HK2 cells infected with MERS-CoV on 3 dpi with 30.00 nM of BanLec. In Calu-3 cells, CPE was completely absent at 90.00 nM of the drug. The EC50 of BanLec ranged from 3.99-4.82 nM (Table 1). The mean viral loads reduced by 7.13, 3.40, and 3.63 log10 copies/ml in Vero, Calu-3, and HK2 cells respectively (Fig. 1A to C). The highest percentage of plaque reduction at a concentration of >10 nM of BanLec were 100% and 59.5% in Vero cells and HK2 cells respectively (Fig. 2A & B). CONCLUSION: BanLec exhibits potent in vitro anti-MERS-CoV activity. The detailed mechanism and in vivo correlation of its antiviral activity should be further tested in animal models. The potential advantages of using BanLec for MERS include its high stability and the prospect of using it as a topical treatment or prophylaxis for exposed patients

Selective Metal Cation Capture by Soft Anionic Metal-Organic Frameworks via Drastic Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Transformations

In this paper we describe a novel framework for the discovery of the topical content of a data corpus, and the tracking of its complex structural changes across the temporal dimension. In contrast to previous work our model does not impose a prior on the rate at which documents are added to the corpus nor does it adopt the Markovian assumption which overly restricts the type of changes that the model can capture. Our key technical contribution is a framework based on (i) discretization of time into epochs, (ii) epoch-wise topic discovery using a hierarchical Dirichlet process-based model, and (iii) a temporal similarity graph which allows for the modelling of complex topic changes: emergence and disappearance, evolution, and splitting and merging. The power of the proposed framework is demonstrated on the medical literature corpus concerned with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - an increasingly important research subject of significant social and healthcare importance. In addition to the collected ASD literature corpus which we will make freely available, our contributions also include two free online tools we built as aids to ASD researchers. These can be used for semantically meaningful navigation and searching, as well as knowledge discovery from this large and rapidly growing corpus of literature.Comment: In Proc. Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD), 201

Assembly of the LongSHOT cohort: public record linkage on a grand scale

BackgroundVirtually all existing evidence linking access to firearms to elevated risks of mortality and morbidity comes from ecological and case-control studies. To improve understanding of the health risks and benefits of firearm ownership, we launched a cohort study: the Longitudinal Study of Handgun Ownership and Transfer (LongSHOT).MethodsUsing probabilistic matching techniques we linked three sources of individual-level, state-wide data in California: official voter registration records, an archive of lawful handgun transactions and all-cause mortality data. There were nearly 28.8 million unique voter registrants, 5.5 million handgun transfers and 3.1 million deaths during the study period (18 October 2004 to 31 December 2016). The linkage relied on several identifying variables (first, middle and last names; date of birth; sex; residential address) that were available in all three data sets, deploying them in a series of bespoke algorithms.ResultsAssembly of the LongSHOT cohort commenced in January 2016 and was completed in March 2019. Approximately three-quarters of matches identified were exact matches on all link variables. The cohort consists of 28.8 million adult residents of California followed for up to 12.2 years. A total of 1.2 million cohort members purchased at least one handgun during the study period, and 1.6 million died.ConclusionsThree steps taken early may be particularly useful in enhancing the efficiency of large-scale data linkage: thorough data cleaning; assessment of the suitability of off-the-shelf data linkage packages relative to bespoke coding; and careful consideration of the minimum sample size and matching precision needed to support rigorous investigation of the study questions

Dioxin Toxicity In Vivo Results from an Increase in the Dioxin-Independent Transcriptional Activity of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor

The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (Ahr) is the nuclear receptor mediating the toxicity of dioxins -widespread and persistent pollutants whose toxic effects include tumor promotion, teratogenesis, wasting syndrome and chloracne. Elimination of Ahr in mice eliminates dioxin toxicity but also produces adverse effects, some seemingly unrelated to dioxin. Thus the relationship between the toxic and dioxin-independent functions of Ahr is not clear, which hampers understanding and treatment of dioxin toxicity. Here we develop a Drosophila model to show that dioxin actually increases the in vivo dioxin-independent activity of Ahr. This hyperactivation resembles the effects caused by an increase in the amount of its dimerisation partner Ahr nuclear translocator (Arnt) and entails an increased transcriptional potency of Ahr, in addition to the previously described effect on nuclear translocation. Thus the two apparently different functions of Ahr, dioxin-mediated and dioxin-independent, are in fact two different levels (hyperactivated and basal, respectively) of a single function

Transient Increase in Cyclic AMP Localized to Macrophage Phagosomes

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) regulates many biological processes and cellular functions. The importance of spatially localized intracellular gradients of cAMP is increasingly appreciated. Previous work in macrophages has shown that cAMP is produced during phagocytosis and that elevated cAMP levels suppress host defense functions, including generation of proinflammatory mediators, phagocytosis and killing. However, the spatial and kinetic characteristics of cAMP generation in phagocytosing macrophages have yet to be examined. Using a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based cAMP biosensor, we measured the generation of cAMP in live macrophages. We detected no difference in bulk intracellular cAMP levels between resting cells and cells actively phagocytosing IgG-opsonized particles. However, analysis with the biosensor revealed a rapid decrease in FRET signal corresponding to a transient burst of cAMP production localized to the forming phagosome. cAMP levels returned to baseline after the particle was internalized. These studies indicate that localized increases in cAMP accompany phagosome formation and provide a framework for a more complete understanding of how cAMP regulates macrophage host defense functions

Postcopulatory sexual selection

The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes place, aided and abetted by the female herself. Intense postcopulatory sexual selection fosters inter-sexual conflict and drives rapid evolutionary change to generate a startling diversity of morphological, behavioural and physiological adaptations. We identify three main issues that should be resolved to advance our understanding of postcopulatory sexual selection. We need to determine the genetic basis of different male fertility traits and female traits that mediate sperm selection; identify the genes or genomic regions that control these traits; and establish the coevolutionary trajectory of sexes

Light hadron, Charmonium(-like) and Bottomonium(-like) states

Hadron physics represents the study of strongly interacting matter in all its manifestations and the understanding of its properties and interactions. The interest on this field has been revitalized by the discovery of new light hadrons, charmonium- and bottomonium-like states. I review the most recent experimental results from different experiments.Comment: Presented at Lepton-Photon 2011, Mumbai, India; 21 pages, 18 figures; add more references; some correctio

Rare Bilateral Nasopalatine Duct Cysts: A Case Report

The nasopalatine duct cyst (NPDC) is the most common of the non-odontogenic cyst of the jaws. This cysts are usually central or unilateral with no prevalence of side occurrence. The NPDC is the most frequent developmental, nonodontogenic cyst of the jaws. This cyst originates from epithelial remnants from the nasopalatine duct. The cells could be activated spontaneously during life, or are eventually stimulated by the irritating action of various agents (infection, etc.). Generally, patients present without clinical signs and symptoms. Therefore, the tentative diagnosis "nasopalatine duct cyst" is often based on a coincidental radiological finding on a routine panoramic view or occlusal radiograph. The definite diagnosis should be based on clinical, radiological and above all histopathologic findings. The therapy of nasopalatine duct cysts consists of an enucleation of the cystic tissue, only in rare cases a marsupialization needs to be performed. This report describes the appearance and treatment of a rare case of bilateral nasopalatine duct cyst

Digit-only sauropod pes trackways from China - evidence of swimming or a preservational phenomenon?

For more than 70 years unusual sauropod trackways have played a pivotal role in debates about the swimming ability of sauropods. Most claims that sauropods could swim have been based on manus-only or manus-dominated trackways. However none of these incomplete trackways has been entirely convincing, and most have proved to be taphonomic artifacts, either undertracks or the result of differential depth of penetration of manus and pes tracks, but otherwise showed the typical pattern of normal walking trackways. Here we report an assemblage of unusual sauropod tracks from the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group of Gansu Province, northern China, characterized by the preservation of only the pes claw traces, that we interpret as having been left by walking, not buoyant or swimming, individuals. They are interpreted as the result of animals moving on a soft mud-silt substrate, projecting their claws deeply to register their traces on an underlying sand layer where they gained more grip during progression. Other sauropod walking trackways on the same surface with both pes and manus traces preserved, were probably left earlier on relatively firm substrates that predated the deposition of soft mud and silt . Presently, there is no convincing evidence of swimming sauropods from their trackways, which is not to say that sauropods did not swim at all