Serological Survey and Pathogen Exposure of Adult Female White-tailed Deer in the Western Dakotas

Establishing baseline values for pathogen exposure and nutritional indices is necessary to monitor population health. However, little is known about white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) pathogen exposure and nutritional condition in the Northern Great Plains. Our objective was to assess pathogen exposure and establish nutritional indices for female white-tailed deer in Dunn and Grant counties, North Dakota and Perkins County, South Dakota. During 2014, we collected blood serum from 150 adult female white-tailed deer. Pathogens with the highest antibody prevalence included West Nile Virus (WNV; 85%), epizootic hemorrhagic disease (48%), and malignant catarrhal fever (32%). Serum values for creatine kinase, globulin, glucose, potassium, and lactate dehydrogenase in all three study areas were higher than reference ranges while sodium was low in Grant County relative to Dunn and Perkins counties. We speculate that high exposure of WNV and high potassium values combined with low sodium values may affect neonate survival in Grant County. However, regional differences in pathogen exposure, their connection to serum values, and their potential interactive effects on survival are not well understood

Serological Survey and Pathogen Exposure of Adult Female White-tailed Deer in the Western Dakotas

Establishing baseline values for pathogen exposure and nutritional indices is necessary to monitor population health. However, little is known about white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) pathogen exposure and nutritional condition in the Northern Great Plains. Our objective was to assess pathogen exposure and establish nutritional indices for female white-tailed deer in Dunn and Grant counties, North Dakota and Perkins County, South Dakota. During 2014, we collected blood serum from 150 adult female white-tailed deer. Pathogens with the highest antibody prevalence included West Nile Virus (WNV; 85%), epizootic hemorrhagic disease (48%), and malignant catarrhal fever (32%). Serum values for creatine kinase, globulin, glucose, potassium, and lactate dehydrogenase in all three study areas were higher than reference ranges while sodium was low in Grant County relative to Dunn and Perkins counties. We speculate that high exposure of WNV and high potassium values combined with low sodium values may affect neonate survival in Grant County. However, regional differences in pathogen exposure, their connection to serum values, and their potential interactive effects on survival are not well understood

Shedding of soluble glycoprotein 1 detected during acute Lassa virus infection in human subjects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF) is a neglected tropical disease with significant impact on the health care system, society, and economy of Western and Central African nations where it is endemic. With a high rate of infection that may lead to morbidity and mortality, understanding how the virus interacts with the host's immune system is of great importance for generating vaccines and therapeutics. Previous work by our group identified a soluble isoform of the Lassa virus (LASV) GP1 (sGP1) <it>in vitro </it>resulting from the expression of the glycoprotein complex (GPC) gene <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr><abbr bid="B2">2</abbr></abbrgrp>. Though no work has directly been done to demonstrate the function of this soluble isoform in arenaviral infections, evidence points to immunomodulatory effects against the host's immune system mediated by a secreted glycoprotein component in filoviruses, another class of hemorrhagic fever-causing viruses. A significant fraction of shed glycoprotein isoforms during viral infection and biogenesis may attenuate the host's inflammatory response, thereby enhancing viral replication and tissue damage. Such shed glycoprotein mediated effects were previously reported for Ebola virus (EBOV), a filovirus that also causes hemorrhagic fever with nearly 90% fatality rates <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B3">3</abbr><abbr bid="B4">4</abbr><abbr bid="B5">5</abbr></abbrgrp>. The identification of an analogous phenomenon <it>in vivo </it>could establish a new correlate of LHF infection leading to the development of sensitive diagnostics targeting the earliest molecular events of the disease. Additionally, the reversal of potentially untoward immunomodulatory functions mediated by sGP1 could potentiate the development of novel therapeutic intervention. To this end, we investigated the presence of sGP1 in the serum of suspected LASV patients admitted to the Kenema Government Hospital (KGH) Lassa Fever Ward (LFW), in Kenema, Sierra Leone that tested positive for viral antigen or displayed classical signs of Lassa fever.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It is reasonable to expect that a narrow window exists for detection of sGP1 as the sole protein shed during early arenaviral biogenesis. This phenomenon was clearly distinguishable from virion-associated GP1 only prior to the emergence of <it>de novo </it>viral particles. Despite this restricted time frame, in 2/46 suspected cases in two studies performed in late 2009 and early 2010, soluble glycoprotein component shedding was identified. Differential detection of viral antigens GP1, GP2, and NP by western blot yielded five different scenarios: whole LASV virions (GP1, GP2, NP; i.e. active viremia), different combinations of these three proteins, sGP1 only, NP only, and absence of all three proteins. Four additional samples showed inconclusive evidence for sGP1 shedding due to lack of detection of GP2 and NP by western blot; however, a sensitive LASV NP antigen capture ELISA generated marginally positive signals</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>During a narrow window following active infection with LASV, soluble GP1 can be detected in patient sera. This phenomenon parallels other VHF infection profiles, with the actual role of a soluble viral glycoprotein component <it>in vivo </it>remaining largely speculative. The expenditure of energy and cellular resources toward secretion of a critical protein during viral biogenesis without apparent specific function requires further investigation. Future studies will be aimed at systematically identifying the role of LASV sGP1 in the infection process and outcome <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo</it>.</p

WormBase 2012: more genomes, more data, new website

Since its release in 2000, WormBase (http://www.wormbase.org) has grown from a small resource focusing on a single species and serving a dedicated research community, to one now spanning 15 species essential to the broader biomedical and agricultural research fields. To enhance the rate of curation, we have automated the identification of key data in the scientific literature and use similar methodology for data extraction. To ease access to the data, we are collaborating with journals to link entities in research publications to their report pages at WormBase. To facilitate discovery, we have added new views of the data, integrated large-scale datasets and expanded descriptions of models for human disease. Finally, we have introduced a dramatic overhaul of the WormBase website for public beta testing. Designed to balance complexity and usability, the new site is species-agnostic, highly customizable, and interactive. Casual users and developers alike will be able to leverage the public RESTful application programming interface (API) to generate custom data mining solutions and extensions to the site. We report on the growth of our database and on our work in keeping pace with the growing demand for data, efforts to anticipate the requirements of users and new collaborations with the larger science community

Detection of Homocysteine and C-Reactive Protein in the Saliva of Healthy Adults: Comparison with Blood Levels

Inflammation and cardiovascular disease are associated with elevated serum levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and homocysteine. The presence of both molecules in saliva provides an opportunity for development of non-invasive assessments of disease risk. However, salivary CRP and homocysteine reference ranges and their correlation with serum levels are unknown. This study investigated if CRP and homocysteine could be routinely detected in the saliva of healthy adults and the relationship between salivary and blood levels. CRP and homocysteine concentrations were determined using ELISA and enzymatic assays respectively. Homocysteine was detected in only two saliva samples (n = 55). CRP was measurable in all saliva samples (range: 0.05 to 64.3 μg/L; median = 1.2 μg/L) and plasma samples (range: 0.14 to 31.1 mg/L; median = 2.0 mg/L). Regression analysis demonstrated no relationship between CRP concentration in saliva and plasma (R2 = 0.001). Generalized linear models including variables such as saliva flow rate and time since eating or drinking also did not pass lack of fit testing. Therefore, a relationship between CRP concentration in saliva and blood could not be established in this group of subjects. More sensitive detection methods are needed to determine if a correlation between salivary and serum homocysteine levels exists

High-level real-time programming in Java

Real-time systems have reached a level of complexity beyond the scaling capability of the low-level or restricted languages traditionally used for real-time programming. While Metronome garbage collection has made it practical to use Java to implement real-time systems, many challenges remain for the construction of complex real-time systems, some specic to the use of Java and others simply due to the change in scale of such systems. The goal of our research is the creation of a comprehensive Java-based programming environment and methodology for the creation of complex real-time systems. Our goals include construction of a provably correct real-time garbage collec-tor capable of providing worst case latencies of 100 s, capa-ble of scaling from sensor nodes up to large multiprocessors; specialized programming constructs that retain the safety and simplicity of Java, and yet provide sub-microsecond la-tencies; the extension of Java&apos;s \write once, run anywhere&quot; principle from functional correctness to timing behavior; on-line analysis and visualization that aids in the understanding of complex behaviors; and a principled probabilistic analy-sis methodology for bounding the behavior of the resulting systems. While much remains to be done, this paper describes the progress we have made towards these goals

Applications of patching to quadratic forms and central simple algebras

This paper provides applications of patching to quadratic forms and central simple algebras over function fields of curves over henselian valued fields. In particular, we use a patching approach to reprove and generalize a recent result of Parimala and Suresh on the u-invariant of p-adic function fields, for p odd. The strategy relies on a local-global principle for homogeneous spaces for rational algebraic groups, combined with local computations.Comment: 48 pages; connectivity now required in the definition of rational group; beginning of Section 4 reorganized; other minor change

Quantum Optics and Photonics

Contains table of contents for Part II, table of contents for Section 1 and reports on six research projects.U.S. Air Force - Electronic Systems Division Contract F19628-92-K-0013U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N0014-91-J-1808Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Grant NG0921-94-C-0101MIT Plasma Fusion Cente

Thermal evolution of Monte Blanco dome: Low-angle normal faulting during Gulf of California rifting and late Eocene denudation of the eastern Peninsular Ranges

Footwall rocks of the Cañada David detachment fault, northeastern Baja California, record late Eocene-earliest Oligocene and late Neogene cooling events previously unrecognized in the region. Biotite ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar ages of ∼65 Ma reflect slow cooling through ∼350°C, 5 to 10 m.y. later than is typical in the region. Multiple diffusion domain modeling of K feldspar ^(40)Ar/^(39)Ar release spectra shows very slow cooling (∼1°C/m.y.) from ∼65 to ∼45 Ma. Accelerated cooling from ∼315°C to ∼215°C between ∼45 and ∼33 Ma records at least 3–4 km of denudation that we relate to east-side-up reactivation of late Cretaceous structures that generally follow the oceanic-continental suture. Previously established rivers flowing west from mainland Mexico apparently became further entrenched during this uplift and continued to supply distinctive rhyolitic detritus to the coast. Ultimately, surface uplift disrupted and rerouted the extraregional rivers some 2 to 6 m.y. before the cooling event ended. Footwall rocks remained nearly isothermal from ∼30 to ∼15–10 Ma, when renewed rapid cooling (33° ± 17°C/m.y.) began in response to footwall exhumation by top-to-the-west low-angle normal faulting that accommodated rift-related extension in what finally became the Gulf of California. Apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He ages of ∼5 Ma and ∼4 Ma, respectively, record final detachment-related cooling through ∼110°C to ∼70°C. Thermal-kinematic modeling suggests that 5–7 km of late Neogene tectonic denudation and 10–12 km of horizontal extension were necessary in order to unroof the samples by 2 Ma. Additional extension, of unknown magnitude, has probably occurred subsequently. Geodetically measured horizontal extension rates are considerably higher than the long-term extension rate that can be attributed to detachment faulting