Vaccinia virus immune evasion: mechanisms, virulence and immunogenicity

Virus infection of mammalian cells is sensed by pattern recognition receptors and leads to an innate immune response that restricts virus replication and induces adaptive immunity. In response, viruses have evolved many countermeasures that enable them to replicate and be transmitted to new hosts, despite the host innate immune response. Poxviruses, such as vaccinia virus (VACV), have large DNA genomes and encode many proteins that are dedicated to host immune evasion. Some of these proteins are secreted from the infected cell, where they bind and neutralize complement factors, interferons, cytokines and chemokines. Other VACV proteins function inside cells to inhibit apoptosis or signalling pathways that lead to the production of interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In this review, these VACV immunomodulatory proteins are described and the potential to create more immunogenic VACV strains by manipulation of the gene encoding these proteins is discussed

Mena, a new available marker in tumors of salivary glands?

Mena (mammalian Ena) is an actin regulatory protein involved in cell motility and adhesion. Based on its potential role in malignant transformation revealed in other organs, we analyzed the Mena expression in normal salivary glands (SG) and salivary tumors. Mena expression was determined in normal SG (n=10) and also benign (n=20) and malignant (n=35) lesions of SG. For the immunohistochemical staining we used the anti-Mena antibody. All normal SG and the benign lesions (10 pleomorphic adenomas, 10 Warthin's tumors) were Mena negative. Salivary duct carcinomas (n=5), carcinomas in pleomorphic adenoma (n=5), acinic cell carcinomas (n=5), squamous cell carcinomas (n=10) and high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinomas (n=2) were positive. The lymphomas (n=5) and low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinomas (n=1) were Mena negative. In one case the lymphoblastic cells stained positive for Mena. Some of the endothelial cells, in the peritumoral vessels, were Mena positive. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in the literature about Mena expression in salivary tumors. Our study suggests that Mena protein seems to play a role in malignant transformation and its intensity is correlated with the type and grade of tumor and also with vascular invasion. Its positivity in endothelial cells may suggest its potential role in tumor angiogenesis

Identification of Native Defects (Vacancies and Antisites) in CdSiP2 Crystals

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is used to identify four native defects in single crystals of CdSiP2. This nonlinear optical material is used in optical parametric oscillators to generate tunable output in the mid-infrared. The performance of these frequency-conversion devices is limited when infrared absorption bands associated with native defects overlap a pump wavelength. Cadmium, silicon, and phosphorus vacancies and also silicon-on-cadmium antisites are present in the as-grown undoped CdSiP2 crystals. Using near-band-edge 632.8 nm light from a He-Ne laser, a paramagnetic charge state, and thus an EPR spectrum, is formed at liquid-helium temperatures for three of the four defects. The EPR spectrum from the singly ionized silicon vacancy (V-Si) is present without light and has five hyperfine lines due to equal interactions with the four neighboring 31P nuclei. In contrast, the photoinduced EPR spectrum from the singly ionized cadmium vacancy (V-Cd) has a three-line hyperfine pattern due to equal interactions with only two of its four neighboring 31P nuclei. The light-induced spectrum from the singly ionized silicon-on-cadmium antisite (Si+Cd) also has a three-line hyperfine pattern, thus indicating that the unpaired spin interacts primarily with only two 31P neighbors. For the neutral phosphorus vacancy (V0P), the unpaired spin is primarily localized on the nearest-neighbor silicon ions and the photoinduced EPR spectrum has no resolved 31P hyperfine interactions. The silicon and cadmium vacancies are acceptors, and the silicon-on-cadmium antisite and the phosphorus vacancy are donors

The evolution and ecology of land ownership

Land ownership norms play a central role in social-ecological systems, and have been studied extensively as a component of ethnographies. Yet only recently has the distribution of land ownership norms across cultures been examined from evolutionary and ecological perspectives. Here we incorporate evolutionary and macroecological modelling to test associations between land ownership norms and environmental, subsistence, and cultural contact predictors for societies in the Bantu language family. We find that Bantu land ownership norms likely evolved on a unilinear trajectory, but not necessarily one requiring consistent increase in exclusivity as suggested by prior theory. Our macroecological analyses suggest that Bantu societies are more likely to have some form of ownership when their neighbors also do. We also find an effect of environmental productivity, supporting resource defensibility theory, which posits that land ownership is more likely where productivity is predictable. We find less support for a proposed link between agricultural intensification and land ownership. Overall, we demonstrate the value of combining analytical approaches from evolution and ecology to test diverse hypotheses on land ownership across a range of disciplines.1. Introduction 2. Materials and methods 2.1 Data 2.2 Phylogenetic analyses of evolution of land ownership 2.3 Multi-model inference of drivers of spatial patterns in land ownership 3. Results 3.1 Evolutionary trajectories of land ownership 3.2 Drivers of spatial variation in land ownership 4. Discussio

Pathways to social inequality

Social inequality is now pervasive in human societies, despite the fact that humans lived in relatively egalitarian, small-scale societies across most of our history. Prior literature highlights the importance of environmental conditions, economic defensibility, and wealth transmission for shaping early Holocene origins of social inequality. However, it remains untested whether the mechanisms that drive the evolution of inequality in recent human societies follow a similar trajectory. We conduct the first global analysis of pathways to inequality within modern human societies using structural equation modeling. Our analytical approach demonstrates that environmental conditions, resource intensification, and wealth transmission mechanisms impact various forms of social inequality via a complex web of causality. We further find that subsistence practices have a direct impact on some institutionalized forms of inequality. This work identifies drivers of social inequality in the modern world and demonstrates the application of structural equation modeling methods to investigate complex relationships between elements of human culture

Pathways to social inequality

Social inequality is now pervasive in human societies, despite the fact that humans lived in relatively egalitarian, small-scale societies across most of our history. Prior literature highlights the importance of environmental conditions, economic defensibility, and wealth transmission for shaping early Holocene origins of social inequality. However, it remains untested whether the mechanisms that drive the evolution of inequality in recent human societies follow a similar trajectory. We conduct the first global analysis of pathways to inequality within modern human societies using structural equation modeling. Our analytical approach demonstrates that environmental conditions, resource intensification, and wealth transmission mechanisms impact various forms of social inequality via a complex web of causality. We further find that subsistence practices have a direct impact on some institutionalized forms of inequality. This work identifies drivers of social inequality in the modern world and demonstrates the application of structural equation modeling methods to investigate complex relationships between elements of human culture

Primers designed for the detection of grapevine pathogens spreading with propagating material by quantitative real-time PCR

Several grapevine pathogens are disseminated by propagating material as systemic, but latent infections. Their detection andidentification have a basic importance in the production and handling of propagating stocks. Thus several sensitive and reliable diagnosticprotocols mostly based on molecular techniques have been developed. Of these methods quantitative real-time PCR (q-PCR) has recently gotan emerging importance. Here we collected primer data for the detection and identification of grapevine pathogens which are important inthe production of propagating stocks by q-PCR. Additional novel techniques that use DNA amplification, hybridization and sequencing arealso briefly reviewed

Halo Femoral Traction for 1 Week Between Staged Anterior and Posterior Fusion Surgeries for Severe Adolescent Scoliosis Is Effective and Safe.

OBJECTIVE: To report the outcomes of halo femoral traction (HFT) used for 1 week between anterior release and definitive posterior fusion in adolescents with severe rigid scoliosis. METHODS: A retrospective single-center review of 22 consecutive patients (mean age at surgery, 14.1 years; range, 10.5-18.2 years; 17 girls) with severe, rigid scoliosis treated with anterior release, followed by HFT for 7 days prior to posterior instrumented fusion. Cobb angles were measured preoperatively, 1 week after anterior release and traction, after posterior fusion, and at a minimum 2-year follow-up. Complications were recorded. RESULTS: Mean preoperative Cobb angle was 97° (range, 80°-118°), correcting to 52° with anterior release and HFT and 31° after posterior fusion. This equated to a 68% deformity correction and was maintained at final follow-up. Three traction-related complications were experienced, including 1 case of neck pain and 2 cases of brachial plexopathy that resolved with traction weight reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Three-staged deformity correction using HFT for 1 week only offers gradual correction of the spine over sufficient time to optimize deformity correction yet minimizes neurologic dysfunction

The Global Jukebox: a public database of performing arts and culture

Standardized cross-cultural databases of the arts are critical to a balanced scientific understanding of the performing arts, and their role in other domains of human society. This paper introduces the Global Jukebox as a resource for comparative and cross-cultural study of the performing arts and culture. The Global Jukebox adds an extensive and detailed global database of the performing arts that enlarges our understanding of human cultural diversity. Initially prototyped by Alan Lomax in the 1980s, its core is the Cantometrics dataset, encompassing standardized codings on 37 aspects of musical style for 5,776 traditional songs from 1,026 societies. The Cantometrics dataset has been cleaned and checked for reliability and accuracy, and includes a full coding guide with audio training examples (https://theglobaljukebox.org/?songsofearth). Also being released are seven additional datasets coding and describing instrumentation, conversation, popular music, vowel and consonant placement, breath management, social factors, and societies. For the first time, all digitized Global Jukebox data are being made available in open-access, downloadable format (https://github.com/theglobaljukebox), linked with streaming audio recordings (theglobaljukebox.org) to the maximum extent allowed while respecting copyright and the wishes of culture-bearers. The data are cross-indexed with the Database of Peoples, Languages, and Cultures (D-PLACE) to allow researchers to test hypotheses about worldwide coevolution of aesthetic patterns and traditions. As an example, we analyze the global relationship between song style and societal complexity, showing that they are robustly related, in contrast to previous critiques claiming that these proposed relationships were an artifact of autocorrelation (though causal mechanisms remain unresolved).Introduction Background The Global Jukebox and its data 1. The data 1.1. Datasets of the Global Jukebox 1.2. Comparison with other cross cultural datasets 1.3. Coded performance variables: Selection and reliability 1.4. Performance data sources 1.5. Selection of audio examples 1.6. Availability of audio recordings 1.7. Performance metadata 2. Sampling societies and links to other datasets 2.1. Sampling societies 2.2. Links to other cross-cultural datasets 3. Data curation, cleaning, and validation 4. Coding reliability 5. Is song style correlated with social complexity? An example of hypothesis testing using the Global Jukebox 5.1. Hypothesis testing with the Global Jukebox datasets 5.2. Methods 5.3 Results of reanalysis 5.4 Discussion 6. Ethics, rights and consent 7. Conclusio