Expression of Insoluble Influenza Neuraminidase Type 1 (NA1) Protein in Tobacco

The avian influenza virus, particularly H5N1 strain, is highly virulent to poultry and mankind. Several expression systems, like yeast, baculovirus and mammalian cells, have been adopted to produce vaccine candidate for this lethal disease. The present research aimed at developing a recombinant vaccine candidate, neuraminidase type 1 (NA1), for the Malaysia isolate of H5N1 in Nicotiana benthamiana. The NA1 gene was fused directly in-frame in cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV)-based pEAQ-HT vector with C-terminal polyhistidine-tag incorporated to ease the subsequent purification step. The expression of the NA1 gene in tobacco was confirmed at RNA and protein levels at 6 days post-infiltration (Dpi). From the insoluble fraction of the protein, a recombinant glycosylated NA1 protein with a molecular weight of ~56 kDa was immunogenically detected by a specific anti-NA polyclonal antibody. We report for the first time the insolubility of the plant-made NA1 protein where a native sequence was used for its expression. This study signifies the necessity of the use of optimised sequences for expression work and provides great opportunity for the exploration of plant-manufactured NA1 protein as vaccine candidate

Religiousness as a Predictor of Suicide: An Analysis of 162 European Regions

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149318/1/sltb12435.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149318/2/sltb12435_am.pd

The OPERA experiment Target Tracker

The main task of the Target Tracker detector of the long baseline neutrino oscillation OPERA experiment is to locate in which of the target elementary constituents, the lead/emulsion bricks, the neutrino interactions have occurred and also to give calorimetric information about each event. The technology used consists in walls of two planes of plastic scintillator strips, one per transverse direction. Wavelength shifting fibres collect the light signal emitted by the scintillator strips and guide it to both ends where it is read by multi-anode photomultiplier tubes. All the elements used in the construction of this detector and its main characteristics are described.Comment: 25 pages, submitted to Nuclear Instrument and Method

Coupling of alpha(1)-Adrenoceptors to ERK1/2 in the Human Prostate

Introduction: alpha(1)-Adrenoceptors are considered critical for the regulation of prostatic smooth muscle tone. However, previous studies suggested further alpha(1)-adrenoceptor functions besides contraction. Here, we investigated whether alpha(1)-adrenoceptors in the human prostate may activate extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2). Methods: Prostate tissues from patients undergoing radical prostatectomy were stimulated in vitro. Activation of ERK1/2 was assessed by Western blot analysis. Expression of ERK1/2 was studied by immunohistochemistry. The effect of ERK1/2 inhibition by U0126 on phenylephrine-induced contraction was studied in organ-bath experiments. Results: Stimulation of human prostate tissue with noradrenaline (30 mu M) or phenylephrine (10 mu M) resulted in ERK activation. This was reflected by increased levels of phosphorylated ERK1/2. Expression of ERK1/2 in the prostate was observed in smooth muscle cells. Incubation of prostate tissue with U0126 (30 mu M) resulted in ERK1/2 inhibition. Dose-dependent phenylephrine-induced contraction of prostate tissue was not modulated by U0126. Conclusions: alpha(1)-Adrenoceptors in the human prostate are coupled to ERK1/2. This may partially explain previous observations suggesting a role of alpha(1)-adrenoceptors in the regulation of prostate growth. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Measurement of the rate of nu_e + d --> p + p + e^- interactions produced by 8B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Solar neutrinos from the decay of $^8$B have been detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) via the charged current (CC) reaction on deuterium and by the elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. The CC reaction is sensitive exclusively to nu_e's, while the ES reaction also has a small sensitivity to nu_mu's and nu_tau's. The flux of nu_e's from ^8B decay measured by the CC reaction rate is \phi^CC(nu_e) = 1.75 +/- 0.07 (stat)+0.12/-0.11 (sys.) +/- 0.05(theor) x 10^6 /cm^2 s. Assuming no flavor transformation, the flux inferred from the ES reaction rate is \phi^ES(nu_x) = 2.39+/-0.34 (stat.)+0.16}/-0.14 (sys) x 10^6 /cm^2 s. Comparison of \phi^CC(nu_e) to the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration's precision value of \phi^ES(\nu_x) yields a 3.3 sigma difference, providing evidence that there is a non-electron flavor active neutrino component in the solar flux. The total flux of active ^8B neutrinos is thus determined to be 5.44 +/-0.99 x 10^6/cm^2 s, in close agreement with the predictions of solar models.Comment: 6 pages (LaTex), 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter

Measurement of the atmospheric muon charge ratio with the OPERA detector

The OPERA detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) was used to measure the atmospheric muon charge ratio in the TeV energy region. We analyzed 403069 atmospheric muons corresponding to 113.4 days of livetime during the 2008 CNGS run. We computed separately the muon charge ratio for single and for multiple muon events in order to select different energy regions of the primary cosmic ray spectrum and to test the charge ratio dependence on the primary composition. The measured charge ratio values were corrected taking into account the charge-misidentification errors. Data have also been grouped in five bins of the "vertical surface energy". A fit to a simplified model of muon production in the atmosphere allowed the determination of the pion and kaon charge ratios weighted by the cosmic ray energy spectrum.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Rhythmic dynamics and synchronization via dimensionality reduction : application to human gait

Reliable characterization of locomotor dynamics of human walking is vital to understanding the neuromuscular control of human locomotion and disease diagnosis. However, the inherent oscillation and ubiquity of noise in such non-strictly periodic signals pose great challenges to current methodologies. To this end, we exploit the state-of-the-art technology in pattern recognition and, specifically, dimensionality reduction techniques, and propose to reconstruct and characterize the dynamics accurately on the cycle scale of the signal. This is achieved by deriving a low-dimensional representation of the cycles through global optimization, which effectively preserves the topology of the cycles that are embedded in a high-dimensional Euclidian space. Our approach demonstrates a clear advantage in capturing the intrinsic dynamics and probing the subtle synchronization patterns from uni/bivariate oscillatory signals over traditional methods. Application to human gait data for healthy subjects and diabetics reveals a significant difference in the dynamics of ankle movements and ankle-knee coordination, but not in knee movements. These results indicate that the impaired sensory feedback from the feet due to diabetes does not influence the knee movement in general, and that normal human walking is not critically dependent on the feedback from the peripheral nervous system

The detection of neutrino interactions in the emulsion/lead target of the OPERA experiment

The OPERA neutrino detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in appearance mode through the study of $\nu_\mu\to\nu_\tau$ oscillations. The apparatus consists of an emulsion/lead target complemented by electronic detectors and it is placed in the high energy long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. Runs with CNGS neutrinos were successfully carried out in 2007 and 2008 with the detector fully operational with its related facilities for the emulsion handling and analysis. After a brief description of the beam and of the experimental setup we report on the collection, reconstruction and analysis procedures of first samples of neutrino interaction events

Emulsion sheet doublets as interface trackers for the OPERA experiment

New methods for efficient and unambiguous interconnection between electronic counters and target units based on nuclear photographic emulsion films have been developed. The application to the OPERA experiment, that aims at detecting oscillations between mu neutrino and tau neutrino in the CNGS neutrino beam, is reported in this paper. In order to reduce background due to latent tracks collected before installation in the detector, on-site large-scale treatments of the emulsions ("refreshing") have been applied. Changeable Sheet (CSd) packages, each made of a doublet of emulsion films, have been designed, assembled and coupled to the OPERA target units ("ECC bricks"). A device has been built to print X-ray spots for accurate interconnection both within the CSd and between the CSd and the related ECC brick. Sample emulsion films have been extensively scanned with state-of-the-art automated optical microscopes. Efficient track-matching and powerful background rejection have been achieved in tests with electronically tagged penetrating muons. Further improvement of in-doublet film alignment was obtained by matching the pattern of low-energy electron tracks. The commissioning of the overall OPERA alignment procedure is in progress.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figure

Disease Etiology Impact on Outcomes of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Treated with Atezolizumab plus Bevacizumab: A Real-World, Multicenter Study

Introduction: The impact of etiology on response to immunotherapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is being debated, with contrasting findings between early and recent post hoc analyses of IMbrave-150 and metanalyses of clinical trials of PD-1/PD-L1 blockers. As a results, it is not clear whether the first-line systemic treatment atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (A + B) is equally effective in viral and nonviral patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 885 HCC patients treated with the first-line A + B from multiple centers from Eastern and Western countries, 53.9% having viral and 46.1% nonviral etiology. Baseline clinical and laboratory characteristics were analyzed with uni- and multivariate models to explore potential differences on overall survival (OS), time-to-progression (TTP), disease control rates (DCRs) based on etiology and to identify putative prognostic factors in etiology subgroups. Treatment toxicities and access to the second-line treatments and outcomes were also reported and compared between etiologies. Results: Overall, no statistically significant differences were found in median OS (mOS: viral 15.9 months; nonviral 16.3 months), TTP (mTTP: viral 8.3 months; nonviral 7.2 months), and DCRs (viral 78.1%; nonviral 80.8%) based on etiology. Prognostic factors of survival and progression were mainly shared between viral and nonviral etiologies, including alpha-fetoprotein, aspartate transaminase, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and ALBI score. Exploratory analyses highlighted a possible stronger association of immunological factors, i.e., NLR and eosinophil count, to treatment outcomes in viral patients. The toxicity profile, the access to and type of the second-line treatments and their outcome in terms of OS almost overlap in the two etiology subgroups. Conclusion: Atezolizumab plus bevacizumab efficacy does not vary according to underlying etiology of HCC in a multicenter, real-world population, matching recent post hoc findings from the IMbrave-150 trial. Preliminary analyses suggest that some prognostic factors differ between viral and nonviral patients, potentially due to biological and immunological differences. Prospective and comparative trials stratifying by etiology are warranted to validate these findings and guide clinical practice