Cellular Characterization of SARS Coronavirus Nucleocapsid

The Severe and Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS CoV) is a newly-emerged virus that caused an outbreak of atypical pneumonia in the winter of 2002-2003. Polyclonal antibodies raised against the nucleocapsid (N) of the SARS CoV showed the localization of N to the cytoplasm and the nucleolus in virus-infected and N-expressing Vero E6 cells. Like other coronavirus N proteins, the SARS N is probably a phosphoprotein. N protein expressed in mammalian cells is apparently able to “spread” to neighboring cells. For N to spread to neighboring cells, it must be exported out of the expressing cells. This is shown by the immunoprecipitation of N from the culture medium of a stable cell line expressing myc-N. Deletion studies showed that the 27 kD C-terminal domain of N (C1/2) is the minimal region of N that can spread to other cells. The nucleolar localization and spreading of N are artefacts of fixation, reminiscent of other protein-transduction domain (PTD)-containing proteinsWeb of Scienc

A Novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Protein, U274, is transported to the Cell Surface and undergoes Endocytosis

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) genome contains open reading frames (ORFs) that encode for several genes that are homologous to proteins found in all known coronaviruses. These are the replicase gene 1a/1b and the four structural proteins, nucleocapsid (N), spike (S), membrane (M), and envelope (E), and these proteins are expected to be essential for the replication of the virus. In addition, this genome also contains nine other potential ORFs varying in length from 39 to 274 amino acids. The largest among these is the first ORF of the second longest subgenomic RNA, and this protein (termed U274 in the present study) consists of 274 amino acids and contains three putative transmembrane domains. Using antibody specific for the C terminus of U274, we show U274 to be expressed in SARS-CoV-infected Vero E6 cells and, in addition to the full-length protein, two other processed forms were also detected. By indirect immunofluorescence, U274 was localized to the perinuclear region, as well as to the plasma membrane, in both transfected and infected cells. Using an N terminus myc-tagged U274, the topology of U274 and its expression on the cell surface were confirmed. Deletion of a cytoplasmic domain of U274, which contains Yxx and diacidic motifs, abolished its transport to the cell surface. In addition, U274 expressed on the cell surface can internalize antibodies from the culture medium into the cells. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments also showed that U274 could interact specifically with the M, E, and S structural proteins, as well as with U122, another protein that is unique to SARS-CoV.Web of Scienc

Pair production of charged Higgs bosons in the Left-Right Twin Higgs model at the ILC and LHC

Left-Right twin Higgs(LRTH) model predicts the existence of a pair of charged Higgs $\phi^{\pm}$. In this paper, we study the production of the charged Higgs bosons pair $\phi^{\pm}$ via the process $e^{+}e^{-}\to \phi^{+}\phi^{-}$ at the International Linear Collider(ILC). The numerical results show that the production rates are at the level of several tens fb, this process can produce the adequate distinct multi-jet final states and the SM background can be efficiently reduced. We also discuss the charged Higgs boson pair production via the process $q\bar{q}\to \phi^{+}\phi^{-}$ at the $CERN$ Large Hadron Collider(LHC) and estimate there production rates. We find that, as long as the charged Higgs bosons are not too heavy, they can be abundantly produced at the LHC. The possible signatures of these new particles might be detected at the ILC and LHC experiments.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, discussion extended, reference added, typos fixed, revised version to be published in Eur.Phys.J.

Genomic and Resistome Analyses of <em>Elizabethkingia anophelis</em> Strain B2D isolated from Dental Plaque of Patient

\ua9 2024, HH Publisher. All rights reserved.In this study, strain B2D isolated from a dental plaque sample of a human patient was studied for its general characteristics, taxonomic identification, genome features, and resistome profile. The bacterium exhibited antibiotic resistance to all beta-lactam antibiotics, nitrofuran, and sulfonamides, with high minimum inhibitory concentrations. It was only sensitive to the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin and intermediately susceptible to aminoglycoside tobramycin. A preliminary identification through 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that it shared the highest sequence identity with Elizabethkingia anophelis subsp. endophytica JM-87T (100%) and Elizabethkingia anophelis subsp. anophelis R26T (99.31%). The draft genome of strain B2D was approximately 3.9 Mbp with 50 contigs and 35.5% GC content. A 16S rRNA gene and core genes-based phylogenetic analyses revealed a close phylogenetic relationship between strain B2D and the other Elizabethkingia type strains. An above species level threshold average nucleotide identity value confirmed its taxonomic identity as Elizabethkingia anophelis. Furthermore, we conducted a resistome analysis of strain B2D and Elizabethkingia type strains, revealing the presence of widespread antibiotic resistance genes, including beta-lactamases and genes associated with cationic antiseptic resistance and glycopeptide resistance. Overall, the multidrug resistant profile of strain B2D as elucidated and confirmed through whole genome analysis indicated its potential as a reservoir of beta-lactamase genes. Moreover, its presence within dental plaque in the human oral cavity prompts speculation regarding its role as an opportunistic pathogen capable of causing infections, particularly in immunocompromised individuals

Collaborative practice among general ward staff on escalating care in clinical deterioration: A systematic review

Aim To understand the issues surrounding collaborative practice and collaboration experiences among general ward staff in the escalation of care for clinically deteriorating patients. Design A systematic synthesis without meta-analysis. Review Methods Seven electronic databases (CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and ProQuest Theses and Dissertations) were searched from their inception to 30 April 2022. Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts and full text for eligibility. The critical appraisal skill programme, Joanna Briggs Institute checklist for analytical cross-sectional studies and mixed methods appraisal tool were used to appraise the quality of the included studies. Both quantitative and qualitative research data were extracted, analysed and then synthesised using the data-based convergent qualitative synthesis approach. This review adhered to the Synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guidelines. Results A total of 17 studies were included. Two themes and six sub-themes were generated: (1) intraprofessional factors—inadequate handover, workload and mutual support, raising and acting on concerns, and seeking help from seniors and (2) interprofessional factors—differences in communication styles, and hierarchical approach versus interpersonal relationships. Conclusions This systematic review highlights the need to address the intra- and interprofessional issues surrounding collaborative practice in escalation of care among general ward staff. Implications for the Profession Findings from this review will inform healthcare leaders and educators on the development of relevant strategies and multi-disciplinary training to foster effective teamwork among nurses and doctors, with the goal of improving the escalation of care for patients with clinical deterioration. No Patient or Public Contribution This systematic review did not directly involve patient or public contribution to the manuscript

Constraints on Large Extra Dimensions with Bulk Neutrinos

We consider right-handed neutrinos propagating in $\delta$ (large) extra dimensions, whose only coupling to Standard Model fields is the Yukawa coupling to the left-handed neutrino and the Higgs boson. These theories are attractive as they can explain the smallness of the neutrino mass, as has already been shown. We show that if $\delta$ is bigger than two, there are strong constraints on the radius of the extra dimensions, resulting from the experimental limit on the probability of an active state to mix into the large number of sterile Kaluza-Klein states of the bulk neutrino. We also calculate the bounds on the radius resulting from requiring that perturbative unitarity be valid in the theory, in an imagined Higgs-Higgs scattering channel.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, revtex4. v2: Minor typos corrected, references adde

Effects of physiochemical factors on prokaryotic Biodiversity in Malaysian circumneutral hot springs

Malaysia has a great number of hot springs, especially along the flank of the Banjaran Titiwangsa mountain range. Biological studies of the Malaysian hot springs are rare because of the lack of comprehensive information on their microbial communities. In this study, we report a cultivation-independent census to describe microbial communities in six hot springs. The Ulu Slim (US), Sungai Klah (SK), Dusun Tua (DT), Sungai Serai (SS), Semenyih (SE), and Ayer Hangat (AH) hot springs exhibit circumneutral pH with temperatures ranging from 43°C to 90°C. Genomic DNA was extracted from environmental samples and the V3-V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA genes were amplified, sequenced, and analyzed. High-throughput sequencing analysis showed that microbial richness was high in all samples as indicated by the detection of 6,334-26,244 operational taxonomy units. In total, 59, 61, 72, 73, 65, and 52 bacterial phyla were identified in the US, SK, DT, SS, SE, and AH hot springs, respectively. Generally, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria dominated the bacterial communities in all hot springs. Archaeal communities mainly consisted of Crenarchaeota, Euryarchaeota, and Parvarchaeota. In beta diversity analysis, the hot spring microbial memberships were clustered primarily on the basis of temperature and salinity. Canonical correlation analysis to assess the relationship between the microbial communities and physicochemical variables revealed that diversity patterns were best explained by a combination of physicochemical variables, rather than by individual abiotic variables such as temperature and salinity

High rate, fast timing Glass RPC for the high {\eta} CMS muon detectors

The HL-LHC phase is designed to increase by an order of magnitude the amount of data to be collected by the LHC experiments. To achieve this goal in a reasonable time scale the instantaneous luminosity would also increase by an order of magnitude up to $6.10^{34} cm^{-2} s^{-1}$ . The region of the forward muon spectrometer ($|{\eta}| > 1.6$) is not equipped with RPC stations. The increase of the expected particles rate up to $2 kHz/cm^{2}$ (including a safety factor 3) motivates the installation of RPC chambers to guarantee redundancy with the CSC chambers already present. The actual RPC technology of CMS cannot sustain the expected background level. The new technology that will be chosen should have a high rate capability and provides a good spatial and timing resolution. A new generation of Glass-RPC (GRPC) using low-resistivity (LR) glass is proposed to equip at least the two most far away of the four high ${\eta}$ muon stations of CMS. First the design of small size prototypes and studies of their performance in high-rate particles flux is presented. Then the proposed designs for large size chambers and their fast-timing electronic readout are examined and preliminary results are provided.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, Conference proceeding for the 2016 Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detector

Web-based monitoring tools for Resistive Plate Chambers in the CMS experiment at CERN

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are used in the CMS experiment at the trigger level and also in the standard offline muon reconstruction. In order to guarantee the quality of the data collected and to monitor online the detector performance, a set of tools has been developed in CMS which is heavily used in the RPC system. The Web-based monitoring (WBM) is a set of java servlets that allows users to check the performance of the hardware during data taking, providing distributions and history plots of all the parameters. The functionalities of the RPC WBM monitoring tools are presented along with studies of the detector performance as a function of growing luminosity and environmental conditions that are tracked over time

Radiation background with the CMS RPCs at the LHC

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are employed in the CMS Experiment at the LHC as dedicated trigger system both in the barrel and in the endcap. This article presents results of the radiation background measurements performed with the 2011 and 2012 proton-proton collision data collected by CMS. Emphasis is given to the measurements of the background distribution inside the RPCs. The expected background rates during the future running of the LHC are estimated both from extrapolated measurements and from simulation