Iowa City Municipal Airport: Opening the West to Aviation, 1918-2007

Review of: "Iowa City Municipal Airport: Opening the West to Aviation, 1918-2007," by Jan Olive Nash

Iowa City Municipal Airport: Opening the West to Aviation, 1918-2007

Review of: "Iowa City Municipal Airport: Opening the West to Aviation, 1918-2007," by Jan Olive Nash

The influenza NS1 protein: what do we know in equine influenza virus pathogenesis?

Equine influenza virus remains a serious health and potential economic problem throughout most parts of the world, despite intensive vaccination programs in some horse populations. The influenza non-structural protein 1 (NS1) has multiple functions involved in the regulation of several cellular and viral processes during influenza infection. We review the strategies that NS1 uses to facilitate virus replication and inhibit antiviral responses in the host, including sequestering of double-stranded RNA, direct modulation of protein kinase R activity and inhibition of transcription and translation of host antiviral response genes such as type I interferon. Details are provided regarding what it is known about NS1 in equine influenza, especially concerning C-terminal truncation. Further research is needed to determine the role of NS1 in equine influenza infection, which will help to understand the pathophysiology of complicated cases related to cytokine imbalance and secondary bacterial infection, and to investigate new therapeutic and vaccination strategies

Pseudotypes: your flexible friends

Pseudotype viruses: applications and troubleshooting' (EuroSciCon 2013), a 1-day conference held at Cineworld: The O2 (London, UK) on 2 October 2013, focused on the technique of pseudotyping enveloped viruses (for a review of the technique, see [1]). The talks and posters covered the challenges and successes of pseudotyping viruses from a broad range of families (Retroviridae, Flaviviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Bunyaviridae and Rhabdoviridae) for a variety of applications. The conference was chaired by Nigel Temperton, University of Kent (UK), who placed a strong emphasis on using this event to explore the technical challenges of pseudotyping viruses, especially during the poster and afternoon question and answer sessions

The use of equine influenza pseudotypes for serological screening

Standard assays used for influenza serology present certain practical issues, such as inter-laboratory variability, complex protocols and the necessity for handling certain virus strains in high biological containment facilities. In an attempt to address this, avian and human influenza HA pseudotyped retroviruses have been successfully employed in antibody neutralization assays. In this study we generated an equine influenza pseudotyped lentivirus for serological screening. This was achieved by co-transfection of HEK293T cells with plasmids expressing the haemagglutinin (HA) protein of an H3N8 subtype equine influenza virus strain, HIV gag-pol and firefly luciferase reporter genes and harvesting virus from supernatant. In order to produce infective pseudotype particles it was necessary to additionally co-transfect a plasmid encoding the TMPRSS2 endoprotease to cleave the HA. High titre pseudotype virus (PV) was then used in PV antibody neutralization assays (PVNAs) to successfully distinguish between vaccinated and non-vaccinated equines. The sera were also screened by single radial haemolysis (SRH) assay. There was a 65% correlation between the results of the two assays, with the PVNA assay appearing slightly more sensitive. Future work will extend the testing of the PVNA with a larger number of serum samples to assess sensitivity/specificity, inter/intra-laboratory variability and to define a protective titre

What can mathematical models bring to the control of equine influenza?

Mathematical modelling of infectious disease is increasingly regarded as an important tool in the development of disease prevention and control measures. This article brings together key findings from various modelling studies conducted over the past 10 years that are of relevance to those on the front line of the battle against equine influenza

Potential of a sequence-based antigenic distance measure to indicate equine influenza vaccine strain efficacy

The calculation of pepitope values, a sequence-based measure of antigenic distance between strains, was developed for human influenza. The potential to apply the pepitope value to equine influenza vaccine strain selection was assessed. There was a negative correlation between pepitope value and vaccine efficacy for pairs of vaccine and challenge strains used in cross-protection studies in ponies that just reached statistical significance (p = 0.046) only if one pair of viruses was excluded from the analysis. Thus the pepitope value has potential to provide additional data to consider in the decision-making process for updating equine influenza vaccine strains. However, further work is required to define the epitopes of the equine H3N8 haemagglutinin protein recognised by equine antibodies, which could lead to refinement of the pepitope value calculation. Furthermore, other factors such as vaccine potency and virulence of circulating strains may also influence vaccine efficacy

The Optimisation of Pseudotyped Viruses for the Characterisation of Immune Responses to Equine Influenza Virus

Pseudotyped viruses (PVs) produced by co-transfecting cells with plasmids expressing lentiviral core proteins and viral envelope proteins are potentially powerful tools for studying various aspects of equine influenza virus (EIV) biology. The aim of this study was to optimise production of equine influenza PVs. Co-transfection of the HAT protease to activate the haemagglutinin (HA) yielded a higher titre PV than TMPRSS2 with the HA from A/equine/Richmond/1/2007 (H3N8), whereas for A/equine/Newmarket/79 (H3N8), both proteases resulted in equivalent titres. TMPRSS4 was ineffective with the HA of either strain. There was also an inverse relationship between the amount of protease-expression plasmids and the PV titre obtained. Interestingly, the PV titre obtained by co-transfection of a plasmid encoding the cognate N8 NA was not as high as that generated by the addition of exogenous neuraminidase (NA) from Clostridium perfringens to allow the release of nascent PV particles. Finally, initial characterisation of the reliability of PV neutralisation tests (PVNTs) demonstrated good intra-laboratory repeatability. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that equine influenza PV production can be readily optimised to provide a flexible tool for studying EIV

Influencia del estrés laboral en el desempeño laboral en trabajadores del área comercial de una empresa en San Isidro, 2022

La presente investigación, tuvo como objetivo general analizar la influencia del estrés laboral en el desempeño laboral de los trabajadores del área comercial en una empresa en San Isidro. Esta investigación es mixta, presenta datos cuantitativos los cuales fueron expresados en las tablas y además se cuenta con testimonios, los que permiten tener una visión más completa de la investigación. El modelo es descriptivo correlacional, su diseño fue no experimental y de corte transversal; la población muestra estuvo compuesta por 70 trabajadores del área comercial, ambos sexos y cuyas edades oscilan entre los 21 y 61 años de edad. Se empleó la técnica de la encuesta y observación, y como instrumento el registro de la entrevista y la guía de registro de observación, así mismo se utilizó el cuestionario virtual para recolección de datos, dicho cuestionario contó con 21 ítems, 10 de ellos para medir el estrés laboral y 11 para medir el desempeño laboral, en ambos casos, se utilizó el programa Excel para procesar los datos y dar respuesta a las hipótesis y objetivos planteados. Cabe señalar que el cuestionario pasó por juicio de expertos antes de ser aplicado. De los resultados obtenidos, se concluyó que, respecto a la variable estrés laboral, el 60% presenta un nivel bajo, el 23% presenta un nivel medio y el 17% presenta un nivel alto; con referencia a la variable desempeño laboral se pudo verificar que, el 13% presenta un nivel bajo, el 17% presenta un nivel medio y el 70% presenta un nivel alto. Se concluye que no existe influencia del estrés laboral en el desempeño laboral en los trabajadores del área comercial de una empresa en San Isidro, 2022.TesisComunicación y desarrollo human