Contact transmission of influenza virus between ferrets imposes a looser bottleneck than respiratory droplet transmission allowing propagation of antiviral resistance

Influenza viruses cause annual seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics. It is important to elucidate the stringency of bottlenecks during transmission to shed light on mechanisms that underlie the evolution and propagation of antigenic drift, host range switching or drug resistance. The virus spreads between people by different routes, including through the air in droplets and aerosols, and by direct contact. By housing ferrets under different conditions, it is possible to mimic various routes of transmission. Here, we inoculated donor animals with a mixture of two viruses whose genomes differed by one or two reverse engineered synonymous mutations, and measured the transmission of the mixture to exposed sentinel animals. Transmission through the air imposed a tight bottleneck since most recipient animals became infected by only one virus. In contrast, a direct contact transmission chain propagated a mixture of viruses suggesting the dose transferred by this route was higher. From animals with a mixed infection of viruses that were resistant and sensitive to the antiviral drug oseltamivir, resistance was propagated through contact transmission but not by air. These data imply that transmission events with a looser bottleneck can propagate minority variants and may be an important route for influenza evolution

Experimental Study on the Explosive Spalling in High-Performance Concrete: Role of Aggregate and Fiber Types

A complete description of the mechanical behavior of High-Performance Concrete in fire still requires further efforts to fully understand the tricky phenomenon of spalling, whose complexity comes from the interaction among different phenomena, namely: the microstructural changes occurring in concrete at high temperature, the pressure rising in the pores, and the stress induced by both thermal gradients and external loads. To what extent these different aspects influence each other is still not completely clear, and within this context a comprehensive experimental campaign has been launched at the Politecnico di Milano, focusing on the role played by concrete grade, aggregate type, and fiber type and content. Eleven concrete mixes are investigated considering three grades (fc ≥ 40, 60 and 90 MPa), three aggregate types (silico-calcareous, basalt and calcareous aggregates) and different fiber types and contents (steel and monofilament or fibrillated polypropylene fibers)

Maize Production in Bangladesh: Way towards Self-sufficiency

Since the establishment of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) in 1976, maize research developed eight composites and 11 hybrids of maize. Maize was introduced as a relatively new crop in the rice-based agriculture of Bangladesh, especially in the northern region. Currently, maize is considered an important cash crop to its growers. In terms of area and production, it ranks third after rice and wheat (BBS, 2011). The area under maize cultivation is increasing steadily due to its ready market, remunerative price, lower-cost of production, and overall higher-profitability compared to that of rice and wheat..

Assessment of the Maize Situation, Outlook and Opportunities in Asia

Maize is the second most important crop in Asia. China is the biggest maize producer and consumer of maize in Asia. Maize is the second most important crop in China and the demand for its domestic consumption is very high; therefore China is the biggest importer of maize in Asia. There is a very huge investment opportunity in China for maize R&D and its expansion to reduce the import dependency of such an important crop. In India, maize is the third most important crop after wheat and rice. However, India followed China in terms of maize production and consumption. It is a net exporter of maize. Increased domestic consumption, coupled with export prospects, place India in a unique place to catalyse investment in maize R&D. Indonesia followed India in production and consumption, with the third-highest area and production levels in Asia. Demand for maize in Indonesia is again, very high; it cannot produce the required quantity, therefore, it imports maize as was the case of China. Bangladesh is the first, in terms of growth rate in area and production of maize, but the total size of the production is comparatively, very low. However, the increasing demand for poultry and livestock products keeps maize demand, in Bangladesh, very high which is met though imports. Therefore, investing in R&D and extension of maize area and production would be a better option for Bangladesh. In Pakistan, maize area and production has also shown an increasing trend. Present demand of maize is being met though domestic production and surplus is exported. Under the increasing demand for maize in feed and processing industry in Pakistan and relatively higher cost of production, higher investment in maize R&D is required along the whole maize value chain for export of value added maize products to increase competitiveness. There is a lot of scope of investment in maize sector in these Asian countries. Governments of these countries need to focus on this aspect along with having a regional cooperation both in R&D, expansion and trade

Beyond the island story? the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games as public history

This paper evaluates the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games as an exercise in public history. Public events have been widely identified within the study of nationalism as festivals that attempt to reinforce national identity and belonging. Contemporary Olympic Games figure in this literature as a specific form of event where the nature and content of a host state's identity is displayed for the global gaze of other nations. While opening ceremonies perform a rich display of national identity in any case, London 2012 is particularly significant for taking place at a time of major political contestation in the United Kingdom and has frequently been interpreted as an expression of radical patriotism. Traces of such patriotic thought associated particularly with England can be found in the opening ceremony's historical pageant and overall concept, showing resonances with the work of Raphael Samuel, who argued for a radical patriotism grounded in a multiplicity of accounts of the national past from many social positions. Depicting the nation through a multiplicity of biographical narratives produces a ‘mosaic' mode of representation which can be seen in other documentary and public history projects and in the political context of British public multiculturalism in the 2000s. This responds to the need for any national narrative to be composed through compressing the lives of millions of people into one coherent story, but complicates attempts to read a text such as the opening ceremony for what they ‘really' mean. A model for understanding narratives of the past as being produced in interaction between their initial creator(s) and their reader(s) is necessary for understanding not only the London 2012 opening ceremony in particular but public history and narratives of the national past in general

OX40 and 4-1BB delineate distinct immune profiles in sarcoma.

Systemic relapse after radiotherapy and surgery is the major cause of disease-related mortality in sarcoma patients. Combining radiotherapy and immunotherapy is under investigation as a means to improve response rates. However, the immune contexture of sarcoma is understudied. Here, we use a retrospective cohort of sarcoma patients, treated with neoadjuvant radiotherapy, and TCGA data. We explore therapeutic targets of relevance to sarcoma, using genomics and multispectral immunohistochemistry to provide insights into the tumor immune microenvironment across sarcoma subtypes. Differential gene expression between radioresponsive myxoid liposarcoma (MLPS) and more radioresistant undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) indicated UPS contained higher transcript levels of a number of immunotherapy targets (CD73/NT5E, CD39/ENTPD1, CD25/IL2RA, and 4-1BB/TNFRSF9). We focused on 4-1BB/TNFRSF9 and other costimulatory molecules. In TCGA data, 4-1BB correlated to an inflamed and exhausted phenotype. OX40/TNFRSF4 and 4-1BB/TNFRSF9 were highly expressed in sarcoma subtypes versus other cancers. Despite OX40 and 4-1BB being described as Treg markers, we identified that they delineate distinct tumor immune profiles. This was true for sarcoma and other cancers. While only a limited number of samples could be analyzed, spatial analysis of OX40 expression identified two diverse phenotypes of OX40+ Tregs, one associated with and one independent of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs). Patient stratification is of intense interest for immunotherapies. We provide data supporting the viewpoint that a cohort of sarcoma patients, appropriately selected, are promising candidates for immunotherapies. Spatial profiling of OX40+ Tregs, in relation to TLSs, could be an additional metric to improve future patient stratification

Regional chemotherapy by isolated limb perfusion prior to surgery compared with surgery and post-operative radiotherapy for primary, locally advanced extremity sarcoma: a comparison of matched cohorts

Background: Induction chemotherapy by isolated limb perfusion (ILP) with melphalan and tumour necrosis factor-α is an effective strategy to facilitate limb-conserving surgery in locally advanced extremity sarcoma. In a comparison of cohorts matched for grade, size and surgical resectability, we compared the outcome of patients undergoing induction ILP prior to limb-conserving surgery and selective post-operative radiotherapy with patients undergoing limb-conserving surgery and routine post-operative radiotherapy. Methods: Patients with primary, grade 2/3 sarcomas of the lower limbs over 10 cm in size were identified from prospectively maintained databases at 3 centres. Patients treated at a UK centre underwent limb-conserving surgery and post-operative radiotherapy (Standard cohort). Patients at two German centres underwent induction ILP, limb-conserving surgery and selective post-operative radiotherapy (ILP cohort). Results: The Standard cohort comprised 80 patients and the ILP cohort 44 patients. Both cohorts were closely matched in terms of tumour size, grade, histological subtype and surgical resectability. The median age was greater in the Standard vs the ILP cohort (60.5 years vs 56 years, p = 0.033). The median size was 13 cm in both cohorts. 5-year local-recurrence (ILP 12.2%, Standard 20.1%, p = 0.375) and distant metastases-free survival rates (ILP 49.6%, Standard 46.0% p = 0.821) did not differ significantly between cohorts. Fewer patients received post-operative radiotherapy in the ILP cohort compared with the Standard cohort (27% vs 82%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: In comparative cohorts, the outcomes of patients undergoing induction ILP prior to surgery did not differ from those undergoing standard management, although induction ILP was associated with a reduced need for adjuvant radiation