Complete nucleotide sequence of the influenza B/Singapore/222/79 virus hemagglutinin gene and comparison with the B/Lee/40 Hemagglutinin

The complete nucleotide sequence of the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of the human type B influenza virus B/Singapore/222/79 is presented. Comparison with the only other known sequence of a B hemagglutinin (B/Lee/40) shows that antigenic drift in type B HA genes is essentially the same as already observed within the influenza A H3 subtype, i.e., an accumulation of point mutations. The main difference is that the apparent evolution is significantly slower, most likely due to the cumulative effect of a lower occurrence in the population (slower evolution) and/or less immunological pressure. There is a striking cluster of changes at positions 127 until 137 of the HA1 subunit which may represent one of the antigenic sites of the molecule

Maximal independent sets in graphs with at most one cycle

AbstractIn this paper, we determine the largest number of maximal independent sets among all connected graphs of order n, which contain at most one cycle. We also characterize those extremal graphs achieving this maximum value. As a consequence, the corresponding results for graphs with at most one cycle but not necessarily connected are also given

INTELLIGENT ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING WITH AN UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEM IN A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

This paper proposes a novel environmental monitoring mechanism to integrate recentlyestablished development of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) with WSNs for remote monitoring. The high mobility of UASs can solve the limitations associated with using WSNs in hazardous areas. In this paper, the WSN node, the Wireless Environmental Monitoring Station (WEMS), is based on ZigBee protocol for long-duration monitoring. Furthermore, to ensure the integrity of collected environmental data, an algorithm is designed in WEMS for verification. Finally, a detailed analysis of packet transmission efficiency based on ranges of flight distance is proposed to examine the effect of environmental monitoring

Inflammatory Responses Are Not Sufficient to Cause Delayed Neuronal Death in ATP-Induced Acute Brain Injury

BACKGROUND: Brain inflammation is accompanied by brain injury. However, it is controversial whether inflammatory responses are harmful or beneficial to neurons. Because many studies have been performed using cultured microglia and neurons, it has not been possible to assess the influence of multiple cell types and diverse factors that dynamically and continuously change in vivo. Furthermore, behavior of microglia and other inflammatory cells could have been overlooked since most studies have focused on neuronal death. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the precise roles of microglia and brain inflammation in the injured brain, and determine their contribution to neuronal damage in vivo from the onset of injury. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Acute neuronal damage was induced by stereotaxic injection of ATP into the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the cortex of the rat brain. Inflammatory responses and their effects on neuronal damage were investigated by immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, quantitative RT-PCR, and stereological counting, etc. ATP acutely caused death of microglia as well as neurons in a similar area within 3 h. We defined as the core region the area where both TH(+) and Iba-1(+) cells acutely died, and as the penumbra the area surrounding the core where Iba-1(+) cells showed activated morphology. In the penumbra region, morphologically activated microglia arranged around the injury sites. Monocytes filled the damaged core after neurons and microglia died. Interestingly, neither activated microglia nor monocytes expressed iNOS, a major neurotoxic inflammatory mediator. Monocytes rather expressed CD68, a marker of phagocytic activity. Importantly, the total number of dopaminergic neurons in the SNpc at 3 h (∼80% of that in the contralateral side) did not decrease further at 7 d. Similarly, in the cortex, ATP-induced neuron-damage area detected at 3 h did not increase for up to 7 d. CONCLUSIONS: Different cellular components (microglia, astrocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils) and different factors (proinflammatory and neurotrophic) could be produced in inflammatory processes depending on the nature of the injury. The results in this study suggest that the inflammatory responses of microglia and monocytes in response to ATP-induced acute injury could not be neurotoxic

Archaeobotanical evidence of plant cultivation from the Sanbaopi site in south-western Taiwan during the Late Neolithic and Metal Age

Despite decades of lively debate about Taiwan’s role in the spread of early agriculture, crops and cultivation practices to the Indo-Pacific region, there is little archaeobotanical data from the island. Here we present the first directly dated and systematically analysed macrobotanical records from Taiwan obtained by flotation at the archaeological site Sanbaopi 5 (23°07′03′′N, 120°15′32′′E), representing the Dahu (1400 BCE–100 CE) and Niaosong (100–1400 CE) culture periods. The results suggest that Middle Dahu (900–100 BCE) communities in the study area practiced rainfed crop cultivation with mainly foxtail (Setaria italica) and broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum) millet and rice (Oryza sativa). Pulses (Vigna angularis, Glycine soja/max) were also part of the subsistence of local farmers and used as supplementary food and/or green manure. The archaeobotanical record together with archaeological site data for prehistoric China substantiates evidence that the Dahu culture originates in the Lower Yellow River region and migrated to Taiwan along the East China Sea coast. The emergence of the Dahu culture coincided with the spread of mixed millet-rice farming to the Korean Peninsula and Japan and was possibly related to enhanced economic and political expansion of the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties and the long-term weakening of summer monsoon precipitation. Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and mung bean (V. radiata var. radiata) assemblages from the sixth century CE Niaosong period highlight the influx of goods, crops, knowledge and people from South and Southeast Asia via southern routes in the context of enhanced exchange across the South China Sea region

Analysis of Team Science: Workshop Report on Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus ​

The goal of this research was to understand how information moved between different expert communities in order to describe how to facilitate better communication. We examined this through a case study discussing the public health relevance of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus underlying COVID-19. The main source of information was the National Academies report on the Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: Proceedings of a Workshop, which brought together experts in August 2020. We analyzed the workshop bibliography and attendee list to analyze who was involved and map the relationships between the co-authors to identify whose work influenced the conversation. We also explored how experts communicated to create this workshop and the timeline of events leading up to it, by using news, scholarly articles, and Twitter posts to trace the discussion timeline. The aim of this project was to suggest guidelines for efficient and cohesive communication for team science. Through a detailed examination of this specific case study, we expected to map out what has worked well and what could be improved for communication between different communities. This information would be used in the future to support team science and optimal teamwork between expert communities.Ope

Virtual Guidance as a Mid-level Representation for Navigation

In the context of autonomous navigation, effectively conveying abstract navigational cues to agents in dynamic environments poses challenges, particularly when the navigation information is multimodal. To address this issue, the paper introduces a novel technique termed "Virtual Guidance," which is designed to visually represent non-visual instructional signals. These visual cues, rendered as colored paths or spheres, are overlaid onto the agent's camera view, serving as easily comprehensible navigational instructions. We evaluate our proposed method through experiments in both simulated and real-world settings. In the simulated environments, our virtual guidance outperforms baseline hybrid approaches in several metrics, including adherence to planned routes and obstacle avoidance. Furthermore, we extend the concept of virtual guidance to transform text-prompt-based instructions into a visually intuitive format for real-world experiments. Our results validate the adaptability of virtual guidance and its efficacy in enabling policy transfer from simulated scenarios to real-world ones.Comment: Tsung-Chih Chiang, Ting-Ru Liu, Chun-Wei Huang, and Jou-Min Liu contributed equally to this work; This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Effective Radiotherapy Cured Cauda Equina Syndrome Caused by Remitted Intracranial Germinoma Depositing

Cauda equina syndrome (CES) in children is very rare and can permanently disable. A remitted intracranial germinoma depositing on the spinal cord, leading to CES, has never been reported. We discuss the case of a 10-year-old girl who presented with sudden ataxia, low back pain, sensory deficits of the left lower extremity, and difficulty urinating and defecating 7 months after totally remitted intracranial germinoma postintracranial surgery and cranial irradiation. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and spine showed multiple intradural extramedullary homogeneous masses from the cervical to lumbar levels, compressing the conus medullaris and cauda equina. After emergent craniospinal irradiation, the patient's neurologic symptoms dramatically subsided. A remitted intracranial germinoma depositing on her spinal cord could be the cause of CES. Early identification and a proper craniospinal irradiation may halt the progression of symptoms