Field trial with oral vaccination of dogs against rabies in the Philippines

BACKGROUND: The potential role of oral vaccination of dogs against rabies in the Philippines was investigated in terms of safety and efficacy. METHODS: Prior to the vaccination campaign, a house-to-house survey was carried out to collect data on the dog population in the study area, the coastal village of Mindoro. During the vaccination campaign all households were visited again, and all dogs encountered (>2 months old) were, if possible, vaccinated. Furthermore, 14 dogs vaccinated were bled on different occasions. RESULTS: During the survey, a total of 216 dogs were counted, and none of these animals had previously been vaccinated against rabies. Only 17 dogs could be restrained and subsequently vaccinated directly by the vaccinators. Another 126 dogs were offered a local-made boiled intestine bait, containing a capsule filled with 3.0 ml SAD B19 (10(7.9) FFU/ml). The bait acceptance rate of dogs offered a bait was 96.1%. The vaccination coverage of the dog population (> 2 months old) estimated by the number of animals vaccinated directly and the number of dogs that accepted a bait and subsequently punctured the vaccine container was 76%. Fifteen and 29 days after the vaccination campaign 6 and 10 dogs (n = 14) had rabies virus neutralizing antibody titres of ≥ 0.5 IU/ml, respectively. No unintentional contacts of nontarget species, including humans, with the vaccine virus were reported. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the campaign show that oral vaccination of dogs against rabies is a promising supplementary method in dog rabies control in the Philippines

Insects as food and feed: European perspectives on recent research and future priorities

This paper discusses the current state and priorities of Europe-based research on insects as food and feed, based on presentations at a workshop held in December 2015, and discussions that followed. We divide research into studies that focus on farming, health and nutrition, and those that prioritise psychological, social and political concerns. Edible insects are not necessarily universally beneficial. However, certain food insects can convert organic waste material, and provide nutrient-rich protein for humans and animals. Recent research is not concordant when trying to identify social and psychological barriers to insects as food in Europe, indicating the complexity of the issue of consumer acceptance. Innovative means of marketing insects as food include 3D printing, scientific comics, and the promotion of rural food culture in an urban setting. Edible insects are intimately connected to strong cultural and regional values, and their increasing commercialisation may empower and/or disenfranchise those who hold such values. We conclude with a discussion about the future priorities of edible insect research in Europe. We acknowledge the political nature of the ‘entomophagy’ movement. With legislative change, the insect food industry potential presents an opportunity to challenge the dynamics of current food systems. We identify the following priorities for future research: the need to better understand environmental impacts of insect procurement on both a regional and global scale, to investigate factors affecting the safety and quality of insect foods, to acknowledge the complexity of consumer acceptance, and to monitor the social and economic impacts of this growing industry.The authors would like to thank the Great British Sasakawa Foundation and BioBridge Ltd for financial support. Jonas House’s research received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, grant number ES/J500215/1

Two-neutron knockout from neutron-deficient 34^{34}Ar, 30^{30}S, and 26^{26}Si

Two-neutron knockout reactions from nuclei in the proximity of the proton dripline have been studied using intermediate-energy beams of neutron-deficient $^{34}$Ar, $^{30}$S, and $^{26}$Si. The inclusive cross sections, and also the partial cross sections for the population of individual bound final states of the $^{32}$Ar, $^{28}$S and $^{24}$Si knockout residues, have been determined using the combination of particle and $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy. Similar to the two-proton knockout mechanism on the neutron-rich side of the nuclear chart, these two-neutron removal reactions from already neutron-deficient nuclei are also shown to be consistent with a direct reaction mechanism.Comment: Phys. Rev. C, rapid communication, in pres

Nearly K\"ahler heterotic compactifications with fermion condensates

We revisit AdS_4 heterotic compactifications on nearly K\"ahler manifolds in the presence of H-flux and certain fermion condensates. Unlike previous studies, we do not assume the vanishing of the supersymmetry variations. Instead we determine the full equations of motion originating from the ten-dimensional action, and subsequently we provide explicit solutions to them on nearly K\"ahler manifolds at first order in alpha'. The Bianchi identity is also taken into account in order to guarantee the absence of all anomalies. In the presence of H-flux, which is identified with the torsion of the internal space, as well as of fermion condensates in the gaugino and dilatino sectors, new solutions are determined. These solutions provide a full classification of consistent backgrounds of heterotic supergravity under our assumptions. All the new solutions are non-supersymmetric, while previously known supersymmetric ones are recovered too. Our results indicate that fully consistent (supersymmetric or not) heterotic vacua on nearly K\"ahler manifolds are scarce, even on AdS_4, and they can be completely classified.Comment: 1+17 pages, 1 figure; v2: remark and two references added, published versio

Syntactic learning by mere exposure - An ERP study in adult learners

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Artificial language studies have revealed the remarkable ability of humans to extract syntactic structures from a continuous sound stream by mere exposure. However, it remains unclear whether the processes acquired in such tasks are comparable to those applied during normal language processing. The present study compares the ERPs to auditory processing of simple Italian sentences in native and non-native speakers after brief exposure to Italian sentences of a similar structure. The sentences contained a non-adjacent dependency between an auxiliary and the morphologically marked suffix of the verb. Participants were presented four alternating learning and testing phases. During learning phases only correct sentences were presented while during testing phases 50 percent of the sentences contained a grammatical violation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The non-native speakers successfully learned the dependency and displayed an N400-like negativity and a subsequent anteriorily distributed positivity in response to rule violations. The native Italian group showed an N400 followed by a P600 effect.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The presence of the P600 suggests that native speakers applied a grammatical rule. In contrast, non-native speakers appeared to use a lexical form-based processing strategy. Thus, the processing mechanisms acquired in the language learning task were only partly comparable to those applied by competent native speakers.</p

Identifying metabolites by integrating metabolome databases with mass spectrometry cheminformatics.

Novel metabolites distinct from canonical pathways can be identified through the integration of three cheminformatics tools: BinVestigate, which queries the BinBase gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolome database to match unknowns with biological metadata across over 110,000 samples; MS-DIAL 2.0, a software tool for chromatographic deconvolution of high-resolution GC-MS or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS); and MS-FINDER 2.0, a structure-elucidation program that uses a combination of 14 metabolome databases in addition to an enzyme promiscuity library. We showcase our workflow by annotating N-methyl-uridine monophosphate (UMP), lysomonogalactosyl-monopalmitin, N-methylalanine, and two propofol derivatives

Precursors to Natural Grammar Learning: Preliminary Evidence from 4-Month-Old Infants

When learning a new language, grammar—although difficult—is very important, as grammatical rules determine the relations between the words in a sentence. There is evidence that very young infants can detect rules determining the relation between neighbouring syllables in short syllable sequences. A critical feature of all natural languages, however, is that many grammatical rules concern the dependency relation between non-neighbouring words or elements in a sentence i.e. between an auxiliary and verb inflection as in is singing. Thus, the issue of when and how children begin to recognize such non-adjacent dependencies is fundamental to our understanding of language acquisition. Here, we use brain potential measures to demonstrate that the ability to recognize dependencies between non-adjacent elements in a novel natural language is observable by the age of 4 months. Brain responses indicate that 4-month-old German infants discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical dependencies in auditorily presented Italian sentences after only brief exposure to correct sentences of the same type. As the grammatical dependencies are realized by phonologically distinct syllables the present data most likely reflect phonologically based implicit learning mechanisms which can serve as a precursor to later grammar learning

DHODH modulates transcriptional elongation in the neural crest and melanoma

Melanoma is a tumour of transformed melanocytes, which are originally derived from the embryonic neural crest. It is unknown to what extent the programs that regulate neural crest development interact with mutations in the BRAF oncogene, which is the most commonly mutated gene in human melanoma1. We have used zebrafish embryos to identify the initiating transcriptional events that occur on activation of human BRAF(V600E) (which encodes an amino acid substitution mutant of BRAF) in the neural crest lineage. Zebrafish embryos that are transgenic for mitfa:BRAF(V600E) and lack p53 (also known as tp53) have a gene signature that is enriched for markers of multipotent neural crest cells, and neural crest progenitors from these embryos fail to terminally differentiate. To determine whether these early transcriptional events are important for melanoma pathogenesis, we performed a chemical genetic screen to identify small-molecule suppressors of the neural crest lineage, which were then tested for their effects on melanoma. One class of compound, inhibitors of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), for example leflunomide, led to an almost complete abrogation of neural crest development in zebrafish and to a reduction in the self-renewal of mammalian neural crest stem cells. Leflunomide exerts these effects by inhibiting the transcriptional elongation of genes that are required for neural crest development and melanoma growth. When used alone or in combination with a specific inhibitor of the BRAF(V600E) oncogene, DHODH inhibition led to a marked decrease in melanoma growth both in vitro and in mouse xenograft studies. Taken together, these studies highlight developmental pathways in neural crest cells that have a direct bearing on melanoma formation

HER2 testing in breast cancer: Opportunities and challenges

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in 15-25% of breast cancers, usually as a result of HER2 gene amplification. Positive HER2 status is considered to be an adverse prognostic factor. Recognition of the role of HER2 in breast cancer growth has led to the development of anti-HER2 directed therapy, with the humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin (R)) having been approved for the therapy of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Clinical studies have further suggested that HER2 status can provide important information regarding success or failure of certain hormonal therapies or chemotherapies. As a result of these developments, there has been increasing demand to perform HER2 testing on current and archived breast cancer specimens. This article reviews the molecular background of HER2 function, activation and inhibition as well as current opinions concerning its role in chemosensitivity and interaction with estrogen receptor biology. The different tissue-based assays used to detect HER2 amplification and overexpression are discussed with respect to their advantages and disadvantages, when to test (at initial diagnosis or pre-treatment), where to test (locally or centralized) and the need for quality assurance to ensure accurate and valid testing results

Is the superior verbal memory span of Mandarin speakers due to faster rehearsal?

It is well established that digit span in native Chinese speakers is atypically high. This is commonly attributed to a capacity for more rapid subvocal rehearsal for that group. We explored this hypothesis by testing a group of English-speaking native Mandarin speakers on digit span and word span in both Mandarin and English, together with a measure of speed of articulation for each. When compared to the performance of native English speakers, the Mandarin group proved to be superior on both digit and word spans while predictably having lower spans in English. This suggests that the Mandarin advantage is not limited to digits. Speed of rehearsal correlated with span performance across materials. However, this correlation was more pronounced for English speakers than for any of the Chinese measures. Further analysis suggested that speed of rehearsal did not provide an adequate account of differences between Mandarin and English spans or for the advantage of digits over words. Possible alternative explanations are discussed