Satchitananda' : meditation and dance around the still point, in the form of a raga performance for piano solo : inaugural lecture/recital delivered at Rhodes University

Inaugural lecture delivered at Rhodes UniversityRhodes University Libraries (Digitisation

The theory and practice of "Klangreihenkomposition"

Diese Arbeit befaßt sich mit der "Klangreihenlehre'', einer Musiktheorie, die von Josef Matthias Hauer aufgestellt und von meinem Lehrer Othmar Steinbauer weiterentwickelt wurde. Diese auf der Gesetzmäßigkeit der zwölf Töne beruhende Satzlehre hat jedoch mit der "Reihentechnik" jener Musik, die schlechthin als "Zwölftonmusik" bezeichnet wird, nichts gemein. Obwohl eine beachtliche Literatur über J.M. Hauer vorliegt, ist sie doch, was Hauers Musiktheorie betrifft, nicht zufriedenstellend, da sie hauptsächlich auf sein Leben und seine Musikphilosophie eingeht

Vaccination against Borna Disease: Overview, Vaccine Virus Characterization and Investigation of Live and Inactivated Vaccines

(1) Background: Vaccination of horses and sheep against Borna disease (BD) was common in endemic areas of Germany in the 20th century but was abandoned in the early 1990s. The recent occurrence of fatal cases of human encephalitis due to Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1) has rekindled the interest in vaccination. (2) Methods: The full genomes of the BD live vaccine viruses “Dessau” and “Giessen” were sequenced and analyzed for the first time. All vaccination experiments followed a proof-of-concept approach. Dose-titration infection experiments were performed in rabbits, based on both cell culture- and brain-derived viruses at various doses. Inactivated vaccines against BD were produced from concentrated cell culture supernatants and investigated in rabbits and horses. The BoDV-1 live vaccine “Dessau” was administered to horses and antibody profiles were determined. (3) Results: The BD live vaccine viruses “Dessau” and “Giessen” belong to clusters 3 and 4 of BoDV-1. Whereas the “Giessen” virus does not differ substantially from field viruses, the “Dessau” virus shows striking differences in the M gene and the N-terminal part of the G gene. Rabbits infected with high doses of cell-cultured virus developed neutralizing antibodies and were protected from disease, whereas rabbits infected with low doses of cell-cultured virus, or with brain-derived virus did not. Inactivated vaccines were administered to rabbits and horses, following pre-defined vaccination schemes consisting of three vaccine doses of either adjuvanted or nonadjuvanted inactivated virus. Their immunogenicity and protective efficacy were compared to the BD live vaccine “Dessau”. Seventy per cent of horses vaccinated with the BD live vaccine “Dessau” developed neutralizing antibodies after vaccination. (4) Conclusion: Despite a complex evasion of immunological responses by bornaviruses, some vaccination approaches can protect against clinical disease. For optimal effectiveness, vaccines should be administered at high doses, following vaccination schemes consisting of three vaccine doses as basic immunization. Further investigations are necessary in order to investigate and improve protection against infection and to avoid side effects

Shrews as Reservoir Hosts of Borna Disease Virus

Borna disease virus (BDV) is the causative agent of severe T-cell–mediated meningoencephalitis in horses, sheep, and other animal species in central Europe. Here we report the first unequivocal detection of a BDV reservoir species, the bicolored white-toothed shrew, Crocidura leucodon, in an area in Switzerland with endemic Borna disease

In Vitro Host-Cell Susceptibility to Usutu Virus

We investigated the susceptibility to Usutu virus (Flavivirus) of 13 permanent cell lines, 3 primary cell cultures, and chicken embryos. Vero, PK-15, and goose embryo fibroblast cells developed cytopathic effects; however, viral multiplication was detected in all mammalian cell types by immunohistochemical tests. Chicken embryo fibroblast cells and chicken embryos were resistant

Insect-inspired visual navigation on-board an autonomous robot: real-world routes encoded in a single layer network

Insect-Inspired models of visual navigation, that operate by scanning for familiar views of the world, have been shown to be capable of robust route navigation in simulation. These familiarity-based navigation algorithms operate by training an artificial neural network (ANN) with views from a training route, so that it can then output a familiarity score for any new view. In this paper we show that such an algorithm – with all computation performed on a small low-power robot – is capable of delivering reliable direction information along real-world outdoor routes, even when scenes contain few local landmarks and have high-levels of noise (from variable lighting and terrain). Indeed, routes can be precisely recapitulated and we show that the required computation and storage does not increase with the number of training views. Thus the ANN provides a compact representation of the knowledge needed to traverse a route. In fact, rather than losing information, there are instances where the use of an ANN ameliorates the problems of sub optimal paths caused by tortuous training routes. Our results suggest the feasibility of familiarity-based navigation for long-range autonomous visual homing

Phylogenetic Analysis of Lednice Orthobunyavirus

Lednice virus (LEDV) has been detected in Culex modestus mosquitoes in several European countries within the last six decades. In this study, phylogenetic analyses of the complete genome segments confirm that LEDV belongs to the Turlock orthobunyavirus (Orthobunyavirus, Peribunyaviridae) species and is closely related to Umbre, Turlock, and Kedah viruses

Uranotaenia unguiculata Edwards, 1913 are attracted to sound, feed on amphibians, and are infected with multiple viruses

Abstract Background Uranotaenia unguiculata Edwards, 1913 is a species of mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) native to central Europe. Recently a novel lineage of the West Nile virus (WNV-lineage 4c) was identified in pools of adult female Ur. unguiculata. To increase the body of knowledge about this species, various trapping methods were evaluated to determine the most efficient method for capturing adult female Ur. unguiculata. Results Sound traps collected equivalent numbers of female Ur. unguiculata as low-hanging light-baited downdraft traps. Hosts were identified as Pelophylax lessonae and P. ridibunda (Anura: Ranidae) species group frogs from the blood found in engorged females. In addition to confirming infection by WNV-lin. 4c, a potentially integrated flavivirus sequence was detected in male mosquitoes. A novel Alphamesonivirus 1 (Nidovirales: Mesoniviridae) was found to be widespread in the Ur. unguiculata population and is herein described. Conclusions Efficient collection methods for Ur. unguiculata for arbovirus surveillance reflect mosquito questing behavior. Uranotaenia unguiculata targets frog species which call from the water, and it is likely that the novel WNV-lin. 4c is maintained in a frog-mosquito transmission cycle. The improved trapping methods listed here will assist future studies of the vector status of Ur. unguiculata for WNV and other arboviruses

West Nile virus in overwintering mosquitoes, central Europe

Background: West Nile virus (WNV) is currently the most important mosquito-borne pathogen spreading in Europe. Data on overwintering of WNV in mosquitoes are crucial for understanding WNV circulation in Europe; nonetheless, such data were not available so far.Results: A total of 28,287 hibernating mosquitoes [27,872 Culex pipiens, 73 Anopheles maculipennis (sensu lato), and 342 Culiseta annulata], caught in February or March between 2011 and 2017 in a WNV-endemic region of South Moravia, Czech Republic, were screened for the presence of WNV RNA. No WNV positive pools were found from 2011 to 2016, while lineage 2 WNV RNA was detected in three pools of Culex pipens mosquitoes collected in 2017 at two study sites.Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first record of WNV RNA in overwintering mosquitoes in Europe. The data support the hypothesis of WNV persistence in mosquitoes throughout the winter season in Europe

Robust view based navigation through view classification

Current implementations of view-based navigation on robots have shown success, but are limited to routes of <10m [1] [2]. This is in part because current strategies do not take into account whether a view has been correctly recognised, moving in the most familiar direction given by the rotational familiarity function (RFF) regardless of prediction confidence. We demonstrate that it is possible to use the shape of the RFF to classify if the current view is from a known position, and thus likely to provide valid navigational information, or from a position which is unknown, aliased or occluded and therefore likely to result in erroneous movement. Our model could classify these four view types with accuracies of 1.00, 0.91, 0.97 and 0.87 respectively. We hope to use these results to extend online view-based navigation and prevent robot loss in complex environments