Male offspring born to mildly ZIKV-infected mice are at risk of developing neurocognitive disorders in adulthood

Congenital Zika virus (ZIKV) syndrome may cause fetal microcephaly in -1% of affected newborns. Here, we investigate whether the majority of clinically inapparent newborns might suffer from long-term health impairments not readily visible at birth. Infection of immunocompetent pregnant mice with high-dose ZIKV caused severe offspring phenotypes, such as fetal death, as expected. By contrast, low-dose (LD) maternal ZIKV infection resulted in reduced fetal birth weight but no other obvious phenotypes. Male offspring born to LD ZIKV-infected mothers had increased testosterone (TST) levels and were less likely to survive in utero infection compared to their female littermates. Males also presented an increased number of immature neurons in apical and basal hippocampal dendrites, while female offspring had immature neurons in basal dendrites only. Moreover, male offspring with high but not very high (storm) TST levels were more likely to suffer from learning and memory impairments compared to females. Future studies are required to understand the impact of TST on neuropathological and neurocognitive impairments in later life. In summary, increased sex-specific vigilance is required in countries with high ZIKV prevalence, where impaired neurodevelopment may be camouflaged by a healthy appearance at birth.Peer reviewe

Design Of A Knowledge-Based Intelligent Supervisory Control

The metals industry and plant equipment suppliers are constantly striving to obtain a competitive edge. Level I dynamic control products from British industry are world-class, but it is recognised that the level II supervisory control systems can be improved. This project seeks to achieve this by adopting new intelligent technologies to utilise plant knowledge. Expert systems have been selected as an appropriate technology as they capture knowledge in a robust and industrially proven fashion. The design of the supervisory controller will focus on this knowledge handling strength of the Expert System, by using it to augment an existing model based adaptive control system. To enable improvements in the control of plant the design expands the scope of plant control, focusing on important issues and uses the commodity of knowledge. The project seeks to prove the benefits of utilising the Expert System technique in industrial supervisory control, by considering the quantitative effect of employing an Expert System in a real life situation. This paper will give background to the project, motivate the use of the Expert System and describe its design