On-site detection of equid alphaherpesvirus 3 in perineal and genital swabs of mares and stallions

Equine coital exanthema (ECE) is an infectious, venereally transmitted muco-cutaneous disease affecting mares and stallions, caused by equid alphaherpesvirus 3 (EHV3). Diagnostic tools for rapid identification of EHV3 are of primary importance to diminish the risk of EHV3 dissemination at the time of breeding. In the last years, it has been shown that the performance of the insulated-isothermal polymerase chain reaction (iiPCR) is comparable to virus isolation, nested PCR and real-time PCR (qPCR) in detecting pathogens of various animal species. Analytical sensitivity and specificity of the iiPCR were compared with a qPCR, using a plasmid containing the target region of the EHV3 glycoprotein G gene and an Argentinian EHV3 isolate (E/9283/07 C3A). In order to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the iiPCR, nucleic acids of 85 perineal and genital swabs (PGS) of mares and stallions were extracted by tacoTM mini and tested by both techniques. EHV3 was detected in 46 and 45 of the 85 PGS by the iiPCR and qPCR, respectively. There was almost perfect agreement between the two diagnostic methods (98.82%; 95% CI: 95.03–100%; κ = 0.98). The iiPCR had a limit of detection of 95.00% at 6 genome equivalents per reaction and a detection endpoint for viral DNA comparable to that of the qPCR, and did not react with six non-targeted equine pathogens. The iiPCR represents a sensitive and specific method for the rapid on-site diagnosis of EHV3 infection. Its routinely implementation in breeding facilities, and artificial insemination and embryo transfer centers, will contribute to prevent the dissemination of this venereal, highly contagious disease in horses.Fil: Vissani, María Aldana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; ArgentinaFil: Tordoya, Maria Silvia. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; ArgentinaFil: Tsai, Y.-L.. GeneReach; Estados UnidosFil: Lee, P.-Y.A.. GeneReach; Estados UnidosFil: Shen, Y.-H.. GeneReach; Estados UnidosFil: Lee, F.-C.. GeneReach; Estados UnidosFil: Wang, H.-T.T.. GeneReach; Estados UnidosFil: Parreño, Gladys Viviana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Barrandeguy, María Edith. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria; Argentina. Universidad del Salvador. Escuela de Veterinaria; Argentin

New lanostanes and naphthoquinones isolated from Antrodia salmonea and their antioxidative burst activity in human leukocytes

Four new compounds were isolated from the basidiomata of the fungus Antrodia salmonea, a newly identified species of Antrodia (Aphyllophorales) in Taiwan. These new compounds are named as lanosta-8,24-diene-3 beta,15 alpha,21-triol (1), 24-methylenelanost-8-ene-3 beta,15 alpha,21-triol (2), 2,3-dimethoxy-5-(2',5'-dimethoxy-3',4'-methylenedioxyphenyl)-7-methyl-[1,4]-naphthoquinone (3), and 2,3-dimethoxy-6-(2,5'-dimethoxy-3',4'-methylenedioxyphenyl)-7-methyl-[1,4]-naphthoquinone (4), respectively. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods. An in vitro cellular functional assay was performed to evaluate their anti-oxidative burst activity in human leukocytes. They showed inhibitory effects against phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), a direct protein kinase C activator, induced oxidative burst in neutrophils (PMN) and mononuclear cells (MNC) with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) ranging from 3.5 to 25.8 mu M. The potency order of these compounds in PMA-activated leukocytes was as 1 > 3 > 4 > 2. They were relatively less effective in formyl-Met-Leu-Phe (fMLP), a G-protein coupled receptor agonist, induced oxidative burst, except for compounds 3 and 4 in fMLP-activated PMN. These results indicated that three (1, 3, and 4) of these four newly identified compounds displayed antioxidative effect in human leukocytes with different potency and might confer anti-inflammatory activity to these drugs

First long-term study of particle number size distributions and new particle formation events of regional aerosol in the North China Plain

Atmospheric particle number size distributions (size range 0.003–10 μm) were measured between March 2008 and August 2009 at Shangdianzi (SDZ), a rural research station in the North China Plain. These measurements were made in an attempt to better characterize the tropospheric background aerosol in Northern China. The mean particle number concentrations of the total particle, as well as the nucleation, Aitken, accumulation and coarse mode were determined to be 1.2 ± 0.9 × 104, 3.6 ± 7.9 × 103, 4.4 ± 3.4 × 103, 3.5 ± 2.8 × 103 and 2 ± 3 cm−3, respectively. A general finding was that the particle number concentration was higher during spring compared to the other seasons. The air mass origin had an important effect on the particle number concentration and new particle formation events. Air masses from northwest (i.e. inner Asia) favored the new particle formation events, while air masses from southeast showed the highest particle mass concentration. Significant diurnal variations in particle number were observed, which could be linked to new particle formation events, i.e. gas-to-particle conversion. During particle formation events, the number concentration of the nucleation mode rose up to maximum value of 104 cm−3. New particle formation events were observed on 36% of the effective measurement days. The formation rate ranged from 0.7 to 72.7 cm−3 s−1, with a mean value of 8.0 cm−3 s−1. The value of the nucleation mode growth rate was in the range of 0.3–14.5 nm h−1, with a mean value of 4.3 nm h−1. It was an essential observation that on many occasions the nucleation mode was able to grow into the size of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) within a matter of several hours. Furthermore, the new particle formation was regularly followed by a measurable increase in particle mass concentration and extinction coefficient, indicative of a high abundance of condensable vapors in the atmosphere under study

Algebraic Quantization, Good Operators and Fractional Quantum Numbers

The problems arising when quantizing systems with periodic boundary conditions are analysed, in an algebraic (group-) quantization scheme, and the ``failure" of the Ehrenfest theorem is clarified in terms of the already defined notion of {\it good} (and {\it bad}) operators. The analysis of ``constrained" Heisenberg-Weyl groups according to this quantization scheme reveals the possibility for new quantum (fractional) numbers extending those allowed for Chern classes in traditional Geometric Quantization. This study is illustrated with the examples of the free particle on the circumference and the charged particle in a homogeneous magnetic field on the torus, both examples featuring ``anomalous" operators, non-equivalent quantization and the latter, fractional quantum numbers. These provide the rationale behind flux quantization in superconducting rings and Fractional Quantum Hall Effect, respectively.Comment: 29 pages, latex, 1 figure included with EPSF. Revised version with minor changes intended to clarify notation. Acepted for publication in Comm. Math. Phy

Nutrigenomic and nutritional analyses reveal the effects of pelleted feeds on Asian Seabass (Lates calcarifer)

As nutrition-related expenses constitute the majority of the costs for aquaculture farms, it is essential for them to use feeds that provide an ideal combination of nutrients for the species of choice. In this study, the relative effect of consuming three different pelleted feeds (B, C and D) in comparison to frozen baitfish (A; control) were compared on juvenile Asian seabass (77.3 ± 22.4g) that were selected for increased growth rate over two generations. Our objectives were: 1) to evaluate the effects of different pelleted feeds based on overall physiological changes and nutritional quality of fillets; 2) improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms with transcriptomic analysis; 3) if possible, identify the feed type that supports the growth of these fishes without substantially reducing the nutritional quality of fillet. The growth performance, fatty acid composition of fillet, hepatic histology and transcriptome of the fishes (Groups A-D) were analyzed. The majority of fatty acids of the fillets, except γ-linolenic acid (GLA, C18:3n6), correlated significantly with the respective diets. Asian seabass fed Feed C showed highest specific growth rate (SGR) and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) with closest histology and transcriptomic profile to control, but their fillet contained the highest n6/n3 ratio. When the liver-based transcriptomes were analyzed, a complex set of differentially expressed genes were detected between groups fed pelleted feeds and controls as well as among the pellet-fed groups themselves. Significant enrichment of genes with growth-related function tallied with the morphological data measured. When compared with control (Group A), ‘Biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids’ and ‘Steroid biosynthesis’ pathways were significantly enriched in pellet-fed groups. Reduced goblet cell numbers were observed in the gut of pellet-fed fish compared to controls and fads6 was found to be a suitable candidate gene to separate wild-caught Asian seabass, from pellet-fed ones. These results provide insights for researchers on the various effects of feeds on the biochemistry and global gene expression of the fish and potentially for seabass farms to make more informed feed choices

Low Complexity Regularization of Linear Inverse Problems

Inverse problems and regularization theory is a central theme in contemporary signal processing, where the goal is to reconstruct an unknown signal from partial indirect, and possibly noisy, measurements of it. A now standard method for recovering the unknown signal is to solve a convex optimization problem that enforces some prior knowledge about its structure. This has proved efficient in many problems routinely encountered in imaging sciences, statistics and machine learning. This chapter delivers a review of recent advances in the field where the regularization prior promotes solutions conforming to some notion of simplicity/low-complexity. These priors encompass as popular examples sparsity and group sparsity (to capture the compressibility of natural signals and images), total variation and analysis sparsity (to promote piecewise regularity), and low-rank (as natural extension of sparsity to matrix-valued data). Our aim is to provide a unified treatment of all these regularizations under a single umbrella, namely the theory of partial smoothness. This framework is very general and accommodates all low-complexity regularizers just mentioned, as well as many others. Partial smoothness turns out to be the canonical way to encode low-dimensional models that can be linear spaces or more general smooth manifolds. This review is intended to serve as a one stop shop toward the understanding of the theoretical properties of the so-regularized solutions. It covers a large spectrum including: (i) recovery guarantees and stability to noise, both in terms of $\ell^2$-stability and model (manifold) identification; (ii) sensitivity analysis to perturbations of the parameters involved (in particular the observations), with applications to unbiased risk estimation ; (iii) convergence properties of the forward-backward proximal splitting scheme, that is particularly well suited to solve the corresponding large-scale regularized optimization problem

The inflammatory cytokine IL-6 induces FRA1 deacetylation promoting colorectal cancer stem-like properties

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has long been known for its tight association with chronic inflammation, thought to play a key role in tumor onset and malignant progression through the modulation of cancer stemness. However, the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms are still largely elusive. Here we show that the IL-6/STAT3 inflammatory signaling axis induces the deacetylation of FRA1 at the Lys-116 residue located within its DNA-binding domain. The HDAC6 deacetylase underlies this key modification leading to the increase of FRA1 transcriptional activity, the subsequent transactivation of NANOG expression, and the acquisition of stem-like cellular features. As validated in a large (n = 123) CRC cohort, IL-6 secretion was invariably accompanied by increased FRA1 deacetylation at K116 and an overall increase in its protein levels, coincident with malignant progression and poor prognosis. Of note, combined treatment with the conventional cytotoxic drug 5-FU together with Tubastatin A, a HDAC6-specific inhibitor, resulted in a significant in vivo synergistic inhibitory effect on tumor growth through suppression of CRC stemness. Our results reveal a novel transcriptional and posttranslational regulatory cross-talk between inflammation and stemness signaling pathways that underlie self-renewal and maintenance of CRC stem cells and promote their malignant behavior. Combinatorial treatment aimed at the core regulatory mechanisms downstream of IL-6 may offer a novel promising approach for CRC treatment

Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements

A search for resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a new particle X in the XH → qqbb final state with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy resonances decaying into a Higgs boson (H) and a new particle (X) is reported, utilizing 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at collected during 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The particle X is assumed to decay to a pair of light quarks, and the fully hadronic final state is analysed. The search considers the regime of high XH resonance masses, where the X and H bosons are both highly Lorentz-boosted and are each reconstructed using a single jet with large radius parameter. A two-dimensional phase space of XH mass versus X mass is scanned for evidence of a signal, over a range of XH resonance mass values between 1 TeV and 4 TeV, and for X particles with masses from 50 GeV to 1000 GeV. All search results are consistent with the expectations for the background due to Standard Model processes, and 95% CL upper limits are set, as a function of XH and X masses, on the production cross-section of the resonance