Widespread Detection of Antibodies to Eastern Equine Encephalitis, West Nile, St. Louis Encephalitis, and Turlock Viruses in Various Species of Wild Birds from Across the United States

Wild birds serve as amplifying hosts for many arboviruses, and are thought to be responsible for introducing these viruses into new areas during migration as well as reintroducing them to places where winter temperatures disrupt mosquito-borne transmission. To learn more about four mosquito-borne arboviruses of concern to human or animal health, we tested sera from 997 wild birds of 54 species and 17 families across 44 states of the United States collected from January 1, 2013, through September 30, 2013. Samples were tested for antibody against eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile, and Turlock viruses using plaque reduction neutralization tests with an endpoint of 80% or greater. Of the 333 (33.4%) birds that tested positive for antibody to at least one arbovirus, 29.7% were exposed to two or more arboviruses. Exposure to all four arboviruses was detected in Canada geese, double-crested cormorants, mallards, mute swans, laughing gulls, and American coots. Our results suggest that exposure to arboviruses is widespread in the United States across a diversity of wild bird species

Widespread Detection of Antibodies to Eastern Equine Encephalitis, West Nile, St. Louis Encephalitis, and Turlock Viruses in Various Species of Wild Birds from Across the United States

Wild birds serve as amplifying hosts for many arboviruses, and are thought to be responsible for introducing these viruses into new areas during migration as well as reintroducing them to places where winter temperatures disrupt mosquito-borne transmission. To learn more about four mosquito-borne arboviruses of concern to human or animal health, we tested sera from 997 wild birds of 54 species and 17 families across 44 states of the United States collected from January 1, 2013, through September 30, 2013. Samples were tested for antibody against eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile, and Turlock viruses using plaque reduction neutralization tests with an endpoint of 80% or greater. Of the 333 (33.4%) birds that tested positive for antibody to at least one arbovirus, 29.7% were exposed to two or more arboviruses. Exposure to all four arboviruses was detected in Canada geese, double-crested cormorants, mallards, mute swans, laughing gulls, and American coots. Our results suggest that exposure to arboviruses is widespread in the United States across a diversity of wild bird species

Differential Allelic Expression in the Human Genome: A Robust Approach To Identify Genetic and Epigenetic Cis-Acting Mechanisms Regulating Gene Expression

The recent development of whole genome association studies has lead to the robust identification of several loci involved in different common human diseases. Interestingly, some of the strongest signals of association observed in these studies arise from non-coding regions located in very large introns or far away from any annotated genes, raising the possibility that these regions are involved in the etiology of the disease through some unidentified regulatory mechanisms. These findings highlight the importance of better understanding the mechanisms leading to inter-individual differences in gene expression in humans. Most of the existing approaches developed to identify common regulatory polymorphisms are based on linkage/association mapping of gene expression to genotypes. However, these methods have some limitations, notably their cost and the requirement of extensive genotyping information from all the individuals studied which limits their applications to a specific cohort or tissue. Here we describe a robust and high-throughput method to directly measure differences in allelic expression for a large number of genes using the Illumina Allele-Specific Expression BeadArray platform and quantitative sequencing of RT-PCR products. We show that this approach allows reliable identification of differences in the relative expression of the two alleles larger than 1.5-fold (i.e., deviations of the allelic ratio larger than 60∶40) and offers several advantages over the mapping of total gene expression, particularly for studying humans or outbred populations. Our analysis of more than 80 individuals for 2,968 SNPs located in 1,380 genes confirms that differential allelic expression is a widespread phenomenon affecting the expression of 20% of human genes and shows that our method successfully captures expression differences resulting from both genetic and epigenetic cis-acting mechanisms

ADP is the Dominant Controller of AMPactivated Protein Kinase Activity Dynamics in Skeletal Muscle during Exercise

Exercise training elicits profound metabolic adaptations in skeletal muscle cells. A key molecule in coordinating these adaptations is AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), whose activity increases in response to cellular energy demand. AMPK activity dynamics are primarily controlled by the adenine nucleotides ADP and AMP, but how each contributes to its control in skeletal muscle during exercise is unclear. We developed and validated a mathematical model of AMPK signaling dynamics, and then applied global parameter sensitivity analyses with data-informed constraints to predict that AMPK activity dynamics are determined principally by ADP and not AMP. We then used the model to predict the effects of two additional direct-binding activators of AMPK, ZMP and Compound 991, further validating the model and demonstrating its applicability to understanding AMPK pharmacology. The relative effects of direct-binding activators can be understood in terms of four properties, namely their concentrations, binding affinities for AMPK, abilities to enhance AMPK phosphorylation, and the magnitudes of their allosteric activation of AMPK. Despite AMP’s favorable values in three of these four properties, ADP is the dominant controller of AMPK activity dynamics in skeletal muscle during exercise by virtue of its higher concentration compared to that of AMP

A review of the hazards and mitigation for airstrikes from Canada geese in the Anchorage, Alaska bowl

Bird strikes to aircraft are a globally pervasive safety and economic concern. In particular, the Anchorage, Alaska area holds substantial risk for destructive collisions between birds and aircraft. An international airport, a municipal airport, a seaplane base, and a U.S. Air Force base are situated throughout the area. Anchorage also has a burgeoning population of Canada geese (Branta canadensis parvipes), one of the species identified as posing the greatest airstrike hazards. A variety of methods are applied and a variety of research has been conducted to reduce the potential for airstrikes with geese around Anchorage.We review the nature of the problem, as well as the research and mitigation procedures applied to address the problem

Giardia and Cryptosporidium in resident wildlife species in Arctic Alaska

Giardia and Cryptosporidium are zoonotic protozoan parasites that can infect humans and other taxa, including wildlife, often causing gastrointestinal illness. Both have been identified as One Health priorities in the Arctic, where climate change is expected to influence the distribution of many wildlife and zoonotic diseases, but little is known about their prevalence in local wildlife. To help fill information gaps, we collected fecal samples from four wildlife species that occur seasonally on the northern Alaska coastline or in nearshore marine waters—Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), polar bear (Ursus maritimus), Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens), and caribou (Rangifer tarandus)—and used immunofluorescence assays to screen for Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts. We detected Giardia cysts in 18.3% and Cryptosporidium oocysts in 16.5% of Arctic foxes (n = 109), suggesting that foxes may be potentially important hosts in this region. We also detected Giardia cysts in a single polar bear (12.5%; n = 8), which to our knowledge represents the first such report for this species. Neither parasite was detected in walruses or caribou

Infrastructure for the development of context aware applications in pervasive environments.

O desenvolvimento tecnológico tem proporcionado que os computadores se tornem cada vez mais compactos e mais poderosos, levando a computação a um novo paradigma: o de Computação Pervasiva. Neste paradigma, os computadores estão embutidos em objetos comuns ao cotidiano das pessoas (e.g.,roupas, telefones, automóveis, canetas, óculos e eletrodomésticos em geral), permitindo-os estar acessíveis em qualquer lugar e a qualquer momento, integrando-se à vida das pessoas, agindo em benefício delas. Tornar estes dispositivos integrados aos seres humanos, requer que as aplicações se adaptem em tempo de execução às alterações no ambiente e às necessidades dos usuários. Isto exige que o desenvolvedor de aplicações voltadas a ambientes pervasivos lide com questões que fogem à lógica de negócio de sua aplicação, principalmente no que diz respeito à obtenção de contexto,que é fundamental para obtenção desta adaptabilidade desejada. Neste trabalho, aborda-se a problemática supra mencionada, propondo-se uma infraestrutura capaz de fornecer mecanismos para a obtenção, representação e inferência sobre a informação contextual, tornando-as disponíveis a qualquer aplicação que possa fazer uso delas. Mais especificamente, esta infra-estrutura denominada Lotus, contempla em uma abordagem integrada todos os aspectos relacionados com a provisão de informação contextual. A viabilidade da infra-estrutura foi demonstrada por meio do desenvolvimento de duas aplicações, uma no domínio de comunidades virtuais móveis e outra no domínio de ambientes pervasivos, onde foi possível constatar que a Lotus torna a informação contextual disponível para as aplicações, permitindo que o desenvolvedor foque na lógica de negócio da aplicação.Enabling applications to use any contextual information available in pervasive environment is a hard task from the perspective of the developers. In this work is described an approach to make that an easier task: The Lotus, which consists of an infra-structure for developing context-aware applications, providing mechanisms for acquiring, modeling, and delivering contextual information, enabling it to be shared by different applications. The feasibility of this infra-structure was established through development of a case study where was possible verify that Lotus made the contextual information available to the applications, enabling the developer to focuses on application business logi