Envelope Determinants of Equine Lentiviral Vaccine Protection

Lentiviral envelope (Env) antigenic variation and associated immune evasion present major obstacles to vaccine development. The concept that Env is a critical determinant for vaccine efficacy is well accepted, however defined correlates of protection associated with Env variation have yet to be determined. We reported an attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine study that directly examined the effect of lentiviral Env sequence variation on vaccine efficacy. The study identified a significant, inverse, linear correlation between vaccine efficacy and increasing divergence of the challenge virus Env gp90 protein compared to the vaccine virus gp90. The report demonstrated approximately 100% protection of immunized ponies from disease after challenge by virus with a homologous gp90 (EV0), and roughly 40% protection against challenge by virus (EV13) with a gp90 13% divergent from the vaccine strain. In the current study we examine whether the protection observed when challenging with the EV0 strain could be conferred to animals via chimeric challenge viruses between the EV0 and EV13 strains, allowing for mapping of protection to specific Env sequences. Viruses containing the EV13 proviral backbone and selected domains of the EV0 gp90 were constructed and in vitro and in vivo infectivity examined. Vaccine efficacy studies indicated that homology between the vaccine strain gp90 and the N-terminus of the challenge strain gp90 was capable of inducing immunity that resulted in significantly lower levels of post-challenge virus and significantly delayed the onset of disease. However, a homologous N-terminal region alone inserted in the EV13 backbone could not impart the 100% protection observed with the EV0 strain. Data presented here denote the complicated and potentially contradictory relationship between in vitro virulence and in vivo pathogenicity. The study highlights the importance of structural conformation for immunogens and emphasizes the need for antibody binding, not neutralizing, assays that correlate with vaccine protection. © 2013 Craigo et al

CopyMe: A portable real-time feedback expression recognition game for children

Assistive tools are commonly used to aid children experiencing emotional developmental problems associated with psychological disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In many cases early intervention is crucial to ease the struggle to identify key facial expressions and the emotions they are used to convey. Combining automatic facial expression recognition technology with real-time feedback on player performance, CopyMe is an iPad game that aims to provide a means for children to learn expressions to demonstrate emotions. In this paper, we discuss findings from a pilot study conducted at a childcare centre to evaluate the feasibility of CopyMe's use as a serious game for children to learn emotions through observation and mimicry. Based on observational and interview data, we found that the children, especially the ones affected by ASDs, were able to perform well in the game and generally expressed enjoyment during play. The design of CopyMe as well as our current findings will be most interesting for CHI attendees working in the domain of affective interfaces and serious games, especially those that target children

CopyMe: An emotional development game for children

Proper emotional development is important for young children, especially those with psychological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), whereby early intervention becomes crucial. However, traditional paper-based interventions are mostly laborious and difficult to employ for carers and parents, whilst current computer-aided interventions feel too much like obvious assistive tools and lack timely feedback to inform and aid progress. CopyMe is an iPad game we developed that allows children to learn emotions with instant feedback on performance. A pilot study revealed children with ASDs were able to enjoy and perform well in the game. CopyMe also demonstrates a novel affective game interface that incorporates state-of-the-art facial expression tracking and classification. This will be particularly interesting for CHI attendees working in the domain of affective interfaces and serious games, especially those that target children

Decreased frequency of North Atlantic polar lows associated with future climate warming

Every winter, the high-latitude oceans are struck by severe storms that are considerably smaller than the weather-dominating synoptic depressions1. Accompanied by strong winds and heavy precipitation, these often explosively developing mesoscale cyclones—termed polar lows1—constitute a threat to offshore activities such as shipping or oil and gas exploitation. Yet owing to their small scale, polar lows are poorly represented in the observational and global reanalysis data2 often used for climatological investigations of atmospheric features and cannot be assessed in coarse-resolution global simulations of possible future climates. Here we show that in a future anthropogenically warmed climate, the frequency of polar lows is projected to decline. We used a series of regional climate model simulations to downscale a set of global climate change scenarios3 from the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change. In this process, we first simulated the formation of polar low systems in the North Atlantic and then counted the individual cases. A previous study4 using NCEP/NCAR re-analysis data5 revealed that polar low frequency from 1948 to 2005 did not systematically change. Now, in projections for the end of the twenty-first century, we found a significantly lower number of polar lows and a northward shift of their mean genesis region in response to elevated atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration. This change can be related to changes in the North Atlantic sea surface temperature and mid-troposphere temperature; the latter is found to rise faster than the former so that the resulting stability is increased, hindering the formation or intensification of polar lows. Our results provide a rare example of a climate change effect in which a type of extreme weather is likely to decrease, rather than increase