Maporal Hantavirus β-Integrin Utilization and Sensitivity to Favipiravir

Hantaviruses are members of the Bunyaviridae family of viruses. Pathogenic hantaviruses are the etiologic agents of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), a disease principally endemic in the Old World, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), a disease primarily restricted to the Americas. Maporal virus (MPRLV), a recently isolated hantavirus, has been found to cause disease in hamsters that resembles HPS in humans. However, the virus has not been linked to human cases of HPS. Considerable evidence suggests that β-integrin usage mediating infection may serve to distinguish hantaviruses pathogenic to humans from nonpathogenic, but this receptor usage pattern information is not yet available for MPRLV. Although ribavirin has been shown to be effective in treating HFRS, it lacks specificity and has toxicity. Moreover, there are no effective antivirals for the treatment of HPS. Considering the above, we have investigated MPRLV 1) β-integrin-mediated mechanism of entry, 2) genetic determinants of pathogenicity, and 3) susceptibility to the promising antiviral, favipiravir (T-705). Using antibodies targeting specific integrin chains, we found infection of Vero E6 cells with MPRLV to be dependent on β3-integrins, similar to that reported for other pathogenic hantaviruses such as Dobrava virus (DOBV) included in our studies. β1-integrin chain-specific antibodies and fibronectin did not block MPRLV or DOBV infectivity as observed with the nonpathogenic Prospect Hill Virus (PHV). Phylogenic analysis of characteristic degron sequences and ITAM motifs in the G1 cytoplasmic tails of MPRLV and other hantaviruses emphasizes the close genetic proximity of MPRLV to other HPS-causing hantaviruses. Favipiravir, a pyrazine derivative reported to be active against related bunyaviruses, was found to be active against MPRLV, DOBV, and PHV (EC50 = 65 - 93 µM) with therapeutic indexes of 74, 52, and 58, respectively. The data presented suggests that MPRLV may be pathogenic to humans and that it and other hantaviruses tested are sensitive to favipiravir in cell culture

When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It (15th Annual Health Sciences Lively Lunch)

In this year’s sponsored but no holds barred lunch, participants had the opportunity to contemplate examples of proactive approaches answering the question posed by the 2015 conference theme, “Where Do We Go From Here?” This year’s lunch theme was inspired by a saying of Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12, 1925–September 22, 2015): “When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It.” Researchers increasingly must meet various data management requirements and mandates, while educators are challenged by changing trends in providing curricular content. What choices do these challenges provide to libraries and librarians? In the best case scenarios, they utilize approaches espoused in Yogi Berra’s advice—they follow paths (opportunities) that present themselves, and become partners

Real-time marker-less multi-person 3D pose estimation in RGB-Depth camera networks

This paper proposes a novel system to estimate and track the 3D poses of multiple persons in calibrated RGB-Depth camera networks. The multi-view 3D pose of each person is computed by a central node which receives the single-view outcomes from each camera of the network. Each single-view outcome is computed by using a CNN for 2D pose estimation and extending the resulting skeletons to 3D by means of the sensor depth. The proposed system is marker-less, multi-person, independent of background and does not make any assumption on people appearance and initial pose. The system provides real-time outcomes, thus being perfectly suited for applications requiring user interaction. Experimental results show the effectiveness of this work with respect to a baseline multi-view approach in different scenarios. To foster research and applications based on this work, we released the source code in OpenPTrack, an open source project for RGB-D people tracking.Comment: Submitted to the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automatio

Chronic progressive lymphedema in the Belgian draft horse in Belgium: clinical phenotyping, prevalence and risk factor analysis

Chronic progressive lymphedema (CPL) is a well-known problem in the Belgian draft horse. However, tools for clinical diagnosis have not been standardized. Therefore, the exact disease prevalence and the possible CPL risk factors have not been investigated in the Belgian breed yet. The aim of the present study was to assess a uniform CPL clinical examination method to increase diagnostic objectivity as well as to determine the occurrence and severity of lesions. Using univariate and stepwise multivariable logistic regression models, the association of factors, such as age-gender interaction, coat color and season, with CPL occurrence was examined. In this study, it was demonstrated that CPL is highly prevalent in the Belgian draft horse: 60.66% of the horses of the total sample were affected, including a large proportion of young horses (= 3 years). In the latter, the lesions were more explicit as CPL is a chronic disorder. In some horses (i.e. 14% of the yearlings), mild clinical symptoms appeared at approximately the age of one, while distinct onset of the disease occurred from the age of three onwards. The factors age-gender interaction, coat color and season, which are significantly associated with CPL occurrence, were identified and quantified. In this study, a standardized diagnostic protocol is proposed that will enhance future data collection and furthermore will offer a foundation for quantitative genetic research. Ultimately, it will help to reduce CPL occurrence in the Belgian draft horse by means of selection

Real-time bowed string feature extraction for performance applications

Although the physics of the bowed violin string are well understood, most audio feature extraction algorithms for violin still rely on general-purpose signal processing methods with latencies and accuracy rates that are unsuitable for real-time professional-calibre performance. Starting from a pickup which cleanly captures the motion of the bowed string with minimal colouration from the bridge and body, we present a lightweight time-domain method for modelling string motion using segmented linear regression. The algorithm leverages knowledge of the patterns of Helmholtz motion to produce a set of features which can be used for control of real-time synthesis processes. The goal of the paper is not a back-extraction of physical ground truth, but a responsive, low-latency feature space suitable for performance applications

Markerless Vision-Based Skeleton Tracking in Therapy of Gross Motor Skill Disorders in Children

This chapter presents a research towards implementation of a computer vision system for markerless skeleton tracking in therapy of gross motor skill disorders in children suffering from mild cognitive impairment. The proposed system is based on a low-cost 3D sensor and a skeleton tracking software. The envisioned architecture is scalable in the sense that the system may be used as a stand-alone assistive tool for tracking the effects of therapy or it may be integrated with an advanced autonomous conversational agent to maintain the spatial attention of the child and to increase her motivation to undergo a long-term therapy

South Bank Corporation's Draft Ecologically Sustainable Development Policy and Implementation Strategy

The Centre for Subtropical Design has reviewed the Draft Ecologically Sustainable Development Policy and Implementation Strategy provided by South Bank Corporation by gathering a team of QUT experts to comment on the full range of sustainability aspects covered by the policy. The Centre has prepared this submission to assist South Bank Corporation to finalise an ESD policy and implementation strategy which will create a truly sustainable, prosperous, and liveable urban parkland precinct

Associations of common breast cancer susceptibility alleles with risk of breast cancer subtypes in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers

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