RISCBOT: A WWW-Enabled Mobile Surveillance and Identification Robot

The final publication is available at www.springerlink.comThis article describes Riscbot, a modular 802.11b - enabled mobile autonomous robot built at the RISC lab of the University of Bridgeport. Riscbot localizes itself and successfully fulfills www - enabled online user requests and navigates to various rooms, employing a visual recognition algorithm. This article describes the mechanical design, hardware and software algorithms of the robot, and the web - based interface for communicating with the robot.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10846-005-9014-

Comprehension methods of chemical analysis of low alloy steel

Comprehensive methods for systematic chemical analysis of vanadium, molybdenum, nickel, chromium, copper, manganese and silicon in low alloy steels have been indicated. (Dr. P. Sanyal, Scientist, Shri K.K. Gupta, Scientist, Dr. Rajeev, Senior Scientific Assistant; National Metallurgical Laboratory

Remote Surveillance Via Wireless-Controlled Mobile Robots

This work addresses visual remote surveillance through the World Wide Web. A mobile robot built at the RISC lab is controlled via the Internet with the help of images obtained from a network camera. The user specifies the desired position by utilizing the real time web based visual interface. The autonomous robot moves to that location avoiding obstacles.http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.libproxy.bridgeport.edu/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=143860

RISCBOT: A Web-Enabled Mobile Platform

Dr. Sobh's article on the RISCBOT.http://servo.texterity.com/servo/200603?pg=37&search_term=RISCBOT#pg3

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Differential antibody responses to the major antigenic sites of FMD virus serotype O after primo-vaccination, multiply-vaccination and after natural exposure

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) virus serotype O is the predominant cause of FMD outbreaks in several regions of the world including India. Five independent neutralizing antigenic sites have been identified on the capsid surface of FMD virus serotype O. The relative importance of these neutralizing sites in eliciting antibody responses in the polyclonal sera collected from un-infected vaccinated (both primo and multiply-vaccinated) and naturally infected cattle populations were determined through a combination of reverse genetics and serology. The known critical amino acid residues present on the five antigenic sites of FMD virus serotype O Indian vaccine strain O IND R2/1975 were mutated through site-directed mutagenesis. The mutant viruses were rescued in cell-culture and analyzed through virus-neutralization assays along with parent virus using the polyclonal sera collected from three groups of cattle. In the polyclonal sera from primo-vaccinated cattle, significantly higher level of antibodies were directed towards antigenic site 2. In contrast, in polyclonal sera from multiply vaccinated animals, both antigenic sites 1 and 2 were equally important. In case of naturally infected animals, antibody responses were elicited against all the five antigenic sites. Although a drop in neutralization titres was observed for all the mutants, in one instance, increase in titre was noticed for a site 3 mutant. The findings from this study extend our knowledge on the antibody immunodominace following FMDV vaccination and infection, and may improve our strategies for vaccine strain selection and rational vaccine design

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Not AvailableIn this study, an RNA transfection was used to rescue infectious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus from clinical samples in BHK-21 cell line for diagnosis of FMD. Tissue samples (n = 190) were subjected to FMD virus isolation by conventional cell culture and also by RNA transfection. FMD virus was isolated from 62% of the clinical samples by RNA transfection, whereas virus was isolated only from 16% of the clinical samples in conventional cell culture method, suggesting better performance of the RNA transfection. Virus was rescued from 67% and 10% of ELISA negative but multiplex PCR positive samples by RNA transfection and conventional cell culture, respectively. The efficiency of transfection was studied on clinical samples subjected to temperature as high as 37 °C and varying pH (pH 4–9). Except up to 1 week of storage at 4 °C at pH 7.5, virus isolation was not possible by cell culture. Virus was rescued by transfection from samples stored at 4 °C for any of the applied pH up to 4 weeks, and when stored at 37 °C virus could be rescued up to 4 weeks at pH 7.5 suggesting the fitness of transfection to isolate virus from clinical samples stored under inappropriate conditions. The sequence data and antigenic relationships with the vaccine strains, between virus rescued by transfection and conventional cell culture, were comparable. The RNA transfection will help to increase the efficiency of virus isolation, diagnosis and molecular epidemiological studies.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableFoot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a significant threat to animal health globally. Prophylactic vaccination using inactivated FMD virus (FMDV) antigen is being practised for the control in endemic countries. A major limitation of the current vaccine is its susceptibility to high environmental temperature causing loss of immunogenicity, thus necessitating the cold chain for maintenance of its efficacy. Hence, the FMD vaccine with thermostable virus particles will be highly useful in sustaining the integrity of whole virus particle (146S) during storage at 4°C. In this study, 12 recombinant mutants of Indian vaccine strain of FMDV serotype O (O/IND/R2/1975) were generated through reverse genetics approach and evaluated for thermostability. One of the mutant viruses, VP2_Y98F was more thermostable than other mutants and the parent FMDV. The oil-adjuvanted vaccine formulated with the inactivated VP2_Y98F mutant FMDV was stable up to 8 months when stored at 4°C and induced protective antibody response till dpv 180 after primary vaccination. It is concluded that the VP2_Y98F mutant FMDV was thermostable and has the potential to replace the parent vaccine strain.Not Availabl

Improved pearl millet genomes representing the global heterotic pool offer a framework for molecular breeding applications

Abstract High-quality reference genome assemblies, representative of global heterotic patterns, offer an ideal platform to accurately characterize and utilize genetic variation in the primary gene pool of hybrid crops. Here we report three platinum grade de-novo, near gap-free, chromosome-level reference genome assemblies from the active breeding germplasm in pearl millet with a high degree of contiguity, completeness, and accuracy. An improved Tift genome (Tift23D2B1-P1-P5) assembly has a contig N50 ~ 7,000-fold (126 Mb) compared to the previous version and better alignment in centromeric regions. Comparative genome analyses of these three lines clearly demonstrate a high level of collinearity and multiple structural variations, including inversions greater than 1 Mb. Differential genes in improved Tift genome are enriched for serine O-acetyltransferase and glycerol-3-phosphate metabolic process which play an important role in improving the nutritional quality of seed protein and disease resistance in plants, respectively. Multiple marker-trait associations are identified for a range of agronomic traits, including grain yield through genome-wide association study. Improved genome assemblies and marker resources developed in this study provide a comprehensive framework/platform for future applications such as marker-assisted selection of mono/oligogenic traits as well as whole-genome prediction and haplotype-based breeding of complex traits