Beyond the TV borders: Second screen as a tool for audience engagement

The growing popularity of mobile connected devices has transformed the way TV content is conceived and consumed. Interacting with these devices while watching TV is a trending behaviour that represents a challenge for the TV industry as this interaction often distracts viewers from the TV content. Consumers use the second screen to retrieve further information about narratives, characters, purchasing goods and researching on products and services advertised. In a scenario of systematic live and linear TV audience erosion and ad-skipping broadcasters, marketers and producers are continuously looking for new ways to leverage different media strategies to keep TV viewers engaged with the primary content, promoting consumers’ loyalty and generating more revenue flows. In this paper, a set of second screen cases was selected to ground a reflection on how second screen solutions may be applied to foster the viewer and consumer engagement

Cloning approach and functional analysis of anti-intimin single-chain variable fragment (scFv)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intimin is an important virulence factor involved in the pathogenesis of enteropathogenic <it>Escherichia coli </it>(EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic <it>Escherichia coli </it>(EHEC). Both pathogens are still important causes of diarrhea in children and adults in many developing and industrialized countries. Considering the fact that antibodies are important tools in the detection of various pathogens, an anti-intimin IgG2b monoclonal antibody was previously raised in immunized mice with the conserved sequence of the intimin molecule (int_388-667). In immunoblotting assays, this monoclonal antibody showed excellent specificity. Despite good performance, the monoclonal antibody failed to detect some EPEC and EHEC isolates harboring variant amino acids within the 338-667 regions of intimin molecules. Consequently, motivated by its use for diagnosis purposes, in this study we aimed to the cloning and expression of the single-chain variable fragment from this monoclonal antibody (scFv).</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Anti-intimin hybridoma mRNA was extracted and reversely transcripted to cDNA, and the light and heavy chains of the variable fragment of the antibody were amplified using commercial primers. The amplified chains were cloned into <it>pGEM-T Easy </it>vector. Specific primers were designed and used in an amplification and chain linkage strategy, obtaining the scFv, which in turn was cloned into pAE vector. <it>E. coli </it>BL21(DE3)pLys strain was transformed with pAE scFv-intimin plasmid and subjected to induction of protein expression. Anti-intimin scFv, expressed as inclusion bodies (insoluble fraction), was denatured, purified and submitted to refolding. The protein yield was 1 mg protein per 100 mL of bacterial culture. To test the functionality of the scFv, ELISA and immunofluorescence assays were performed, showing that 275 ng of scFv reacted with 2 mg of purified intimin, resulting in an absorbance of 0.75 at 492 nm. The immunofluorescence assay showed a strong reactivity with EPEC E2348/69.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study demonstrated that the recombinant anti-intimin antibody obtained is able to recognize the conserved region of intimin (Int_388-667) in purified form and the EPEC isolate.</p

Region of hadron-quark mixed phase in hybrid stars

Hadron--quark mixed phase is expected in a wide region of the inner structure of hybrid stars. However, we show that the hadron--quark mixed phase should be restricted to a narrower region to because of the charge screening effect. The narrow region of the mixed phase seems to explain physical phenomena of neutron stars such as the strong magnetic field and glitch phenomena, and it would give a new cooling curve for the neutron star.Comment: to be published in Physical Review

Measurement of W± boson production in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02Te with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of W± boson production in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02Te is reported using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 0.49nb-1. The W± bosons are reconstructed in the electron or muon leptonic decay channels. Production yields of leptonically decaying W± bosons, normalised by the total number of minimum-bias events and the nuclear thickness function, are measured within a fiducial region defined by the detector acceptance and the main kinematic requirements. These normalised yields are measured separately for W+ and W- bosons, and are presented as a function of the absolute value of pseudorapidity of the charged lepton and of the collision centrality. The lepton charge asymmetry is also measured as a function of the absolute value of lepton pseudorapidity. In addition, nuclear modification factors are calculated using the W± boson production cross-sections measured in pp collisions. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-leading-order calculations with CT14 parton distribution functions as well as with predictions obtained with the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear parton distribution functions. No dependence of normalised production yields on centrality and a good agreement with predictions are observed for mid-central and central collisions. For peripheral collisions, the data agree with predictions within 1.7 (0.9) standard deviations for W- (W+) bosons

Single-nucleotide resolution analysis of the transcriptome structure of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 using RNA-Seq

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Clostridium beijerinckii </it>is an important solvent producing microorganism. The genome of <it>C. beijerinckii </it>NCIMB 8052 has recently been sequenced. Although transcriptome structure is important in order to reveal the functional and regulatory architecture of the genome, the physical structure of transcriptome for this strain, such as the operon linkages and transcript boundaries are not well understood.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we conducted a single-nucleotide resolution analysis of the <it>C. beijerinckii </it>NCIMB 8052 transcriptome using high-throughput RNA-Seq technology. We identified the transcription start sites and operon structure throughout the genome. We confirmed the structure of important gene operons involved in metabolic pathways for acid and solvent production in <it>C. beijerinckii </it>8052, including <it>pta</it>-<it>ack</it>, <it>ptb</it>-<it>buk</it>, <it>hbd</it>-<it>etfA</it>-<it>etfB</it>-<it>crt </it>(<it>bcs</it>) and <it>ald</it>-<it>ctfA</it>-<it>ctfB</it>-<it>adc </it>(<it>sol</it>) operons; we also defined important operons related to chemotaxis/motility, transcriptional regulation, stress response and fatty acids biosynthesis along with others. We discovered 20 previously non-annotated regions with significant transcriptional activities and 15 genes whose translation start codons were likely mis-annotated. As a consequence, the accuracy of existing genome annotation was significantly enhanced. Furthermore, we identified 78 putative silent genes and 177 putative housekeeping genes based on normalized transcription measurement with the sequence data. We also observed that more than 30% of pseudogenes had significant transcriptional activities during the fermentation process. Strong correlations exist between the expression values derived from RNA-Seq analysis and microarray data or qRT-PCR results.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Transcriptome structural profiling in this research provided important supplemental information on the accuracy of genome annotation, and revealed additional gene functions and regulation in <it>C. beijerinckii</it>.</p

Nutritional status of pre-school children from low income families

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We evaluated growth and nutritional status of preschool children between 2 and 6 years old from low income families from 14 daycare centers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional study with 1544 children from daycare centers of Santo Andre, Brazil. Body weight (W), height (H) and body mass index (BMI) were classified according to the 2000 National Center for Health Statistics (CDC/NCHS). Cutoff points for nutritional disorders: -2 z scores and 2.5 and 10 percentiles for malnutrition risk, 85 to 95 percentile for overweight and above BMI 95 percentile for obesity. Stepwise Forward Regression method was used including age, gender, birth weight, breastfeeding duration, age of mother at birth and period of time they attended the daycare center.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Children presented mean z scores of H, W and BMI above the median of the CDC/NCHS reference. Girls were taller and heavier than boys, while we observed similar BMI between both genders. The z scores tended to rise with age. A Pearson Coefficient of Correlation of 0.89 for W, 0.93 for H and 0.95 for BMI was documented indicating positive association of age with weight, height and BMI. The frequency of children below -2 z scores was lower than expected: 1.5% for W, 1.75% for H and 0% for BMI, which suggests that there were no malnourished children. The other extremity of the distribution evidenced prevalence of overweight and obesity of 16.8% and 10.8%, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Low income preschool children are in an advanced stage of nutritional transition with a high prevalence of overweight.</p

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente