COMPLETE GENOME SEQUENCE OF PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS TYPE 2 UKRAINIAN ISOLATES

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is associated with distinct syndromes and diseases in swine, collectively known as porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD), which include postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), PCV2-associated pneumonia as a part of the porcine respiratory disease complex (PRDC), PCV2-associated enteritis, PCV2-associated reproductive failure, and porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS) (1–3). PCV2-infection is widespread and essentially all pig herds are infected with PCV2. Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2), a member of the genus Circovirus in the family Circoviridae, is a very small single-stranded negative-sense DNA virus of approximately 1.7 kb (4). The genome of PCV2 encodes three major open reading frames (ORFs) encoding the replicase proteins (ORF1), the viral capsid protein (ORF2), and a protein with suggested apoptotic activity (ORF3) (5). Previous reports showed that there were five PCV2 genotypes, including PCV2a, PCV2b, PCV2c, PCV2d, and PCV2e (6– 9). Here, we report the complete genome sequence of Ukrainian PCV2 isolates from different regions of Ukraine

Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) plays a dual role in myddosome formation and Toll-like receptor signaling

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) form part of the host innate immune system, in which they act as sensors of microbial and endogenous danger signals. Upon TLR activation, the intracellular Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domains of TLR dimers initiate oligomerization of a multiprotein signaling platform comprising myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88) and members of the interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase (IRAK) family. Formation of this myddosome complex initiates signal transduction pathways, leading to the activation of transcription factors and the production of inflammatory cytokines. To date, little is known about the assembly and disassembly of the myddosome and about the mechanisms by which these complexes mediate multiple downstream signaling pathways. Here, we isolated myddosome complexes from whole-cell lysates of TLR-activated primary mouse macrophages and from IRAK reporter macrophages to examine the kinetics of myddosome assembly and disassembly. Using a selective inhibitor of IRAK4\u27s kinase activity, we found that whereas TLR cytokine responses were ablated, myddosome formation was stabilized in the absence of IRAK4\u27s kinase activity. Of note, IRAK4 inhibition had only a minimal effect on NF-kappaB and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. In summary, our results indicate that IRAK4 has a critical scaffold function in myddosome formation and that its kinase activity is dispensable for myddosome assembly and activation of the NF-kappaB and MAPK pathways but is essential for MyD88-dependent production of inflammatory cytokines. Our findings suggest that the scaffold function of IRAK4 may be an attractive target for treating inflammatory and autoimmune diseases

Experiences with stacking the first four ATLAS submodules at Argonne

This note is to review our experience at Argonne with assembling the first four sumodules constructed at this location. We will try to cover all of the experiences, and at the end add some comments about changes that were incorporated into the current modules, and suggested changes that may be incorporated into future modules

Social Interactions vs Revisions, What is important for Promotion in Wikipedia?

In epistemic community, people are said to be selected on their knowledge contribution to the project (articles, codes, etc.) However, the socialization process is an important factor for inclusion, sustainability as a contributor, and promotion. Finally, what does matter to be promoted? being a good contributor? being a good animator? knowing the boss? We explore this question looking at the process of election for administrator in the English Wikipedia community. We modeled the candidates according to their revisions and/or social attributes. These attributes are used to construct a predictive model of promotion success, based on the candidates's past behavior, computed thanks to a random forest algorithm. Our model combining knowledge contribution variables and social networking variables successfully explain 78% of the results which is better than the former models. It also helps to refine the criterion for election. If the number of knowledge contributions is the most important element, social interactions come close second to explain the election. But being connected with the future peers (the admins) can make the difference between success and failure, making this epistemic community a very social community too

Determination of the Jet Energy Scale at the Collider Detector at Fermilab

A precise determination of the energy scale of jets at the Collider Detector at Fermilab at the Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ collider is described. Jets are used in many analyses to estimate the energies of partons resulting from the underlying physics process. Several correction factors are developed to estimate the original parton energy from the observed jet energy in the calorimeter. The jet energy response is compared between data and Monte Carlo simulation for various physics processes, and systematic uncertainties on the jet energy scale are determined. For jets with transverse momenta above 50 GeV the jet energy scale is determined with a 3% systematic uncertainty

Genetic diversity of PRRSV 1 in Central Eastern Europe in 1994-2014: origin and evolution of the virus in the region

More than 20 years after the first outbreaks, the phylogenetic picture of PRRSV is still incomplete and full of gaps, especially in regards of PRRSV 1. Due to the exceptional diversity observed at the eastern borders of Europe and the low number of available sequences from Central Eastern European countries, the authors collected and analyzed both recent as well as already submitted sequences comparing them to a large backbone set of available ORF5 sequences representing the full spectrum of PRRSV 1 Subtype 1 diversity to conduct a systematic phylogenetic analysis and reclassification elucidating the diversity of the virus in these countries. Moreover, further analyses of the EUROSTAT data regarding the live pig movement trends revealed their influence of virus diversity and evolution. The results indicate that besides the effect of local, isolated divergent evolution and the use of modified live vaccines, the most important factor influencing a given country’s virus diversity is the transboundary movement of live, infected animals

Measurement of the Helicity Fractions of W Bosons from Top Quark Decays Using Fully Reconstructed top-antitop Events with CDF II

We present a measurement of the fractions F_0 and F_+ of longitudinally polarized and right-handed W bosons in top quark decays using data collected with the CDF II detector. The data set used in the analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 318 pb -1. We select ttbar candidate events with one lepton, at least four jets, and missing transverse energy. Our helicity measurement uses the decay angle theta*, which is defined as the angle between the momentum of the charged lepton in the W boson rest frame and the W momentum in the top quark rest frame. The cos(theta*) distribution in the data is determined by full kinematic reconstruction of the ttbar candidates. We find F_0 = 0.85 +0.15 -0.22 (stat) +- 0.06 (syst) and F_+ = 0.05 +0.11 -0.05 (stat) +- 0.03 (syst), which is consistent with the standard model prediction. We set an upper limit on the fraction of right-handed W bosons of F_+ < 0.26 at the 95% confidence level.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Muon/electron separation for atmospheric neutrino interactions

A study has been made of the ability of the Soudan 2 nucleon decay detector to distinguish between showering and non-showering particles, utilizing several different pattern recognition techniques. This work has direct application in the determination of the {nu}{sub {mu}}/{nu}{sub e} ratio for atmospheric neutrino induced events. The results of the application of these techniques to Monte Carlo data and to calibration data from the ISIS test beam are presented