Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) is composed of three domains: a catalytic domain (LC), a translocation domain (HN) and a receptor-binding domain (HC). Like most bacterial toxins BoNT/A is an amphitropic protein, produced in a soluble form that is able to interact, penetrate and/or cross a membrane to achieve its toxic function. During intoxication BoNT/A is internalized by the cell by receptor-...

Paramyxoviruses, including the childhood respiratory pathogen human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3), possess an envelope protein hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) that has receptor-cleaving (neuraminidase), as well as receptor-binding, activity. HN is a type II transmembrane glycoprotein, present on the surface of the virus as a tetramer composed of two dimers. HN is also essential for activa...

Thermostable Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccines have been used widely to protect village chickens against Newcastle disease, due to their decreased dependence on cold chain for transport and storage. However, the genetic basis underlying the NDV thermostability is poorly understood. In this study, we generated chimeric viruses by exchanging viral genes between the thermostable TS09-C strain...

Previous research has reported that diets high in protein and sulfur decreased uterine pH in cattle. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of high N and high S intake on uterine pH. Holstein (n = 15) and Angus-cross (n = 5) heifers (337.5 ± 8.4 kg of BW) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 diets: control (CON; 13.4% CP and 0.17% S); high nitrogen (HN; CON plus urea supplement); h...

The real homology of a compact, n-dimensional Riemannian manifold M is naturally endowed with the stable norm. The stable norm of a homology class is the minimal Riemannian volume of its representatives. If M is orientable the stable norm on Hn−1(M,R) is a homogenized version of the Riemannian (n−1)-volume. We study the differentiability properties of the stable norm at points α ∈ Hn−1(M,R). Th...

In this paper we present HealthNet (HN), a social network that helps patients to meet the best doctor for her health condition. The core component of HN is a recommender system that suggests to the user patients similar to her, and generates suggestions about doctors and hospitals that best match her patient profile. Currently an alpha version of HN is available only for Italian users, but in t...

Let G be a connected complex semisimple Lie group, Γ cocompact, irreducible and torsionless lattice in K maximal compact subgroup of G. Assume acts by left multiplication right on MΓ=Γ﹨G, X=G/K XΓ=Γ﹨X. In this article we prove that for any n≥0, the composition Hn(XΓ,C)→Hn(MΓ,C)→Hn(MΓ,OMΓ) is an isomorphism. As application when simply connected, compute Picard group MΓ cases rank(G) =1,2. More p...

Dose distributions in HN-IMRT are complex and may be sensitive to the treatment uncertainties. The goals of this study were to evaluate: 1) dose differences between plan and actual delivery and implications on margin requirement for HN-IMRT with rigid setup errors; 2) dose distribution complexity on setup error sensitivity; and 3) agreement between average dose and cumulative dose in fractionat...

Enveloped viruses are released from infected cells after coalescence of viral components at cellular membranes and budding of membranes to release particles. For some negative-strand RNA viruses (e.g., vesicular stomatitis virus and Ebola virus), the viral matrix (M) protein contains all of the information needed for budding, since virus-like particles (VLPs) are efficiently released from cells...

Abbreviations: NPC: Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; NACT: Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy; 5y-OS: 5-Year Overall Survival; 5y-DFS: 5-Year Disease-Free Survival; 5y-RFS: 5-Year Local-RecurrenceFree Survival; 5y-MFS: 5-Year Distant-Metastasis-Free Survival; IMRT: Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy; CCT: Concurrent Chemotherapy; HN-MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Head and Neck; G3/4: Grade 3 To 4; CTCAE ...