Development of an Indirect ELISA to Detect African Swine Fever Virus pp62 Protein-Specific Antibodies

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly detrimental viral disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). The occurrence and prevalence of this disease have become a serious threat to the global swine industry and national economies. At present, the detection volume of African swine fever is huge, more sensitive and accurate detection techniques are needed for the market. pp62 protein, as a protein in the late stage of infection, has strong antigenicity and a high corresponding antibody titer in infected pigs. In this study, the CP530R gene was cloned into expression vector pET-28a to construct a prokaryotic expression plasmid, which was induced by IPTG to express soluble pp62 protein. Western blot analysis showed that it had great reactivity. Using the purified recombinant protein as an antigen, an indirect ELISA method for detecting ASFV antibody was established. The method was specific only to ASFV-positive serum, 1:1600 diluted positive serum could still be detected, and the coefficients of variation (CV) of the intra assay and inter assay were both <10%. It turns out that the assays had excellent specificity, sensitivity, and repeatability. This provides an accurate, rapid, and economical method for the detection of ASFV antibody in clinical pig serum samples.

Toward an Innovative Educational Method to Train Students to Agile Approaches in Higher Education: The A.L.P.E.S.

Introduced in 2013, the A.L.P.E.S. approach (AgiLe aPproaches in higher Education Studies) aims to apply agile practices to teaching. Agile approaches are project management practices for IT development. More pragmatic than traditional methods, they allow to be closer to the applicant and to involve him/her as much as possible. They offer a great reactivity and a good adaptation to best meet the needs. They are used today in a large part of IT companies. Largely inspired by agile approaches, the A.L.P.E.S. approach allows the teaching of project management in a transverse way to a main course. It makes teaching more flexible and more adapted to the students. In this article, we describe the approach. We describe the tools, the process of creating a course, and the process of running a course.

Nuclear Factor Erythroid 2-Related Factor 2 Activation Might Mitigate Clinical Symptoms in Friedreich’s Ataxia: Clues of an “Out-Brain Origin” of the Disease From a Family Study

Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is the most frequent autosomal recessive ataxia in western countries, with a mean age of onset at 10–15 years. Patients manifest progressive cerebellar and sensory ataxia, dysarthria, lower limb pyramidal weakness, and other systemic manifestations. Previously, we described a family displaying two expanded GAA alleles not only in the proband affected by late-onset FRDA but also in the two asymptomatic family members: the mother and the younger sister. Both of them showed a significant reduction of frataxin levels, without any disease manifestation. Here, we analyzed if a protective mechanism might contribute to modulate the phenotype in this family. We particularly focused on the transcription factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2), the first line of antioxidant defense in cells, and on the glutathione (GSH) system, an index of reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification ability. Our findings show a great reactivity of the GSH system to the frataxin deficiency, particularly in the asymptomatic mother, where the genes of GSH synthesis [glutamate–cysteine ligase (GCL)] and GSSG detoxification [GSH S-reductase (GSR)] were highly responsive. The GSR was activated even in the asymptomatic sister and in the proband, reflecting the need of buffering the GSSG increase. Furthermore, and contrasting the NRF2 expression documented in FRDA tissues, NRF2 was highly activated in the mother and in the younger sister, while it was constitutively low in the proband. This suggests that, also under frataxin depletion, the endogenous stimulation of NRF2 in asymptomatic FRDA subjects may contribute to protect against the progressive oxidative damage, helping to prevent the onset of neurological symptoms and highlighting an “out-brain origin” of the disease.

Influence of Rice Husk Ash on Characteristics of Earth Cement Blocks

This paper presents an experimental study on the characteristics of earth cement blocks with Rice Husk Ash (RHA) as a partial replacement to cement. The replacement of RHA content is limited to 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by mass of the total binder in the earth cement block. The experiments on earth cement blocks investigate the compressive strength and flexural tensile strength for mechanical properties and water absorption, sorption rate and erosion against water spray for its durability. Due to the high content of SiO2 in RHA with great reactivity, a significant increase in the compressive and flexural tensile strength of earth cement blocks was observed up to 10% RHA content. However, the durability of earth cement blocks becomes adverse with the increasing percentage of RHA replacement, but within the allowable limit. The experimental results indicate that to some extent, RHA based earth cement blocks have a significant potential for reduction in cement used in the construction industry.

CFBSA: a novel and practical chlorinating reagent

A novel chlorinating reagent was synthesized from easily-obtained materials and it shows great reactivity to a large scope of substrates.

Ozone and Ozonated Oils in Skin Diseases: A Review

Although orthodox medicine has provided a variety of topical anti-infective agents, some of them have become scarcely effective owing to antibiotic- and chemotherapeutic-resistant pathogens. For more than a century, ozone has been known to be an excellent disinfectant that nevertheless had to be used with caution for its oxidizing properties. Only during the last decade it has been learned how to tame its great reactivity by precisely dosing its concentration and permanently incorporating the gas into triglycerides where gaseous ozone chemically reacts with unsaturated substrates leading to therapeutically active ozonated derivatives. Today the stability and efficacy of the ozonated oils have been already demonstrated, but owing to a plethora of commercial products, the present paper aims to analyze these derivatives suggesting the strategy to obtain products with the best characteristics.

Immunocytochemical studies on the renl fate of circulating advanced glycated products

A growing body of evidence points to a causal relationship between advanced glycation end products (AGE) accumulation in tissues and the development of chronic diabetic complications. Particularly impressive are data showing a dramatic increase in the levels of circulating AGE peptides in diabetic end stage renal disease that correlates with the severity of the nephropathy. We have recently shown that AGE-BSA probes tagged with colloidal gold display great reactivity towards glomerular structures. In the same way, a recent study has shown that chronic injection of AGEBSA but not BSA produces the classical picture of diabetic glomerulopathy in otherwise euglycemic animals. It is apparent from these and other studies that small metabolic fragments of AGE proteins are implicated in these phenomena. It is certain that the kidneys play an important role in the clearance of circulating AGE products from the bloodstream. However, so far little is known about the fate of AGE proteins and AGE peptides in renal tissue.

Ignitions, extinctions and thermokinetic oscillations accompanying the oxidation of ethane in an open system (continuously stirred tank reactor)

This paper is concerned with the spontaneous oxidation of ethane and oxygen at constant pressure (1 atm) in a well stirred, continuous flow reactor (0.5 dm 3 ) over the range of vessel temperatures from 500 to 800 K and at mean residence times of 15, 30, 60 and 120 s. The reactant compositions are varied in the stages C 2 H 6 :O 2 of 8:1, 6:1, 4:1, 2:1 and 1:1, and these are chosen to match the compositions at which cool flame phenomena were observed previously by Knox & Norrish (1954) in closed unstirred vessels and by J. A. Gray (1953) in a laminar flow tube. The work is concerned principally with the thermokinetic modes that occur and the nature of transitions between them, when the vessel temperature is varied at each of the compositions and residence times. Four distinct reaction modes are found; two stationary states and two oscillatory states. The oscillatory states are associated only with the leanest compositions (C 2 H 6 :O 2 < 2:1) and fastest flow rates ( t res = 15 s). One mode is characteristic of oscillatory cool flames, the other is an oscillatory ignition. Both stationary reaction modes are found in all compositions at all residence times, one occurring at higher vessel temperatures than the other and distinguishable by its great reactivity and an accompanying stationary luminescence (CH 2 O*). In the most reactive systems (low C 2 H 6 :O 2 , low t res ) the luminescent state is entered discontinuously and although the temperature rise associated with it is not great (∆ T < 60 K), it is found to be consistent with that predicted for complete combustion of the rich ethane and oxygen in a non-adiabatic flow system. This study reveals some features of ethane oxidation that match the predictions of quite simple thermal theories for combustion and others that are a product of complex thermokinetic interactions. Quantitative tests are made possible by the assessment of heat release rates from temperature measurements by using fine-wire thermocouples and from overall stoichiometries obtained by chemical analysis.

Vinyl ether hydrolysis. XVII. Oxacyclonon-2,8-diene and the question of the unorthodox reaction mechanism for 9-methoxyoxacyclonon-2-ene

The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of the nine-membered ring cyclic vinyl ether, oxacyclonon-2,8-diene, occurs with a normal isotope effect, [Formula: see text], which indicates that this reaction proceeds by the conventional vinyl ether hydrolysis mechanism involving rate-determining proton transfer to carbon. The specific rate of this reaction, [Formula: see text], may then be used to show that there is no significant ring-size effect on the rate of hydrolysis of a vinyl ether group in a nine-membered ring. The previously noted unusually great reactivity of the vinyl ether group in 9-methoxyoxacyclonon-2-ene, for which an unorthodox reaction mechanism has been claimed, must therefore be due to some other cause.