RAWALPINDI/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: The workers of Jang, Geo and The News along with representatives of civil society and political workers continued countrywide protest on Friday against illegal arrest of Editor-in-Chief of Geo and Jang Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and pledged that the protest will...

RAWALPINDI/LAHORE/PESHAWAR: The workers of Jang, Geo and The News along with representatives of civil society and political workers continued countrywide protest on Friday against illegal arrest of Editor-in-Chief of Geo and Jang Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman and pledged that the protest will...

Southeast Asian economies are starting to feel the pinch of trade tensions, recession fears and other global trends.

Developing a holistic national student assessment system can be a colossal undertaking but strategic measures can produce results.

Few images conjure the 1930s Depression like people standing in soup lines while farmers dump food they can't sell. That is a tragedy Southeast Asia is fighting to avoid, though it is starting to happen in pockets around the world in the midst of COVID-19. Supply chain disruptions, driven by the pan...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Wednesday the German soccer league Bundesliga can resume playing later this month, ending a two-month pause prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.Merkel made the announcement as one of a range of containment measures being relaxed, following a meeting with the c...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will keep Britain under a coronavirus lockdown until at least next month -- to the frustration of some in his Cabinet, who behind the scenes are arguing that Downing Street now needs to prioritize the economy, which is heading for its worst recession in 300 years.Cabinet...

Rawalpindi : Four suspects allegedly involved in the killing of a newlywed couple, in apparently an honour killing case, were arrested here on Friday from the jurisdiction of Airport Police Station.Junaid and Sidra were murdered few days back in apparently an honour killing case after they tied...

The Special Investigation Unit of the Criminal Investigation Agency busted on Friday three suspected criminals running a gang. In a separate raid, they apprehended analleged robber.According to SIU police chief SSP Irfan Bahadur, three gang members were involved in various criminal cases,...

ADB today approved a $200 million loan to pilot an integrated approach to river restoration in one of the tributaries of the Yangtze River Basin in the PRC. The project in...

ADB has approved a $100 million loan for a demonstration project that will help clean up the Xin’an River in Anhui Province in the PRC. The project will also pilot an innovative financing mechanism to reduce rural pollution...

The stage seems to be set for the real estate sector to take a turn for good times again. When everyone expected a rate hike in the Reserve Bank of India’s policy review on December 18, the central bank surprised all with a status quo on rates. Another bonanza soon followed: State Bank of India and HDFC, the top two home loan providers, slashed home loan interest rates between 30-50 basis points. Both these unexpected moves have rekindled hopes in the struggling real estate sector at a time when housing demand remained largely stagnant across major urban markets in India. The sector of late has been witnessing end-user perceptions of […]

Hopes of a minor fall in interest rates, especially on home loans, were dashed last week after the RBI hiked its key rates in its policy review. Home loan borrowers, especially those crushed by a heavy EMI, have been looking at the RBI for some solace for a while now. Generally, borrowers can do very little other than prepaying a part of the loan (if they have surplus cash) to reduce the interest burden or increasing the EMI (if they can afford it) to reduce the tenure and therefore, the overall interest paid. However, some experts believe home loan seekers and existing borrowers looking to switch lenders can consider experimenting […]

STAMFORD, CT – September 14, 2016 –HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated (NYSE:HAR), the premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, announced it will showcase additional sensor functionality for the...

STAMFORD, CT - HARMAN, the premium global audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), has been awarded two Plus X Awards in the categories Innovation and High Quality for their ground-breaking sound solutions QuantumLogic Surround 3D and Clari-Fi. In addition, Clari-Fi also received the Plus X Award for “Best Audio Software of the Year”. The awards have been presented earlier today at the German Bundestag in Bonn. The Plus X Award honors manufacturers for new and innovative technologies, extraordinary design and intelligent and easy to use operating systems. With an international and independent panel of judges from 25 industries, the Plus X Award is the world’s largest competition for technology, sports and lifestyle.

CES 2015, LAS VEGAS – HARMAN, the premium global audio, visual, infotainment and enterprise automation group (NYSE:HAR), today unveiled the world’s first aftermarket amplifiers to feature HARMAN’s Clari-Fi technology, a proprietary software solution capable of analyzing and improving sound quality of compressed, digital music sources in real-time. HARMAN introduced Clari-Fi at CES 2014 and now the JBL® GTR and Infinity® Kappa amplifiers will feature the technology to provide a superior audio experience when playing digital music from streaming audio services.

CES 2015, LAS VEGAS – HARMAN, the premium global audio, visual, infotainment and enterprise automation group (NYSE:HAR), announced today that its Clari-Fi™ music restoration technology has been ported to the Cirrus Logic Smart Codec platform.

A Dutch restaurant has come up with an idea on how to offer classy outdoor dining in the age of coronavirus: small glass cabins built for two or three people, creating intimate cocoons on a public...

Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of a Georgia courthouse on Friday to decry the killing of an unarmed black man in February and the delay in charging two white men in a shooting captured on video that was released earlier this week. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

Two Humboldt penguins, Nacho and Goat, went on a field trip in the forest accompanied by their keepers at Oregon Zoo on Friday (May 1) in Portland, United States.

We thought the Amazon got the essential nutrient phosphorus from Saharan dust. Now it appears it mainly comes from forest fires and people burning wood

Fossilised tree roots found in a New York quarry are 386 million years old, making them the remains of the oldest known forest yet

Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of a Georgia courthouse on Friday to decry the killing of an unarmed black man in February and the delay in charging two white men in a shooting captured on video that was released earlier this week.

Australia's most populous states held back from relaxing coronavirus restrictions on Saturday although other states began allowing small gatherings and were preparing to open restaurants and shops.

EU states should guarantee vouchers for travel cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic and start lifting internal border restrictions in a bid to salvage some of the summer tourism season, the bloc's executive will say next week.

Australia will ease social distancing restrictions in a three-step process, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as Canberra aims to remove most curbs by July and get nearly 1 million people back to work amid a decline in coronavirus cases.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday he aims to present plans next week to reopen the economy, as key sectors like carmaking look to begin business again after over a month of quarantine measures to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

* Tourism, travel, hospitality business hit the hardest by COVID

Two Humboldt penguins, Nacho and Goat, went on a field trip in the forest accompanied by their keepers at Oregon Zoo on Friday (May 1) in Portland, United States.

With MLS players starting to return to their teams' respective training facilities, the league is considering a resumption of the season in June or July, with the possibility of all games in Orlando at the outset, the Washington Post reported.

Australia will ease social distancing restrictions implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus in a three-step process, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, with the aim of removing all curbs by July. Lauren Anthony reports.

A white former police officer and his son were arrested in Georgia on Thursday and charged with murder in the death of an unarmed black man, an incident that has sparked furor in the community and among civil rights activists across the United States. Gloria Tso reports.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of a Georgia courthouse on Friday to decry the killing of an unarmed black man in February and the delay in charging two white men in a shooting captured on video that was released earlier this week. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

Title: Animals More Interesting to Kids Than Toys, Study Shows
Category: Health News
Created: 4/27/2012 2:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Second Man Arrested in Tainted Letter Case, Officials Report
Category: Health News
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Title: Dispatcher-Assisted CPR Boosts Cardiac Arrest Survival in Kids: Study
Category: Health News
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Title: How Much Does Your Kid Weigh? Chances Are, You're Underestimating
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2019 12:00:00 AM
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Category: Health News
Created: 4/26/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/29/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: FDA OKs Restricted Sales of 'Heat-Not-Burn' Tobacco Devices
Category: Health News
Created: 4/30/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: Interest in Unproven COVID Drugs Soared After Trump Gave Thumbs Up
Category: Health News
Created: 4/29/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests On the Rise During COVID-19 Crisis
Category: Health News
Created: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM

A new consensus document provides guidance on the safe reintroduction of cardiovascular procedures and testing derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Category: Health News
Created: 4/23/2020 12:00:00 AM
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Category: Health News
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Last Editorial Review: 2/14/2020 12:00:00 AM

ABSTRACT

Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are a leading cause of viral gastroenteritis worldwide and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in all age groups. The recent finding that HuNoV can be propagated in B cells and mucosa-derived intestinal epithelial organoids (IEOs) has transformed our ability to dissect the life cycle of noroviruses. Using transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) of HuNoV-infected intestinal epithelial cells (IECs), we have found that replication of HuNoV in IECs results in interferon (IFN)-induced transcriptional responses and that HuNoV replication in IECs is sensitive to IFN. This contrasts with previous studies that suggested that the innate immune response may play no role in the restriction of HuNoV replication in immortalized cells. We demonstrated that inhibition of Janus kinase 1 (JAK1)/JAK2 enhanced HuNoV replication in IECs. Surprisingly, targeted inhibition of cellular RNA polymerase II-mediated transcription was not detrimental to HuNoV replication but instead enhanced replication to a greater degree than blocking of JAK signaling directly. Furthermore, we demonstrated for the first time that IECs generated from genetically modified intestinal organoids, engineered to be deficient in the interferon response, were more permissive to HuNoV infection. Taking the results together, our work revealed that IFN-induced transcriptional responses restrict HuNoV replication in IECs and demonstrated that inhibition of these responses mediated by modifications of the culture conditions can greatly enhance the robustness of the norovirus culture system.

IMPORTANCE Noroviruses are a major cause of gastroenteritis worldwide, and yet the challenges associated with their growth in culture have greatly hampered the development of therapeutic approaches and have limited our understanding of the cellular pathways that control infection. Here, we show that human intestinal epithelial cells, which represent the first point of entry of human noroviruses into the host, limit virus replication by induction of innate responses. Furthermore, we show that modulating the ability of intestinal epithelial cells to induce transcriptional responses to HuNoV infection can significantly enhance human norovirus replication in culture. Collectively, our findings provide new insights into the biological pathways that control norovirus infection but also identify mechanisms that enhance the robustness of norovirus culture.

ABSTRACT

The capsule is the dominant Streptococcus pneumoniae virulence factor, yet how variation in capsule thickness is regulated is poorly understood. Here, we describe an unexpected relationship between mutation of adcAII, which encodes a zinc uptake lipoprotein, and capsule thickness. Partial deletion of adcAII in three of five capsular serotypes frequently resulted in a mucoid phenotype that biochemical analysis and electron microscopy of the D39 adcAII mutants confirmed was caused by markedly increased capsule thickness. Compared to D39, the hyperencapsulated adcAII mutant strain was more resistant to complement-mediated neutrophil killing and was hypervirulent in mouse models of invasive infection. Transcriptome analysis of D39 and the adcAII mutant identified major differences in transcription of the Sp_0505-0508 locus, which encodes an SpnD39III (ST5556II) type I restriction-modification system and allelic variation of which correlates with capsule thickness. A PCR assay demonstrated close linkage of the SpnD39IIIC and F alleles with the hyperencapsulated adcAII strains. However, transformation of adcAII with fixed SpnD39III alleles associated with normal capsule thickness did not revert the hyperencapsulated phenotype. Half of hyperencapsulated adcAII strains contained the same single nucleotide polymorphism in the capsule locus gene cps2E, which is required for the initiation of capsule synthesis. These results provide further evidence for the importance of the SpnD39III (ST5556II) type I restriction-modification system for modulating capsule thickness and identified an unexpected linkage between capsule thickness and mutation of adcAII. Further investigation will be needed to characterize how mutation of adcAII affects SpnD39III (ST5556II) allele dominance and results in the hyperencapsulated phenotype.

IMPORTANCE The Streptococcus pneumoniae capsule affects multiple interactions with the host including contributing to colonization and immune evasion. During infection, the capsule thickness varies, but the mechanisms regulating this are poorly understood. We have identified an unsuspected relationship between mutation of adcAII, a gene that encodes a zinc uptake lipoprotein, and capsule thickness. Mutation of adcAII resulted in a striking hyperencapsulated phenotype, increased resistance to complement-mediated neutrophil killing, and increased S. pneumoniae virulence in mouse models of infection. Transcriptome and PCR analysis linked the hyperencapsulated phenotype of the adcAII strain to specific alleles of the SpnD39III (ST5556II) type I restriction-modification system, a system which has previously been shown to affect capsule thickness. Our data provide further evidence for the importance of the SpnD39III (ST5556II) type I restriction-modification system for modulating capsule thickness and identify an unexpected link between capsule thickness and adcAII, further investigation of which could further characterize mechanisms of capsule regulation.

ABSTRACT

Humans encode proteins, called restriction factors, that inhibit replication of viruses such as HIV-1. The members of one family of antiviral proteins, apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like 3 (APOBEC3; shortened here to A3), act by deaminating cytidines to uridines during the reverse transcription reaction of HIV-1. The A3 locus encodes seven genes, named A3A to A3H. These genes have either one or two cytidine deaminase domains, and several of these A3s potently restrict HIV-1. A3C, which has only a single cytidine deaminase domain, however, inhibits HIV-1 only very weakly. We tested novel double domain protein combinations by genetically linking two A3C genes to make a synthetic tandem domain protein. This protein created a "super restriction factor" that had more potent antiviral activity than the native A3C protein, which correlated with increased packaging into virions. Furthermore, disabling one of the active sites of the synthetic tandem domain protein resulted in an even greater increase in the antiviral activity—recapitulating a similar evolution seen in A3F and A3G (double domain A3s that use only a single catalytically active deaminase domain). These A3C tandem domain proteins do not have an increase in mutational activity but instead inhibit formation of reverse transcription products, which correlates with their ability to form large higher-order complexes in cells. Finally, the A3C-A3C super restriction factor largely escaped antagonism by the HIV-1 viral protein Vif.

IMPORTANCE As a part of the innate immune system, humans encode proteins that inhibit viruses such as HIV-1. These broadly acting antiviral proteins do not protect humans from viral infections because viruses encode proteins that antagonize the host antiviral proteins to evade the innate immune system. One such example of a host antiviral protein is APOBEC3C (A3C), which weakly inhibits HIV-1. Here, we show that we can improve the antiviral activity of A3C by duplicating the DNA sequence to create a synthetic tandem domain and, furthermore, that the proteins thus generated are relatively resistant to the viral antagonist Vif. Together, these data give insights about how nature has evolved a defense against viral pathogens such as HIV.