PUNE: The anti-encroachment squad of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Monday demolished an unauthorized construction in Akurdi. Shirish Poreddy, spokesperson of the PCMC’s engineering department, said the razed construction had ground plus three floors and covered a total area of 4,500 sq ft. Executive engineer Ramdas Tambe supervised the drive. The PCMC has demolished a total of 27 unauthorized constructions within the municipal limits in the past one month. The other 26 razed constructions covered a total area of 18,000 sq ft. Out of that 19 structures were built in March 2012, while the remaining are older constructions. “The civic body has been conducting the demolition drive against […]

NEW YORK AUTO SHOW – March 23, 2016 – HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated (NYSE:HAR), the premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, will join leading global automakers at the 2016 New York Auto Show...

Young German climate-strikers on Friday (April 24) got creative with their social distancing, set up hundreds of cardboard cutouts to represent protesters taking part in the Fridays for Future demonstration.

While President Donald Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona this week, his Democratic opponent for the White House, Joe Biden, campaigned from his basement as he has done throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Rival lawmakers scuffled in Hong Kong's legislature on Friday in a row over electing the chairman of a key committee, a fresh sign of rising political tension as the coronavirus pandemic tapers off in the Chinese-ruled city. Francesca Lynagh reports.

ABSTRACT

Human noroviruses (HuNoVs) are the leading cause of nonbacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Histo-blood group antigen (HBGA) expression is an important susceptibility factor for HuNoV infection based on controlled human infection models and epidemiologic studies that show an association of secretor status with infection caused by several genotypes. The fucosyltransferase 2 gene (FUT2) affects HBGA expression in intestinal epithelial cells; secretors express a functional FUT2 enzyme, while nonsecretors lack this enzyme and are highly resistant to infection and gastroenteritis caused by many HuNoV strains. These epidemiologic associations are confirmed by infections in stem cell-derived human intestinal enteroid (HIE) cultures. GII.4 HuNoV does not replicate in HIE cultures derived from nonsecretor individuals, while HIEs from secretors are permissive to infection. However, whether FUT2 expression alone is critical for infection remains unproven, since routinely used secretor-positive transformed cell lines are resistant to HuNoV replication. To evaluate the role of FUT2 in HuNoV replication, we used CRISPR or overexpression to genetically manipulate FUT2 gene function to produce isogenic HIE lines with or without FUT2 expression. We show that FUT2 expression alone affects both HuNoV binding to the HIE cell surface and susceptibility to HuNoV infection. These findings indicate that initial binding to a molecule(s) glycosylated by FUT2 is critical for HuNoV infection and that the HuNoV receptor is present in nonsecretor HIEs. In addition to HuNoV studies, these isogenic HIE lines will be useful tools to study other enteric microbes where infection and/or disease outcome is associated with secretor status.

IMPORTANCE Several studies have demonstrated that secretor status is associated with susceptibility to human norovirus (HuNoV) infection; however, previous reports found that FUT2 expression is not sufficient to allow infection with HuNoV in a variety of continuous laboratory cell lines. Which cellular factor(s) regulates susceptibility to HuNoV infection remains unknown. We used genetic manipulation of HIE cultures to show that secretor status determined by FUT2 gene expression is necessary and sufficient to support HuNoV replication based on analyses of isogenic lines that lack or express FUT2. Fucosylation of HBGAs is critical for initial binding and for modification of another putative receptor(s) in HIEs needed for virus uptake or uncoating and necessary for successful infection by GI.1 and several GII HuNoV strains.

The question of the relative evolutionary roles of adaptive and nonadaptive processes has been a central debate in population genetics for nearly a century. While advances have been made in the theoretical development of the underlying models, and statistical methods for estimating their parameters from large-scale genomic data, a framework for an appropriate null model remains elusive. A model incorporating evolutionary processes known to be in constant operation, genetic drift (as modulated by the demographic history of the population) and purifying selection, is lacking. Without such a null model, the role of adaptive processes in shaping within- and between-population variation may not be accurately assessed. Here, we investigate how population size changes and the strength of purifying selection affect patterns of variation at "neutral" sites near functional genomic components. We propose a novel statistical framework for jointly inferring the contribution of the relevant selective and demographic parameters. By means of extensive performance analyses, we quantify the utility of the approach, identify the most important statistics for parameter estimation, and compare the results with existing methods. Finally, we reanalyze genome-wide population-level data from a Zambian population of Drosophila melanogaster, and find that it has experienced a much slower rate of population growth than was inferred when the effects of purifying selection were neglected. Our approach represents an appropriate null model, against which the effects of positive selection can be assessed.

Governments around the world must rapidly mobilize and make difficult policy decisions to mitigate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Because deaths have been concentrated at older ages, we highlight the important role of demography, particularly, how the age structure of a population may help explain differences in fatality rates...

For most of Doom Eternal‘s demonic foes, the best they can expect is to make a nice corpse. A particularly pleasing splash of gore on the Doom Slayer’s boot. But for those lucky few that manage to take down our man in green, a special reward will soon be in store. Doom Eternal’s first major […]

Qubits are often stabilised by being supercooled, which makes quantum computer chips hard to scale up. Now they have been operated at above -272°C for the first time

Robots that can control puppets could one day learn to manipulate complex physical objects like clothing and flexible sheets

For $10, Shaq will title this podcast. For $20, Manny will read a book on the podcast. For $3000, Anna Marie will cook you dinner....

While President Donald Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona this week, his Democratic opponent for the White House, Joe Biden, campaigned from his basement as he has done throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

The DRC’s Ebola epidemic will be declared over on 12 April but there’s little time to celebrate as the country pivots towards tackling the coronavirus

Fresh cases of Ebola have been detected just days before the deadly epidemic in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo was to be declared over

Five U.S. Senate Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday seeking a review of U.S. participation in the World Health Organization and other international institutions, after President Donald Trump's administration suspended U.S. contributions to the U.N. health agency and accused it of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday laid out the broad outlines of the next massive coronavirus-response bill Democrats will seek, with possible votes as soon as next week.

While President Donald Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona this week, his Democratic opponent for the White House, Joe Biden, campaigned from his basement as he has done throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Congratulations to Drake, who scores the Official Chart double this week as his Dark Lane Demo Tapes mixtape and song Toosie Slide claim Number 1 on the Official Albums and Singles Charts.

Bernie Sanders' bid to collect convention delegates hits snag as New York cancels Democratic presidential primary

Unite the Country, a super PAC supporting Joe Biden, and the Trump campaign both launched $10 million ad campaigns this week.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday put a temporary hold on the release of secret materials from former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation to a Democrat-led House committee.

The order stops the clock on a lower court's ruling requiring the Justice Department to turn over confidential grand jury materials underlying ...

Republican lawmakers accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of "cowering" from the coronavirus on Friday and said they're ready to get back to work, even as President Trump said he is in "no rush" to negotiate with Democrats over another emergency aid package.

During a meeting at the White House with ...

The backing is a crucial development for former Vice President Mr Biden, who must bridge the Democratic Party's ideological divide to unify voters against Republican leader Donald Trump.

Police in Hong Kong have arrested at least 14 veteran pro-democracy activists accused of joining unlawful protests last year.

Defiant US healthcare workers have been praised after silently blocking cars during coronavirus anti-lockdown demonstrations in Colorado.

BBC presenter Jeremy Vine has trialled a "have you had it?" antibody coronavirus test not yet approved by the Government.

The year-old band also called on Zygnema’s Sidharth Kadadi to produce their second release

The post Exclusive Premiere: Mumbai Metallers Targe Call on The Demonstealer for ‘The Cortege’ appeared first on My Site.

Zephyr Teachout

The post Democracy Wins in New York—and Bernie’s Back on the Ballot! appeared first on The Nation.

Workaround tricked Steam to get past Denuvo's DRM protection.

The efforts to undermine Democratic governors who invoked stay-at-home orders are most pronounced in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all three of which have divided government and are key to President Donald Trump's path to reelection.

The Speaker is presiding over his first virtual PMQs. Susannah Butter meets him (on FaceTime)

McGowan previously called her 'Charmed' co-star Alyssa Milano a 'fraud' for endorsing Biden

OVO
There are flashes of skill and rawness in this odds-and-ends mixtape but it feels like a clumsy lunge at commercial success

In a world where the boundary between mixtapes and albums is becoming ever more blurred, the title of Drake’s latest album highlights its interstitial nature. That said, it’s still slightly misleading. There are tracks here that sound like demos – the mopey James Blake-isms of Chicago Freestyle are audibly unpolished – but for the most part, it ’s a way of collecting up leftovers and leaks, spare tracks he apparently has lying around the studio.

Those inclined to view Drake’s career with a cool eye might be surprised he has any spare tracks lying around the studio, given the state of his last album. Listening to Scorpion, 25 songs long, required a certain degree of mental stamina: you needed to steel yourself against the panicky sensation that you might die of old age before it ended. But it wasn’t the sheer quantity that was the problem so much as the quality of what was there. Scorpion had its moments but was so hopelessly uneven that it was easy to buy into the theory that its length was not due to its author’s teeming multiplicity of fantastic ideas, but an attempt to game the streaming services: more songs means more streams, more streams means a higher chart placing.

The party is downplaying expectations in next week's special election for a congressional seat in the L.A. suburbs.

Up for reelection this fall, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has to decide whether to allow Trump's coronation to proceed amid a pandemic.

Two former Inslee campaign staffers have a message for Joe Biden: To unite the Democratic party, prioritize climate policies.

MORNING BRIEFING: Police charge a man who allegedly returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.299 during a random breath test last night, and motorsport fans plan to protest against the NSW Government's decision to demolish the Parramatta Speedway.

Bernie Sanders, who has criticized Amazon's treatment of its blue-collar workforce, led the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls in donations from Amazon employees, with support from both warehouse workers and software engineers.

Physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) have invented a new radar prototype that utilizes quantum entanglement as a method of object detection. This successful integration of quantum mechanics into our everyday devices could significantly impact the biomedical and security industries. The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

Bernie Sanders has been called "selfish" for failing to "get out" of the presidential race but the senator from Vermont has given no indication he is going anywhere.

An ANU demographer is "concerned" the coronavirus pandemic will result in an accelerated reduced birthrate and a decline in future taxpayers, affecting Australia's socioeconomic future.

Joe Biden has tried to move past an allegation that he assaulted a female staffer decades ago by not talking about it. It isn't working. Some Democrats worry the story line will fester into a much bigger problem for him and the party if he keeps ignoring it.

Two demolition and salvage companies and three of their respective owners and supervisors were indicted today by a federal grand jury in Chattanooga, Tenn. The indictment describes a year-long scheme in which the former Standard Coosa Thatcher plant in Chattanooga was illegally demolished while still containing large amounts of asbestos.

Gary Fillers pleaded guilty to one criminal felony count for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act’s “work practice standards” related to the proper stripping, bagging, removal and disposal of asbestos.

Three men and a demolition company were convicted by a federal jury in Chattanooga, Tenn., of environmental crimes and obstruction of justice charges related to the illegal demolition of a Chattanooga factory containing large amounts of the toxic air pollutant asbestos.