Introduction The FCA published its Policy Statement (PS19/24) in relation to illiquid assets and open-ended funds on 30 September 2019. The statement responds to feedback provided in response to Consultation Paper (CP18/27) and settles on a final sl...

Sixteen patients receiving treatment for Coronavirus in Kano State have been discharged after recovering from the disease.

This brings the total number of discharged patients in the state to 22.

Mallam Muhammad Garba, Commissioner for Information in the state, made this known in a statement on Thursday. 

Garba said among those discharged were Prof Abdulrazak Garba Habeeb of the Department of Medicine, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Bayero University, who is also the Co-chair of the state’s Prevention Task Force on COVID-19, Dr Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa, the state’s Commissioner for Health among others.

The commissioner pointed out that all the patients have tested negative for the disease after the two follow up tests and have therefore reached full recovery.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi says God may have put Orji Kalu in prison to protect him from harm. Eze Nwachukwu, State APC Chairman, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abakaliki. He hailed the Supreme Court verdict which acquited the former Abia State governor. Nwachukwu called it a […]

APC chairman suggests why God made Orji Kalu go to prison

Kim Sang-jo, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, said, "Our commission will soon announce plans to stop the practice of large companies using technology of small enterprises without proper compensation." He held a press conference on August 13 at the Sejong government complex in relation to his agency's bid to root out unfair practices in the retail industry and said, "The biggest obstacle for small- and medium-sized enterprises for their further development is the uneven relationship with...

Park Sam-koo, chairman of Kumho Asiana Group, will submit a self-rescue plan for Kumho Tire that includes the sell-off of Chinese plants to the creditors by September 12. In addition, he will sell off a 4.4-percent stake in Daewoo Engineering & Construction worth 130 billion won while asking executives to return their pays as part of the restructuring measures. An industry official familiar with the matter said on September 11, "Kumho Asiana will soon deliver to the creditors a high-inten...

Hdac Technology AG(Hdac) together with Dream Global Partners (DREAMChain), held a business agreement ceremony on August 16th establishing the foundation of a comprehensive partnership to expand and incorporate blockchain-based real estate enterprises world-wide.The ceremony was held on the 3rd floor of Hdac office building, with Hdac Technology Korea CEO, Michael Yoon, Dream Global Partner’s President, Pietro A. Doran, and Dream Global Partner’s co-founder/Chief Crypto-Economics Officer, Samson ...

Dream Global Partners (Dream Chain) announced on Sep 4th that it will launch a highly  reliable real estate blockchain platform for developers and final users. The blockchain  technology minimizes the possibility of malicious frauds or forged documents, because the ledger is store in a decentralized way and not concentrated in the availability of the parties involved. When this technology is applied to real estate transactions, sources of conflicts for pos...

Highways England are moving forward with the A303 Stonehenge project (A303) and the Lower Thames crossing (LTC) and will be starting their market and supply chain engagement in March 2018. These projects are two of the largest in Highway England's R...

In the first article of our blockchain series, we explained how the use of blockchain technology had the potential to offer s...

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As we celebrate the International Wheelchair Day this coming Sunday on March 1st, we are sharing the results of a report into the 'Most Wheelchair-Friendly Cities in Europe'. Prague ranked at spot #15 and was found to be more accessible than larger cities like Paris or London.

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HONG KONG: Rival Hong Kong lawmakers clashed on Friday inside the city’s legislature which has been paralysed for seven months as pro-democracy politicians attempt to scupper a controversial law that bans insulting China’s national anthem.The chaotic scenes come weeks after Beijing...

The global value chains that help drive Asia’s export-driven economic miracle have widespread development impacts. We need to understand them better to maximize the benefits.

Blockchain technology offers great promise and great risk. We need to better understand how it works and how to use it safely and effectively.

COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of energy value chains but solar power could be an indigenous solution to keep the lights on during a crisis.

The pandemic has highlighted the shortcomings of the globalized supply chain model.

The nominal Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who is in a vegetative state, remains Korea's richest man and one of only four Koreans on Bloomberg's list of top 500 billionaires in the world. The others are acting Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong, Seo Jung-jin, CEO of biopharmaceutical company Celltrion, and K...

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 51039-002 in Afghanistan.

Safeguards due diligence reports are prepared as part of safeguard due diligence and review to ensure compliance with ADB safeguard policy due diligence requirements. This document dated May 2020 is provided for the ADB project 2020-05-07 in Afghanistan.

Colorado Republican Party Chair Ken Buck, a U.S. representative from Windsor, pressured a local party official to submit incorrect election results to set the primary ballot for a state Senate seat, according to an audio recording of a conference call obtained by The Denver Post.

Colorado Republican Chairman Ken Buck is facing criticism from within his own party after revelations that he pressured another party official to submit incorrect election results — and then spent party money to defend the move. At least two party executives say they were surprised to learn Buck — who’s also a U.S. representative — […]

The Weld County GOP chairman has filed a complaint with the local district attorney and the Secretary of State’s Office accusing an aide to Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck and three others of election fraud and corruption.

This paper documents the Chair's Summary of the Development Effectiveness Committee (DEC) discussion held on 7 February 2020.  DEC and the Independent Evaluation Department (IED) discussed three topics presented by IED: Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD), Independent Evaluation Methods, and DEC-IED Retrospective/Prospective Exchange.

This paper documents the Chair's Summary of the Development Effectiveness Committee (DEC) discussion held on 25 March 2020. The commitee discussed the sector-wide evaluation report ADB Support for Transport, 2010-2018.

This paper documents the Chair's Summary of the Development Effectiveness Committee (DEC) discussion held on 14 April 2020. The commitee discussed the 2019 Development Effectiveness Review (DEfR), and the 2019 Annual Portfolio Performance Report (APPR).

Rep. McSally Visits Microchip Executives to Discuss Semiconductor Supply Chain Resilience in the U.S. Amid Defense Industrial Base Report Findings

High labor productivity, a large firm size, foreign ownership, and high technological capability are important for a firm to participate in global value chains.

This brief examines the global shortage of the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to tackle COVID-19 and suggests policy implications.

Financial constraints are a significant barrier for India's SMEs participating in global value chains.

High labor productivity, a large firm size, foreign ownership, and high technological capability are important for a firm to participate in global value chains.

Financial constraints are a significant barrier for India's SMEs participating in global value chains.

Roman skulls and ancient burial grounds – some of the history unearthed by Europe’s largest infrastructure project. We talk to chairman Terry Morgan as the project makes its final tunnel push.

Title: Being Chained to Your Desk Might Harm Your Thyroid
Category: Health News
Created: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM

ABSTRACT

The clostridial neurotoxins (CNTs) comprise tetanus toxin (TT) and botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT [BT]) serotypes (A to G and X) and several recently identified CNT-like proteins, including BT/En and the mosquito BoNT-like toxin Pmp1. CNTs are produced as single proteins cleaved to a light chain (LC) and a heavy chain (HC) connected by an interchain disulfide bond. LC is a zinc metalloprotease (cleaving soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors [SNAREs]), while HC contains an N-terminal translocation domain (HCN) and a C-terminal receptor binding domain (HCC). HCN-mediated LC translocation is the least understood function of CNT action. Here, β-lactamase (βlac) was used as a reporter in discovery-based live-cell assays to characterize TT-mediated LC translocation. Directed mutagenesis identified a role for a charged loop (⁷⁶⁷DKE⁷⁶⁹) connecting α15 and α16 (cis-loop) within HCN in LC translocation; aliphatic substitution inhibited LC translocation but not other toxin functions such as cell binding, intracellular trafficking, or HCN-mediated pore formation. K⁷⁶⁸ was conserved among the CNTs. In molecular simulations of the HCN with a membrane, the cis-loop did not bind with the cell membrane. Taken together, the results of these studies implicate the cis-loop in LC translocation, independently of pore formation.

IMPORTANCE How protein toxins translocate their catalytic domain across a cell membrane is the least understood step in toxin action. This study utilized a reporter, β-lactamase, that was genetically fused to full-length, nontoxic tetanus toxin (βlac-TT) in discovery-based live-cell assays to study LC translocation. Directed mutagenesis identified a role for K⁷⁶⁸ in LC translocation. K⁷⁶⁸ was located between α15 and α16 (termed the cis-loop). Cellular assays showed that K⁷⁶⁸ did not interfere with other toxin functions, including cell binding, intracellular trafficking, and pore formation. The equivalent K⁷⁶⁸ is conserved among the clostridial neurotoxin family of proteins as a conserved structural motif. The cis-loop appears to contribute to LC translocation.

Patients with systemic immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis (AL) with no evidence of cardiac involvement by consensus criteria have excellent survival, but 20% will die within 5 years of diagnosis and prognostic factors remain poorly characterised. We report the outcomes of 378 prospectively followed Mayo stage I patients (N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide <332 ng/L, high sensitivity cardiac troponin <55 ng/L). The median presenting N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide was 161 ng/L, high sensitivity cardiac troponin 10 ng/L, creatinine 76 μmol/L and mean left ventricular septal wall thickness, 10 mm. Median follow up was 42 (1-117 months), with 71 deaths; median overall survival was not reached (78% survival at 5 years). Although no patients had cardiac involvement by echocardiogram, a proportion (n=25/90, 28%) had cardiac involvement by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Age, autonomic nervous system involvement, N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide >152 ng/L, high sensitivity cardiac troponin >10 ng/L and cardiac involvement by magnetic resonance imaging were predictive for survival; on multivariate analysis only N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide >152 ng/L (P<0.008, hazard ratio [HR] 3.180, confidence interval [CI]: 1.349-7.495) and cardiac involvement on magnetic resonance imaging (P=0.026, HR=5.360, CI: 1.219-23.574) were prognostic. At 5 years, 70% of patients with N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide >152 ng/L were alive. In conclusion, N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide is prognostic for survival in patients with no cardiac involvement by consensus criteria and cardiac involvement is detected by magnetic resonance imaging in such cases. This suggests that N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide thresholds for cardiac involvement in AL may need to be redefined.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) recombinants are currently the vector of choice for many gene therapy applications. As experimental therapies progress to clinical trials, the need to characterize recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) accurately and reproducibly increases. Accurate determination of rAAV infectious titer is important for determining the activity of each vector lot and for ensuring lot-to-lot consistency. The following protocol developed in our laboratory uses a 96-well TCID₅₀ format and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) detection for the determination of rAAV infectious titer.

This protocol is used to determine the concentration of DNase-resistant vector genomes (i.e., packaged in the capsid) in purified recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) preparations. The protocol begins with treatment of the vector stock with DNase I to eliminate unencapsidated AAV DNA or contaminating plasmid DNA. This is followed by a heat treatment to heat-inactivate DNase I, to disrupt the viral capsid, and to release the packaged vector genomes for quantification by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a set of standards (linearized plasmid used for vector production) containing known copy numbers. To accomplish high-throughput titration, the primer and probe sets used in real-time PCR are usually designed to target common elements present in most rAAV genomes, such as promoters and poly(A) signals. This strategy significantly reduces the number of PCRs, controls, and turnaround time. Several important controls should be included in the assay as follows: The first two controls should have a known copy number of the rAAV genome plasmid treated or not treated with DNase I. This control tests the effectiveness of DNase treatment. To control for potential cross-contamination between samples during the preparation process, a blank control containing nuclease-free water only should be processed and tested in parallel. A validation vector sample with a known titer should be included in every assay to monitor interassay variability. Finally, for the PCR run, a no-template control (NTC) is included to indicate cross-contamination during PCR setup.

Tự làm vườn không chỉ tiết kiệm túi tiền mà còn góp phần bảo vệ hành tinh xanh. Hãy thử tái chế những món đồ bỏ đi ở quanh nhà và tạo nên một khu vườn nhỏ gọn, phong cách, phù hợp với mọi không gian.

Rafael Nadal revealed this week he was doubtful there will be further tennis in 2020.

Watford chairman Scott Duxbury has questioned whether the Premier League should return amid the coronavirus pandemic.

From pure, racing-style gaming chairs to rockers and recliners, we've got the bet gaming chairs to fit your seating needs.

Shuttered stores worsened Montreal-based company’s already struggling business

In today's Diary: Battle stations in contest for Liaison Select Committee chair / Jeffrey Archer asks a lot of a translator / Alluring Anthony Fauci / Angela Rayner's on point backdrop

Earlier Matt Frei spoke to Mark Roscrow, the Chair of Trustees for the Health Care Supplies Association

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are re-teaming on the superhero movie "Ball and Chain" following their collaboration on "Jungle Cruise." The project is being shopped among studios, including Netflix, but no distribution deal has closed. "Ball and Chain" is being written by Oscar nominee Emily V. Gordon and is an adaptation of the '90s comic […]