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Simple Summary: Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is currently the smallest known animal virus, and the diseases caused by its infection have caused huge economic losses to the pig farming industry worldwide. The virus evolves rapidly and is divided into nine genotypes, some of which pose significant challenges in preventing and controlling the disease. In this study, the polymerase chain reaction technique and bioinformatic analysis were used to investigate PCV2 infection in pig farms in Jiangsu Province, China. The results showed that the infection rate of PCV2 in pig farms in Jiangsu Province has been increasing annually, with genotypes PCV2a, PCV2b, PCV2d, and PCV2i. The genomic characteristics of the recently confirmed genotype PCV2i were elucidated. Porcine circovirus-associated diseases, caused by porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), are widespread and result in significant economic losses to the global swine industry. PCV2 can currently be divided into nine genotypes (PCV2a to PCV2i), with the currently dominant one being the PCV2d genotype. In this study, 2675 samples from 804 pig farms in 13 cities in Jiangsu Province, China, were collected between 2014 and 2021 and subjected to polymerase chain reaction analysis to investigate the frequency and genetic diversity of PCV2. The results showed that 41.42% (1108/2675) of samples tested positive for PCV2. The researchers further analyzed the genetic characteristics of 251 PCV2 strains and found that they belonged to the following four genotypes: PCV2a, PCV2b, PCV2d, and PCV2i. The dominant genotype was PCV2d, with a frequency of 49.80% (125/251). The detection rate of PCV2b was significantly higher than those of PCV2a and PCV2i, at 35.46% (89/251), 7.57% (19/251), and 7.17% (18/251), respectively. The percentage of different genotypes of PCV2 varied irregularly over time. We have further revealed the fingerprint of PCV2i genomic nucleotides for the first time. In conclusion, this study illustrates the high frequency and evolutionary features of PCV2 in Jiangsu Province over the past few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recently, we identified a novel porcine circovirus type 2-like agent P1 isolate from swine. The present study represents the first survey of P1 prevalence in swine herds from Jiangsu, China, by using PCR targeting the complete genome of P1. Prevalences of 50% and 19% were found among 6 herds and 248 animals, respectively. The results indicate a high prevalence of P1 in China pig populations.

Abstract The recently discovered porcine boca-like virus (Pbo-likeV) is a member of the Parvoviridae family, genus Bocavirus, and it is potentially associated with swine disease. Several studies have associated Pbo-likeV with postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome in pigs, but the full spectrum of clinical disease and the epidemiology of Pbo-likeV infection remain unclear. The availability of rapid and reliable molecular diagnostics would aid future studies of this novel virus. Thus, we developed a sensitive and specific TaqMan-based real-time PCR assay to target the Pbo-likeV NP1 gene. The assay reproducibly detected 20 copies of a recombinant DNA plasmid containing the NP1 gene, with a dynamic range of six orders of magnitude (102-107 copies). The assay did not cross-react with other animal viruses. Clinical evaluation found that Pbo-likeV was present in Chinese swine herds at a frequency of 44.2% (114/258). Higher infection rates were found in diseased pigs (56.1%, 101/180) compared with healthy pigs (16.7%, 13/78) (P < 0.05). Our assay for the diagnosis and quantification of Pbo-likeV was highly sensitive and specific, and should provide a reliable real-time tool for epidemiological and pathogenetic study of Pbo-likeV infection.

Human poses play a critical role in human-centric product design. Despite considerable researches on pose synthesis and pose-driven product design, most of them adopt the simple stick figure model that captures only skeletons rather than real body geometries and do not link human poses to the environment (e.g., chairs for sitting). This paper focuses on user-tailored ergonomic design and rating of chairs using scanned human geometries. Fully utilizing the anthropometric information of the human models, our method considers more ergonomic guidelines of chair design (such as pressure distribution and support intensity) and links the geometry of 3D chair models and human-to-chair interactions into the pose deformation constraints of the human avatars. The core of our method is a pose generation algorithm which rigs the user's successive poses through coarse- and fine-level pose deformations. We define a non-linear energy function with contact, collision, and joint limit terms, and solve it using a hill-climbing algorithm. The fitting results allow us to quantitatively evaluate the chair model in terms of various ergonomic criteria. Our method is flexible and effective and can be applied to users with varying body shapes and a wide range of chairs. Moreover, the proposed technique can be easily extended to other furniture, such as desk, bed, and cabinet. Extensive evaluations and a user study demonstrate the efficiency and advantages of the proposed virtual fitting method. Given that our method avoids tedious on-site trying, facilitates the exploration/evaluation of various chair products, and provides valuable feedback for the designers and manufacturers to deliver customized products, it is ideal for online shopping of chairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An identified cold-adaptive, organic solvents-tolerant alkaline α-amylase (HP664) from Catenovulum sp. strain X3 was heterologously expressed and characterized in E. coli , and it was further applied to starch saccharification for biohydrogen production. The recombinant HP664 belongs to a member of glycoside hydrolase family 13 (GH13), with a molecular weight of 69.6 kDa without signal peptides, and also shares a relatively low similarity (49%) to other reported amylases. Biochemical characterization demonstrated that the maximal enzymatic activity of HP664 was observed at 35 °C and pH 9.0. Most metal ions inhibited its activity; however, low polar organic solvents (e.g., benzene and n -hexane) could enhance the activity by 35–50%. Additionally, HP664 also exhibited the catalytic capability on various polysaccharides, including potato starch, amylopectin, dextrin and agar. In order to increase the bioavailability of starch for H 2 production, HP664 was utilized to elevate fermentable oligosaccharide level, and the results revealed that the maximal hydrolytic percentage of starch was up to 44% with 12 h of hydrolysis using 5.63 U of HP664. Biohydrogen fermentation of the starch hydrolysate by Clostridium sp. strain G1 yielded 297.7 mL of H 2 after 84 h of fermentation, which is 3.73-fold higher than the control without enzymatic treatment of HP664. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rig-space physics a finite element method(FEM) based simulation technique that aims at adding secondary motion on a character while maintaining seamless cooperation with traditional animation pipelines. We enhance the rig-space physics by introducing several techniques, including general field interaction, proportional-derivative control, and improved material control. This allows an animator to perform various interferences to the simulation process and create more abundant animation effects. Moreover, we also improve the numerical stability of the simulation algorithm by prepending a conjugate gradient procedure. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] In this study, the quantitive detection of PCV2 (porcine circovirus type 2) in vitro was achieved. We aimed to establish two kinds of TaqMan realtime PCR methods based on PCV2 ORF1 and ORF2 respectively and compare them. [Method] According to the relatively conserved sequences of PCV2 ORF1 and ORF2 registered in GenBank, two pairs of specific primers and TaqMan probes were designed and synthesized. Then the recombinant plasmids containing the whole sequences of PCV2 ORF1 and ORF2 were constructed to draw the standard curves through optimizing the reaction system and conditions. And thus two kinds of TaqMan real-time PCR detection methods based on the whole sequences of ORF1 and ORF2 respectively were constructed for PCV2. [Result] For the two established standard curves, the Ct values showed a good linear relationship with the logarithms of copy numbers of templates (FP>0.99). The amplification efficiency ranged from 90% to 110%. The amplifications all had a good repeatability with variation coefficients within groups all less than 5%. Moreover, the amplifications all had a good specificity. When the sequences of porcine parvovirus (PPV), porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1), swine pseudorabies virus (PRV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) were used as templates, the target sequence was not amplified. The amplifications also had a high sensitivity. The ORF1 detection method could reach 1.0×101 copies/μl, and the ORF2 detection method could reach 1.0x102 copies/μl. The two established real-time PCR detection methods were used to detect the 80 clinical samples respectively. The results showed the magnitudes of 72 amplified samples were basically consistent between the 2 detection methods, while the magnitudes of the other 8 amplified samples were inconsistent. Then the 8 samples were detected with SYBR Green I real-time PCR method established based on the sequence of PCV2-like factor P1 by Wen et al. The PCV2-like factor P1 was amplified in all the 8 samples, indicating the 8 samples were all infected with PCV2-like factor P1. [Conclusion] The ORF1 -based detection method has a higher accuracy, and it can be used for the rapid detection of PCV2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] This study aimed to investigate the genetic variation of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) in China. [Method] The strain was isolated from infected samples by cell passage and preliminarily identified by PCR and IFA. Full-length genome of the isolated strain was obtained by specific amplification for homology and phylogenetic analysis. [Result] A PCV2 strain was successfully isolated and named 201105ZJ, which could proliferate in PK15 cell lines. Specific fragments could be amplified by specific PCR assay. According to results of IFA assay, specific immunofluorescence was observed; the TCID50 was low (102.67); the full-length genome sequence of the isolated strain was 1 768 bp, sharing 94.1%-96.8% homology with 13 reference strains; to be specific, the isolated strain exhibited the highest homology of 96.8% with AF055392PCV2a; the isolated strain 201105ZJ and reference strain AF055392 belonged to genotype PCV2a, exhibiting a distant genetic relationship with genotype PCV2c. [Conclusion] Characteristics of genetic variation of PCV2 isolate 201105ZJ provided theoretical basis for vaccine development, investigation of PCV2 pathogenesis, and prevention and control of porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD) in East China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2) is an important swine and human pathogen responsible for septicemia and meningitis. The bacterial homologues of eukaryotic-type serine/threonine kinases (ESTKs) have been reported to play critical roles in various cellular processes. To investigate the role of STK in SS2, an isogenic stk mutant strain (Δstk) and a complemented strain (CΔstk) were constructed. The Δstk showed a significant decrease in adherence to HEp-2 cells, compared with the wild-type strain, and a reduced survival ratio in whole blood. In addition, the Δstk exhibited a notable reduced tolerance of environmental stresses including high temperature, acidic pH, oxidative stress, and high osmolarity. More importantly, the Δstk was attenuated in both the CD1 mouse and piglet models of infection. The results of quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis indicated that the expressions of a few genes involving in adherence, stress response and virulence were clearly decreased in the Δstk mutant strain. Our data suggest that SsSTK is required for virulence and stress response in SS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging women usually experience menopause and currently there is no single diagnosing highly-sensitive and -specific test for recognizing menopause. For most employed women at their perimenopause age it is not convenient to visit a clinic for the hormone test, which lasts for consecutive days. This paper develops a suit of sensor-based smart clothing used for home-based and ambulatory health monitoring for women's menopause transition. Firstly, a survey analysis is conducted to determine the biological signals measured by sensors for indicating the symptoms of menopausal transition and also the body areas with salient symptoms to implant the sensors on the clothing. Then, the smart clothing is designed with a set of temperature and relative humidity sensors on different locations and with a microcontroller to transmit the measured data to the computer. With the smoothed data as input, a new detection algorithm for hot flashes is proposed by recognition of the concurrent occurrence of heat and sweating rise/down, and can figure out the frequency, intensity, and duration—triple dimension information of a hot flash, which is helpful to achieve precise diagnosis for menopausal transition. The smart clothing and the detection algorithm are verified by involving a group of women subjects to participate in a hot flash monitoring experiment. The experimental results show that this smart clothing monitoring system can effectively measure the skin temperature and relative humidity data and work out the frequency, duration, and intensity information of a hot flash pertaining in different body areas for individuals, which are accordant with the practice reported by the subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) have caused great economic losses to the global pig industry. PEDV strains with variants in the spike (S) gene have been reported in several countries. To better understand the molecular epidemiology and genetic diversity of PEDV field isolates, in this study, we characterised the complete genome sequence of a novel PEDV variant JSCZ1601 from a outbreak in China in 2016. The PEDV isolate was 28,033 nucleotides (nt) in length without the polyadenylated sequences. Phylogenetic analysis based on the full-length genome sequence of JSCZ1601 grouped it with the pandemic variants determined post-2010 into group 2 (G2). However, the S gene of JSCZ1601 formed a new subgroup separated from the subgroups containing the other G2 strains. Comparative analysis of the amino acids encoded by the S genes revealed the N-terminal of the deduced JSCZ1601 S protein had a novel two-amino-acid deletion (N58 and S59) compared with all identified genogroups. Further, compared with the reference strains, a 'G' insertion was detected in the 5′ terminal of the 5′UTR of the JSCZ1601. The animal experiment revealed that this strain was high pathogenic to neonatal pigs. Taken together, a PEDV strain with the new molecular characterizations and phylogenies was found in mainland China. It is necessary to strengthen the monitoring of PEDV variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]