The Rift Valley fever accessory proteins NSm and P78/NSm-GN are distinct determinants of virus propagation in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts.: Role of NSm-related proteins in RVFV infection

International audienceRift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an enzootic virus circulating in Africa that is transmitted to its vertebrate host by a mosquito vector and causes severe clinical manifestations in humans and ruminants. RVFV has a tripartite genome of negative or ambisense polarity. The M segment contains five in-frame AUG codons that are alternatively used for the synthesis of two major structural glycoproteins, GN and GC, and at least two accessory proteins, NSm, a 14-kDa cytosolic protein, and P78/NSm-GN, a 78-kDa glycoprotein. To determine the relative contribution of P78 and NSm to RVFV infectivity, AUG codons were knocked out to generate mutant viruses expressing various sets of the M-encoded proteins. We found that, in the absence of the second AUG codon used to express NSm, a 13-kDa protein corresponding to an N-terminally truncated form of NSm, named NSm', was synthesized from AUG 3. None of the individual accessory proteins had any significant impact on RVFV virulence in mice. However, a mutant virus lacking both NSm and NSm' was strongly attenuated in mice and grew to reduced titers in murine macrophages, a major target cell type of RVFV. In contrast, P78 was not associated with reduced viral virulence in mice, yet it appeared as a major determinant of virus dissemination in mosquitoes. This study demonstrates how related accessory proteins differentially contribute to RVFV propagation in mammalian and arthropod hosts

Efficient Cellular Release of Rift Valley Fever Virus Requires Genomic RNA

The Rift Valley fever virus is responsible for periodic, explosive epizootics throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The development of therapeutics targeting this virus is difficult due to a limited understanding of the viral replicative cycle. Utilizing a virus-like particle system, we have established roles for each of the viral structural components in assembly, release, and virus infectivity. The envelope glycoprotein, Gn, was discovered to be necessary and sufficient for packaging of the genome, nucleocapsid protein and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase into virus particles. Additionally, packaging of the genome was found to be necessary for the efficient release of particles, revealing a novel mechanism for the efficient generation of infectious virus. Our results identify possible conserved targets for development of anti-phlebovirus therapies

Rift Valley fever virus (Bunyaviridae: Phlebovirus): an update on pathogenesis, molecular epidemiology, vectors, diagnostics and prevention

Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus is an arbovirus in the Bunyaviridae family that, from phylogenetic analysis, appears to have first emerged in the mid-19th century and was only identified at the begininning of the 1930s in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. Despite being an arbovirus with a relatively simple but temporally and geographically stable genome, this zoonotic virus has already demonstrated a real capacity for emerging in new territories, as exemplified by the outbreaks in Egypt (1977), Western Africa (1988) and the Arabian Peninsula (2000), or for re-emerging after long periods of silence as observed very recently in Kenya and South Africa. The presence of competent vectors in countries previously free of RVF, the high viral titres in viraemic animals and the global changes in climate, travel and trade all contribute to make this virus a threat that must not be neglected as the consequences of RVF are dramatic, both for human and animal health. In this review, we present the latest advances in RVF virus research. In spite of this renewed interest, aspects of the epidemiology of RVF virus are still not fully understood and safe, effective vaccines are still not freely available for protecting humans and livestock against the dramatic consequences of this virus

Leadership in Midwestern Community College Chief Business Officers

Community colleges remain an important component of higher education in the United States, offering readily-accessible education and career training to a diverse array of students from different backgrounds. During the 2007-2009 economic recession, community colleges experienced enrollment increases. Simultaneously, however, community colleges experienced cuts in government funding. The aim of this dissertation was to employ a grounded theory approach to examine chief business officers’ (CBO) leadership at Iowa and Nebraska community colleges. The research question was as follows: How do community college CBOs develop and use leadership skills to navigate through disruptions in government funding? Interviews with three top administrators of 10 Iowa and Nebraska community colleges were conducted to gain an understanding of CBO leadership when faced with financial difficulties. Findings suggested that five themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) revenue difficulties required CBOs to act as leaders, (b) changes in revenue sources required leadership, (c) funding disruptions changed CBO interactions, (d) CBOs with leadership skills successfully dealt with changes, and (e) avenues by which CBOs attained leadership attributes varied. Moreover, the grounded theory model suggested that CBOs need transformational leadership skills. The proposed solution to the evidenced-based problem was the involvement of the American Association of Community Colleges in the development of a training program with a variety of tools dedicated to community college CBO leadership. CBOs must be prepared to face a continued onslaught of financial difficulties for the institutions they lead. Therefore, CBOs’ transformational leadership skills may be critical to the survival of community colleges, overall.|Keywords: Grounded theory, community college, dissertation, leadership, chief business officers, financial difficultiesProQuest Traditional Publishing Optio

Composure and Composition: Marianne Moore's Serial Imagination

ABSTRACT This paper explores how Marianne Moore's reputation as a poet with intellectual precision, which began with her first publications, has obscured some of the emergent features of her early work that culminate in her 1920s long poems “Sea Unicorns and Land Unicorns,” “An Octopus,” and “Marriage.” Moore's precision is achieved through incremental, temporalized processes on the levels of individual poems (through the use of “chromatic” forms such as lists, catalogs, and inventories), groupings or series of poems (through the use of editorial acts of selection, arrangement, and ordering), and in her oeuvre as a whole.</jats:p

Translational Stages: Chinese Theatrical Modernism

Translation in relation to theater is understudied and seldom theorized. This dissertation shows that connecting the two practices through historical examples promotes new ways of looking at what is conventionally called intercultural theater. By translation in relation to theater, I refer to the complex and related processes of the interlingual translation of scripts, the intersemiotic translation of script to stage, and the intrasemiotic translation between theatrical forms. The Chinese genre of theater known as huaju 话剧 in the decades studied here, the 1910s to 1930s, has been described as borrowed from the Western naturalist or realist stage, but I recast it instead as a translated form. The emergence of huaju as a cultural response to modernization on the global stage allows for this theatrical form to be reconsidered as an example of theatrical modernism, while illustrating deep and overlooked connections between translation and theater.Translational Stages: Chinese Theatrical Modernism also acts as a project of historical recovery for theater artists who have not been the subject of significant critical appreciations, or at least not for their theatrical activities. By excavating the pathbreaking work of Chen Dabei 陈大悲 (1887–1944), Lin Huiyin 林徽因 (Phyllis Whei-yin Lin, 1904–55), and John Wong-Quincey (Wang Wenxian 王文显, 1886–1968) alongside their various investments in translation and their connections to contemporary American theater, I establish the foundations for a comparative study of huaju and reconfigure the standard critical narrative of the form\u27s development