Mississippi State University

About: Mississippi State University is a education organization based out in Starkville, Mississippi, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catfish. The organization has 14115 authors who have published 28594 publications receiving 700030 citations. The organization is also known as: The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science & Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.

Development of a Highly Effective African Swine Fever Virus Vaccine by Deletion of the I177L Gene Results in Sterile Immunity against the Current Epidemic Eurasia Strain.

Abstract: African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the etiological agent of a contagious and often lethal disease of domestic pigs that has significant economic consequences for the swine industry. The disease is devastating the swine industry in Central Europe and East Asia, with current outbreaks caused by circulating strains of ASFV derived from the 2007 Georgia isolate (ASFV-G), a genotype II ASFV. In the absence of any available vaccines, African swine fever (ASF) outbreak containment relies on the control and culling of infected animals. Limited cross-protection studies suggest that in order to ensure a vaccine is effective, it must be derived from the current outbreak strain or at the very least from an isolate with the same genotype. Here, we report the discovery that the deletion of a previously uncharacterized gene, I177L, from the highly virulent ASFV-G produces complete virus attenuation in swine. Animals inoculated intramuscularly with the virus lacking the I177L gene, ASFV-G-ΔI177L, at a dose range of 102 to 106 50% hemadsorbing doses (HAD50), remained clinically normal during the 28-day observational period. All ASFV-G-ΔI177L-infected animals had low viremia titers, showed no virus shedding, and developed a strong virus-specific antibody response; importantly, they were protected when challenged with the virulent parental strain ASFV-G. ASFV-G-ΔI177L is one of the few experimental vaccine candidate virus strains reported to be able to induce protection against the ASFV Georgia isolate, and it is the first vaccine capable of inducing sterile immunity against the current ASFV strain responsible for recent outbreaks.IMPORTANCE Currently, there is no commercially available vaccine against African swine fever. Outbreaks of this disease are devastating the swine industry from Central Europe to East Asia, and they are being caused by circulating strains of African swine fever virus derived from the Georgia 2007 isolate. Here, we report the discovery of a previously uncharacterized virus gene, which when deleted completely attenuates the Georgia isolate. Importantly, animals infected with this genetically modified virus were protected from developing ASF after challenge with the virulent parental virus. Interestingly, ASFV-G-ΔI177L confers protection even at low doses (102 HAD50) and remains completely attenuated when inoculated at high doses (106 HAD50), demonstrating its potential as a safe vaccine candidate. At medium or higher doses (104 HAD50), sterile immunity is achieved. Therefore, ASFV-G-ΔI177L is a novel efficacious experimental ASF vaccine protecting pigs from the epidemiologically relevant ASFV Georgia isolate.

NIH-NSF visualization research challenges report summary

Abstract: The US National Science Foundation (NSF) convened a panel to report on the potential of visualization as a new technology. The NSF and US National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened the Visualization Research Challenges (VRC) Executive Committee to write a new report. Here, we summarize that new VRC report. We explore the state of the field, examine the potential impact of visualization on areas of national and international importance, and present our findings and recommendations for the future of our growing discipline. Our audience is twofold: the supporters, sponsors, and application users of visualization research on the one hand, and researchers and practitioners in visualization on the other. We direct our discussion toward solving key problems of national interest and helping this work's sponsors to concentrate resources to the greatest effect. Our findings and recommendations reflect information gathered from visualization and applications scientists during two workshops on VRC, as well as input from the larger visualization community.

Fabrication of Cardiac Patch with Decellularized Porcine Myocardial Scaffold and Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells

Abstract: Tissue engineered cardiac grafts are a promising therapeutic mode for ventricular wall reconstruction. Recently, it has been found that acellular tissue scaffolds provide natural ultrastructural, mechanical, and compositional cues for recellularization and tissue remodeling. We thus assess the potential of decellularized porcine myocardium as a scaffold for thick cardiac patch tissue engineering. Myocardial sections with 2-mm thickness were decellularized using 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate and then reseeded with differentiated bone marrow mononuclear cells. We found that thorough decellularization could be achieved after 2.5 weeks of treatment. Reseeded cells were found to infiltrate and proliferate in the tissue constructs. Immunohistological staining studies showed that the reseeded cells maintained cardiomyocyte-like phenotype and possible endothelialization was found in locations close to vasculature channels, indicating angiogenesis potential. Both biaxial and uniaxial mechanical testing showed a stiffer mechanical response of the acellular myocardial scaffolds; however, tissue extensibility and tensile modulus were found to recover in the constructs along with the culture time, as expected from increased cellular content. The cardiac patch that we envision for clinical application will benefit from the natural architecture of myocardial extracellular matrix, which has the potential to promote stem cell differentiation, cardiac regeneration, and angiogenesis.

Reliability Assessment of Smart Grids Considering Indirect Cyber-Power Interdependencies

Abstract: The operation of power systems now relies on extensive applications of digital communication systems, known as cyber networks. These applications are categorized as having either direct or indirect interactions between cyber and power networks. We previously studied direct interdependencies inside cyber-power networks and proposed the state mapping based model to evaluate its impact on the power system reliability. This paper focuses on indirect interdependencies between cyber and power networks. Certain applications of indirect interdependencies in modern power systems are discussed, and a state updating-based model is proposed to quantitatively evaluate the reliability of cyber-power networks under indirect interdependencies. Two optimization models are used to maximize the data connectivity in the cyber network and minimize the load curtailment in the power network. A high-voltage substation equipped with both monitoring and protection systems is studied to show the effectiveness of the proposed solution model.