Search Results (149)

Unidirectional glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite insulators are widely used in extra-high voltage (EHV) and ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission lines due to their outstanding electrical and mechanical performance. However, the accurate prediction of the critical buckling load is crucial to satisfy the high reliability requirement under complex operations. In this paper, an improved Perry–Robertson theory to predict the critical buckling loads of GFRP composite insulators with different slenderness is proposed. Firstly, initial imperfection is expressed as a function of the insulator strut length, which enables the critical load to be formulated as a function of slenderness explicitly. It also allows for convenient comparisons with other theories, such as Euler and Johnson’s, and easy calibration with the magnitude of initial imperfections. Secondly, the nonlinear material behavior of the GFRP composite insulator strut, resulting from changes in glass fiber orientation in relation to the loading direction during buckling, is considered to further enhance the prediction accuracy. The predicted results with current theory were validated through compression tests of GFRP composite insulators with solid and hollow struts and different slenderness and boundary conditions, which shows an accuracy of over 85%. Thus, the proposed improved Perry–Robertson theory can be also applied in other fiber-reinforced composite buckling analyses. Full article

High-altitude, low-pressure environments significantly reduce the insulation strength of air gaps, posing severe risks to live-line working on Ultra High Voltage and Extra High Voltage (UHV/EHV) transmission lines. To address this challenge and ensure operational safety, this paper proposes a predictive gap discharge voltage calculation model based on the dynamic coupling of time-varying electric fields and space charge. Unlike existing approaches that rely on static, geometry-dependent empirical corrections, the proposed model achieves high predictive capability by intrinsically mapping air relative density and absolute humidity to dynamically modify key microscopic discharge parameters, including the effective ionization coefficient, attachment coefficient, and streamer internal electric field strength. This physical framework enables the successful simulation of the complete progression from streamer inception to leader development and final breakdown, thereby calculating the 50% breakdown voltage under varying altitudes and gap distances. To rigorously validate the proposed model, breakdown tests were conducted using simplified sphere–plane gaps and full-scale simulated gaps between a human worker and a tower window at altitudes of 23 m and 2100 m. Additionally, third-party experimental datasets were utilized for comprehensive comparative analysis. The results demonstrate that the model’s predictive values align excellently with multi-source experimental data, establishing its high accuracy and practical engineering value for complex electrode configurations under diverse high-altitude conditions. Full article

Animal infectious diseases impose severe economic burdens on livestock industries, threaten wildlife populations, and compromise food security. Although vaccination remains the cornerstone of disease prevention, conventional vaccine platforms are often constrained by safety, efficacy, or manufacturing scalability. This narrative review provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art in herpesvirus-vectored vaccines for veterinary applications, focusing on five well-characterized alphaherpesviruses: Bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BoHV-1), Pseudorabies virus (PRV), Marek’s disease virus (MDV), Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1), and Duck enteritis virus (DEV). The intrinsic characteristics of herpesviruses, including large, stable genomes; the capacity for foreign gene insertion; broad host tropism; and the ability to elicit robust humoral and cellular immunity, are examined, and their performance is compared with that of traditional vaccine platforms. Key advances in vectored vaccine development are highlighted, from proof-of-concept studies to the creation of advanced multivalent constructs. These approaches demonstrate protective efficacy against a range of significant animal pathogens, including foot-and-mouth disease virus, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, avian influenza virus, infectious bursal disease virus, and West Nile virus. The literature was identified through systematic searches of PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science (1990–2026), followed by title/abstract screening and reference chaining. Future directions in vector engineering, mucosal delivery, and synthetic biology approaches are considered. Herpesvirus-vectored vaccines represent a versatile platform for enhancing animal health, supporting sustainable agriculture, and mitigating zoonotic risks. Full article

As the scale of ultra-high-voltage (UHV) and extra-high-voltage (EHV) transmission networks continues to expand, the operational reliability of surge arresters has become increasingly important for power-system security. Based on equivalent degradation experiments conducted on a 1000 kV class UHV surge arrester, this study proposes a multi-source information fusion approach for degradation-state assessment. Leakage-current, UHF partial-discharge, voltage, and temperature-field data were jointly used to construct a hybrid framework integrating a multi-branch convolutional neural network (CNN) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) network. To improve model performance, the sparrow search algorithm (SSA) was introduced for hyperparameter optimization. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieved accuracies of 97.47% and 94.23% on the training and test sets, respectively, and was able to distinguish the normal condition from different degraded-section conditions under the laboratory-emulated equivalent degradation scenario considered in this study. These results indicate that multi-source information fusion combined with data-driven hyperparameter optimization is a feasible approach for laboratory-scale degradation assessment of surge arresters and provides a basis for further validation under more realistic service conditions. Full article

The planning and design of Extra-High Voltage (EHV) overhead power lines require strict adherence to electromagnetic field exposure limits to ensure public safety. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the minimum ground clearance required for standard 400 kV transmission towers to comply with international safety guidelines. A review of legislative frameworks across 37 countries indicates a widespread consensus on limiting values of 5 kV/m for the electric field and 100 $\mathsf{\mu }$T for magnetic flux density. Using analytical methods, the electric and magnetic fields were calculated for four common tower geometries (Cat, Portal, Danube, and Barrel) under varying ground clearances and phase configurations. The results demonstrate that the magnetic flux density is not a limiting factor, as it remains well below safety thresholds even at standard technical clearances. Conversely, the electric field intensity proves to be the critical design constraint, often requiring clearances significantly higher than those dictated by insulation coordination. The study identifies that optimizing the phase sequence in double-circuit towers can reduce the required ground clearance by up to 28%, offering a cost-effective mitigation strategy. These findings provide power line designers with essential decision-making data for the preliminary design phase, enabling the optimization of tower geometry and phase arrangement without the need for computationally intensive simulations. Full article

Background: Members of the virus family Herpesviridae are among the most successful pathogen groups in evolutionary history. They not only pose a serious public health threat to humans but also cause significant economic losses in the global livestock industry. The primary immunological challenge in developing sterilizing vaccines is the lifelong latency of herpesviruses in the nervous system or lymphoid tissues. Methods: This analysis compares the vaccine strategies designed against the five most important Alphaherpesvirinae pathogens: HSV-1/2, PRV, BHV-1, EHV-1/4, and FHV-1. The contrast between the globally licensed veterinary vaccines and the relative stagnation in the field of human HSV vaccines is stark. However, there are notable success stories regarding the implementation of ‘Marker Vaccines’ (DIVA strategies) in veterinary medicine. This review examines various vaccine modalities, assessing their potential to mitigate clinical outbreaks and their shortcomings in preventing viral shedding and establishing latency. Results: This study reveals common technical bottlenecks across species, attributed to immune evasion mechanisms such as the downregulation of MHC I, TAP inhibition, the failure to induce robust mucosal IgA, and safety concerns regarding the recombination of live vectors. Conclusions: This review highlights several promising avenues that could lead to enhanced herpesvirus vaccines and recommends the rational design of T-cell epitopes alongside innovative mucosal adjuvants. Furthermore, it bridges the gap between veterinary and human vaccinology from a One Health perspective, suggesting that lessons learned from veterinary practices could facilitate necessary breakthroughs in human medicine. Full article

The determination of the actual series and sequence impedances, including the reduction factor of a certain HV or EHV distribution cable line, as well as the resulting screening factor of its sheaths and surrounding metal installations, including its inductive influence on any of the surrounding metal installations, is not possible by calculations alone. Considering the inductive influence of surrounding metal installations on the values of these quantities is possible only by the method that includes the test measurements during a simulated ground fault in the supplied substation. However, such measurements presuppose putting at least one HV substation and its feeding line out of service. That is why electricity distribution companies rarely allow such measurements, i.e., only immediately before the commissioning of a newly built HV substation or during a periodical overhaul. In this paper, it is demonstrated that these characteristics of cable lines can also be determined based on the results of synchronous measurements performed permanently in the substations at their ends. In this way, the need to perform a simulated ground fault and corresponding test measurements in HV distribution substations practically disappears, and the necessary characteristics can be determined whenever they are required. Full article

Equine alphaherpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) is a highly contagious virus that can cause the neurological form, equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM). Understanding transmission-related risk factors is crucial for improving prevention strategies and guiding effective control measures. In this study, we collected data from 63 horses that had previously participated in the February 2022 winter horse show season at the Desert International Horse Park (DIHP) (26 cases and 37 controls) to identify host and management factors associated with EHV-1 infection and/or EHM development during the February 2022 outbreak at the DIHP in Thermal, California. Risk factors were evaluated using multivariable logistic regression and a random forest model with conditional permutation importance. Greater age was associated with higher odds of becoming a case (OR = 1.33; 95%CI: 1.04–1.69, p-value: 0.01). Compared with hunters, jumpers had greater odds of developing EHV-1 and/or EHM (OR = 7.37; 95%CI: 1.57–34.61, p-value: 0.01). Sharing a barn was also strongly associated with EHV-1 and/or EHM case status (OR = 7.37; 95%CI: 1.79–30.29, p-value: <0.01). The machine-learning-based rankings were concordant with the regression estimates. Age, main activity, and sharing a barn were the most influential risk factors associated with elevated odds of developing EHV-1 and/or EHM. These results highlight specific demographic and management-related risk factors that could inform targeted prevention strategies. Full article

Comparative transcriptomics offers a powerful approach to elucidate host–virus interactions across related pathogens, yet systematic evaluations across species-matched cellular systems remain limited. We performed a cross-species RNA sequencing analysis of respective species’ cells infected with three alphaherpesviruses—herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), bovine alphaherpesvirus 1 (BHV-1), and equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1)—to dissect conserved and virus-specific transcriptional responses. We show that certain orthologous genes and orthologous pathways are differentially regulated upon infection among the three species like pathways related to translation rRNA processing and TNF-alpha signalling. We find that the earliest sampled timepoint of infection, 2 h post infection (hpi), shows the most commonly enriched pathways among the three species compared to later timepoints. At 6 h and 9 h post infection, BHV-1- and EHV-1 infections have more in common with each other in terms of enriched pathways than with HSV-1 infections. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive analysis of temporal viral gene expression for all three herpesviruses. Together, these findings provide a comparative framework for understanding alphaherpevirus–host interactions and reveal both conserved core responses and species-specific transcriptional signatures. This work establishes a foundation for identifying broadly acting antiviral targets as well as virus-specific vulnerabilities that may inform host-directed therapies and cross-species disease management. Full article

Infection of susceptible horses with Streptococcus equi subspecies equi (S. equi), the causative agent of strangles, is associated with commingling. Exposure may occur among horses at equestrian events, sales, or horses moved among different equine stabling environments. Strangles can affect all horses on a farm, leading to the death of up to 10% of cases depending on their immunity status at the time of infection, the development of complications, the success of biosecurity measures, and the use of vaccination. The current retrospective study used ELISAs to measure the exposure of horses to S. equi at a farm that experienced an outbreak of strangles shortly after the introduction of a new horse on the same day that the majority of the 17 resident horses were vaccinated with Strangvac for the first time. One vaccinated horse, which subsequently tested positive for S. equi and EHV-4, developed a cough, elevated body temperature, and nasal discharge 11 days after the first vaccination. Two other horses developed fever for one day at 22 days post-first vaccination, but only one had serological evidence of exposure to S. equi. All vaccinated horses had high antibody titres to vaccine components, whilst 7 of the 17 resident horses, and the new arrival, tested seropositive for exposure to S. equi. Although 3 out of the 17 vaccinated horses developed mild signs of disease before second vaccination, serological data support the effectiveness of vaccination in resident populations of horses to minimise the risk of strangles following the introduction of a new horse. Full article

A storage-aware water-scarcity risk assessment framework coupling satellite remote sensing, geospatial datasets with the IPCC exposure-hazard-vulnerability (EHV) paradigm was designed to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of global water scarcity risk over the past two decades. To achieve this, a performance-weighted ensemble machine learning approach was employed to reconstruct long-term terrestrial water storage (TWS) from satellite observations, augmented with glacier-mass calibration to improve reliability in cryosphere-affected regions. Global water withdrawal dataset was generated by integrating remote sensing, geospatial dataset, and machine learning to mitigate the dependency of parameterized land surface hydrological models and enable consistent risk mapping. Satellite-derived results reveal obvious TWS declines in Asia, Northern Africa, and North America, particularly in irrigated drylands and glacier-dominated regions. EHV paradigm and big datasets further identified high-water scarcity risk in Asia and Africa, especially in agricultural regions. Water stress has intensified in Africa over the past two decades, while a decreasing trend is observed in parts of Asia. Vulnerability levels in Asia and Africa are approximately eight times higher than those in other global regions. Results reveal a strong connection between water stress and socioeconomic factors in Asia and Africa, reflecting global disparities in water resource availability. Full article

This study investigates the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in RK-13 cells infected with three equine viruses representing different families: equine arteritis virus (EAV) (Arteriviridae), equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) (Herpesviridae), and equine rhinitis B virus (ERBV) (Picornaviridae). VOCs, which are byproducts of cellular metabolism and potential non-invasive diagnostic markers, were analyzed using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Since viruses do not possess intrinsic metabolic activity, the observed changes in the VOC profiles were attributed to host responses, such as metabolic reprogramming, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. We hypothesized that each viral infection induces distinct metabolic changes, resulting in characteristic VOC signatures that mirror the virus type, replication kinetics, and cytopathic effects. Notably, viruses with rapid cytopathic effects (e.g., EHV-1) were anticipated to trigger more pronounced VOC alterations. In our experimental design, RK-13 cells were infected at a multiplicity of infection of 1 and incubated for 24 h, 48 h, or 72 h. Distinct VOC profiles emerged, with significant elevations in compounds like 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, particularly in EHV-1 infections, and selective increases in acetophenone and benzaldehyde. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the VOC concentration data showed the clear separation of data from viruses from different families. These findings support the potential of VOC profiling as a rapid diagnostic tool for viral infections. Full article

Equine herpesvirus (EHV) infections represent a significant global veterinary and economic challenge affecting both horses and donkeys across all inhabited continents. This narrative review comprehensively examines the nine distinct EHV species (EHV-1 through EHV-9), their taxonomic classification within Alphaherpesvirinae and Gammaherpesvirinae subfamilies, and their diverse host tropism patterns. The complex molecular pathogenesis involves sophisticated viral glycoproteins (gK, gB, gC, gH, gM, gL, gG, gD, gI, gE) that orchestrate cellular invasion, immune evasion, and intercellular transmission. Clinical manifestations vary considerably, ranging from respiratory diseases and reproductive failures to severe neurological disorders, with EHV-1 demonstrating the most severe presentations including myeloencephalopathy. Global distribution analysis reveals widespread circulation across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, with species-specific clinical patterns. Current therapeutic options remain largely supportive, with experimental compounds like berbamine and cepharanthine, celastrol, blebbistatin, and hyperoside showing promise in preclinical studies. Vaccination programs demonstrate limited effectiveness, failing to prevent transmission at population levels despite inducing individual immune responses. The sophisticated immune evasion strategies employed by EHVs, including the “Trojan horse” mechanism utilizing infected leukocytes, highlight the complexity of host–pathogen interactions and underscore the urgent need for innovative prevention and treatment strategies. Full article

Background. To date, a number of human pathogenic viruses are still unaddressed by the current repertoire of approved antiviral drugs. In order to widen this spectrum of preventive measures against virus infections, we have focused on additional host targets that exert interesting virus-supportive functions. Inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 8 (CDK8) have been found to exhibit highly pronounced and relatively broad antiviral activity. Objectives. The current research question concerning the potential for broad-spectrum antiviral drug activity should be addressed in detail to understand the mechanistic basis of the antiviral target function of CDK8. Materials and Methods. We established and specifically customized six assay systems, three of these newly developed for the present study, to corroborate the range of CDK8 inhibitors’ antiviral activity against four α-, β-, and γ-herpesviruses as well as two non-herpesviruses. Results. Similar to our earlier analysis of CDK7 and CDK9 inhibitors, the clinically relevant CDK8 inhibitors currently in use demonstrated antiherpesviral activity in cell-culture-based infection models. Interestingly, the antiviral efficacy against various human and animal cytomegaloviruses was particularly strong at nanomolar concentrations, whereas other herpesviruses or non-herpesviruses showed an intermediate or low sensitivity to CDK8 inhibitors. Thus, this approach provided novel insights into the inhibitory potential of the CDK8 inhibitors, such as CCT-251921, MSC-2530818, and BI-1347, when analyzed against equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1, α-herpesvirus), human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A, β), Epstein–Barr virus (EBV, γ), murine herpesvirus 68 (MHV-68, γ), vaccinia virus (VV, non-herpes DNA virus), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, non-herpes RNA virus). Conclusions. Our results confirm that drug sensitivity to CDK8 inhibitors, on the one hand, is very strong for certain viruses and, on the other hand, varies widely within the spectrum of viruses and host cell types analyzed. This suggests that CDK8 may play several different roles in viral replication. The option of a refined CDK8-specific antiviral drug targeting is discussed. Full article

Equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) and Equine herpesvirus 4 (EHV-4) are major viral pathogens of horses that contribute to respiratory disease, abortion, and neurological disorders, leading to economic losses in the equine industry. Accurate serological diagnosis is critical for disease surveillance and control. This study aimed to develop and validate an in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting antibodies against EHV-1 and EHV-4 in horse sera. Serum samples previously confirmed by virus neutralization test (VNT) and a commercial ELISA were used to optimize the assay. Cut-off values were established using negative controls, and 155 serum samples were tested. The developed ELISA demonstrated 80.64% positivity for EHV-1 and 79.35% for EHV-4. When compared to VNT, the assay showed 85% specificity and 100% sensitivity. A high similarity (99%) was also observed when compared with the commercial ELISA. The overall seroprevalence was found to be 54.19% for EHV-1 and 75.48% for EHV-4, with an SN₅₀ value of 1/10 for both. The validation results confirmed high repeatability and reliability across plates. These findings suggest that the developed in-house ELISA is a practical, cost-effective, and accurate tool for the serological monitoring of EHV-1 and EHV-4 infections in horse populations. Full article