We present a narrow Hα-band imaging survey of 357 low surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs) that are selected from the spring sky region of the 40% Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA) HI Survey. All the Hα images are obtained from the 2.16 m telescope, operated by Xinglong Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We provide the Hα fluxes and derive the global star formation rates (SFRs) of LSBGs after the Galactic extinction, internal extinction, and [NII] contamination correction. Comparing to normal star-forming galaxies, LSBGs have a similar distribution in the HI surface density (Σ HI ), but their SFRs and star formation surface density (Σ SFR ) are much lower. Our results show that the gas-rich LSBGs selected from the ALFALFA survey obviously deviate from the Kennicutt-Schmidt law, in the relation between the star formation surface density (Σ SFR ) and the gas surface density (Σ gas ). However, they follow the extended Schmidt law well when taking the stellar mass of the galaxy into consideration.

Classical swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease for which many researchers are endeavoring to develop safe and efficient vaccines. An amino acid sequence, TAVSPTTLR, residing in glycoprotein E2, was identified as a highly conserved neutralizing epitope. This epitope was demonstrated to have the capacity of inducing neutralizing antibodies, and the sequences flanking it may contribute to the production of functional humoral immune responses. One interesting question is whether such a structural contribution can be compensated for. In this report, we designed and produced several chimeric recombinant proteins comprising 2, 4, or 6 repeats of this epitope fused to the C-terminus of the GST protein. These proteins were investigated for their capacity of inducing antibodies with neutralizing activity. The results showed that the 6-repeated chimeric recombinant protein managed to elicit epitope-specific neutralizing antibodies, while the 2- or 4-repeated recombinant proteins did not produce such antibodies in significant amounts if any.

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