Lassa fever, caused by arenavirus Lassa virus (LASV), is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease that affects up to an estimated 300 000 individuals and causes up to 5000 deaths per year in West Africa. ...Currently available LASV diagnostic methods are difficult to operationalise in low-resource health centres and may be less sensitive to detecting all known or emerging LASV strains. To prioritise diagnostic development for LASV, we assessed the diagnostic applications for case detection, clinical management, surveillance, outbreak response, and therapeutic and vaccine development at various healthcare levels. Diagnostic development should prioritise point-of-care and near-patient diagnostics, especially those with the ability to detect all lineages of LASV, as they would allow for rapid detection in resource-limited health facilities closer to the patient.
Honey is a widely available natural sweetener containing sugars, and small quantities of
vitamins and minerals, proteins, amino acids and fatty acids. Owing to its nutritious components,
commercial ...honeys are sold in bulk blends or as trendy and premium products. Meanwhile, honey
bees are considered as environmental monitors and have the potential to transfer environmental
contaminants, if present, to honey. In high density urban and industrial environments polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals can be prevalent, whilst pesticides and mineral
and trace elements are ubiquitous. Honey hives are traditionally located in rural and forested areas,
but there is a growing trend to locate hives in urban areas. This project has investigated the presence
of environmental contaminants in honey samples from high density urban, peri-urban as well as
rural areas. Australian honey samples (n = 211) were purchased between 2016 and 2018, including
52 honeys claiming to be of urban origin purchased online. Stingless bee honeys (n = 36) from
Queensland and Malaysia were compared. Processed samples were analysed by UHPLC-MS/MS
(herbicides), GC-MS/MS (pesticides and PAHs) and ICP-MS and ICP-OES (elemental analyses). The
results showed low or negligible pesticide, herbicide, and PAH contamination, and that these low
results were similar regardless of urban or rural origins. Wide variations of essential trace element
(Fe, Zn, Cu, Mo, Co, Mn, Cr) and mineral levels (K, Na, P, Mg, Ca) were found in honey products,
which are a good dietary source of K and Zn. Relatively low levels of toxic heavy metals were found
in honeys.
The terrorist events of 2001 brought to light the need for a close working relationship between the first responder communities and the public health laboratories in New York State (NYS). Since 2002, ...the Wadsworth Center's Biodefense Laboratory (BDL) has been providing outreach training to first responders in New York, to enable them to respond safely, correctly, and confidently to biothreat events. A pocket trifold was developed, titled "CODE RED," which describes sampling protocols, risk analysis criteria, and important contact information for use during an emergency response to a potential bioterrorism situation. In addition, the BDL has provided training to more than 1,000 first responders in the basic knowledge of biothreat agents, routes of dissemination, sampling and decontamination methods, contamination control protocols, biothreat risk assessment, and legal chain of custody procedures. The training methods have been established for use by first responders wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). All states can benefit from highly trained first responders who are capable of efficient, safe, and effective biothreat response, resulting in increased safety of the first responders and laboratorians, as well as decreased turnaround times for laboratory results. The CODE RED trifold provides a working model for training first responders at the state and county levels for emergency biothreat response.
Protective Antigen (PA) is the receptor binding subunit common to both Lethal (LT) and Edema (ET) toxins, which contribute to the mortality associated with Bacillus anthracis infection. While ...recombinant PA (rPA) is likely to be an important constituent of second generation anthrax vaccines, evaluating the effectiveness of candidate vaccines is currently difficult, because the specific B cell epitopes involved in toxin neutralization have not been completely defined. The only well characterized antibody, 14B7, has been shown to disrupt the association of PA with the anthrax toxin receptors (ATR) by binding to domain 4 of PA. I hypothesized that other domain 4 epitopes play a critical role in eliciting a protective immune response to anthrax. To test this hypothesis I first identified a novel rPA immunogen capable of eliciting a protective immune response in goats and mice. I next established an LT challenge mouse model to evaluate the ability of antibodies to disrupt the intoxication pathway in vivo. To identify neutralizing epitopes on domain 4 of PA, I screened a collection of murine B cell hybridomas for monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that reacted with the native PA protein as well as linear peptides within domain 4. Two IgG1 MAbs, 1-F1 and 2-B12, were identified that recognize distinct domain 4 linear epitopes. 1-F1 recognized residues 692-703, part of the ATR recognition region. 1-F1 blocked PA’s ability to associate with ATR in an in vitro solid phase binding assay, and neutralized LT in vitro. 2-B12 recognized residues 716-727, a region not previously known to be a target of neutralizing antibodies. 2-B12 was as effective as 1-F1 in neutralizing LT in vitro , although it only partially inhibited PA binding to ATR. Mice passively administered 1-F1 or 2-B12 were protected against LT challenge. This data confirm that several epitopes on domain 4 of PA contribute to the protective immune response against anthrax intoxication. The identification of neutralizing MAbs recognizing linear peptides provides us with a powerful tool for identifying the specific epitopes involved in the protective immune response to anthrax and advances our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms by which antibodies neutralize anthrax toxin.
NEW SENSOR MEANS BISMUTH Kelly, Cassandra
Mechanical engineering (New York, N.Y. 1919),
04/2024, Letnik:
146, Številka:
3
Magazine Article
A team of researchers at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University have developed the next generation of wearables in the form of a flexible finger with enormous potential for sensing. ...Nanomaterials layer the device, which looks like a clear casing meant to fit over the human finger It is specially designed to perform multiple tasks including writing, erasing, and editing, and stores the memory of those tasks within a space that could fit 20 times within the width of a human hair. The team--led by RMIT doctoral candidate Xiangyang Guo, under the supervision of Zavabeti and RMIT engineering professor Yongxiang Li--has conducted bismuth studies that show it is safe for humans and would cause less irritation than other popular materials. When layered using the team's technique, the metal acts as a semiconductor, generating its power through natural forces.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
CEKLJ, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The scene was sealed pending the arrival of a fire investigator, said Contra Costa Fire Battalion Chief Steve Maiero. Richard Faigle, 32, a civil engineering student at UC Berkeley, was shaken after ...talking with police and firefighters. His wife, Laura Minor, works at CNET, the same company as James Kim, who was found dead this week after missing for days in Oregon. Firefighters found two inoperable smoke detectors in or near the bedroom, Maiero said. One of the detectors had been sitting on a dresser, with the battery removed.
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