Introduction: Environmental risk factors, including community level pollution burden and exposure to smoking and secondhand smoke, have not been evaluated in relation to risk for infection with ...COVID-19 in high risk, urban Latinx families. Methods: We evaluated risk factors for COVID-19 infection in three, preexisting, longitudinal, Latinx family cohorts in the San Francisco Bay Area from May through September 2020 (N=383 households, 1875 people). All households were previously recruited before the pandemic. For the COVID-19 sub-study, participants responded to a telephone interview where we assessed food consumption patterns, housing and employment status, and history of COVID-19 infection. Secondhand smoke exposure was based on previously collected selfreported data, and environmental pollution exposure was determined from census tract residence. Non-parametric tests and multiple logistic regression were used to assess independent predictors of COVID-19 infection. Results: Larger household size increased risk for infection (OR=1.58; 95% CI: 1.12 – 2.23, p< 0.01) as did increasing number of children in household (OR=3.79; 95% CI: 1.51 – 9.56). Any exposure to secondhand smoke was also associated with increased risk for COVID infection (OR 4.69; 95% CI: 1.01 – 21.85) and having a greater number of family members eating at home was protective against infection (OR=0.10; 95% CI: 0.02 – 0.52, p< 0.01). Conclusions: Crowding, as indicated by larger household size, increases risk for COVID-19 infection in Latinx families, as does exposure to secondhand smoke. Public policy and health interventions need to ensure that multiunit residential complexes do not allow exposure to secondhand smoke between units, that individuals eat in the home environment, and that large households can safely separate individuals exposed to COVID-19.
Food insecurity impacts nearly one-in-four Latinx households in the United States and has been exacerbated by the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.
We examined the impact of COVID-19 on ...household and child food security in three preexisting, longitudinal, Latinx urban cohorts in the San Francisco Bay Area (N = 375 households, 1875 individuals). Households were initially recruited during pregnancy and postpartum at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) and UCSF Benioff prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For this COVID-19 sub-study, participants responded to a 15-min telephonic interview. Participants answered 18 questions from the US Food Security Food Module (US HFSSM) and questions on types of food consumption, housing and employment status, and history of COVID-19 infection as per community or hospital-based testing. Food security and insecurity levels were compared with prior year metrics.
We found low levels of household food security in Latinx families (by cohort: 29.2%; 34.2%; 60.0%) and child food security (56.9%, 54.1%, 78.0%) with differences between cohorts explained by self-reported levels of education and employment status. Food security levels were much lower than those reported previously in two cohorts where data had been recorded from prior years. Reported history of COVID-19 infection in households was 4.8% (95% Confidence Interval (CI); 1.5-14.3%); 7.2% (95%CI, 3.6-13.9%) and 3.5% (95%CI, 1.7-7.2%) by cohort and was associated with food insecurity in the two larger cohorts (p = 0.03; p = 0.01 respectively).
Latinx families in the Bay Area with children are experiencing a sharp rise in food insecurity levels during the COVID-19 epidemic. Food insecurity, similar to other indices of poverty, is associated with increased risk for COVID-19 infection. Comprehensive interventions are needed to address food insecurity in Latinx populations and further studies are needed to better assess independent associations between household food insecurity, poor nutritional health and risk of COVID-19 infection.
Plasmonic fluorescent nanocomposites are difficult to prepare due to strong quenching effects on fluorophores in the vicinity of noble metal nanoparticles such as gold (AuNPs). We successfully ...prepared plasmonic fluorescent nanocomposites of two cyanines (1 and 2) aggregating upon 2 – 40 nm AuNPs or streptavidin-conjugated 10 nm AuNPs. We used high throughput screening (HTS) for the first time to characterize the spectral properties, aggregation kinetics, aggregation density and photostability of the nanocomposites. Fluorescence from nanocomposites declined inversely with AuNPs size: 40 nm ≥ 20 nm > 10 nm > 5 nm > 2 nm. Sensitivity (limit of detection, LOD, 105 – 1011 AuNPs/mL), brightness of the nanocomposites and surface coverage of AuNPs by cyanine aggregates were all influenced by five factors: 1) AuNPs size; 2) cyanine type (1 or 2); 3) aggregate density; 4) distance between aggregates and AuNPs surface; and 5) streptavidin protein conjugation to AuNPs. We propose a model for plasmonic fluorescent nanocomposites based on these observations. Our plasmonic fluorescent nanocomposites have applications in chemical and biological assays.
The dramatic increase in all things food in popular and academic fields during the last two decades has generated a diverse and dynamic set of approaches for understanding the complex relationships ...and interactions that determine how people eat and how diet affects culture. These volumes offer a comprehensive reference for students and established scholars interested in food and nutrition research in Nutritional and Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, Food Studies and Applied Public Health.
Coffee is widely consumed by children in Guatemala. To evaluate whether coffee has an adverse effect on growth or morbidity, 160 children 12-24 mo of age who had received coffee for greater than or ...equal to 2 mo and had at least one indicator of iron deficiency were stratified by initial hemoglobin (Hb) (A = anemic vs. NA = "nonanemic", i.e., Hb greater than or equal to 105 g/L) and randomly assigned to a control (C = continuation of coffee) or intervention group (S = provided with a substitute consisting of sugar and coloring) for 5 mo. Anemic children were provided iron supplements for 2-3 mo. Hematological and anthropometric measurements were made before and after the intervention, and dietary and morbidity data were collected every 2 wk. A total of 139 children completed the intervention: 45 C-NA, 56 S-NA, 19 C-A and 19 S-A. Compliance with the intervention was good: median coffee intake was 127 mL/d in group C vs. 3 mL/d in group S (P = 0.0001). There were no significant differences between C vs. S groups in food intake before or after the intervention. In the total sample, there was no effect of the intervention on weight or length gain. However, in children initially consuming more than 100 mL/d of coffee (n = 96), length gain was 22% greater in the S vs. the C group (P = 0.07), and weight gain was 46% greater in the S-A vs. the C-A group (P 0.05; NS in the NA groups). Total illness prevalence (particularly respiratory illness) was significantly lower in the S-NA vs. the C-NA group (P 0.05), but somewhat higher in the S-A vs. the C-A group (P 100 mL/d
Coffee is one of the first liquids given to infants in Guatemala. To evaluate whether this practice has an adverse effect on iron status, 160 children 12-24 mo of age who had received coffee for > or ...= 2 mo and had at least one indicator of iron deficiency were stratified by initial hemoglobin concentration (anemic, or nonanemic, ie, hemoglobin > or = 105 g/L) and randomly assigned to a control (continuation of coffee; coffee) or intervention (provided with a substitute consisting of sugar and coloring; substitute) group for 5 mo. Anemic children were provided with iron supplements for 2-3 mo. Hematologic and anthropometric measurements were made before and after the intervention and dietary and morbidity data were collected every 2 wk. A total of 139 children completed the study: 45 coffee, nonanemic; 56 substitute, nonanemic; 19 coffee, anemic; and 19 substitute, anemic. Compliance with the procedures was good: median coffee intake was 891 mL/wk in the coffee group compared with 18 mL/wk in the substitute group (P = 0.0001). There was no significant effect of discontinuing coffee consumption on changes in hemoglobin, hematocrit, ratio of zinc protoporphyrin to heme or plasma iron, zinc or copper in either nonanemic or anemic children, or plasma ferritin in children who did not take iron supplements. In children who took iron supplements, change in plasma ferritin was significantly greater in the substitute group than in the coffee group (106% compared with 1%, P < 0.05). This implies that coffee interferes with the utilization of supplemental iron. It is likely that the amount and strength of coffee consumed by Guatemalan toddlers are too low to significantly affect the other indexes of iron status.
Cytomegalovirus is an important cause of disease in the newborn. The authors report data from a randomized trial of an extension of valganciclovir therapy from 6 weeks to 6 months for symptomatic CMV ...disease in newborns.
Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is the leading nongenetic cause of sensorineural hearing loss
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and is the most frequent known viral cause of mental retardation
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; the infection affects 0.6 to 0.7% of live births in industrialized countries.
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A total of 10% of congenitally infected neonates have symptomatic disease at birth, of whom 35% have sensorineural hearing loss, up to two thirds have neurologic deficits, and 4% die during the newborn period.
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Although congenital CMV infection is rare overall, it accounts for 21% of children with hearing loss at birth and 24% of those with hearing loss at . . .
Here we report the Simons Genome Diversity Project data set: high quality genomes from 300 individuals from 142 diverse populations. These genomes include at least 5.8 million base pairs that are not ...present in the human reference genome. Our analysis reveals key features of the landscape of human genome variation, including that the rate of accumulation of mutations has accelerated by about 5% in non-Africans compared to Africans since divergence. We show that the ancestors of some pairs of present-day human populations were substantially separated by 100,000 years ago, well before the archaeologically attested onset of behavioural modernity. We also demonstrate that indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andamanese do not derive substantial ancestry from an early dispersal of modern humans; instead, their modern human ancestry is consistent with coming from the same source as that of other non-Africans.
Abstract
Background
Viral loads (VLs) frequently are followed during treatment of symptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus disease, but their predictive value is unclear.
Methods
Post hoc analysis of 2 ...antiviral studies was performed. Seventy-three subjects were treated for 6 weeks and 47 subjects were treated for 6 months. Whole blood VL was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction before and during therapy.
Results
Higher baseline VL was associated with central nervous system involvement (3.82 log, range 1–5.65 vs 3.32 log, range 1–5.36; P = .001), thrombocytopenia (3.68 log, range 1–5.65 vs 3.43 log, range 1–5.36; P = .03), and transaminitis at presentation (3.73 log, range 1–5.60 vs 3.39 log, range 1–5.65; P = .009), but with overlap in the amount of virus detected between groups. In subjects treated for 6 months, lower VL at presentation correlated with better hearing outcomes at 12 months, but VL breakpoints predictive of hearing loss were not identified. Sustained viral suppression during 6 months of therapy correlated with better hearing outcomes at 6, 12, and 24 months (P = .01, P = .0007, P = .04), but a majority without viral suppression still had improved hearing.
Conclusions
In infants with symptomatic congenital cytomegalovirus disease, higher whole blood VL before initiation of antiviral therapy has no clinically meaningful predictive value for long-term outcomes.
In symptomatic congenital CMV infection, higher blood viral load before therapy correlates with thrombocytopenia, transaminitis, and CNS involvement but has little predictive value for long-term outcome. Early and sustained viral suppression during therapy may correlate with a better hearing outcome.
Understanding drivers of permafrost microbial community composition is critical for understanding permafrost microbiology and predicting ecosystem responses to thaw. We hypothesize that permafrost ...communities are shaped by physical constraints imposed by prolonged freezing, and exhibit spatial distributions that reflect dispersal limitation and selective pressures associated with these physical constraints. To test this, we characterized patterns of environmental variation and microbial community composition in permafrost across an Alaskan boreal forest landscape. We used null modeling to estimate the importance of selective and neutral assembly processes on community composition, and identified environmental factors influencing ecological selection through regression and structural equation modeling (SEM). Proportionally, the strongest process influencing community composition was dispersal limitation (0.36), exceeding the influence of homogenous selection (0.21), variable selection (0.16) and homogenizing dispersal (0.05). Fe(II) content was the most important factor explaining variable selection, and was significantly associated with total selection by univariate regression (R2 = 0.14, P = 0.003). SEM supported a model in which Fe(II) content mediated influences of the Gibbs free energy of the organic matter pool and organic acid concentration on total selection. These findings suggest that the dominant processes shaping microbial communities in permafrost result from the stability of the permafrost environment, which imposes dispersal and thermodynamic constraints.
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