Coronaviruses have caused three major epidemics since 2003, including the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In each case, the emergence of coronavirus in our species has been associated with zoonotic ...transmissions from animal reservoirs
, underscoring how prone such pathogens are to spill over and adapt to new species. Among the four recognized genera of the family Coronaviridae, human infections reported so far have been limited to alphacoronaviruses and betacoronaviruses
. Here we identify porcine deltacoronavirus strains in plasma samples of three Haitian children with acute undifferentiated febrile illness. Genomic and evolutionary analyses reveal that human infections were the result of at least two independent zoonoses of distinct viral lineages that acquired the same mutational signature in the genes encoding Nsp15 and the spike glycoprotein. In particular, structural analysis predicts that one of the changes in the spike S1 subunit, which contains the receptor-binding domain, may affect the flexibility of the protein and its binding to the host cell receptor. Our findings highlight the potential for evolutionary change and adaptation leading to human infections by coronaviruses outside of the previously recognized human-associated coronavirus groups, particularly in settings where there may be close human-animal contact.
Spondweni virus (SPONV) and Zika virus cause similar diseases in humans. We detected SPONV outside of Africa from a pool of Culex mosquitoes collected in Haiti in 2016. This finding raises questions ...about the role of SPONV as a human pathogen in Haiti and other Caribbean countries.
Abstract
We isolated a novel coronavirus from a medical team member presenting with fever and malaise after travel to Haiti. The virus showed 99.4% similarity with a recombinant canine coronavirus ...recently identified in a pneumonia patient in Malaysia, suggesting that infection with this virus and/or recombinant variants occurs in multiple locations.
Zikavirus (ZIKV) is an emerging viral pathogen that continues to spread throughout different regions of the world. Herein we report a case that provides further evidence that ZIKV transmission can ...occur through breastfeeding by providing a detailed clinical, genomic, and virological case-based description.
The AKARI far-infrared all-sky survey maps Doi, Yasuo; Takita, Satoshi; Ootsubo, Takafumi ...
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan,
06/2015, Volume:
67, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present a far-infrared all-sky atlas from a sensitive all-sky survey using the Japanese AKARI satellite. The survey covers > 99% of the sky in four photometric bands centred at 65 μm, 90 μm, 140 ...μm, and 160 μm, with spatial resolutions ranging from 1′ to 1
${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$
5. These data provide crucial information on the investigation and characterisation of the properties of dusty material in the interstellar medium (ISM), since a significant portion of its energy is emitted between ∼ 50 and 200 μm. The large-scale distribution of interstellar clouds, their thermal dust temperatures, and their column densities can be investigated with the improved spatial resolution compared to earlier all-sky survey observations. In addition to the point source distribution, the large-scale distribution of ISM cirrus emission, and its filamentary structure, are well traced. We have made the first public release of the full-sky data to provide a legacy data set for use in the astronomical community.
The non-uniform distribution of gas and protostars in molecular clouds is caused by combinations of various physical processes that are difficult to separate. We explore this non-uniform distribution ...in the M17 molecular cloud complex that hosts massive star formation activity using the 12CO (J = 1-0) and 13CO (J = 1-0) emission lines obtained with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. Differences in clump properties such as mass, size, and gravitational boundedness reflect the different evolutionary stages of the M17-H ii and M17-IRDC clouds. Clumps in the M17-H ii cloud are denser, more compact, and more gravitationally bound than those in M17-IRDC. While M17-H ii hosts a large fraction of very dense gas (27%) that has a column density larger than the threshold of ∼1 g cm−2 theoretically predicted for massive star formation, this very dense gas is deficient in M17-IRDC (0.46%). Our HCO+ (J = 1-0) and HCN (J = 1-0) observations with the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory 14 m telescope trace all gas with a column density higher than 3 × 1022 cm−2, confirming the deficiency of high-density ( 105 cm−3) gas in M17-IRDC. Although M17-IRDC is massive enough to potentially form massive stars, its deficiency of very dense gas and gravitationally bound clumps can explain the current lack of massive star formation.
To determine the prevalence and outcomes associated with hemorrhage, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, and thrombosis (HECTOR) complications in ICU patients with COVID-19.
Prospective, ...observational study.
Two hundred twenty-nine ICUs across 32 countries.
Adult patients (≥ 16 yr) admitted to participating ICUs for severe COVID-19 from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021.
None.
HECTOR complications occurred in 1,732 of 11,969 study eligible patients (14%). Acute thrombosis occurred in 1,249 patients (10%), including 712 (57%) with pulmonary embolism, 413 (33%) with myocardial ischemia, 93 (7.4%) with deep vein thrombosis, and 49 (3.9%) with ischemic strokes. Hemorrhagic complications were reported in 579 patients (4.8%), including 276 (48%) with gastrointestinal hemorrhage, 83 (14%) with hemorrhagic stroke, 77 (13%) with pulmonary hemorrhage, and 68 (12%) with hemorrhage associated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) cannula site. Disseminated intravascular coagulation occurred in 11 patients (0.09%). Univariate analysis showed that diabetes, cardiac and kidney diseases, and ECMO use were risk factors for HECTOR. Among survivors, ICU stay was longer (median days 19 vs 12; p < 0.001) for patients with versus without HECTOR, but the hazard of ICU mortality was similar (hazard ratio HR 1.01; 95% CI 0.92-1.12; p = 0.784) overall, although this hazard was identified when non-ECMO patients were considered (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.02-1.25; p = 0.015). Hemorrhagic complications were associated with an increased hazard of ICU mortality compared to patients without HECTOR complications (HR 1.26; 95% CI 1.09-1.45; p = 0.002), whereas thrombosis complications were associated with reduced hazard (HR 0.88; 95% CI 0.79-0.99, p = 0.03).
HECTOR events are frequent complications of severe COVID-19 in ICU patients. Patients receiving ECMO are at particular risk of hemorrhagic complications. Hemorrhagic, but not thrombotic complications, are associated with increased ICU mortality.
Abstract
Keystone virus, a California-serogroup orthobunyavirus, was first isolated in 1964 from mosquitoes in Keystone, Florida. There were no prior reports of isolation from humans, despite studies ...suggesting that ~20% of persons living in the region are seropositive. We report virus isolation from a Florida teenager with a rash and fever.
Abstract
In this paper, the second in a series investigating Fanaroff–Riley type II (FR II) radio galaxies at low frequencies, we use LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) and Very Large Array (VLA) ...observations between 117 and 456 MHz, in addition to archival data, to determine the dynamics and energetics of two radio galaxies, 3C 452 and 3C 223, by fitting spectral ageing models on small spatial scales. We provide improved measurements for the physical extent of the two sources, including a previously unknown low surface brightness extension to the northern lobe of 3C 223, and revised energetics based on these values. We find spectral ages of $77.05^{+9.22}_{-8.74}$ and $84.96^{+15.02}_{-13.83}$ Myr for 3C 452 and 3C 223, respectively, suggesting a characteristic advance speed for the lobes of around 1 per cent of the speed of light. For 3C 452, we show that, even for a magnetic field strength not assumed to be in equipartition, a disparity of a factor of approximately 2 exists between the spectral age and that determined from a dynamical standpoint. We confirm that the injection index of both sources (as derived from the lobe emission) remains steeper than classically assumed values, even when considered on well-resolved scales at low frequencies. However, we find an unexpected sharp discontinuity between the spectrum of the hotspots and the surrounding lobe emission. We suggest that this discrepancy is a result of the absorption of hotspot emission and/or non-homogeneous and additional acceleration mechanisms; as such, hotspots should not be used in the determination of the underlying initial electron energy distribution.
In the context of recent arbovirus epidemics, questions about the frequency of simultaneous infection of patients with different arbovirus species have been raised. In 2014, a major Chikungunya virus ...(CHIKV) epidemic impacted the Caribbean and South America. As part of ongoing screening of schoolchildren presenting with acute undifferentiated febrile illness in rural Haiti, we used RT-PCR to identify CHIKV infections in 82 of 100 children with this diagnosis during May-August 2014. Among these, eight were infected with a second arbovirus: six with Zika virus (ZIKV), one with Dengue virus serotype 2, and one with Mayaro virus (MAYV). These dual infections were only detected following culture of the specimen, suggesting low viral loads of the co-infecting species. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the ZIKV and MAYV strains differ from those detected later in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Moreover, CHIKV and ZIKV strains from co-infected patients clustered monophyletically in their respective phylogeny, and clock calibration traced back the common ancestor of each clade to an overlapping timeframe of introduction of these arboviruses onto the island.
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