Too Old for Monsters : A Collection of Stories

In The Wind\u27s Twelve Quarters, Ursula K. Le Guin writes, “We\u27re each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?” In my collection of short stories, Too Old for Monsters, I hold out my hands to every reader—the lonely and suffering person, the uncertain and wavering, the joyous and the brave, the growing and the stalling, and the myriad in-betweens. Writing explores the human experience, but this collection also explores the tangled mess of life beyond the merely human. These stories address the bone-saw sharp ache of loss and grief, the convoluted hornet’s nest of familial ties, and the isolating feat of navigating life in a world where meaning has become hard to find. Amidst these broader themes are imagery and elements of nature and animal lives; beings ever-present in our own lives and more influential and relatable than perhaps immediately perceived as we move through our days. These tales follow a lonely being, both a like and unlike humankind, whose eons of existence drag onward, a young girl in love with incomplete houses and unfledged things, a woman who struggles to survive a mountain and a monster in grief, and more. I draw inspiration from collections such as Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, and Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, among others. While grounded predominantly in realism, my narratives occasionally deviate into the surreal or employ magical realism to explore aspects of the human psyche as well as to attempt to branch beyond the realm of the merely human, inserting subtle connections with the more-than-human-world in which we live

First identification and characterization of porcine enterovirus G in the United States

Porcine enterovirus G (EV-G) is a member of the family Picornavirdae, genus Enterovirus. To date, eleven EV-G types (EV-G1 through EV-G11) have been identified in pigs from Asia and Europe however they have never been reported in North America. In this study, we isolated and characterized the complete genome of NP/2013/USA, an EV-G from a porcine diarrhea sample from the United States. The complete genome consists of 7,390 nucleotides excluding the 3′ poly(A) tail, and has an open reading frame that encodes a 2,169 amino acid polyprotein. NP/2013/USA was most similar at the nucleotide (84%) and amino acid (95%) level to the HM131607, an EV-G1 type isolated from China in 2012

Statistical Communication Theory

Contains reports on four research projects

First identification of porcine parvovirus 6 in North America by viral metagenomic sequencing of serum from pigs infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

Citation: Schirtzinger, E. E., Suddith, A. W., Hause, B. M., & Hesse, R. A. (2015). First identification of porcine parvovirus 6 in North America by viral metagenomic sequencing of serum from pigs infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. Virology Journal, 12, 10. doi:10.1186/s12985-015-0401-6Background: Currently, eight species in four genera of parvovirus have been described that infect swine. These include ungulate protoparvovirus 1 (classical porcine parvovirus, PPV), ungulate tetraparvovirus 2 (PPV3), ungulate tetraparvovirus 3 (which includes PPV2, porcine hokovirus, porcine partetravirus and porcine PARV4), ungulate copiparvovirus 2 (which includes PPV4 and PPV5), ungulate bocaparvovirus 2 (which includes porcine bocavirus 1, 2 and 6), ungulate bocaparvovirus 3 (porcine bocavirus 5), ungulate bocaparvovirus 4 (porcine bocavirus 7) and ungulate bocaparvovirus 5 (porcine bocavirus 3, 4-1 and 4-2). PPV6, the most recently described porcine parvovirus, was first identified in China in late 2014 in aborted pig fetuses. Prevalence of PPV6 in China was found to be similar in finishing age pigs from farms with and without evidence of swine reproductive failure. Methods: Porcine parvovirus 6 (PPV6) was detected by sequence-independent single primer amplification (SISPA) and confirmed by overlapping and real-time PCR in the serum of porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRSv) positive samples. Results: Seven nearly complete genomes of PPV6 were identified in PRRSv genotype 2 positive serum samples submitted to state veterinary diagnostic laboratories in 2014. Further testing using overlapping and real-time PCR determined PPV6 to be present in 13.2 % of the serums tested. Additionally, PPV6 was present in samples from all of the geographic locations sampled encompassing nine states in the United States and one state in Mexico. The presence of PPV6 in serum indicates that the PPV6 infection is disseminated and not localized to a specific tissue type. Alignments of the near full length genomes, NS1, and capsid genes identified one of the five PPV6 isolates from China (98.6-99.5 % identity with the North American strains) to be the North American strains nearest relative. Conclusions: These results are the first to report the presence of PPV6 in North America and demonstrate that the virus is found in multiple geographic areas in the United States and in Mexico. The overall prevalence of PPV6 in PRRSv viremic animals is relatively low. Further, all of the PPV6 genomes found in North America are most closely related to a PPV6 strain first identified in 2014 in healthy pigs from the Tianjin province of China

Senecavirus A in Pigs, United States, 2015

Citation: Hause, B. M., Myers, O., Duff, J., & Hesse, R. A. (2016). Senecavirus A in Pigs, United States, 2015. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 22(7), 1323-1325. doi:10.3201/eid2207.151951Senecavirus A (SVA) has been sporadically identified in pigs with idiopathic vesicular disease in the United States and Canada (1–3). Clinical symptoms observed include ruptured vesicles and erosions on the snout and lameness associated with broken vesicles along the coronary band. A recent report characterized SVA in pigs in Brazil with similar clinical symptoms in addition to a higher proportion of deaths than would be expected in pigs 1–4 days of age (4,5). Several outbreaks of this infection in pigs were reported in the summer of 2015 in the United States; the more severe clinical features resembled those seen in outbreaks in Brazil (6). Subsequent testing by PCR of 2,033 oral fluid samples from material submitted during 441 routine diagnostic testing procedures (from 25 states) identified 5 SVA-positive cases (1%) (7). Besides affecting animal health, SVA infection is notable because its clinical symptoms resemble those caused by foot-and-mouth disease and vesicular stomatitis viruses. When vesicular disease is observed in US swine, mandatory reporting and testing of animals for foreign animal diseases are required

Statistical Communication Theory

Contains reports on four research projects

Supramolecular organization of the human N-BAR domain in shaping the sarcolemma membrane

This is the final version of the article. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.The 30 kDa N-BAR domain of the human Bin1 protein is essential for the generation of skeletal muscle T-tubules. By electron cryo-microscopy and electron cryo-tomography with a direct electron detector, we found that Bin1-N-BAR domains assemble into scaffolds of low long-range order that form flexible membrane tubules. The diameter of the tubules closely matches the curved shape of the N-BAR domain, which depends on the composition of the target membrane. These insights are fundamental to our understanding of T-tubule formation and function in human skeletal muscle.This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GRK 1026, SFB610) (A.A., T.G., J.B.), the BMBF ZIK program (A.M., J.B.), the European Regional Development Fund of the European Commission (A.M., T.G.: EFRE 1241 12 0001), and the state Sachsen-Anhalt (A.M., T.G., J.B.)

Bovine Rhinitis Viruses Are Common in US Cattle with Bovine Respiratory Disease

Citation: Hause, B. M., Collin, E. A., Anderson, J., Hesse, R. A., & Anderson, G. (2015). Bovine Rhinitis Viruses Are Common in US Cattle with Bovine Respiratory Disease. Plos One, 10(3), 12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0121998Bovine rhinitis viruses (BRV) are established etiological agents of bovine respiratory disease complex however little research into their epidemiology and ecology has been published for several decades. In the U.S., only bovine rhinitis A virus 1 (BRAV1) has been identified while bovine rhinitis A virus 2 (BRAV2) and bovine rhinitis B virus (BRBV) were previously only identified in England and Japan, respectively. Metagenomic sequencing of a nasal swab from a bovine respiratory disease (BRD) diagnostic submission from Kansas identified contigs with approximately 90% nucleotide similarity to BRAV2 and BRBV. A combination of de novo and templated assemblies using reference genomes yielded near complete BRAV2 and BRBV genomes. The near complete genome of bovine rhinitis A virus 1 (BRAV1) was also determined from a historical isolate to enable further molecular epidemiological studies. A 5'-nuclease reverse transcription PCR assay targeting the 3D polymerase gene was designed and used to screen 204 archived BRD clinical specimens. Thirteen (6.4%) were positive. Metagenomic sequencing of six positive samples identified mixed BRAV1/BRAV2, BRAV1/BRBV and BRAV2/BRBV infections for five samples. One sample showed infection only with BRAV1. Seroprevalence studies using a cell culture adapted BRBV found immunofluorescence assay-reactive antibodies were common in the herds analyzed. Altogether, these results demonstrate that BRV infections are common in cattle with respiratory disease and that BRAV1, BRAV2 and BRBV co-circulate in U.S. cattle and have high similarity to viruses isolated more than 30 years ago from diverse locations

Statistical Communication Theory

Contains reports on six research projects

An inactivated vaccine made from a U.S. field isolate of porcine epidemic disease virus is immunogenic in pigs as demonstrated by a dose-titration

Citation: Collin, E. A., Anbalagan, S., Okda, F., Batman, R., Nelson, E., & Hause, B. M. (2015). An inactivated vaccine made from a U.S. field isolate of porcine epidemic disease virus is immunogenic in pigs as demonstrated by a dose-titration. BMC Veterinary Research, 11(1). doi:10.1186/s12917-015-0357-1Background: Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a highly pathogenic and transmissible virus in swine, was first detected in the U.S. in May, 2013, and has caused tremendous losses to the swine industry. Due to the difficulty in isolating and growing this virus in cell culture, few vaccine studies using cell culture propagated PEDV have been performed on U.S. strains in pigs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the humoral immune response to the selected inactivated PEDV vaccine candidate in a dose-titration manner. Results: PEDV was isolated from a pig with diarrhea and complete genome sequencing found >99% nucleotide identity to other U.S. PEDV. Inactivated adjuvanted monovalent vaccines were administered intramuscularly to five week old pigs in a dose titration experimental design, ranging from 6.0-8.0 log10 tissue culture infective dose (TCID50/mL), to evaluate immunogenicity using a fluorescent foci neutralization assay (FFN), fluorescent microsphere immunoassay (FMIA), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) on sera. Pigs vaccinated with 8.0 log10 TCID50/mL inactivated virus showed significantly higher FFN titers as well as FMIA and ELISA values than 6.0 log10 TCID50/mL vaccinates and the negative controls. Conclusions: These results demonstrate the immunogenicity of a PEDV inactivated viral vaccine with a U.S. strain via dose-titration. A future vaccination-challenge study would illustrate the efficacy of an inactivated vaccine and help evaluate protective FFN titers and ELISA and FMIA responses. © Collin et al; licensee BioMed Central