A systematic review of reported reassortant viral lineages of influenza A

BACKGROUND: Most previous evolutionary studies of influenza A have focussed on genetic drift, or reassortment of specific gene segments, hosts or subtypes. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify reported claimed reassortant influenza A lineages with genomic data available in GenBank, to obtain 646 unique first-report isolates out of a possible 20,781 open-access genomes. RESULTS: After adjusting for correlations, only: swine as host, China, Europe, Japan and years between 1997 and 2002; remained as significant risk factors for the reporting of reassortant viral lineages. For swine H1, more reassortants were observed in the North American H1 clade compared with the Eurasian avian-like H1N1 clade. Conversely, for avian H5 isolates, a higher number of reported reassortants were observed in the European H5N2/H3N2 clade compared with the H5N2 North American clade. CONCLUSIONS: Despite unavoidable biases (publication, database choice and upload propensity) these results synthesize a large majority of the current literature on novel reported influenza A reassortants and are a potentially useful prerequisite to inform further algorithmic studies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-015-1298-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Respiratory Syncytial Virus

RSV infection has an estimated global incidence of 33 million cases in children <5 years of age, with 10% requiring hospital admission and up to 199 000 dying of the disease. There is growing evidence that severe infantile RSV bronchiolitis, a condition characterised by an inflammatory reaction to the virus, is associated with later childhood wheeze in some vulnerable children; however, a direct causal relationship with asthma has not yet been established. RSV infection is also increasingly recognised as a cause of morbidity and mortality in those with underlying airway disease, the immunocompromised and frail elderly persons. Novel molecular-based diagnostic tools are becoming established, but treatment remains largely supportive, with palivizumab the only licensed agent currently available for passive prophylaxis of selected pre-term infants. While effective treatments remain elusive, there is optimism about the testing of novel antiviral drugs and the development of vaccines that may induce long-lasting immunity without the risk of disease augmentation

The Mass, Orbit, and Tidal Evolution of the Quaoar-Weywot System

Here we present new adaptive optics observations of the Quaoar-Weywot system. With these new observations we determine an improved system orbit. Due to a 0.39 day alias that exists in available observations, four possible orbital solutions are available with periods of $\sim11.6$, $\sim12.0$, $\sim12.4$, and $\sim12.8$ days. From the possible orbital solutions, system masses of $1.3-1.5\pm0.1\times10^{21}$ kg are found. These observations provide an updated density for Quaoar of 2.7-5.0{g cm^{-3}}. In all cases, Weywot's orbit is eccentric, with possible values $\sim0.13-0.16$. We present a reanalysis of the tidal orbital evolution of the Quoaor-Weywot system. We have found that Weywot has probably evolved to a state of synchronous rotation, and have likely preserved their initial inclinations over the age of the Solar system. We find that for plausible values of the effective tidal dissipation factor tides produce a very slow evolution of Weywot's eccentricity and semi-major axis. Accordingly, it appears that Weywot's eccentricity likely did not tidally evolve to its current value from an initially circular orbit. Rather, it seems that some other mechanism has raised its eccentricity post-formation, or Weywot formed with a non-negligible eccentricity.Comment: Accepted to Icarus, Nov. 8 201

Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of Point-Of-Care CD4 Testing on the HIV Epidemic in South Africa.

Rapid diagnostic tools have been shown to improve linkage of patients to care. In the context of infectious diseases, assessing the impact and cost-effectiveness of such tools at the population level, accounting for both direct and indirect effects, is key to informing adoption of these tools. Point-of-care (POC) CD4 testing has been shown to be highly effective in increasing the proportion of HIV positive patients who initiate ART. We assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of introducing POC CD4 testing at the population level in South Africa in a range of care contexts, using a dynamic compartmental model of HIV transmission, calibrated to the South African HIV epidemic. We performed a meta-analysis to quantify the differences between POC and laboratory CD4 testing on the proportion linking to care following CD4 testing. Cumulative infections averted and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated over one and three years. We estimated that POC CD4 testing introduced in the current South African care context can prevent 1.7% (95% CI: 0.4% - 4.3%) of new HIV infections over 1 year. In that context, POC CD4 testing was cost-effective 99.8% of the time after 1 year with a median estimated ICER of US$4,468/DALY averted. In healthcare contexts with expanded HIV testing and improved retention in care, POC CD4 testing only became cost-effective after 3 years. The results were similar when, in addition, ART was offered irrespective of CD4 count, and CD4 testing was used for clinical assessment. Our findings suggest that even if ART is expanded to all HIV positive individuals and HIV testing efforts are increased in the near future, POC CD4 testing is a cost-effective tool, even within a short time horizon. Our study also illustrates the importance of evaluating the potential impact of such diagnostic technologies at the population level, so that indirect benefits and costs can be incorporated into estimations of cost-effectiveness

Unconventional warfare

The world of today can look back at some fifty years of widespread and virtually continuous political revolution. Prob­ ably more governments have come into being, passed through drastic change, or ceased to exist than in any comparable period in history. Certainly a larger proportion of the world’s popula­ tion has been involved in and has been aware of these upheavals than was ever the case in earlier days. It is the political pheno­ menon of the twentieth century, the visible wind of revolution, stirring in many continents

Obituary: Arthur Cruickshank 1932 - 2011. A native Gondwanan, who studied the former continent's fossil tetrapods

Dr Arthur Richard Ivor Cruickshank died on 4th December 2011, aged 79, in the Borders General Hospital, Melrose, Scotland. Arthur Cruickshank was part of the post-war generation of palaeontologists who laid the foundations on which today’s researchers build. Appropriately for someone from an expatriate Scots family living in Kenya, much of his work was on the extinct reptiles of the great southern palaeocontinent of Gondwana

Mass segregation trends in SDSS galaxy groups

It has been shown that galaxy properties depend strongly on their host environment. In order to understand the relevant physical processes driving galaxy evolution it is important to study the observed properties of galaxies in different environments. Mass segregation in bound galaxy structures is an important indicator of evolutionary history and dynamical friction timescales. Using group catalogues derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) we investigate mass segregation trends in galaxy groups at low redshift. We investigate average galaxy stellar mass as a function of group-centric radius and find evidence for weak mass segregation in SDSS groups. The magnitude of the mass segregation depends on both galaxy stellar mass limits and group halo mass. We show that the inclusion of low mass galaxies tends to strengthen mass segregation trends, and that the strength of mass segregation tends to decrease with increasing group halo mass. We find the same trends if we use the fraction of massive galaxies as a function of group-centric radius as an alternative probe of mass segregation. The magnitude of mass segregation that we measure, particularly in high-mass haloes, indicates that dynamical friction is not acting efficiently.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter