Long-term host–pathogen evolution of endogenous beta- and gammaretroviruses in mouse lemurs with little evidence of recent retroviral introgression

Madagascar’s flora and fauna have evolved in relative isolation since the island split from the African and Indian continents. When the last common ancestors of lemurs left Africa between 40 and 70 million years ago, they carried a subset of the viral diversity of the mainland population within them, which continued to evolve throughout the lemur radiation. Relative to other primate radiations, we know very little about the past or present viral diversity of lemurs, particularly mouse lemurs. Using high-throughput sequencing, we identified two gammaretroviruses and three betaretroviruses in the genomes of four species of wild mouse lemurs. The two gammaretroviruses and two betaretroviruses have not previously been described. One betaretrovirus was previously identified. All identified viruses are present in both Lorisiformes and Lemuriformes but absent from haplorrhine primates. The estimated ages of these viruses are consistent with the estimated divergence dates of the host lineages, suggesting they colonized the lemur genome after the Haplorrhine–Strepsirrhine split, but before the Lorisiformes–Lemuriformes split and before the colonization of Madagascar. The viral phylogenies connect multiple lineages of retroviruses from non-lemur and non-Madagascar-native species, suggesting substantial cross-species transmission occurred deep in the primate clade prior to its geographic dispersal. These phylogenies provide novel insights into known retroviral clades. They suggest that the origin of gammaretroviruses in rodents or bats may be premature and that the Jaagsiekte sheep virus clade may be older and more broadly distributed among mammals than previously thought

Friends don't lie: inferring personality traits from social network structure

In this work, we investigate the relationships between social network structure and personality; we assess the performances of different subsets of structural network features, and in particular those concerned with ego-networks, in predicting the Big-5 personality traits. In addition to traditional survey-based data, this work focuses on social networks derived from real-life data gathered through smartphones. Besides showing that the latter are superior to the former for the task at hand, our results provide a fine-grained analysis of the contribution the various feature sets are able to provide to personality classification, along with an assessment of the relative merits of the various networks exploited.European Commission (PERSI Project within the Marie Curie COFUND-FP7)Italy. Ministero dell'istruzione, dell'università e della ricerca (FIRB S-PATTERNS project

Identifying barriers to care in the Burmese and Bhutanese refugee populations of Burlington, Vermont

Introduction: Many refugees who escape persecution in their own country have trouble navigating and accessing the American health care system. Language barriers often impair effective communication, while financial challenges can be prohibitive after the eight-month government insurance subsidy for new refugees expires. In addition many refugees do not understand the concept of chronic disease, which is a concern considering the overall rise in hypertension (HTN) and type-two diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the US population. Understanding how refugees access health care, and how well they understand chronic disease, is essential for organizations providing medical care for these populations. Little is known about how the Burmese and Bhutanese refugees experience the Vermont health care system, nor how well they understand chronic diseases such as HTN and T2DM. To address these limitations, we conducted focus groups with these two Vermont refugee populations at the Community Health Center of Burlington, Vermont (CHCB).https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1035/thumbnail.jp

Long-term host-pathogen evolution of endogenous beta- and gammaretroviruses in mouse lemurs with little evidence of recent retroviral introgression

Madagascar’s flora and fauna have evolved in relative isolation since the island split from the African and Indian continents. When the last common ancestors of lemurs left Africa between 40 and 70 million years ago, they carried a subset of the viral diversity of the mainland population within them, which continued to evolve throughout the lemur radiation. Relative to other primate radiations, we know very little about the past or present viral diversity of lemurs, particularly mouse lemurs. Using high-throughput sequencing, we identified two gammaretroviruses and three betaretroviruses in the genomes of four species of wild mouse lemurs. The two gammaretroviruses and two betaretroviruses have not previously been described. One betaretrovirus was previously identified. All identified viruses are present in both Lorisiformes and Lemuriformes but absent from haplorrhine primates. The estimated ages of these viruses are consistent with the estimated divergence dates of the host lineages, suggesting they colonized the lemur genome after the Haplorrhine–Strepsirrhine split, but before the Lorisiformes–Lemuriformes split and before the colonization of Madagascar. The viral phylogenies connect multiple lineages of retroviruses from non-lemur and non-Madagascar-native species, suggesting substantial cross-species transmission occurred deep in the primate clade prior to its geographic dispersal. These phylogenies provide novel insights into known retroviral clades. They suggest that the origin of gammaretroviruses in rodents or bats may be premature and that the Jaagsiekte sheep virus clade may be older and more broadly distributed among mammals than previously thought