Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020

We show the distribution of SARS-CoV-2 genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three available genomic nomenclature systems for SARS-CoV-2 to all sequence data from the WHO European Region available during the COVID-19 pandemic until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation. We provide a comparison of the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.Peer reviewe

Production of intravenous human dengue immunoglobulin from Brazilian-blood donors

Dengue represents an important health problem in Brazil and therefore there is a great need to develop a vaccine or treatment. The neutralization of the dengue virus by a specific antibody can potentially be applied to therapy. The present paper describes, for the first time, the preparation of Immunoglobulin specific for the dengue virus (anti-DENV IgG), collected from screened Brazilian blood-donations. Production was performed using the classic Cohn-Oncley process with minor modifications. The anti-DENV IgG was biochemically and biophysically characterized and fulfilled the requirements defined by the European Pharmacopoeia. The finished product was able to neutralize different virus serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, and DENV-3), while a commercial IgG collected from American blood donations was found to have low anti-dengue antibody titers. Overall, this anti-DENV IgG represents an important step in the study of the therapeutic potential and safety of a specific antibody that neutralizes the dengue virus in humans

Sensing small-scale human activity in the palaeoecological record: fine spatial resolution pollen analyses from Glen Affric, northern Scotland

This paper examines the importance of palynological site selection criteria, speci"cally basin size, for the detection of vegetation mosaics and small- or local-scale human activity within a spatially diverse, mosaic landscape. Using a site selection strategy which recognizes landscape patchiness, pollen analyses from three small peat basins (10-56 m diameter) in an open, exposed upland valley (greater than 250 m OD) provide records which are sensitive to local vegetation mosaics and small-scale, localized agriculture. The results indicate c. 4000 14C years (4400 cal. years) of land use, with spatial and temporal variations in the valley. Contrasts between the sequences suggest that local pollen production remains an important component of the pollen rain deposited in small peat basins, even in open environments; this is especially true of palynological‘agricultural indicators'. By comparison, sites with regional pollen source areas underestimate the spatial diversity of the upland landscape, and are insensitive to small-scale human activity in an environment where the fragmentary distribution of soils suitable for agriculture favoured a small-scale, dispersed pattern of farming. It is therefore essential to match the spatial resolution of pollen records with the grain size or scale of variations in the environment under investigation in order to sense the scale of mosaics in vegetation and agriculture within patchy landscapes