Ebola Virus Localization in the Macaque Reproductive Tract during Acute Ebola Virus Disease.

Sexual transmission of Ebola virus (EBOV) has been demonstrated more than a year after recovery from the acute phase of Ebola virus disease (EVD). The mechanisms underlying EBOV persistence and sexual transmission are not currently understood. Using the acute macaque model of EVD, we hypothesized EBOV would infect the reproductive tissues and sought to localize the infection in these tissues using immunohistochemistry and transmission electron microscopy. In four female and eight male macaques that succumbed to EVD between 6 and 9 days after EBOV challenge, we demonstrate widespread EBOV infection of the interstitial tissues and endothelium in the ovary, uterus, testis, seminal vesicle, epididymis, and prostate gland, with minimal associated tissue immune response or organ pathology. Given the widespread involvement of EBOV in the reproductive tracts of both male and female macaques, it is reasonable to surmise that our understanding of the mechanisms underlying sexual transmission of EVD and persistence of EBOV in immune-privileged sites would be facilitated by the development of a nonhuman primate model in which the macaques survived past the acute stage into convalescence

Retinal Detachment with Vitreous Hemorrhage Causing Acute Angle Closure Glaucoma

A 90-year-old female with past medical history of trigeminal neuralgia presented with a four-day history of a left-sided headache, nausea, vomiting, and vision loss in her left eye and one month of intermittent flashes of light in her left eye. Her left eye was diffusely injected with a cloudy cornea and fixed, mid-dilated, and non-reactive pupil. The vision in her, right eye was 20/200 with an intraocular pressure (IOP) of 16 mm Hg; her left eye was no light perception (NLP) with an IOP of 56 mm Hg. She was started on dorzolamide, brimonidine, and latanoprost eye drops. A bedside ultrasound performed by an emergency medicine physician demonstrated evidence of vitreous hemorrhage and concern for retinal detachment. Slit lamp examination performed by ophthalmologist demonstrated the left anterior chamber to be flat with a bulging iris and detached retina. Consequently, the patient was diagnosed with acute angle closure glaucoma secondary to increasing posterior chamber pressures. Given concern for altered mental status, the patient received a CT head in association with an inpatient MRI for headache refractory to home carbamazepine dosing regimen. Both imaging modalities corroborated the ultrasound\u27s findings. In addition to the IOP-lowering medications, atropine, traditionally contraindicated in primary acute angle closure glaucoma, was added. Given her age, length of symptoms, and lack of light perception at presentation, her vision was deemed unsalvageable. Her pain was controlled with oral opioids and she was discharged with outpatient ophthalmology follow-up. At time of discharge, the IOP in her left eye was 49 mm Hg.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/merf2020caserpt/1007/thumbnail.jp

VIPR: A probabilistic algorithm for analysis of microbial detection microarrays

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>All infectious disease oriented clinical diagnostic assays in use today focus on detecting the presence of a single, well defined target agent or a set of agents. In recent years, microarray-based diagnostics have been developed that greatly facilitate the highly parallel detection of multiple microbes that may be present in a given clinical specimen. While several algorithms have been described for interpretation of diagnostic microarrays, none of the existing approaches is capable of incorporating training data generated from positive control samples to improve performance.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To specifically address this issue we have developed a novel interpretive algorithm, VIPR (<b>V</b>iral <b>I</b>dentification using a <b>PR</b>obabilistic algorithm), which uses Bayesian inference to capitalize on empirical training data to optimize detection sensitivity. To illustrate this approach, we have focused on the detection of viruses that cause hemorrhagic fever (HF) using a custom HF-virus microarray. VIPR was used to analyze 110 empirical microarray hybridizations generated from 33 distinct virus species. An accuracy of 94% was achieved as measured by leave-one-out cross validation. <it>Conclusions</it></p> <p>VIPR outperformed previously described algorithms for this dataset. The VIPR algorithm has potential to be broadly applicable to clinical diagnostic settings, wherein positive controls are typically readily available for generation of training data.</p

Analytical Derivation of a Coupled-circuit Model of a Claw-pole Alternator with Concentrated Stator Windings

A lumped-parameter coupled-circuit model of a claw-pole alternator is derived. To derive the model, analytical techniques are used to define a three-dimensional (3-D) Fourier-series representation of the airgap flux density. Included in the series expansion are the harmonics introduced by rotor saliency, concentrated stator windings, and stator slots. From the airgap flux density waveform, relatively simple closed-form expressions for the stator and rotor self- and mutual-inductances are obtained. The coupled-circuit model is implemented in the simulation of an alternator/rectifier system using a commercial state-model-based circuit analysis program. Comparisons with experimental results demonstrate the accuracy of the model in predicting both the steady-state and transient behavior of the machin

Exile Vol. XVII No. 1

FICTION The Backyard Burial by Heather Johnson 9-11 French Persuasion by John Benes 18-22 In His Time by Keith Mcwalter 27-37 Time Ticking Off, Not Stopping by Holly Battles 39-40 ARTWORK by Roxy Sisson 13 by Bill Lutz 16 by Carol Belfatto 17 by Ned Bittinger 23 by Gail Lutsch 41 by Diane Ulmer 43 PHOTOGRAPHY by Tim Heth 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 22, 38, 40, 44 by Rip Odell 15 by Maggie Hernandez 26, 42 POETRY For G. S. & A. B. T. by Paul Holbrook 2 Picture Writer by Julie Lockwood 6 Youth by Rufus Hurst 6 Today I Watched Flies Without Wings by Alice Merrill 6 Room 102 by Alice Merrill 6 The Flick by Debby Snyder 8 For P. E. H. by Timothy Cope 12 In Memory of Gertrude Stein by Michael Daugherty 14 Apogee Analogy by Paul Holbrook 15 First Impressions by Austin Hartman, Jr. 16 Count Jack Playing Peasant by Alice Merrill 24 Cherokee Arrowsmith by R. Crozier 24 road runs down valley by Fred Hoppe 25 Singularity by M. J. Wallace 25 Love\u27s Labour Lost by Tina Ostergard 25 Gnome by Cary Spear 25 Design and Layout: Keith McWalter 1 EXILE is the literary magazine of Denison University. It is entirely student-run and student edited, and receives operating funds from the Denison Campus Government Association. Submissions are edited anonymously and final actions are made independently by each staff. Printed by Ace News, Heath, Ohio.

Intracellular trafficking, localization, and mobilization of platelet-borne thiol isomerases

OBJECTIVE: Thiol isomerases facilitate protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum, and several of these enzymes, including protein disulfide isomerase and ERp57, are mobilized to the surface of activated platelets, where they influence platelet aggregation, blood coagulation, and thrombus formation. In this study, we examined the synthesis and trafficking of thiol isomerases in megakaryocytes, determined their subcellular localization in platelets, and identified the cellular events responsible for their movement to the platelet surface on activation. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Immunofluorescence microscopy imaging was used to localize protein disulfide isomerase and ERp57 in murine and human megakaryocytes at various developmental stages. Immunofluorescence microscopy and subcellular fractionation analysis were used to localize these proteins in platelets to a compartment distinct from known secretory vesicles that overlaps with an inner cell-surface membrane region defined by the endoplasmic/sarcoplasmic reticulum proteins calnexin and sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase 3. Immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry were used to monitor thiol isomerase mobilization in activated platelets in the presence and absence of actin polymerization (inhibited by latrunculin) and in the presence or absence of membrane fusion mediated by Munc13-4 (absent in platelets from Unc13dJinx mice). CONCLUSIONS: Platelet-borne thiol isomerases are trafficked independently of secretory granule contents in megakaryocytes and become concentrated in a subcellular compartment near the inner surface of the platelet outer membrane corresponding to the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum of these cells. Thiol isomerases are mobilized to the surface of activated platelets via a process that requires actin polymerization but not soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein attachment receptor/Munc13-4-dependent vesicular-plasma membrane fusion

A Perspective on Economic Impact

The institutions responsible for water resources management in the United States have originated as political responses to major social issues. Each agency institutionalized a procedure for structuring and comparing alternatives in the formulation of its total program. Each agency originally sought to promote effective resolution of its social issue (flood control, development of arid lands, soil erosion, etc.), but more recent efforts have sought better coordination among agency practices through a common procedure largely derived from economic theory. Any procedure, however, varies in application with the interpretation and judgment of individual planners. Today, public pressures have brought political directives requiring consideration of the local and nationwide impacts of projects that occur through direct, indirect, and secondary means in the spheres of economic, social and environmental effects. The body of the study reviews fourteen specific impact issues with the goals of providing planners a methodology for dealing with each one and of providing the theoretically inclined a basis for improving each methodology. The issues are reservoir effects on local property values, reservoir effects on the economy of the local county, changes in income and employment patterns around large reservoirs, patterns of land use change around reservoirs, reservoir effects on revenues and expenditures of local government, reservoir recreation benefits, application of marginal economic analysis to reservoir recreation planning, economic value of natural areas for recreational hunting, for stream fishing, the personal value of real property to its owner, reservoir project caused income redistribution, achievement of more flexible procedures for reservoir operation in order to match changes in demand for project output with time, estimation of flood damages by the time pattern in which they occur, and operation of reservoir systems for flood control. Each study ls presented in detail in a referenced report, and this report discusses the significance of the findings of the studies, individually and as a group

Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Sen Gupta, A., Thomsen, M., Benthuysen, J. A., Hobday, A. J., Oliver, E., Alexander, L. V., Burrows, M. T., Donat, M. G., Feng, M., Holbrook, N. J., Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S., Moore, P. J., Rodrigues, R. R., Scannell, H. A., Taschetto, A. S., Ummenhofer, C. C., Wernberg, T., & Smale, D. A. Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events. Scientific Reports, 10(1), (2020): 19359. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-75445-3.Prolonged high-temperature extreme events in the ocean, marine heatwaves, can have severe and long-lasting impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries and associated services. This study applies a marine heatwave framework to analyse a global sea surface temperature product and identify the most extreme events, based on their intensity, duration and spatial extent. Many of these events have yet to be described in terms of their physical attributes, generation mechanisms, or ecological impacts. Our synthesis identifies commonalities between marine heatwave characteristics and seasonality, links to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, triggering processes and impacts on ocean productivity. The most intense events preferentially occur in summer, when climatological oceanic mixed layers are shallow and winds are weak, but at a time preceding climatological maximum sea surface temperatures. Most subtropical extreme marine heatwaves were triggered by persistent atmospheric high-pressure systems and anomalously weak wind speeds, associated with increased insolation, and reduced ocean heat losses. Furthermore, the most extreme events tended to coincide with reduced chlorophyll-a concentration at low and mid-latitudes. Understanding the importance of the oceanic background state, local and remote drivers and the ocean productivity response from past events are critical steps toward improving predictions of future marine heatwaves and their impacts.Concepts and analyses were developed during three workshops organized by an international working group on marine heatwaves (https://www.marineheatwaves.org) funded by a University of Western Australia Research Collaboration Award and a Natural Environment Research Council (UK) International Opportunity Fund (NE/N00678X/1). D.A.S. is supported by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S032827/1). The Australian Research Council supported T.W. (FT110100174 and DP170100023) and A.S.T. (FT160100495). N.J.H. and L.V.A. are supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CE170100023). M.S.T was supported by the Brian Mason Trust. P.J.M. is supported by a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PCIG10-GA-2011–303685) and a Natural Environment Research Council (UK) Grant (NE/J024082/1). E.C.J.O. was supported by National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant RGPIN-2018-05255 and Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) project 1-02-02-059.1. C.C.U. acknowledges financial support through the Early Career Scientist Endowed Fund, George E. Thibault Early Career Scientist Fund, and The Joint Initiative Awards Fund from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at WHOI. M.G.D. received funding by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness Ramón y Cajal 2017 grant reference RYC-2017-22964. NOAA High Resolution SST data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/

Predicting Spatial Patterns of Plant Recruitment Using Animal-Displacement Kernels

For plants dispersed by frugivores, spatial patterns of recruitment are primarily influenced by the spatial arrangement and characteristics of parent plants, the digestive characteristics, feeding behaviour and movement patterns of animal dispersers, and the structure of the habitat matrix. We used an individual-based, spatially-explicit framework to characterize seed dispersal and seedling fate in an endangered, insular plant-disperser system: the endemic shrub Daphne rodriguezii and its exclusive disperser, the endemic lizard Podarcis lilfordi. Plant recruitment kernels were chiefly determined by the disperser's patterns of space utilization (i.e. the lizard's displacement kernels), the position of the various plant individuals in relation to them, and habitat structure (vegetation cover vs. bare soil). In contrast to our expectations, seed gut-passage rate and its effects on germination, and lizard speed-of-movement, habitat choice and activity rhythm were of minor importance. Predicted plant recruitment kernels were strongly anisotropic and fine-grained, preventing their description using one-dimensional, frequency-distance curves. We found a general trade-off between recruitment probability and dispersal distance; however, optimal recruitment sites were not necessarily associated to sites of maximal adult-plant density. Conservation efforts aimed at enhancing the regeneration of endangered plant-disperser systems may gain in efficacy by manipulating the spatial distribution of dispersers (e.g. through the creation of refuges and feeding sites) to create areas favourable to plant recruitment