Beliefs about Staying Home: Findings from a Nationally Representative Probability Sample of U.S. Adults in the Early Days of the COVID-19 Epidemic

Understanding the beliefs about staying home is essential to inform stay-at-home policies to mitigate COVID-19 and future epidemics. This study (1) identified the salient advantages, disadvantages, and facilitating beliefs about staying home, and (2) examined the relationship between these beliefs and intention. U.S. adults from a nationally representative probability-based household panel completed an online reasoned action approach belief elicitation from April 10-20, 2020, about one month after stay-at-home guidelines were implemented. First, we conducted an inductive content analysis to reveal salient beliefs about staying home. We identified eight advantages, 12 disadvantages, and 12 facilitators that broadly spanned across health domains: individual, population, interpersonal, occupational, financial, and leisure health. Then, we conducted three regression analyses, one for each of the three sets of beliefs, predicting intention to stay home for the next month from worker status and belief mentioned. In these regression analyses, four advantages, four disadvantages, and four facilitators made independent contributions to explaining intention. The breadth of the elicited beliefs suggests that COVID-19 is perceived to have impacted many dimensions of our lives, and that interventions need to be just as broad. Communication and educational interventions could help people understand the benefits of staying home to themselves, to their families, and to the wider community. Programs that keep essential supplies available could help people stay home. Structural interventions with financial safety nets and policies that help people stay employed during an epidemic might address people’s concerns about the impact of staying home on their financial and occupational health

Bioterrorism-Related Anthrax: International Response by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

After reports of the intentional release of Bacillus anthracis in the United States, epidemiologists, laboratorians, and clinicians around the world were called upon to respond to widespread political and public concerns. To respond to inquiries from other countries regarding anthrax and bioterrorism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established an international team in its Emergency Operations Center. From October 12, 2001, to January 2, 2002, this team received 130 requests from 70 countries and 2 territories. Requests originated from ministries of health, international organizations, and physicians and included subjects ranging from laboratory procedures and clinical evaluations to assessments of environmental and occupational health risks. The information and technical support provided by the international team helped allay fears, prevent unnecessary antibiotic treatment, and enhance laboratory-based surveillance for bioterrorism events worldwide

Generation and Characterization of Anti-AA Amyloid-Specific Monoclonal Antibodies

AA amyloidosis results from the pathologic deposition in the kidneys and other organs of fibrils composed of N-terminal fragments of serum amyloid A protein (SAA). Given that there are only limited means to visualize these deposits, we have developed a series of mAbs, 2A4, 7D8, and 8G9, that bind specifically with nanomolar affinity to a carboxy-terminal epitope generated following proteolysis of SAA that yields the predominant component of AA amyloid deposits. Notably, these antibodies do not recognize native SAA, they retain their immunoreactivity when radiolabeled with I-125 and, after injection into AA amyloidotic mice, localize, as evidenced by autoradiography and micro-single photon emission computed tomography imaging, to histologically confirmed areas of amyloid deposition; namely, spleen, liver, and pancreas. The results of our in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate the AA fibril-selectivity of mAbs 2A4, 7D8, and 8G9 and warrant further investigation into their role as novel diagnostic agents for patients with AA amyloidosis

Association Between Proteomic Blood Biomarkers and DTI/NODDI Metrics in Adolescent Football Players: A Pilot Study

While neuroimaging and blood biomarker have been two of the most active areas of research in the neurotrauma community, these fields rarely intersect to delineate subconcussive brain injury. The aim of the study was to examine the association between diffusion MRI techniques [diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation/dispersion density imaging (NODDI)] and brain-injury blood biomarker levels [tau, neurofilament-light (NfL), glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein (GFAP)] in high-school football players at their baseline, aiming to detect cumulative neuronal damage from prior seasons. Twenty-five football players were enrolled in the study. MRI measures and blood samples were obtained during preseason data collection. The whole-brain, tract-based spatial statistics was conducted for six diffusion metrics: fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial/radial diffusivity (AD, RD), neurite density index (NDI), and orientation dispersion index (ODI). Five players were ineligible for MRIs, and three serum samples were excluded due to hemolysis, resulting in 17 completed set of diffusion metrics and blood biomarker levels for association analysis. Our permutation-based regression model revealed that serum tau levels were significantly associated with MD and NDI in various axonal tracts; specifically, elevated serum tau levels correlated to elevated MD (p = 0.0044) and reduced NDI (p = 0.016) in the corpus callosum and surrounding white matter tracts (e.g., longitudinal fasciculus). Additionally, there was a negative association between NfL and ODI in the focal area of the longitudinal fasciculus. Our data suggest that high school football players may develop axonal microstructural abnormality in the corpus callosum and surrounding white matter tracts, such as longitudinal fasciculus. A future study is warranted to determine the longitudinal multimodal relationship in response to repetitive exposure to sports-related head impacts

Comment letters to the National Commission on Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, 1987 (Treadway Commission) Vol. 1

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