Distribution of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Signal in a Home with COVID-19 Positive Occupants

Although many COVID-19 patients quarantine and recover at home, the dispersal of SARS-CoV-2 onto surfaces and dust within the home environment remains poorly understood. To investigate the distribution and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in a quarantine home, samples were collected from a household with two confirmed COVID-19 cases (one adult and one child). Home surface swab and dust samples were collected two months after symptom onset (and one month after symptom resolution) in the household. The strength of the SARS-CoV-2 molecular signal in fomites varied as a function of sample location, surface material and cleaning practices. Notably, the SARS-CoV-2 RNA signal was detected at several locations throughout the household although cleaning appears to have attenuated the signal on many surfaces. Of the 24 surfaces sampled, 46% were SARS-CoV-2 positive at the time of sampling. The SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in dust recovered from floor and HVAC filter samples ranged from 104-105 N2 gene copies/g dust. While detection of viral RNA does not imply infectivity, this study confirms that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA signal can be detected at several locations within a COVID-19 quarantine home and can persist after symptoms have resolved. In addition, the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 (normalized per unit mass of dust) recovered in home HVAC filters may prove useful for estimating SARS-CoV-2 airborne levels in homes.This work was supported by Whole Communities-Whole Health, a research grand challenge at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, the work that provided the basis for this publication was also supported by funding under an award TXHHU0046-18 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.Office of the VP for Researc

Multi-Modal Data Collection for Measuring Health, Behavior, and Living Environment of Large-Scale Participant Cohorts: Conceptual Framework and Findings from Deployments

As mobile technologies become ever more sensor-rich, portable, and ubiquitous, data captured by smart devices are lending rich insights into users' daily lives with unprecedented comprehensiveness, unobtrusiveness, and ecological validity. A number of human-subject studies have been conducted in the past decade to examine the use of mobile sensing to uncover individual behavioral patterns and health outcomes. While understanding health and behavior is the focus for most of these studies, we find that minimal attention has been placed on measuring personal environments, especially together with other human-centric data modalities. Moreover, the participant cohort size in most existing studies falls well below a few hundred, leaving questions open about the reliability of findings on the relations between mobile sensing signals and human outcomes. To address these limitations, we developed a home environment sensor kit for continuous indoor air quality tracking and deployed it in conjunction with established mobile sensing and experience sampling techniques in a cohort study of up to 1584 student participants per data type for 3 weeks at a major research university in the United States. In this paper, we begin by proposing a conceptual framework that systematically organizes human-centric data modalities by their temporal coverage and spatial freedom. Then we report our study design and procedure, technologies and methods deployed, descriptive statistics of the collected data, and results from our extensive exploratory analyses. Our novel data, conceptual development, and analytical findings provide important guidance for data collection and hypothesis generation in future human-centric sensing studies.This work was supported by Whole Communities—Whole Health, a research grand challenge at the University of Texas at Austin, and National Science Foundation Award SES-1758835.Office of the VP for Researc

Glaucomatous Optic Neuropathy Associated with Nocturnal Dip in Blood Pressure: Findings from the Maracaibo Aging Study

Purpose—To determine which nocturnal blood pressure (BP) parameters (low levels or extreme dipper status) are associated with an increased risk of glaucomatous damage in Hispanics. Design—Observational cross-sectional study. Participants—A subset (n=93) of the participants from the Maracaibo Aging Study (MAS) who met the study eligibility criteria were included. These participants — who were at least 40 years of age — had measurements for optical tomography coherence, visual field tests, 24-hour BP, office BP, and intraocular pressureHg. Methods—Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses under the generalized estimating equations (GEE) framework were used to examine the relationships between glaucomatous damage and BP parameters, with particular attention to drops in nocturnal BP. Main Outcome Measures—Glaucomatous optic neuropathy (GON) based on the presence of optic nerve damage and visual field defects. Results—The mean age was 61.9 years, and 87.1% were women. Of 185 eyes evaluated, 50 (27.0%) had signs of GON. Individuals with GON had significantly lower 24-hour and nighttime diastolic BP levels than those without. However, results of the multivariate GEE models indicated that the glaucomatous damage was not related to the average systolic or diastolic BP levels measured over 24 hours, daytime, or nighttime. In contrast, extreme drops in nighttime systolic and diastolic BP (\u3e20% compared with daytime BP) were significant risk factors for glaucomatous damage (odds ratio=19.78 and 5.55, respectively). Conclusions—In this population, the link between nocturnal BP and GON is determined by extreme dipping effects rather than low nocturnal BP levels alone. Further studies considering extreme drops in nocturnal BP in individuals at high risk of glaucoma are warranted

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Among Hispanics: Results of the Maracaibo Aging Study

Background: Neuropsychiatric symptoms play an important role in diagnosing and clinical follow-up of cognitive impairment and dementia. Objective: We investigated the relationship between neuropsychiatric symptoms, cognitive impairment, and dementia in Hispanics. Methods: We included 529 participants (age ≥40 years) from the Maracaibo Aging Study with standardized neuropsychiatric assessments, including the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Based on the Clinical Dementia Rating and the Mini-Mental State Examination scores, participants’ cognitive status was categorized into normal cognition, mild/moderate, and severe cognitive impairment. Diagnosis of dementia was established in a consensus conference. Statistical analyses included multivariable logistic regression models and area under the curve (AUC). Results: The mean age of participants was 59.3 years, and 71.8% were women. The proportion of dementia was 6.8%. Disturbed sleep, anxiety, and depression were the most common neuropsychiatric symptoms in the study sample. In crude analyses, the proportions of hallucinations, aberrant motor behavior, agitation/aggression, apathy, delusions, irritability, eating disturbance, depression, and euphoria were differently distributed among cognitive status groups (p \u3c 0.05). After accounting for confounders, aberrant motor behavior and agitation/aggression remained significantly associated with cognitive impairment and dementia (p \u3c 0.05). The inclusion of the NPI domains significantly improved the AUC to discriminate severe cognitive impairment and dementia above of a basic model that included sex, age, education, alcohol, obesity, serum glucose, total cholesterol, hypertension, and stroke. Conclusion: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are associated with severe cognitive impairment and dementia. The addition of NPI items to the global cognitive assessment might help early detection of dementia in primary care settings

Longitudinal Homogenization of the Microbiome between Both Occupants and the Built Environment in a Cohort of United States Air Force Cadets

The microbiome of the built environment has important implications for human health and wellbeing; however, bidirectional exchange of microbes between occupants and surfaces can be confounded by lifestyle, architecture, and external environmental exposures. Here, we present a longitudinal study of United States Air Force Academy cadets (n = 34), which have substantial homogeneity in lifestyle, diet, and age, all factors that influence the human microbiome. We characterized bacterial communities associated with (1) skin and gut samples from roommate pairs, (2) four built environment sample locations inside the pairs’ dormitory rooms, (3) four built environment sample locations within shared spaces in the dormitory, and (4) room-matched outdoor samples from the window ledge of their rooms

The human Tp53 Arg72Pro polymorphism explains different functional prognosis in stroke

Poor prognosis after ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage is linked to a particular polymorphism in the human gene encoding p53

New insights into the neolithisation process in southwest Europe according to spatial density analysis from calibrated radiocarbon dates

The agricultural way of life spreads throughout Europe via two main routes: the Danube corridor and the Mediterranean basin. Current archaeological literature describes the arrival to the Western Mediterranean as a rapid process which involves both demic and cultural models, and in this regard, the dispersal movement has been investigated using mathematical models, where the key factors are time and space. In this work, we have created a compilation of all available radiocarbon dates for the whole of Iberia, in order to draw a chronological series of maps to illustrate temporal and spatial patterns in the neolithisation process. The maps were prepared by calculating the calibrated 14C date probability density curves, as a proxy to show the spatial dynamics of the last hunter-gatherers and first farmers. Several scholars have pointed out problems linked with the variability of samples, such as the overrepresentation of some sites, the degree of regional research, the nature of the dated samples and above all the archaeological context, but we are confident that the selected dates, after applying some filters and statistical protocols, constitute a good way to approach settlement spatial patterns in Iberia at the time of the neolithisation process

Rate and duration of hospitalisation for acute pulmonary embolism in the real-world clinical practice of different countries : Analysis from the RIETE registry

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