Phocine Distemper Virus in Seals, East Coast, United States, 2006

: Phocine Distemper Virus in Seal

Post-training ethanol disrupts trace conditioned fear in rats: Effects of timing of ethanol, dose and trace interval duration

Ethanol has complex effects on memory performance, although hippocampus-dependent memory may be especially vulnerable to disruption by acute ethanol intoxication occurring during or shortly after a training episode. In the present experiments, the effects of post-training ethanol on delay and trace fear conditioning were examined in adolescent rats. In Experiment 1, 30-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were given delay or trace conditioning trials in which a 10 s flashing light CS was paired with a 0.5 mA shock US. For trace groups, the trace interval was 10 s. On days 31-33, animals were administered ethanol once daily (0.0 or 2.5 g/kg via intragastric intubation), and on day 34 animals were tested for CS-elicited freezing. Results showed that post-training ethanol affected the expression of trace, but had no effect on delay conditioned fear. Experiment 2 revealed that this effect was dose-dependent; doses lower than 2.5 g/kg were without effect. Experiment 3 evaluated whether proximity of ethanol to the time of training or testing was critical. Results show that ethanol administration beginning 24 h after training was more detrimental to trace conditioned freezing than administration that was delayed by 48 h. Finally, in Experiment 4 animals were trained with one of three different trace intervals: 1, 3 or 10 s. Results indicate that post-training administration of 2.5 g/kg ethanol disrupted trace conditioned fear in subjects trained with a 10 s, but not with a I or 3 s, trace interval. Collectively the results suggest that ethanol administration impairs post-acquisition memory processing of hippocampus-dependent trace fear conditioning. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The clustering of health behaviours in Ireland and their relationship with mental health, self-rated health and quality of life

Health behaviours do not occur in isolation. Rather they cluster together. It is important to examine patterns of health behaviours to inform a more holistic approach to health in both health promotion and illness prevention strategies. Examination of patterns is also important because of the increased risk of mortality, morbidity and synergistic effects of health behaviours. This study examines the clustering of health behaviours in a nationally representative sample of Irish adults and explores the association of these clusters with mental health, self-rated health and quality of life

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

The Validity of Google Trends Search Volumes for Behavioral Forecasting of National Suicide Rates in Ireland

Annual suicide figures are critical in identifying trends and guiding research, yet challenges arising from significant lags in reporting can delay and complicate real-time interventions. In this paper, we utilized Google Trends search volumes for behavioral forecasting of national suicide rates in Ireland between 2004 and 2015. Official suicide rates are recorded by the Central Statistics Office in Ireland. While similar investigations using Google trends data have been carried out in other jurisdictions (e.g., United Kingdom, United Stated of America), such research had not yet been completed in Ireland. We compiled a collection of suicide- and depression-related search terms suggested by Google Trends and manually sourced from the literature. Monthly search rate terms at different lags were compared with suicide occurrences to determine the degree of correlation. Following two approaches based on vector autoregression and neural network autoregression, we achieved mean absolute error values between 4.14 and 9.61 when incorporating search query data, with the highest performance for the neural network approach. The application of this process to United Kingdom suicide and search query data showed similar results, supporting the benefit of Google Trends, neural network approach, and the applied search terms to forecast suicide risk increase. Overall, the combination of societal data and online behavior provide a good indication of societal risks; building on past research, our improvements led to robust models integrating search query and unemployment data for suicide risk forecasting in Ireland

Anti-β1 integrin treatment of Vero cells increases infection of wtPDV and Edmonston MV.

<p>(A) Vero cells were examined for β1 integrin expression by staining cells with anti-β1 integrin antibody or mouse isotype control followed by fixation and staining with rabbit anti-mouse FITC. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. Immunofluorescent images were taken using a Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U UV microscope (x100). (B) and (C) Vero cells were incubated with anti-β1 integrin (blocking) antibody or with control mouse isotype, prior to infection (MOI 0.1) for 2 days (Onderstepoort CDV and Edmonston MV) or 5 days (wtPDV/USA2006). (B) Cells were fixed before incubating with SSPE serum followed by staining with rabbit anti-human FITC and analysed by flow cytometry. (C) Virus was harvested and the titre determined by TCID₅₀/ml in VDS cells. The results are representative of two independent experiments.</p

wtPDV infects Vero cells.

<p>Vero and VDS cells were infected at an MOI of 0.1. (A) CPE observed in Vero and VDS cultures infected with wtPDV/NL88n, wt PDV/USA2006, wtCDV and wtMV at 2 dpi by phase contrast microscopy (Magnification X100). Foci of rounded cells are indicated by arrows. (B) Cells were infected with wtPDV/NL88n, wtCDV and wtMV, fixed, permeabilised and stained with SSPE serum and rabbit anti-human FITC; nuclei were stained with propidium iodide. Images were taken using a Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U UV microscope (x400). (C) Vero cells and VDS cells were infected with wtPDV/NL88n, wtPDVUSA2006, wtMV and wtCDV for up to 5 days. Titres were determined by TCID₅₀ in VDS cells. The results are representative of two independent experiments.</p

Sodium chlorate and heparinase treatment decreases cell fusion.

<p>Vero cells were untreated or treated with 30 mM or 60 mM sodium chlorate for 2 days prior to infection (MOI 0.1) with Schwarz-GFP MV or wtPDV/USA2006. (A) CPE and GFP expression by Schwarz-GFP MV was examined at 2 days by dual phase contrast-UV microscopy (top panel). Cultures of wtPDV were fixed and permeablised at 5 dpi before staining with SSPE antibody and rabbit anti-human FITC (bottom panel). Nuclei were stained with DAPI. (B) Vero cells were treated with 10 U/ml of heparinase for 90 min and infected at an MOI of 0.1 with Schwarz GFP MV or wtPDV/NL88n. CPE was examined at 2 days by dual phase contrast-UV microscopy (top panel) and wtPDV CPE by phase contrast microscopy (bottom panel). Images were taken using a Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U UV microscope (X100).</p

wtPDV infection and binding is increased in CHO-proHB-EGF cells.

<p>CHO-empty and CHO-proHB-EGF cells were (A) examined for pro-HB-EGF expression by staining with goat anti-HB-EGF antibody or control goat serum followed by fixation and staining with rabbit anti-goat FITC. (B) Inoculated with wtPDV/USA2006, wtPDV/NL88n, wtCDV or wtMV (MOI 0.1) for 2 days. Cells were viewed by phase contrast microscopy (1st panel) or fixed before staining with SSPE serum and rabbit anti-human FITC (all other panels). Images were taken using a Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U UV microscope (X400). (C) Monolayers were inoculated with wtPDV/USA2006, wtCDV or wtMV (MOI 10) at 4°C for 2 hr. After washing, Sybr green qRT-PCR was carried out and the copy number of virus RNA determined from a standard curve.</p