Can SARS-CoV-2 be deleted in breastmilk?

The SARS-CoV-2 virus could spread from COVID-19 positive parent to infant through breast milk ingestion. Breast milk could have SARS-CoV-2 inhibitory properties. The purpose of testing breast milk for SARS-CoV-2 genetic markers are to find out if breast milk from COVID-19 positive patients can be safely given to infants

“’NUFF SAID”: UNDERSTANDING COMPREHENSION PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS FOR READING TEXT AND NON-LINGUISTIC GRAPHIC NARRATIVES

People encounter and comprehend narratives in a variety of modalities: text, graphic, film, audio, and others. Linguistic modalities (e.g., text, audio) require language comprehension while visual modalities (e.g., graphic, film) require visual comprehension and also language comprehension when text or audio is included. However, it is unknown whether readers engage in similar or different cognitive processes and construct similar or different comprehension products to the same extent for linguistic and non-linguistic narratives (i.e., with no text or audio). Thus, studies have not directly compared the in-the-moment (i.e., online) processes and post-reading (i.e., offline) products of comprehension across linguistic and non-linguistic narratives. A review of the current literature on graphic narrative comprehension is presented. The goal of this study was to explore the extent to which readers generate online cognitive processes and produce offline comprehension products post-reading across text and non-linguistic graphic narratives. A sample of 51 participants completed a think-aloud task with non-linguistc graphic and text versions of narratives to to assess readers’ online cognitive processes. A subsample of 48 participants also completed a recall task to assess their comprehension offline products (i.e., text / image base and situation model) post-reading. In addition, participants’ text print exposure and visual language fluency were measured to control for participants’ experience with both modalities. Overall, narrative modality had an effect on both participants’ comprehension processes and products. Post-hoc analyses revealed that during the think-aloud task, participants generated more backward-oriented inferences (i.e., anaphoric, bridging) and generated more inferences about characters’ emotions for non-linguistic graphic narratives. For text narratives, participants generated more forward-oriented inferences (i.e., predictions) and generated more statements about characters’ goals. During the recall task, participants included more emotion inferences in their situation model representation for non-lingusitic graphic narratives but included more accurate story information for their text base representation for text narratives. These findings suggest that modality (i.e., linguistic or visual information) influences how readers process and comprehend narratives and are discussed in terms of theoretical, research, and practical implications

Question, Discover, Apply, Disseminate: My Journey from Honors Student to Educator

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience. My first honors course was Introduction to Psychology. I begrudgingly enrolled to fill an area. In high school, my psychology course was boring, but the honors course environment allowed me to read and critique research studies, analyzing the methods, the findings, the meaning behind the research. In high school I felt confident psychology would not be my major, but after the honors course I felt a passion for the discipline. Taking other courses in our honors program, I was encouraged to apply course content to my interests, and my interest has always been stories, in any medium. In American Literature, I connected transcendentalism to Star Wars. As I took more psychology courses, I interweaved Jungian psychoanalysis with Little Red Riding Hood and principles of narrative therapy. Our honors director encouraged me to present my work at state, regional, and eventually national honors conferences. In my honors program, I was in a continuous cycle of question, discover, apply, and disseminate. As a doctoral student, I find myself in this same cycle, honing the skills I learned from my honors experiences

Performance of a SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Assay with Non-Traditional Specimen Types

During the first two years of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, nasopharyngeal (NP) specimens were the gold standard for clinical diagnostic testing. As information about the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing the pandemic continued to be shared, it was clear that the virus could be detected in other specimen types during an active infection. The University of Louisville Infectious Diseases Laboratory accepted non-traditional specimen types, most without a paired, positive NP result, for research purposes only to support local epidemiology efforts. A real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay originally validated for NP specimens was used for non-traditional specimen types using a variety of specimen preparation methods. Limit of detection (LOD) studies allowed for direct comparison between NP, sputum, and breast milk specimen types. The primary aim of the study was to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be detected in different human specimen types. The results showed that the non-traditional specimens were not inherently inhibitory since SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 36 (14.5%) out of 249 non-traditional specimens, and the limit of detection for SARS-CoV-2 in breast milk and sputum was the same as for NP specimens. SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in 15 breast milk specimens from mothers with positive SARS-CoV-2 NP results. In addition, a direct comparison study showed that NP specimens performed better than paired nasal specimens. In conclusion, by analyzing real-time RT-PCR test results for these non-traditional specimen types, two benefits were realized. Health care providers gained additional epidemiologic information (since information was not to be used for managing or treating patients), and the laboratory gathered important information about specimen types for which complete method validation studies could be pursued in the future

Nationwide public perceptions regarding the acceptance of using wastewater for community health monitoring in the United States

To assess the levels of infection across communities during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, researchers have measured severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA in feces dissolved in sewer water. This activity is colloquially known as sewer monitoring and is referred to as wastewater-based epidemiology in academic settings. Although global ethical principles have been described, sewer monitoring is unregulated for health privacy protection when used for public health surveillance in the United States. This study used Qualtrics XM, a national research panel provider, to recruit participants to answer an online survey. Respondents (N = 3,083) answered questions about their knowledge, perceptions of what is to be monitored, where monitoring should occur, and privacy concerns related to sewer monitoring as a public health surveillance tool. Furthermore, a privacy attitude questionnaire was used to assess the general privacy boundaries of respondents. Participants were more likely to support monitoring for diseases (92%), environmental toxins (92%), and terrorist threats (88%; e.g., anthrax). Two-third of the respondents endorsed no prohibition on location sampling scale (e.g., monitoring single residence to entire community was acceptable); the most common location category respondents wanted to prohibit sampling was at personal residences. Sewer monitoring is an emerging technology, and our study sheds light on perceptions that could benefit from educational programs in areas where public acceptance is comparatively lower. Respondents clearly communicated guard rails for sewer monitoring, and public opinion should inform future policy, application, and regulation measures

Associations between children’s behavioural and emotional development and objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Physical activity (PA) can have a positive influence on mental health. Less is known about the influence of mental health on current and later PA and sedentariness in childhood. This study investigated cross-sectional and distal associations between behavioural and emotional development, and objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and sedentary time, in seven-year-old children participating in the Millennium Cohort Study (n = 6,497). Markers of behavioural/emotional development (scores for total difficulties, internalising and externalising problems) were obtained using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at ages three, five and seven years. Associations between sedentary time or MVPA (outcomes) and behavioural/emotional development (exposures) were analysed using median regressions, stratified by sex. In cross-sectional analyses, boys’ sedentary time decreased with higher total difficulties scores (-1.1 minutes/day per score unit), boys’ and girls’ sedentary time decreased with higher externalising scores (-2.3 minutes/day per unit), and girls with higher internalising scores were more sedentary (1.4 minutes/day per unit). In analyses of MVPA, boys and girls were marginally more active with higher externalising scores (0.4 and 0.5 minutes/day per unit), and boys were less active for higher internalising scores (-0.7 minutes/day per unit). Distal associations showed similar patterns: children with increasing total difficulty and externalising scores at all ages were less sedentary at age seven; girls with increasing internalising scores particularly so. Boys and girls with increasing externalising scores were more active at age seven, whilst increasing internalising scores reduced MVPA for boys. In conclusion, behavioural/emotional development is associated with mid-childhood sedentary time and, more weakly, MVPA; this is of relevance to public health interventions aimed at increasing activity levels and the wellbeing of our young people

Transcriptome analysis reveals manifold mechanisms of cyst development in ADPKD

BACKGROUND: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) causes progressive loss of renal function in adults as a consequence of the accumulation of cysts. ADPKD is the most common genetic cause of end-stage renal disease. Mutations in polycystin-1 occur in 87% of cases of ADPKD and mutations in polycystin-2 are found in 12% of ADPKD patients. The complexity of ADPKD has hampered efforts to identify the mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis. No current FDA (Federal Drug Administration)-approved therapies ameliorate ADPKD progression. RESULTS: We used the de Almeida laboratory's sensitive new transcriptogram method for whole-genome gene expression data analysis to analyze microarray data from cell lines developed from cell isolates of normal kidney and of both non-cystic nephrons and cysts from the kidney of a patient with ADPKD. We compared results obtained using standard Ingenuity Volcano plot analysis, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) and transcriptogram analysis. Transcriptogram analysis confirmed the findings of Ingenuity, GSEA, and published analysis of ADPKD kidney data and also identified multiple new expression changes in KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathways related to cell growth, cell death, genetic information processing, nucleotide metabolism, signal transduction, immune response, response to stimulus, cellular processes, ion homeostasis and transport and cofactors, vitamins, amino acids, energy, carbohydrates, drugs, lipids, and glycans. Transcriptogram analysis also provides significance metrics which allow us to prioritize further study of these pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Transcriptogram analysis identifies novel pathways altered in ADPKD, providing new avenues to identify both ADPKD's mechanisms of pathogenesis and pharmaceutical targets to ameliorate the progression of the disease

Soluble oligomers are sufficient for transmission of a yeast prion but do not confer phenotype

Amyloidogenic proteins aggregate through a self-templating mechanism that likely involves oligomeric or prefibrillar intermediates. For disease-associated amyloidogenic proteins, such intermediates have been suggested to be the primary cause of cellular toxicity. However, isolation and characterization of these oligomeric intermediates has proven difficult, sparking controversy over their biological relevance in disease pathology. Here, we describe an oligomeric species of a yeast prion protein in cells that is sufficient for prion transmission and infectivity. These oligomers differ from the classic prion aggregates in that they are soluble and less resistant to SDS. We found that large, SDS-resistant aggregates were required for the prion phenotype but that soluble, more SDS-sensitive oligomers contained all the information necessary to transmit the prion conformation. Thus, we identified distinct functional requirements of two types of prion species for this endogenous epigenetic element. Furthermore, the nontoxic, self-replicating amyloid conformers of yeast prion proteins have again provided valuable insight into the mechanisms of amyloid formation and propagation in cells