A rapid biodiversity assessment of Papua New Guinea's Hindenburg Wall Region

[Extract] Aim: The Hindenburg Wall, along with the Muller Range and Nakanai Mountains, is a part of a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site called The Sublime Karst of Papua New Guinea (Hamilton-Smith 2006). This survey document reports on a biodiversity assessment undertaken by the Wildlife Conservation Society Papua New Guinea (WCS), financed by the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program Ltd (PNGSDP), and undertaken in partnership with the Papua New Guinea Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). The aim of this project was to conduct a series of biological surveys in the region by a WCS-led team of international and nationaltaxonomic experts in order to investigate the biodiversity values in light of the area being a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Area

Infidelity of SARS-CoV Nsp14-Exonuclease Mutant Virus Replication Is Revealed by Complete Genome Sequencing

Most RNA viruses lack the mechanisms to recognize and correct mutations that arise during genome replication, resulting in quasispecies diversity that is required for pathogenesis and adaptation. However, it is not known how viruses encoding large viral RNA genomes such as the Coronaviridae (26 to 32 kb) balance the requirements for genome stability and quasispecies diversity. Further, the limits of replication infidelity during replication of large RNA genomes and how decreased fidelity impacts virus fitness over time are not known. Our previous work demonstrated that genetic inactivation of the coronavirus exoribonuclease (ExoN) in nonstructural protein 14 (nsp14) of murine hepatitis virus results in a 15-fold decrease in replication fidelity. However, it is not known whether nsp14-ExoN is required for replication fidelity of all coronaviruses, nor the impact of decreased fidelity on genome diversity and fitness during replication and passage. We report here the engineering and recovery of nsp14-ExoN mutant viruses of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that have stable growth defects and demonstrate a 21-fold increase in mutation frequency during replication in culture. Analysis of complete genome sequences from SARS-ExoN mutant viral clones revealed unique mutation sets in every genome examined from the same round of replication and a total of 100 unique mutations across the genome. Using novel bioinformatic tools and deep sequencing across the full-length genome following 10 population passages in vitro, we demonstrate retention of ExoN mutations and continued increased diversity and mutational load compared to wild-type SARS-CoV. The results define a novel genetic and bioinformatics model for introduction and identification of multi-allelic mutations in replication competent viruses that will be powerful tools for testing the effects of decreased fidelity and increased quasispecies diversity on viral replication, pathogenesis, and evolution

A rapid biodiversity assessment of Papua New Guinea's Hindenburg Wall Region

[Extract] Aim: The Hindenburg Wall, along with the Muller Range and Nakanai Mountains, is a part of a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site called The Sublime Karst of Papua New Guinea (Hamilton-Smith 2006). This survey document reports on a biodiversity assessment undertaken by the Wildlife Conservation Society Papua New Guinea (WCS), financed by the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program Ltd (PNGSDP), and undertaken in partnership with the Papua New Guinea Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). The aim of this project was to conduct a series of biological surveys in the region by a WCS-led team of international and nationaltaxonomic experts in order to investigate the biodiversity values in light of the area being a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Area

Cardiovascular Efficacy and Safety of Bococizumab in High-Risk Patients

BACKGROUN

Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny

Comparative analysis of multiple genomes in a phylogenetic framework dramatically improves the precision and sensitivity of evolutionary inference, producing more robust results than single-genome analyses can provide. The genomes of 12 Drosophila species, ten of which are presented here for the first time (sechellia, simulans, yakuba, erecta, ananassae, persimilis, willistoni, mojavensis, virilis and grimshawi), illustrate how rates and patterns of sequence divergence across taxa can illuminate evolutionary processes on a genomic scale. These genome sequences augment the formidable genetic tools that have made Drosophila melanogaster a pre-eminent model for animal genetics, and will further catalyse fundamental research on mechanisms of development, cell biology, genetics, disease, neurobiology, behaviour, physiology and evolution. Despite remarkable similarities among these Drosophila species, we identified many putatively non-neutral changes in protein-coding genes, non-coding RNA genes, and cis-regulatory regions. These may prove to underlie differences in the ecology and behaviour of these diverse species

Astronomy outreach in Namibia: H.E.S.S. and beyond

ICRC 2021 conference proceedings, 9 pages, 1 figure, 1 tableInternational audienceAstronomy plays a major role in the scientific landscape of Namibia. Because of its excellent sky conditions, Namibia is home to ground-based observatories like the High Energy Spectroscopic System (H.E.S.S.), in operation since 2002. Located near the Gamsberg mountain, H.E.S.S. performs groundbreaking science by detecting very-high-energy gamma rays from astronomical objects. The fascinating stories behind many of them are featured regularly in the ``Source of the Month'', a blog-like format intended for the general public with more than 170 features to date. In addition to other online communication via social media, H.E.S.S. outreach activities have been covered locally, e.g. through `open days' and guided tours on the H.E.S.S. site itself. An overview of the H.E.S.S. outreach activities are presented in this contribution, along with discussions relating to the current landscape of astronomy outreach and education in Namibia. There has also been significant activity in the country in recent months, whereby astronomy is being used to further sustainable development via human capacity-building. Finally, as we take into account the future prospects of radio astronomy in the country, momentum for a wider range of astrophysics research is clearly building -- this presents a great opportunity for the astronomy community to come together to capitalise on this movement and support astronomy outreach, with the overarching aim to advance sustainable development in Namibia

Revisiting the PeVatron candidate MGRO J1908+06 with an updated H.E.S.S. analysis

Detecting and studying galactic gamma-ray sources emitting very-high energy photons sheds light on the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays presumably created in these sources. Currently, there are few sources emitting photons with energies exceeding 100 TeV. In this work we revisit the unidentified source MGRO J1908+06, initially detected by Milagro, using an updated H.E.S.S. dataset and analysis pipeline. The vicinity of the source contains a supernova remnant and pulsars as well as molecular clouds. This makes the identification of the primary source(s) of galactic cosmic rays as well as the nature of the gamma-ray emission challenging, especially in light of the recent HAWC and LHAASO detection of the high energy tail of its spectrum. Exploiting the better angular resolution as compared to particle detectors, we investigate the morphology of the source as well as its spectral properties

Revisiting the PeVatron candidate MGRO J1908+06 with an updated H.E.S.S. analysis

Detecting and studying galactic gamma-ray sources emitting very-high energy photons sheds light on the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays presumably created in these sources. Currently, there are few sources emitting photons with energies exceeding 100 TeV. In this work we revisit the unidentified source MGRO J1908+06, initially detected by Milagro, using an updated H.E.S.S. dataset and analysis pipeline. The vicinity of the source contains a supernova remnant and pulsars as well as molecular clouds. This makes the identification of the primary source(s) of galactic cosmic rays as well as the nature of the gamma-ray emission challenging, especially in light of the recent HAWC and LHAASO detection of the high energy tail of its spectrum. Exploiting the better angular resolution as compared to particle detectors, we investigate the morphology of the source as well as its spectral properties

Observation of burst activity from SGR1935+2154 associated to first galactic FRB with H.E.S.S.

Fast radio bursts (FRB) are enigmatic powerful single radio pulses with durations of several milliseconds and high brightness temperatures suggesting coherent emission mechanism. For the time being a number of extragalactic FRBs have been detected in the high-frequency radio band including repeating ones. The most plausible explanation for these phenomena is magnetar hyperflares. The first observational evidence of this scenario was obtained in April 2020 when an FRB was detected from the direction of the Galactic magnetar and soft gamma repeater SGR1935+2154. The FRB was preceded with a number of soft gamma-ray bursts observed by Swift-BAT satellite, which triggered the follow-up program of the H.E.S.S. imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). H.E.S.S. has observed SGR1935+2154 over a 2 hour window few hours prior to the FRB detection by STARE2 and CHIME. The observations overlapped with other X-ray bursts from the magnetar detected by INTEGRAL and Swift-BAT, thus providing first observations of a magnetar in a flaring state in the very-high energy domain. We present the analysis of these observations, discuss the obtained results and prospects of the H.E.S.S. follow-up program for soft gamma repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars

The young massive stellar cluster Westerlund 1 in gamma rays as seen with H.E.S.S.

Massive stellar clusters have recently been hypothesised as candidates for the acceleration of hadronic cosmic rays up to PeV energies. Previously, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration has reported about very extended $\gamma$-ray emission around Westerlund 1, a massive young stellar cluster in the Milky Way. In this contribution we present an updated analysis that employs a new analysis technique and is based on a much larger data set, allowing us to constrain better the morphology and the energy spectrum of the emission. The analysis technique used is a three-dimensional likelihood analysis, which is especially well suited for largely extended sources. The origin of the $\gamma$-ray emission will be discussed in light of multi-wavelength observations