Prevalence of baseline polymorphisms for potential resistance to NS5A inhibitors in drug-naive individuals infected with hepatitis C genotypes 1–4

Background: The non-structural 5A (NS5A) protein of HCV is a multifunctional phosphoprotein involved in regulation of viral replication and virion assembly. NS5A inhibitors targeting domain I of NS5A protein have demonstrated high potency and pan-genotypic antiviral activity, however they possess a low genetic barrier to resistance. At present, only genotype 1, the most prevalent HCV genotype has been studied in detail for resistant variants. Methods: Utilising a panel of genotypic-specific resistance assays, population sequencing was performed on plasma derived viral RNA isolated from 138 patients infected with HCV genotypes 1-4 and not treated with directly acting anti-viral agents (DAAs). Amino acid changes in HCV NS5A domain I at codon positions 28, 30, 31, 32 and 93, reported to confer reduced susceptibility to certain NS5A inhibitors were examined. Additionally, genotypic outcome based on NS5A sequences were compared with LiPA and Abbott® real time. Results: Amino acid substitutions associated with moderate to high level resistance to NS5A inhibitors were detected in 2/42 (4.76%) HCV-1a, 3/23 (13.04%) HCV-1b, 4/26 ( 15.38% ) HCV-2, 1/24 (4.17%) HCV-3 and 1/23 (4.35%) HCV-4 infected patients who had not been treated with NS5A inhibitors. Genotype prediction based on NS5A sequences were concordant with LiPA and/or Abbott® real-time for 97.10% of cases. Conclusion: Primary resistance mutations associated with resistance to first generation NS5A inhibitors such as Daclatasvir (DCV) were observed in all genotypes, albeit at low frequencies. An excellent correlation based on NS5A genotyping and LiPA or Abbott® real-time was achieved

Long-term trends in tropical cyclone tracks around Korea and Japan in late summer and early fall

This study investigates long-term trends in tropical cyclones (TCs) over the extratropical western North Pacific (WNP) over a period of 35 years (1982-2016). The area analyzed extended across 30-45 degrees N and 120-150 degrees E, including the regions of Korea and Japan that were seriously affected by TCs. The northward migration of TCs over the WNP to the mid-latitudes showed a sharp increase in early fall. In addition, the duration of TCs over the WNP that migrated northwards showed an increase, specifically in early to mid-September. Therefore, more recently, TC tracks have been observed to significantly extend into the mid-latitudes. The recent northward extension of TC tracks over the WNP in early fall was observed to be associated with changes in environmental conditions that were favorable for TC activities, including an increase in sea surface temperature (SST), decrease in vertical wind shear, expansion of subtropical highs, strong easterly steering winds, and an increase in relative vorticity. In contrast, northward migrations of TCs to Korea and Japan showed a decline in late August, because of the presence of unfavorable environmental conditions for TC activities. These changes in environmental conditions, such as SST and vertical wind shear, can be partially associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation

Oral shedding of herpesviruses in HIV-infected patients with varying degrees of immune status

Objective: Herpesvirus shedding in the oral cavity was analyzed to determine if presence in the oral compartment correlates with systemic changes in HIV-associated immune deficiency as measured by CD4 + cell counts, plasma HIV viral load and presence of AIDS-defining events. Design: A5254 is a multicenter, cross-sectional, single-visit study to evaluate oral complications of HIV/AIDS and determine the association between clinical appearance, herpesvirus shedding, and immune status as ascertained by CD4 + cell count and HIV viral load. In total, 307 HIV-infected individuals were evaluated and throat wash collected. Methods: Fisher's exact test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to assess the association between presence of herpesviruses and the state of immunodeficiency as stratified by a combination of CD4 + cell count and HIV viral load. Relationship between pathogens and HIV viral load in plasma was modeled by logistic regression. Results: The presence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and herpes simplex virus-1 in throat wash was associated with decreased CD4 + cell counts. By contrast, Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and Epstein-Barr virus were similarly detectable across all levels of CD4 + cell counts. One unit increase in log 10 (HIV viral load) was associated with 1.31 times higher odds of detecting CMV in throat wash when controlling for oral candidiasis, CD4 + cell count, and sites (95% confidence interval 1.04-1.65, P=0.02). Conclusion: Oral CMV shedding was significantly higher in highly immunocompromised HIV + participants. Our finding supports the recommendations to start antiretroviral therapy independent of CD4 + cell count as this may have the added benefit to lower the risk of herpesvirus transmission among persons infected with HIV and their partners

Atlantic Behavioral Response Study: Experimental Design, Analytical Methods, and Preliminary Results

Excerpted from ESOMM - 2018, 6th International Meeting on the Effects of Sound in the Ocean on Marine Mammals The Hague, The Netherlands

Mediation of detention trauma via perceived locus of control

Political detention in South Africa has been documented to contain conditions inherently detrimental to psychological health. Reports indicate high levels of stress reponses associated with conditions of solitary confinement, and physical and psychological abuse — particularly in the form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Amongst the moderating variables that may mediate between detention stress and post-detention trauma is perceived locus of control. In the present study the author aimed to determine post-detention sequelae and the moderating influence of perceived locus of control in this specific context. A Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder scale was combined with an Index of Well-being scale and correlated with a Detention Locus of Control scale to assess mediation significance of experienced ‘traumatization’. Results indicated a positive correlation with those who are internal in their perceived locus of control suffering reduced post-stress sequelae, compared to those who are more externally oriented. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed with specific reference to therapeutic intervention in the clinical context. © 1990, South African Psychological Association and the Psychological Institute of the Republic of South Africa. All rights reserved

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector during 2011 data taking

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the 2011 data taking period is described. During 2011 the LHC provided proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and heavy ion collisions with a 2.76 TeV per nucleon–nucleon collision energy. The ATLAS trigger is a three level system designed to reduce the rate of events from the 40 MHz nominal maximum bunch crossing rate to the approximate 400 Hz which can be written to offline storage. The ATLAS jet trigger is the primary means for the online selection of events containing jets. Events are accepted by the trigger if they contain one or more jets above some transverse energy threshold. During 2011 data taking the jet trigger was fully efficient for jets with transverse energy above 25 GeV for triggers seeded randomly at Level 1. For triggers which require a jet to be identified at each of the three trigger levels, full efficiency is reached for offline jets with transverse energy above 60 GeV. Jets reconstructed in the final trigger level and corresponding to offline jets with transverse energy greater than 60 GeV, are reconstructed with a resolution in transverse energy with respect to offline jets, of better than 4 % in the central region and better than 2.5 % in the forward direction

Measurement of the View the tt production cross-section using eμ events with b-tagged jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (σtt¯) with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron–muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt¯ and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯ = 818 ± 8 (stat) ± 27 (syst) ± 19 (lumi) ± 12 (beam) pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented

Search for strong gravity in multijet final states produced in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC

A search is conducted for new physics in multijet final states using 3.6 inverse femtobarns of data from proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV taken at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. Events are selected containing at least three jets with scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT) greater than 1TeV. No excess is seen at large HT and limits are presented on new physics: models which produce final states containing at least three jets and having cross sections larger than 1.6 fb with HT > 5.8 TeV are excluded. Limits are also given in terms of new physics models of strong gravity that hypothesize additional space-time dimensions