239 research outputs found
The Closest View of a Fast Coronal Mass Ejection: How Faulty Assumptions near Perihelion Lead to Unrealistic Interpretations of PSP/WISPR Observations
We report on the closest view of a coronal mass ejection observed by the
Parker Solar Probe (PSP)/Wide-field Imager for {Parker} Solar PRobe (WISPR)
instrument on September 05, 2022, when PSP was traversing from a distance of
15.3~to~13.5~R from the Sun. The CME leading edge and an arc-shaped
{\emph{concave-up} structure near the core} was tracked in WISPR~field of view
using the polar coordinate system, for the first time. Using the impact
distance on Thomson surface, we measured average speeds of CME leading edge and
concave-up structure as 2500~~270\,km\,s and
400~~70\,km\,s with a deceleration of
20~m~s for the later. {The use of the plane-of-sky approach
yielded an unrealistic speed of more than three times of this estimate.} We
also used single viewpoint STEREO/COR-2A images to fit the Graduated
Cylindrical Shell (GCS) model to the CME while incorporating the source region
location from EUI of Solar Orbiter and estimated a 3D speed of
2700\,km\,s. We conclude that this CME exhibits the highest
speed during the ascending phase of solar cycle 25. This places it in the
category of extreme speed CMEs, which account for only 0.15\% of all CMEs
listed in the CDAW CME catalog.Comment: 13 Pages, 6 Figures; Accepted in The Astrophysical Journal Letter
Islands of linkage in an ocean of pervasive recombination reveals two-speed evolution of human cytomegalovirus genomes
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infects most of the population worldwide, persisting throughout the host's life in a latent state with periodic episodes of reactivation. While typically asymptomatic, HCMV can cause fatal disease among congenitally infected infants and immunocompromised patients. These clinical issues are compounded by the emergence of antiviral resistance and the absence of an effective vaccine, the development of which is likely complicated by the numerous immune evasins encoded by HCMV to counter the host's adaptive immune responses, a feature that facilitates frequent super-infections. Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of HCMV is essential for the development of effective new drugs and vaccines. By comparing viral genomes from uncultivated or low-passaged clinical samples of diverse origins, we observe evidence of frequent homologous recombination events, both recent and ancient, and no structure of HCMV genetic diversity at the whole-genome scale. Analysis of individual gene-scale loci reveals a striking dichotomy: while most of the genome is highly conserved, recombines essentially freely and has evolved under purifying selection, 21 genes display extreme diversity, structured into distinct genotypes that do not recombine with each other. Most of these hyper-variable genes encode glycoproteins involved in cell entry or escape of host immunity. Evidence that half of them have diverged through episodes of intense positive selection suggests that rapid evolution of hyper-variable loci is likely driven by interactions with host immunity. It appears that this process is enabled by recombination unlinking hyper-variable loci from strongly constrained neighboring sites. It is conceivable that viral mechanisms facilitating super-infection have evolved to promote recombination between diverged genotypes, allowing the virus to continuously diversify at key loci to escape immune detection, while maintaining a genome optimally adapted to its asymptomatic infectious lifecycle
Epitope-specific humoral responses to human cytomegalovirus glycoprotein-B vaccine with MF59: Anti-AD2 levels correlate with protection from viremia
The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) virion envelope protein glycoprotein B (gB) is essential for viral entry and represents a major target for humoral responses following infection. Previously, a phase-2 placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted in solid organ transplant candidates demonstrated that vaccination with gB plus MF59 adjuvant significantly increased gB ELISA antibody levels whose titer correlated directly with protection against post-transplant viremia. The aim of the current study was to investigate in more detail this protective humoral response in vaccinated seropositive transplant recipients. We focussed on four key antigenic domains (AD) of gB; AD1, AD2, AD4 and AD5 measuring antibody levels in patient sera and correlating these with post-transplant HCMV viremia. Vaccination of seropositive patients significantly boosted pre-existing antibody levels against the immunodominant region AD1 as well as against AD2, AD4 and AD5. A decreased incidence of viremia correlated with higher antibody titers against AD2 but not with antibody titers against the other three ADs. Overall, these data support the hypothesis that antibodies against AD2 are a major component of the immune protection of seropositives seen following vaccination with gB/MF59 vaccine and identify a correlate of protective immunity in allograft patients
Validation of a commercially available indirect assay for SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies using a pseudotyped virus assay
Objectives
To assess whether a commercially available CE-IVD, ELISA-based surrogate neutralisation assay (cPass, Genscript) provides a genuine measure of SARS-CoV-2 neutralisation by human sera, and further to establish whether measuring responses against the RBD of S was a diagnostically useful proxy for responses against the whole S protein.
Methods
Serum samples from 30 patients were assayed for anti-NP responses, for ‘neutralisation’ by the surrogate neutralisation assay and for neutralisation by SARS-CoV-2 S pseudotyped virus assays utilising two target cell lines. Correlation between assays was measured using linear regression.
Results
The responses observed within the surrogate neutralisation assay demonstrated an extremely strong, highly significant positive correlation with those observed in both pseudotyped virus assays.
Conclusions
The tested ELISA-based surrogate assay provides an immunologically useful measure of functional immune responses in a much quicker and highly automatable fashion. It also reinforces that detection of anti-RBD neutralising antibodies alone is a powerful measure of the capacity to neutralise viral infection
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Influence of sex, migration distance, and latitude on life history expression in steelhead and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
In partially migratory species, such as Oncorhynchus mykiss, the emergence of life history phenotypes is often attributed
to fitness trade-offs associated with growth and survival. Fitness trade-offs can be linked to reproductive tactics that vary between
the sexes, as well as the influence of environmental conditions. We found that O. mykiss outmigrants are more likely to be female
in nine populations throughout western North America (grand mean 65% female), in support of the hypothesis that anadromy
is more likely to benefit females. This bias was not related to migration distance or freshwater productivity, as indicated by
latitude. Within one O. mykiss population we also measured the resident sex ratio and did not observe a male bias, despite a high
female bias among outmigrants in that system. We provide a simulation to demonstrate the relationship between sex ratios and
the proportion of anadromy and show how sex ratios could be a valuable tool for predicting the prevalence of life history types
in a population
Assessing Anti-HCMV Cell Mediated Immune Responses in Transplant Recipients and Healthy Controls Using a Novel Functional Assay
HCMV infection, reinfection or reactivation occurs in 60% of untreated solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Current clinical approaches to HCMV management include pre-emptive and prophylactic antiviral treatment strategies. The introduction of immune monitoring to better stratify patients at risk of viraemia and HCMV mediated disease could improve clinical management. Current approaches quantify T cell IFNγ responses specific for predominantly IE and pp65 proteins ex vivo, as a proxy for functional control of HCMV in vivo. However, these approaches have only a limited predictive ability. We measured the IFNγ T cell responses to an expanded panel of overlapping peptide pools specific for immunodominant HCMV proteins IE1/2, pp65, pp71, gB, UL144, and US3 in a cohort of D+R– kidney transplant recipients in a longitudinal analysis. Even with this increased antigen diversity, the results show that while all patients had detectable T cell responses, this did not correlate with control of HCMV replication in some. We wished to develop an assay that could directly measure anti-HCMV cell-mediated immunity. We evaluated three approaches, stimulation of PBMC with (i) whole HCMV lysate or (ii) a defined panel of immunodominant HCMV peptides, or (iii) fully autologous infected cells co-cultured with PBMC or isolated CD8+ T cells or NK cells. Stimulation with HCMV lysate often generated non-specific antiviral responses while stimulation with immunodominant HCMV peptide pools produced responses which were not necessarily antiviral despite strong IFNγ production. We demonstrated that IFNγ was only a minor component of secreted antiviral activity. Finally, we used an antiviral assay system to measure the effect of whole PBMC, and isolated CD8+ T cells and NK cells to control HCMV in infected autologous dermal fibroblasts. The results show that both PBMC and especially CD8+ T cells from HCMV seropositive donors have highly specific antiviral activity against HCMV. In addition, we were able to show that NK cells were also antiviral, but the level of this control was highly variable between donors and not dependant on HCMV seropositivity. Using this approach, we show that non-viraemic D+R+ SOT recipients had significant and specific antiviral activity against HCMV
Blazars in the Fermi Era: The OVRO 40-m Telescope Monitoring Program
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
provides an unprecedented opportunity to study gamma-ray blazars. To capitalize
on this opportunity, beginning in late 2007, about a year before the start of
LAT science operations, we began a large-scale, fast-cadence 15 GHz radio
monitoring program with the 40-m telescope at the Owens Valley Radio
Observatory (OVRO). This program began with the 1158 northern (declination>-20
deg) sources from the Candidate Gamma-ray Blazar Survey (CGRaBS) and now
encompasses over 1500 sources, each observed twice per week with a ~4 mJy
(minimum) and 3% (typical) uncertainty. Here, we describe this monitoring
program and our methods, and present radio light curves from the first two
years (2008 and 2009). As a first application, we combine these data with a
novel measure of light curve variability amplitude, the intrinsic modulation
index, through a likelihood analysis to examine the variability properties of
subpopulations of our sample. We demonstrate that, with high significance
(7-sigma), gamma-ray-loud blazars detected by the LAT during its first 11
months of operation vary with about a factor of two greater amplitude than do
the gamma-ray-quiet blazars in our sample. We also find a significant (3-sigma)
difference between variability amplitude in BL Lacertae objects and
flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), with the former exhibiting larger
variability amplitudes. Finally, low-redshift (z<1) FSRQs are found to vary
more strongly than high-redshift FSRQs, with 3-sigma significance. These
findings represent an important step toward understanding why some blazars emit
gamma-rays while others, with apparently similar properties, remain silent.Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. Submitted to ApJ
Magnetic Energy Powers the Corona: How We Can Understand its 3D Storage & Release
The coronal magnetic field is the prime driver behind many as-yet unsolved
mysteries: solar eruptions, coronal heating, and the solar wind, to name a few.
It is, however, still poorly observed and understood. We highlight key
questions related to magnetic energy storage, release, and transport in the
solar corona, and their relationship to these important problems. We advocate
for new and multi-point co-optimized measurements, sensitive to magnetic field
and other plasma parameters, spanning from optical to -ray wavelengths,
to bring closure to these long-standing and fundamental questions. We discuss
how our approach can fully describe the 3D magnetic field, embedded plasma,
particle energization, and their joint evolution to achieve these objectives.Comment: White paper submitted to the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space
Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033; 16 pages, 3 figure
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