scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 titers in wastewater foreshadow dynamics and clinical presentation of new COVID-19 cases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuqing Wu ◽  
Amy Xiao ◽  
Jianbo Zhang ◽  
Katya Moniz ◽  
Noriko Endo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Wastewater Analysis ◽  
Viral Shedding ◽  
Clinical Investigations ◽  
Early Peak ◽  
Urban Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Neighborhood Level ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Viral Titers

AbstractCurrent estimates of COVID-19 prevalence are largely based on symptomatic, clinically diagnosed cases. The existence of a large number of undiagnosed infections hampers population-wide investigation of viral circulation. Here, we use longitudinal wastewater analysis to track SARS-CoV-2 dynamics in wastewater at a major urban wastewater treatment facility in Massachusetts, between early January and May 2020. SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in wastewater on March 3. Viral titers in wastewater increased exponentially from mid-March to mid-April, after which they began to decline. Viral titers in wastewater correlated with clinically diagnosed new COVID-19 cases, with the trends appearing 4-10 days earlier in wastewater than in clinical data. We inferred viral shedding dynamics by modeling wastewater viral titers as a convolution of back-dated new clinical cases with the viral shedding function of an individual. The inferred viral shedding function showed an early peak, likely before symptom onset and clinical diagnosis, consistent with emerging clinical and experimental evidence. Finally, we found that wastewater viral titers at the neighborhood level correlate better with demographic variables than with population size. This work suggests that longitudinal wastewater analysis can be used to identify trends in disease transmission in advance of clinical case reporting, and may shed light on infection characteristics that are difficult to capture in clinical investigations, such as early viral shedding dynamics.

Building the Eviction Economy: Speculation, Precarity, and Eviction in Detroit

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Seymour ◽  
Joshua Akers
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Housing Options ◽  
Neighborhood Level ◽  
Shed Light

Evictions have recently gained attention as a problem affecting millions of households worldwide. This study contributes to knowledge on the conditions leading to housing insecurity and evictions by examining the role of foreclosure markets in feeding portfolios of slum landlords and contract sellers in Detroit’s single-family residential neighborhoods. Leveraging data from tax foreclosure auctions and eviction filings from 2005 to 2017, we link foreclosure sales to subsequent eviction cases and estimate the neighborhood-level impact of prior year tax sales on current year evictions. We separately examine the acquisition size and eviction rate of major individual auction buyers. These findings shed light on the contemporary construction of eviction economies in distressed cities through foreclosure markets and investors’ methods for profiting from the constrained housing options of low-income and credit-impaired households.

Measurement and interpretation of spatially registered bar-forces in LC refining

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-610
Author(s):  
Matthias Aigner ◽  
James Olson ◽  
Peter Wild
Keyword(s):  
Work Force ◽  
Force Sensor ◽  
Edge Length ◽  
Rotary Encoder ◽  
Critical Gap ◽  
Early Peak ◽  
Geometric Variables ◽  
Force Data ◽  
Force Profiles ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractA high resolution rotary encoder and a piezo electric force sensor are implemented in a 16-inch laboratory-scale low consistency refiner to explore the effect of plate gaps on bar-force profiles. The sensor replaces a short length of a stator bar and measures normal and shear forces applied during the passage of each rotor bar. The rotary encoder data is used to locate the rotor bars relative to the stator bar in which the sensor is located. Previous work with this type of force sensor focuses primarily on the distribution of the maximum force measured during the passage of each rotor bar over the sensor or bar passing event, BPE. In this work, force profiles for bar passing events are registered to the position of rotor bars relative to the stator bar in which the sensor is located. These registered force profiles are measured for a range of plate gaps and two different pulp furnishes. The angular reference provided by the encoder makes it possible to generate mean force profiles. As force data for individual BPEs is highly variable, these mean force profiles have potential to shed light on the fundamental mechanisms of mechanical refining. For large gaps, there is a late peak in the force profiles that occurs toward the end of the bar passing event. For gaps that are less than the critical gap, below which fiber cutting occurs, there is an early peak in the force profiles that occurs at the start of the bar passing event. It is hypothesized that the early peak represents the corner force and, therefore, that corner force is causal in the onset of fiber cutting. To explore this hypothesis, a model is presented connecting corner force and friction force to the progression geometric variables during the bar passing event such as the bar edge length engaged at any point in the bar passing event and the area covered by the rotor bar on the force sensor at any point in the bar passing event.

scholarly journals Deducing the Dose-response Relation for Coronaviruses from COVID-19, SARS and MERS Meta-analysis Results

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaole Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Viral Infection ◽  
Dose Response ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Exposure Dose ◽  
Infection Risk ◽  
Transmission Risk ◽  
Viral Shedding ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe fundamental dose-response relation is still missing for better evaluating and controlling the transmission risk of COVID-19. A recent study by Chu et al. has indicated that the anticipated probability of viral infection is about 12.8% within 1 m and about 2.6% at further distance through a systematic review and meta-analysis. This important information provides us a unique opportunity to assess the dose-response relation of the viruses, if reasonable exposure dose could be estimated. Here we developed a simple framework to integrate the a priori dose-response relation for SARS-CoV based on mice experiments, and the recent data on infection risk and viral shedding, to shed light on the dose-response relation for human. The developed dose-response relation is an exponential function with a constant k in the range of 6.19×104 to 7.28×105 virus copies. The result mean that the infection risk caused by one virus copy in viral shedding is about 1.5×10−6 to 1.6×10−5. The developed dose-response relation provides a tool to quantify the magnitude of the infection risk.

scholarly journals Population genomic evidence that human and animal infections in Africa come from the same populations of Dracunculus medinensis

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. e0008623
Author(s):  
Caroline Durrant ◽  
Elizabeth A. Thiele ◽  
Nancy Holroyd ◽  
Stephen R. Doyle ◽  
Guillaume Sallé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Population Bottleneck ◽  
Guinea Worm ◽  
Control Programs ◽  
Population Genomic ◽  
Eradication Campaign ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Shed Light

Background Guinea worm–Dracunculus medinensis–was historically one of the major parasites of humans and has been known since antiquity. Now, Guinea worm is on the brink of eradication, as efforts to interrupt transmission have reduced the annual burden of disease from millions of infections per year in the 1980s to only 54 human cases reported globally in 2019. Despite the enormous success of eradication efforts to date, one complication has arisen. Over the last few years, hundreds of dogs have been found infected with this previously apparently anthroponotic parasite, almost all in Chad. Moreover, the relative numbers of infections in humans and dogs suggests that dogs are currently the principal reservoir on infection and key to maintaining transmission in that country. Principal findings In an effort to shed light on this peculiar epidemiology of Guinea worm in Chad, we have sequenced and compared the genomes of worms from dog, human and other animal infections. Confirming previous work with other molecular markers, we show that all of these worms are D. medinensis, and that the same population of worms are causing both infections, can confirm the suspected transmission between host species and detect signs of a population bottleneck due to the eradication efforts. The diversity of worms in Chad appears to exclude the possibility that there were no, or very few, worms present in the country during a 10-year absence of reported cases. Conclusions This work reinforces the importance of adequate surveillance of both human and dog populations in the Guinea worm eradication campaign and suggests that control programs aiming to interrupt disease transmission should stay aware of the possible emergence of unusual epidemiology as pathogens approach elimination.

scholarly journals Re3data.org: Discovery Tool for Reusable Research Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J Greenberg ◽  
Sangeeta Narang
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
German Research Foundation ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
International Partnership ◽  
Clinical Investigations ◽  
Open Datasets ◽  
A Site

Introduction: Research data is a representation of raw statistical or visual data collected from sources considered vital during a scientific investigation. In the medical sciences, there is enormous data generated from observations, experiments, and clinical investigations. Re3data.org is a global registry of research data, a site supported by DataOne. Re3data.org was originally founded in 2012 and funded by the DFG German Research Foundation, and currently features an international partnership. Discussion: re3data.org currently indexes over 2000 repositories, representing all subjects. In medicine there are 568 listed repositories, divided into 48 sub-categories. A small number of registered repositories are noted as closed, and there are also subjects with no currently listed data repositories. Conclusion: Availability and sharing of research data can facilitate disaster preparedness, model disease transmission, track health outcomes and provide reusable data for new emerging research. Re3data.org provides visibility for existing and emerging open datasets available in a variety of eScience repositories.

scholarly journals Analysis and Estimation of Length of In-Hospital Stay Using Demographic Data of COVID-19 Recovered Patients in Singapore

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaya Sreevalsan-Nair ◽  
Reddy Rani Vangimalla ◽  
Pritesh Rajesh Ghogale
Keyword(s):  
Hospital Stay ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Transmission Model ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Disease Transmission Model

AbstractSingapore is one of the countries which has taken early, systematic, and rigorous nationwide responses to slowing the COVID-19 contagion down. By February 4, 2020, the government of Singapore restricted the mobility of the vulnerable age-groups. In the current study, we study the influence of the age-based vulnerability of the population with respect to COVID-19 conditions on the recovery of COVID-19 patients. We study 245 patients in Singapore recovered and discharged during January 23–April 01. We first study the descriptive statistics of the length of in-hospital stay (LOS) of the COVID-19 patients based on demographic variables, namely age, and gender. Then, we determine the distribution of LOS, using local and generalized linear regression models. We take the approach of periodization based on critical changes in the disease transmission model. Even though the overall recovery rate has reduced drastically after a sudden spike in daily confirmations, our analysis shows that there is a considerable shift in the COVID-19 confirmations to the population in the non-vulnerable age-groups. We show that the LOS of the non-vulnerable age group is considerably lower at 9 days, as opposed to 15 or 20 days in the existing literature.

scholarly journals A special case of COVID-19 with long duration of viral shedding for 49 days

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Tan ◽  
Xia Kang ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Shangen Zheng ◽  
Bo Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Poor Prognosis ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
The Body ◽  
Viral Shedding ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
Low Toxicity ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Epidemiological Information ◽  
Severe Patient

SUMMARYProlonged viral shedding is associated with severe status and poor prognosis of COVID-19 patients. Unexpectedly, here we report a non-severe patient with the longest duration of viral shedding. According to the investigation on the clinical and epidemiological information of this case, we concluded that this type of virus might have a low toxicity and transmissibility, but have a prolonged infective ability and was hardly to be eliminated in the body with regular therapy. However, infusion of plasma from recovered patients showed high efficiency in elimination of this virus. Our findings might shed light on the management of COVID-19.

Elucidating cyclic AMP signaling in subcellular domains with optogenetic tools and fluorescent biosensors

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1733-1747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Klausen ◽  
Fabian Kaiser ◽  
Birthe Stüven ◽  
Jan N. Hansen ◽  
Dagmar Wachten
Keyword(s):  
Cyclic Amp ◽  
Adenosine Monophosphate ◽  
Adenylyl Cyclases ◽  
Temporal Precision ◽  
Fluorescent Biosensors ◽  
Subcellular Domains ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Hydrolysis Of ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Cyclic Amp Signaling

The second messenger 3′,5′-cyclic nucleoside adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) plays a key role in signal transduction across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Cyclic AMP signaling is compartmentalized into microdomains to fulfil specific functions. To define the function of cAMP within these microdomains, signaling needs to be analyzed with spatio-temporal precision. To this end, optogenetic approaches and genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors are particularly well suited. Synthesis and hydrolysis of cAMP can be directly manipulated by photoactivated adenylyl cyclases (PACs) and light-regulated phosphodiesterases (PDEs), respectively. In addition, many biosensors have been designed to spatially and temporarily resolve cAMP dynamics in the cell. This review provides an overview about optogenetic tools and biosensors to shed light on the subcellular organization of cAMP signaling.

Sentence-Based Experience Logging in New Hearing Aid Users

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3S) ◽  
pp. 631-637
Author(s):  
Katja Lund ◽  
Rodrigo Ordoñez ◽  
Jens Bo Nielsen ◽  
Dorte Hammershøi
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Patient Experiences ◽  
Online Tool ◽  
Rehabilitation Process ◽  
Hearing Rehabilitation ◽  
Clinical Observations ◽  
Hearing Aid Use ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Shed Light

Purpose The aim of this study was to develop a tool to gain insight into the daily experiences of new hearing aid users and to shed light on aspects of aided performance that may not be unveiled through standard questionnaires. Method The tool is developed based on clinical observations, patient experiences, expert involvement, and existing validated hearing rehabilitation questionnaires. Results An online tool for collecting data related to hearing aid use was developed. The tool is based on 453 prefabricated sentences representing experiences within 13 categories related to hearing aid use. Conclusions The tool has the potential to reflect a wide range of individual experiences with hearing aid use, including auditory and nonauditory aspects. These experiences may hold important knowledge for both the patient and the professional in the hearing rehabilitation process.

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