scholarly journals Batai and Ngari Viruses: M Segment Reassortment and Association with Severe Febrile Disease Outbreaks in East Africa

2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (11) ◽  
pp. 5627-5630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Briese ◽  
Brian Bird ◽  
Vishal Kapoor ◽  
Stuart T. Nichol ◽  
W. Ian Lipkin
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Amino Acid Identity ◽  
Reassortant Virus ◽  
Febrile Disease ◽  
Segment Sequence ◽  
Human Illness ◽  
Batai Virus ◽  
Bunyamwera Virus

ABSTRACT Ngari virus is an orthobunyavirus recently recognized as a reassortant between Bunyamwera virus and an as yet unidentified M segment donor. Analysis of M segment sequences of Batai and Ilesha viruses revealed 95% deduced amino acid identity between Batai virus and Ngari virus. These findings suggest Batai virus as the donor of Ngari virus M segment sequence. Analysis of Batai virus-related African isolates identified UgMP-6830, isolated from mosquitoes in Uganda, as an isolate of Batai virus. KV-141, isolated during a febrile disease outbreak in Sudan, was identified as another isolate of Ngari virus, emphasizing a role of this reassortant virus in severe human illness throughout East Africa.

scholarly journals Distribution and Severity of Placental Lesions Caused by the Chlamydia abortus 1B Vaccine Strain in Vaccinated Ewes

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 543
Author(s):  
Sergio Gastón Caspe ◽  
Javier Palarea-Albaladejo ◽  
Clare Underwood ◽  
Morag Livingstone ◽  
Sean Ranjan Wattegedera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Placental Pathology ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Cell Infiltrate ◽  
Chlamydia Abortus ◽  
Vaccine Type ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Enzootic Abortion Of Ewes

Chlamydia abortus infects livestock species worldwide and is the cause of enzootic abortion of ewes (EAE). In Europe, control of the disease is achieved using a live vaccine based on C. abortus 1B strain. Although the vaccine has been useful for controlling disease outbreaks, abortion events due to the vaccine have been reported. Recently, placental pathology resulting from a vaccine type strain (vt) infection has been reported and shown to be similar to that resulting from a natural wild-type (wt) infection. The aim of this study was to extend these observations by comparing the distribution and severity of the lesions, the composition of the predominating cell infiltrate, the amount of bacteria present and the role of the blood supply in infection. A novel system for grading the histological and pathological features present was developed and the resulting multi-parameter data were statistically transformed for exploration and visualisation through a tailored principal component analysis (PCA) to evaluate the difference between them. The analysis provided no evidence of meaningful differences between vt and wt strains in terms of the measured pathological parameters. The study also contributes a novel methodology for analysing the progression of infection in the placenta for other abortifacient pathogens.

Role of long interspersed nuclear element-1 in the regulation of chromatin landscapes and genome dynamics

2021 ◽  
pp. 153537022110312
Author(s):  
Kenneth S Ramos ◽  
Pasano Bojang ◽  
Emma Bowers
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Biology ◽  
Mobile Element ◽  
Cancer Diagnostics ◽  
Regulatory Control ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Genome Dynamics ◽  
Human Illness ◽  
Cancer Types ◽  
Stressful Environments

LINE-1 retrotransposon, the most active mobile element of the human genome, is subject to tight regulatory control. Stressful environments and disease modify the recruitment of regulatory proteins leading to unregulated activation of LINE-1. The activation of LINE-1 influences genome dynamics through altered chromatin landscapes, insertion mutations, deletions, and modulation of cellular plasticity. To date, LINE-1 retrotransposition has been linked to various cancer types and may in fact underwrite the genetic basis of various other forms of chronic human illness. The occurrence of LINE-1 polymorphisms in the human population may define inter-individual differences in susceptibility to disease. This review is written in honor of Dr Peter Stambrook, a friend and colleague who carried out highly impactful cancer research over many years of professional practice. Dr Stambrook devoted considerable energy to helping others live up to their full potential and to navigate the complexities of professional life. He was an inspirational leader, a strong advocate, a kind mentor, a vocal supporter and cheerleader, and yes, a hard critic and tough friend when needed. His passionate stand on issues, his witty sense of humor, and his love for humanity have left a huge mark in our lives. We hope that that the knowledge summarized here will advance our understanding of the role of LINE-1 in cancer biology and expedite the development of innovative cancer diagnostics and treatments in the ways that Dr Stambrook himself had so passionately envisioned.

scholarly journals Plague and the Fall of Baghdad (1258)

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Nahyan Fancy ◽  
Monica H. Green
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
Abbasid Caliphate ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
A Minor

AbstractThe recent suggestion that the late medieval Eurasian plague pandemic, the Black Death, had its origins in the thirteenth century rather than the fourteenth century has brought new scrutiny to texts reporting ‘epidemics’ in the earlier period. Evidence both from Song China and Iran suggests that plague was involved in major sieges laid by the Mongols between the 1210s and the 1250s, including the siege of Baghdad in 1258 which resulted in the fall of the Abbasid caliphate. In fact, re-examination of multiple historical accounts in the two centuries after the siege of Baghdad shows that the role of epidemic disease in the Mongol attacks was commonly known among chroniclers in Syria and Egypt, raising the question why these outbreaks have been overlooked in modern historiography of plague. The present study looks in detail at the evidence in Arabic sources for disease outbreaks after the siege of Baghdad in Iraq and its surrounding regions. We find subtle factors in the documentary record to explain why, even though plague received new scrutiny from physicians in the period, it remained a minor feature in stories about the Mongol invasion of western Asia. In contemporary understandings of the genesis of epidemics, the Mongols were not seen to have brought plague to Baghdad; they caused plague to arise by their rampant destruction. When an even bigger wave of plague struck the Islamic world in the fourteenth century, no association was made with the thirteenth-century episode. Rather, plague was now associated with the Mongol world as a whole.

A role of high impact weather events in waterborne disease outbreaks in Canada, 1975 – 2001

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate M. Thomas ◽  
Dominique F. Charron ◽  
David Waltner-Toews ◽  
Corinne Schuster ◽  
Abdel R. Maarouf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Waterborne Disease ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
High Impact Weather

scholarly journals Lundin Petroleum AB's experience in East Africa: The role of the private sector in conflictprone countries

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Batruch
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Peace And Development

Lundin Petroleum spent over twelve years exploring for oil in Sudan, Ethiopia, and in Kenya. During this period it was faced with an armed conflict in Sudan, the risk of rebel activity in Ethiopia, and tribal clashes in Kenya. This meant the company had to consider operations in remote countries not only from a geological and commercial perspective, but also to take into account ongoing conflicts. This required considering political issues and developing mechanisms to ensure the sustainability of its operations. To this end it developed a corporate responsibility framework which emphasized stakeholder engagement, seeing oil revenues as potentially acting as a catalyst for peace and development.

Legal, Regulatory, and Institutional Framework of Water and Sanitation Services in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Magawa
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Regulatory Cooperation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

Deteriorating quality of service provision and disease outbreaks (such as cholera) led to the institution of water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector reforms in Eastern and Southern Africa region in the 1990s. The realization of the urgent need to improve the performance of the sector, especially as related to health impacts, resulted in the formulation of new policy and legal and institutional frameworks to reorganize the sector and establish regulators who could address networked and nonnetworked WSS systems. Regulators as policy implementers have the delicate role of balancing the interests of government, service providers, and consumers. Decision- makers continue to design, implement, and evaluate the outcomes associated with new frameworks. Regional regulatory cooperation can accelerate improvements in service provision to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through development of common frameworks and approaches for WSS that can be adapted to unique country situations.

Entangled Emotions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santanu Das
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
East Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
Rabindranath Tagore ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Global War ◽  
First World

Undivided India contributed to the First World War more than one million men who served in places as diverse as France, Mesopotamia and East Africa and forged a remarkable range of encounters across the lines of race, religion and nationality. This essay investigates the fraught inner histories of these encounters – their affective, experiential and representational structures – through a range of archival, historical and literary material, as produced by Indian combatant and civilian writers, including Mulk Raj Anand and Rabindranath Tagore. Focusing on three kinds of encounters – behind the battlefield of the Western Front, in a hospital in Mesopotamia, and a series of wartime lectures delivered in the United States – it reflects on the role of the ‘literary’ in such cross-cultural encounters and their representations, and how such moments and processes at once expand our understandings of a more ‘global’ war and put pressure on conventional understandings of ideas of ‘modernity’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’.

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