We report key learning from the public health management of the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 identified in the UK. The first case imported, and the second associated with probable person-to-person transmission within the UK. Contact tracing was complex and fast-moving. Potential exposures for both cases were reviewed, and 52 contacts were identified. No further confirmed COVID-19 cases have been linked epidemiologically to these two cases. As steps are made to enhance contact tracing across the UK, the lessons learned from earlier contact tracing during the country's containment phase are particularly important and timely.

Following publication, errors were discovered in the y-axis labels of the electron and hole concentration plots in the following figure panels: figure 4c, figure 4d, figure 5c, figure 5d, figure 6c, figure 6d, figure 8c and figure 8d. The error does not affect the description, analysis or conclusions. The correct representation of the figure panels are shown here.

Increasing evidence suggests that the presence of mobile ions in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can cause a current–voltage curve hysteresis. Steady state and transient current–voltage characteristics of a planar metal halide CH3NH3PbI3 PSC are analysed with a drift-diffusion model that accounts for both charge transport and ion vacancy motion. The high ion vacancy density within the perovskite layer gives rise to narrow Debye layers (typical width ~2 nm), adjacent to the interfaces with the transport layers, over which large drops in the electric potential occur and in which significant charge is stored. Large disparities between (I) the width of the Debye layers and that of the perovskite layer (~600 nm) and (II) the ion vacancy density and the charge carrier densities motivate an asymptotic approach to solving the model, while the stiffness of the equations renders standard solution methods unreliable. We derive a simplified surface polarisation model in which the slow ion dynamics are replaced by interfacial (non-linear) capacitances at the perovskite interfaces. Favourable comparison is made between the results of the asymptotic approach and numerical solutions for a realistic cell over a wide range of operating conditions of practical interest.

We performed a spatial-temporal analysis to assess household risk factors for Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in a remote, severely-affected village. We defined a household as a family's shared living space and a case-household as a household with at least one resident who became a suspect, probable, or confirmed Ebola case from 1 August 2014 to 10 October 2014. We used Geographic Information System (GIS) software to calculate inter-household distances, performed space-time cluster analyses, and developed Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE). Village X consisted of 64 households; 42% of households became case-households over the observation period. Two significant space-time clusters occurred among households in the village; temporal effects outweighed spatial effects. GEE demonstrated that the odds of becoming a case-household increased by 4·0% for each additional person per household (P < 0·02) and 2·6% per day (P < 0·07). An increasing number of persons per household, and to a lesser extent, the passage of time after onset of the outbreak were risk factors for household Ebola acquisition, emphasizing the importance of prompt public health interventions that prioritize the most populated households. Using GIS with GEE can reveal complex spatial-temporal risk factors, which can inform prioritization of response activities in future outbreaks.

Integral field unit spectrographs allow the 2D exploration of the kinematics and stellar populations of galaxies, although they are generally restricted to small fields-of-view. Using the large field-of-view of the DEIMOS multislit spectrograph on Keck and our Stellar Kinematics using Multiple Slits technique, we are able to extract sky-subtracted stellar light spectra to large galactocentric radii. Here, we present a new DEIMOS mask design named SuperSKiMS that explores large spatial scales without sacrificing high spatial sampling. We simulate a set of observations with such a mask design on the nearby galaxy NGC 1023, measuring stellar kinematics and metallicities out to where the galaxy surface brightness is orders of magnitude fainter than the sky. With this technique we also reproduce the results from literature integral field spectroscopy in the innermost galaxy regions. In particular, we use the simulated NGC 1023 kinematics to model its total mass distribution to large radii, obtaining comparable results with those from published integral field unit observation. Finally, from new spectra of NGC 1023, we obtain stellar 2D kinematics and metallicity distributions that show good agreement with integral field spectroscopy results in the overlapping regions. In particular, we do not find a significant offset between our Stellar Kinematics using Multiple Slits and the ATLAS3D stellar velocity dispersion at the same spatial locations.

The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz survey aims to characterise the physical and chemical evolution of high-mass clumps. Recently completed, it mapped 90 GHz line emission towards 3 246 high-mass clumps identified from the ATLASGAL 870 μm Galactic plane survey. By utilising the broad frequency coverage of the Mopra telescope’s spectrometer, maps in 16 different emission lines were simultaneously obtained. Here, we describe the first catalogue of the detected line emission, generated by Gaussian profile fitting to spectra extracted towards each clumps’ 870 μm dust continuum peak. Synthetic spectra show that the catalogue has a completeness of > 95%, a probability of a false-positive detection of < 0.3%, and a relative uncertainty in the measured quantities of < 20% over the range of detection criteria. The detection rates are highest for the (1–0) transitions of HCO+, HNC, N2H+, and HCN (~77–89%). Almost all clumps (~95%) are detected in at least one of the molecular transitions, just over half of the clumps (~53%) are detected in four or more of the transitions, while only one clump is detected in 13 transitions. We find several striking trends in the ensemble of properties for the different molecular transitions when plotted as a function of the clumps’ evolutionary state as estimated from Spitzer mid-IR images, including (1) HNC is relatively brighter in colder, less evolved clumps than those that show active star formation, (2) N2H+ is relatively brighter in the earlier stages, (3) that the observed optical depth decreases as the clumps evolve, and (4) the optically thickest HCO+ emission shows a ‘blue-red asymmetry’ indicating overall collapse that monotonically decreases as the clumps evolve. This catalogue represents the largest compiled database of line emission towards high-mass clumps and is a valuable data set for detailed studies of these objects.

Millions of people throughout the tropics consume wild meat. Overhunting reduces food security for people and large predators, yet little is known of the impact of hunting in systems where people and predators target the same prey species. We collate published data on predator diet in Belize with interview data about the consumption of wild and domestic meat by Belizeans, to compare the wild-meat diets of humans, jaguars Panthera onca and pumas Puma concolor and assess the sustainability of the combined offtake by humans and jaguars. Six wild mammal species (nine-banded armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus, paca Cuniculus paca, collared peccary Pecari tajacu, white-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari, red brocket deer Mazama americana and white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus) comprised 7% of the animal-protein meals eaten by Belizeans. Overall, 80% of these meals were eaten by 20% of interviewees, suggesting a necessary role of wild meat for the minority. The same species were found in 69 and 86% of jaguar and puma scats, respectively. We estimate a national annual harvest of c. 4,000 tonnes of these six wild mammals by humans and jaguars, of which 78% is hunted by people. Sustainability is difficult to evaluate because prey population data are lacking in Belize. However, simple models suggest that a sustainable harvest at this rate would require higher prey population densities than averages recorded in hunted Neotropical forests. We emphasize the need for robust regional estimates of game species densities, to improve assessments of sustainability and inform hunting regulations. We recommend that the requirements of predators as well as those of people be considered when assessing wild meat harvests.

The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) survey aims to characterise the physical and chemical evolution of high-mass star-forming clumps. Exploiting the unique broad frequency range and on-the-fly mapping capabilities of the Australia Telescope National Facility Mopra 22 m single-dish telescope 1 , MALT90 has obtained 3′ × 3′ maps towards ~2 000 dense molecular clumps identified in the ATLASGAL 870 μm Galactic plane survey. The clumps were selected to host the early stages of high-mass star formation and to span the complete range in their evolutionary states (from prestellar, to protostellar, and on to $\mathrm{H\,{\scriptstyle {II}}}$ regions and photodissociation regions). Because MALT90 mapped 16 lines simultaneously with excellent spatial (38 arcsec) and spectral (0.11 km s−1) resolution, the data reveal a wealth of information about the clumps’ morphologies, chemistry, and kinematics. In this paper we outline the survey strategy, observing mode, data reduction procedure, and highlight some early science results. All MALT90 raw and processed data products are available to the community. With its unprecedented large sample of clumps, MALT90 is the largest survey of its type ever conducted and an excellent resource for identifying interesting candidates for high-resolution studies with ALMA.

We characterise the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz Survey (MALT90) and the Mopra telescope at 90 GHz. We combine repeated position-switched observations of the source G300.968+01.145 with a map of the same source in order to estimate the pointing reliability of the position-switched observations and, by extension, the MALT90 survey; we estimate our pointing uncertainty to be 8 arcsec. We model the two strongest sources of systematic gain variability as functions of elevation and time-of-day and quantify the remaining absolute flux uncertainty. Corrections based on these two variables reduce the scatter in repeated observations from 12%–25% down to 10%–17%. We find no evidence for intrinsic source variability in G300.968+01.145. For certain applications, the corrections described herein will be integral for improving the absolute flux calibration of MALT90 maps and other observations using the Mopra telescope at 90 GHz.

A survey of the Milky Way disk and the Magellanic System at the wavelengths of the 21-cm atomic hydrogen (H i) line and three 18-cm lines of the OH molecule will be carried out with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. The survey will study the distribution of H i emission and absorption with unprecedented angular and velocity resolution, as well as molecular line thermal emission, absorption, and maser lines. The area to be covered includes the Galactic plane (|b| < 10°) at all declinations south of δ = +40°, spanning longitudes 167° through 360°to 79° at b = 0°, plus the entire area of the Magellanic Stream and Clouds, a total of 13 020 deg2. The brightness temperature sensitivity will be very good, typically σT≃ 1 K at resolution 30 arcsec and 1 km s−1. The survey has a wide spectrum of scientific goals, from studies of galaxy evolution to star formation, with particular contributions to understanding stellar wind kinematics, the thermal phases of the interstellar medium, the interaction between gas in the disk and halo, and the dynamical and thermal states of gas at various positions along the Magellanic Stream.

Recombination between chloramphenicol-sensitive (Cms) mutants of Rl, and R100, has been demonstrated in Escherichia coli K12 rec+; it occurs at reduced frequency in recB and recC, and is not detectable in reeA, indicating that R factor recombination depends on host functions. Some mutants of R1 also recombine with an R100 mutant in a similar way. recA cells carrying an R1 and an R100 Cms mutant (hetero-R state) have a low level of chloramphenicol-resistance, and form a chloramphenicol acetyl transferase that has lower specific activity than enzyme from hosts carrying wild-type or recombinant factors. These results suggest the occurrence of interallelic complementation between mutant R factors.

Peach-potato aphids, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), collected in Scotland in the years 1995 and 2002–2004 were characterized using four microsatellite loci and three insecticide resistance mechanisms. From 868 samples, 14 multilocus genotypes were defined (designated clones A–N). Five of these (denoted A, B, H, M and N) carried modified acetylcholinesterase (MACE) resistance, the most recent resistance mechanism to have evolved in M. persicae. The current paper shows that the continued presence of MACE aphids is due to turnover, as clones A and B were replaced in field samples by clones H, M and N in later seasons. Thus, insecticide-resistant populations in Scotland can be attributed to multiple waves of rapid clone colonisations and not to the continued presence of stable resistant clones or mutation or sexual recombination in local populations. The MACE clones carried varying levels of the other insecticide resistance mechanisms, kdr and esterase. The presence of these mechanisms could alter the clones success in the field depending on insecticide spraying (positive selection) and resistance fitness costs (negative selection).

The relationship between plutonic and volcanic rocks is central to understanding the geochemical evolution of silicic magma systems, but it is clouded by ambiguities associated with unravelling the plutonic record. Here we report an integrated U–Pb, O and Lu–Hf isotope study of zircons from three putative granitic–volcanic rock pairs from the Lachlan Fold Belt, southeastern Australia, to explore the connection between the intrusive and extrusive realms. The data reveal contrasting petrogenetic scenarios for the S- and I-type pairs. The zircon Hf–O isotope systematics in an I-type dacite are very similar to those of their plutonic counterpart, supporting an essentially co-magmatic relationship between these units. The elevated δ18O of zircons in these I-type rocks confirm a significant supracrustal source component. The S-type volcanic rocks are not the simple erupted equivalents of the granites, although the extrusive and plutonic units can be related by open-system magmatic evolution. Zircons in the S-type rocks define covariant εHf–δ18O arrays that attest to mixing or assimilation processes between two components, one being the Ordovician metasedimentary country rocks, the other either an I-type magma or a mantle-derived magma. The data are consistent with models involving incremental melt extraction from relatively juvenile magmas undergoing open-system differentiation at depth, followed by crystal-liquid mixing upon emplacement in shallow magma reservoirs, or upon eruption. The latter juxtaposes crystals with markedly different petrogenetic histories and determines whole-rock geochemical and textural properties. This scenario can explain the puzzling decoupling between the bulk rock isotope and geochemical compositions commonly observed for granite suites.

Myzus persicae (Sulzer) collected in Scotland were characterized for four microsatellite loci, intergenic spacer fingerprints and the resistance mechanisms modified acetylcholinesterase (MACE), overproduced carboxylesterase and knockdown resistance (kdr). Microsatellite polymorphisms were used to define a limited number of clones that were either fully susceptible to insecticides or possessed characteristic combinations of resistance mechanisms. Within these clones, intergenic spacer fingerprints could either be very consistent or variable, with the latter indicating ongoing evolution within lineages, most likely derived from the same zygote. Two clones (termed A and B) possessed all three resistance mechanisms and predominated at sites treated with insecticides. Their appearance on seed potatoes and oilseed rape in Scotland in 2001 coincided with extensive insecticide use and severe control failures. Clones C, I and J, with no or fewer resistance mechanisms, were found in samples from 1995 and were dominant at untreated sites in 2001. A comparison of Scottish collections with those from other UK and non-UK sites provides insight into the likely origins, distribution and dynamics of M. persicae clones in a region where asexual (anholocyclic) reproduction predominates, but is vulnerable to migration by novel genotypes from areas of Europe where sexual (holocyclic) reproduction occurs.

An environmental surveillance programme was developed to determine whether water supplies could be a source of Burkholderia pseudomallei as noted during previous melioidosis outbreak investigations. Water supplies to communities in the three northern Australian jurisdictions (Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland) were sampled periodically during 2001 and 2002. Water and soil samples were collected from communities known to have had recent culture-positive melioidosis cases and nearby communities where no cases had been diagnosed. Clinical isolates of B. pseudomallei obtained from northern Australian patients during 2001 and 2002 were compared with the environmental B. pseudomallei isolates by ribotyping and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. B. pseudomallei was isolated from 11 distinct locations, all in the Northern Territory, seven of which were associated with culture-positive melioidosis cases (>1 case at three locations). Water was implicated as a possible environmental source of melioidosis in six locations. A variety of free-living amoebae including Acanthamoeba and Hartmannella spp. that are potential hosts to B. pseudomallei were recovered from environmental specimens. Culturable B. pseudomallei was not found to be widely dispersed in the environments sampled.

A study was designed to investigate management factors that might influence the shedding of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) O157 by beef cows in Scotland, where there is a particularly high rate of human infection. Thirty-two herds were visited at least monthly over approximately 1 year for collection of fresh faecal pat samples and information on management factors. The faecal pat samples were tested for VTEC O157 by established culture and immunomagnetic separation methods. Questionnaires were completed at the monthly visits to record management factors. Data were analysed using both univariate and multi-factor (GLMM) analysis. Changes in the number of cows in a group, dogs, wild geese, housing, and the feeding of draff (distillers' grains) were statistically significant as risk factors. The event of calving appeared to reduce the likelihood of shedding. Any effects of weaning or turnout were not statistically significant. It appears that the rate of shedding of VTEC O157 is influenced by several factors but possibly the most important of these are the circumstances of animals being housed, or, when outside, the presence of wild geese.