In this study, we used genomic sequencing to identify variants of severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in healthcare workers with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after receiving a booster vaccination. We compared symptoms, comorbidities, exposure risks, and vaccine history between the variants. Postbooster COVID-19 cases increased as the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant predominated.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The goal of this study was to understand the impact of a high sodium diet on gene networks in the kidney that correlate with blood pressure in female primates, and translating findings to women. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Sodium-naïve female baboons (n=7) were fed a low-sodium (LS) diet for 6 weeks followed by a high sodium (HS) diet for 6 weeks. Sodium intake, serum 17 beta-estradiol, and ultrasound-guided kidney biopsies for RNA-Seq were collected at the end of each diet. Blood pressure was continuously measured for 64-hour periods throughout the study by implantable telemetry devices. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis was performed on RNA-Seq data to identify transcripts correlated with blood pressure on each diet. Network analysis was performed on transcripts highly correlated with BP, and in silico findings were validated by immunohistochemistry of kidney tissues. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: On the LS diet, Na+ intake and serum 17 beta-estradiol concentration correlated with BP. Cell type composition of renal biopsies was consistent among all animals for both diets. Kidney transcriptomes differed by diet; analysis by unbiased weighted gene co-expression network analysis revealed modules of genes correlated with BP on the HS diet. Network analysis of module genes showed causal networks linking hormone receptors, proliferation and differentiation, methylation, hypoxia, insulin and lipid regulation, and inflammation as regulators underlying variation in BP on the HS diet. Our results show variation in BP correlated with novel kidney gene networks with master regulators PPARG and MYC in female baboons on a HS diet. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Previous studies in primates to identify molecular networks dysregulated by HS diet focused on males. Current clinical guidelines do not offer sex-specific treatment plans for sodium sensitive hypertension. This study leveraged variation in BP as a first step to identify correlated kidney regulatory gene networks in female primates after a HS diet.

Escherichia coli O157 are zoonotic bacteria for which cattle are an important reservoir. Prevalence estimates for E. coli O157 in British cattle for human consumption are over 10 years old. A new baseline is needed to inform current human health risk. The British E. coli O157 in Cattle Study (BECS) ran between September 2014 and November 2015 on 270 farms across Scotland and England & Wales. This is the first study to be conducted contemporaneously across Great Britain, thus enabling comparison between Scotland and England & Wales. Herd-level prevalence estimates for E. coli O157 did not differ significantly for Scotland (0·236, 95% CI 0·166–0·325) and England & Wales (0·213, 95% CI 0·156–0·283) (P = 0·65). The majority of isolates were verocytotoxin positive. A higher proportion of samples from Scotland were in the super-shedder category, though there was no difference between the surveys in the likelihood of a positive farm having at least one super-shedder sample. E. coli O157 continues to be common in British beef cattle, reaffirming public health policy that contact with cattle and their environments is a potential infection source.

The effects of chloracetamides on protein synthesis were studied both in vivo and in vitro. Four chloracetamide herbicides, alachlor [2-chloro-2′,6′-diethyl-N-(methoxymethyl)acetanilide], metolachlor [2-chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methylphenyl)-N-(2-methoxy-1-methylethyl)acetamide], CDAA (N–N-diallyl-2-chloroacetamide), and propachlor (2-chloro-N-isopropylacetanilide) were tested for inhibition of [3H]-leucine incorporation into protein. Incorporation of 3H-leucine into trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-insoluble protein was inhibited in oat (Avena sativa L. ‘Victory’) seedlings grown in sand culture and treated 12 h at 1 × 10−4M with these chloracetamides. The herbicides were also tested in a cell-free protein synthesizing system containing polyribosomes purified from oat root cytoplasm. These herbicides had no effect on the rates of polypeptide elongation nor on the synthesis of specific polypeptides when herbicides (1 × 10−4M) were added directly to the system. Polypeptide formation was inhibited 89% when 1 × 10−4M cycloheximide was added during translation. Cytoplasmic polyribosomes were isolated from oat roots treated 12 h with 1 × 10−4M herbicide. Translation rates and products were not altered when these polyribosomes were added to the in vitro system. Protein synthesis is inhibited when tested in an in vivo system; however, the inhibition does not occur during the translation of mRNA into protein.

Mental health problems are inseparable from the environment. With virtual reality (VR), computer-generated interactive environments, individuals can repeatedly experience their problematic situations and be taught, via evidence-based psychological treatments, how to overcome difficulties. VR is moving out of specialist laboratories. Our central aim was to describe the potential of VR in mental health, including a consideration of the first 20 years of applications. A systematic review of empirical studies was conducted. In all, 285 studies were identified, with 86 concerning assessment, 45 theory development, and 154 treatment. The main disorders researched were anxiety (n = 192), schizophrenia (n = 44), substance-related disorders (n = 22) and eating disorders (n = 18). There are pioneering early studies, but the methodological quality of studies was generally low. The gaps in meaningful applications to mental health are extensive. The most established finding is that VR exposure-based treatments can reduce anxiety disorders, but there are numerous research and treatment avenues of promise. VR was found to be a much-misused term, often applied to non-interactive and non-immersive technologies. We conclude that VR has the potential to transform the assessment, understanding and treatment of mental health problems. The treatment possibilities will only be realized if – with the user experience at the heart of design – the best immersive VR technology is combined with targeted translational interventions. The capability of VR to simulate reality could greatly increase access to psychological therapies, while treatment outcomes could be enhanced by the technology's ability to create new realities. VR may merit the level of attention given to neuroimaging.

Stochastic Efficiency with Respect to a Function (SERF) is used to rank transgenic cotton technology groups and place an upper and lower bound on their value. Yield and production data from replicated plot experiments are used to build cumulative distribution functions of returns for nontransgenic, Roundup Ready, Bollgard, and stacked gene cotton cultivars. Analysis of Arkansas data indicated that the stacked gene and Roundup Ready technologies would be preferred by a large number of risk neutral and risk averse producers as long as the costs of the technology and seed are below the lower bounds calculated in this manuscript.

Relatively little is known about the relationship of most personality disorders to executive cognitive functioning despite their associations with frontal cortex activity. Research on genetic influence is lacking for most personality disorders, and research on genetic influences associated with executive cognitive functioning is sparse and mixed. The Florida State Twin Registry was created to conduct a pilot twin study aimed at examining genetic influence on personality disorders and executive cognitive functioning. Measures included structured clinical interviews for symptoms and diagnoses of personality disorders (borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, obsessive–compulsive, avoidant, and dependent), depression, substance abuse/dependence, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Stroop Color-Word Test were administered to assess executive cognitive functioning. Self-report questionnaires were included to assess maladaptive personality traits. Data sharing and future directions for growing the Florida State Twin Registry are discussed.

About 2·3% (16/700) of faecal specimens from renal transplant recipients and patients having home haemodialysis as well as patients attending their general practitioners with symptoms of gastroenteritis yielded Listeria species 40% of positive faeces contained more than one Listeria species or serovar. The proportion of positive specimens was similar in all three patient groups. Listeria were isolated from 5·6% (10/177) of renal transplant recipients on one or more occasions over the period of a year. The commonest species was L. monocytogenes and type 4b the commonest serovar. Carriage was more common in July and August than other times of year, and less than 28 weeks in duration. In renal transplant recipients carriage was positively related to treatment with ranitidine, consumption of more than three types of cheese in the previous 20 months, and consumption of English cheddar cheese more than once per week.

Enclosures of various sizes and configurations have been employed to maintain natural planktonic communities and to examine their responses to pollutants (e.g. Menzel & Steele, 1978; Steele, 1979). Studies on feeding, growth, and mortality of larval fishes, at times conducted in conjunction with pollution experiments, have also been successfully conducted in large enclosures (Koeller & Parsons, 1977). Implicit in these and other comparable studies has been the expectation (or hope) that a balance could be achieved between the advantages and difficulties inherent in more traditional field and laboratory studies. Field studies offer the realism of working with the natural assemblage with its many interacting components and links, but also suffer the disadvantage associated with a turbulent and advective system, which generally makes the repetitive sampling of the same populations impossible. Laboratory studies reverse the balance; control and definition of the components are gained at the expense of realism. The use of large containers represents a hybrid approach characterized by a partial control over a moderately realistic ecosystem. In the ideal case, the use of large containers allows sufficient control to permit experimental manipulation of (and the testing of hypotheses concerning) planktonic assemblages which are sufficiently realistic to permit extension of the experimental results to the ‘real world’.

Changes attributable to weathering have been detected in Quaternary sediments overlying an important aquifer in the Vale of York. Solution of carbonates is quantitatively the most important effect of weathering. The amount of carbonate dissolved can be estimated from whole rock analyses. The length of time of weathering is known and an equivalent surface lowering rate for limestone can be calculated which is consistent with rates obtained by other workers.The volume of water required to give the observed compositional changes is calculated from porewater analyses. The time period is known and hence the rate of infiltration and the average recharge rate of the aquifer can be determined. The calculated rate of recharge is consistent with rates determined using other methods.

The techniques currently used by most specialist centres for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the fetus were developed in the 1990s, when fast imaging sequences capable of good soft tissue contrast were introduced. Earlier pioneering work on fetal MR imaging in the early 1980s revealed some promise for this application, but at the time it was not generally considered of diagnostic quality or clinical practicality because of the long acquisition times and inevitable image degradation resulting from fetal movement, problems which were overcome only by means of maternal sedation or neuromuscular blockade of the fetus. As with the early development of MR imaging in general, it is the ability to image central nervous system (CNS) tissues with a clarity and contrast far exceeding X-ray computed tomography and ultrasound that has shown the most benefit to date. Subsequent development of techniques for specific problem solving in other areas of the body will undoubtedly follow.

This paper examines the fate of alleles and changes of genetic diversity in old (ca 1930s) versus more modern (ca 1990s) UK bread wheat varieties using 14 mapped DNA microsatellite (simple sequence repeat, SSR) loci and morphological markers. The allelic constitution of varieties belonging to three time periods (early, intermediate, late) was determined. While at certain loci one or more SSR alleles were gained between early and late periods, at others the allelic representation remained constant, although a shift in allelic frequencies could sometimes be detected. No locus showed a clear, net loss in the total number of alleles over the time period. In a further group of loci, there was neither clear gain nor loss, but rather a dynamic flux of alleles. A comparison of the allelic constitution of the UK variety set with a larger genetic pool (non-UK varieties) showed that some loci were rather similar in allelic constitution, while others possessed additional diversity. Certain SSR alleles appeared to be associated with old or modern varieties, possibly indicating associations with chromosome regions under selection pressure. The same exercise was conducted on the basis of 14 of the morphological characteristics recorded in the course of distinctness, uniformity and stability testing of varieties. Overall, this analysis generated a similar picture of changes in diversity to that obtained from the microsatellite data.

Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) carry several zoonotic pathogens and because rats and humans live in close proximity in urban environments, there exists potential for transmission. To identify zoonotic agents carried by rats in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, we live-trapped 201 rats during 2005–2006 and screened them for a panel of viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Antibodies against Seoul virus (57·7%), hepatitis E virus (HEV, 73·5%), Leptospira interrogans (65·3%), Bartonella elizabethae (34·1%), and Rickettsia typhi (7·0%) were detected in Norway rats. Endoparasites, including Calodium hepatica (87·9%) and Hymenolepis sp. (34·4%), and ectoparasites (13·9%, primarily Laelaps echidninus) also were present. The risk of human exposure to these pathogens is a significant public health concern. Because these pathogens cause non-specific and often self-limiting symptoms in humans, infection in human populations is probably underdiagnosed.

Active nitrogen species produced by an Oxford Applied Research HD-25 plasma source have been monitored by optical emission spectroscopy and quadrapole mass spectroscopy. Both techniques confirmed that at higher RF powers and lower flow rates the efficiency of atomic nitrogen production increased; emission spectroscopy confirmed that this was at the expense of active molecular nitrogen (N2*). InN films grown on (0001) sapphire/GaN with higher relative molecular content were found to have lower carrier concentrations than the corresponding films grown with higher atomic content. However, electrical properties of films grown on (111) YSZ showed insensitivity to the active nitrogen content. Etching experiments revealed that films grown on sapphire/GaN were nitrogen-polar, while films grown on YSZ were In-polar, suggesting that film polarity can greatly influence the effect active species have on growth. Lattice relaxation, as measured by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, revealed that the N-polar films grown under high relative molecular flux relaxed fully after ∼60 nm of growth, while the corresponding In-polar film relaxed fully within the first several nm of growth.