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Globally, each year 1.3 million neonates acquire human immunodeficiency virus during pregnancy, labour, and breastfeeding time. Replacing breastfeeding with recommended safe infant feeding practices significantly reduces the risk of transmission, nearly eliminating it. This study aimed to assess Human immunodeficiency virus exposed child feeding among 314 mothers with infants under 24 months old. Participants were selected using a systematic random sampling technique, and data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses employed to identify determinants for safe infant feeding. During interviews, the mean age of women was 32.35 years (standard deviation±4.5), and infants were 10.8(±3.951) months. The overall safe infant feeding was 67.2% (95% CI: 61.7, 72.9), with a mean knowledge score. By the study’s end, 9 infants (2.89%) were confirmed to be infected with virus based on dried blood sample test. Maternal promoting factors for safe infant practice included infant age 25–35 years (adjusted odd ratio (aOR) =2.9) completing high school education (adjusted odd ratio = 9.2), having a good knowledge score for infant feeding (adjusted odd ratio = 8.2), and urban residency (adjusted odd ratio = 2.2). On the other hand, being married made it 83% less likely for safe infant feeding practices (adjusted odd ratio = 0.17) compared to those never in a union. Two in three mothers practiced safe infant feeding for their HIV-exposed infants, with a mean knowledge score of 70.3%. Therefore, healthcare providers give accurate information and counselling services to make informed decisions about infant safe feeding.
How does the contemporary novel imagine utopian possibility in the wake of the global dominance of the United States in the second half of the twentieth century? This chapter suggests that we can discern two forms in which the novel responds to this perceived waning of American power. The first of these is an elegiac strand in the contemporary American novel, which mourns the failure of the American ideal and laments the exhaustion of its historical possibility. The second sees in the same failure of US hegemony not the winding down of a world view, but the emergence of new forms of cultural hybridity, new subject positions that come to thought only now, in the wake of the “American century.” This chapter suggests that, in order to understand the persistence of utopian thinking into the contemporary moment, one has to attend to both of these strands in the novel after American hegemony. The old word is dying, we might say, in an echo of Gramsci’s famous line, and the new cannot be born. It is in this interregnum that we find not only morbid symptoms, but the emergence of new forms of utopian possibility.
This chapter details the non-molecular techniques (virus culture, electron microscopy, detection of viral antigens and point-of-care tests) used to detect viruses in patient secretions or tissue which can provide direct evidence of current or ongoing infection.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused the pandemic declared in March 2020. While many of the manifestations (i.e., acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS]) are similar to other severe respiratory viruses, there is an increasing number of specific therapeutics found to be effective in combating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As data emerge on the optimal treatment of COVID-19, the recommendations in this chapter are based on the current consensus from large global health and infectious disease authorities but are subject to evolution of the evidence.
Monkeypox (MPX) is a rare zoonotic illness, like smallpox, caused by the monkeypox virus, which is a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus of the Chordopoxvirinae subfamily that falls under the classification of the Poxviridae family. MPX is clinically characterized by a wide variety of symptoms and signs, including fever, sore throat, headache, myalgia, lymphadenopathy, and rashes. As the world is undergoing progressive industrialization over time, there is a corresponding increase in environmental pollutants and deforestation. Previous studies have found a correlation between exposure to environmental contaminants and the incidence of MPX. Additionally, it has been hypothesized that deforestation may also have played a role in the disease’s resurgence or in its ability to spread. Habitat loss and ecological instability brought on by environmental contaminants and deforestation may increase human-infected animal interaction and hasten the spread. The likely connection should be known by health authorities and doctors, as well as government officials, to help fund further investigations and craft strategies to combat the risk of an increasing prevalence of MPX in the world, especially in densely populated underdeveloped regions of Asia and Africa, where containment of MPX poses greater challenges. In this article, we have provided an important real-world perspective and suggested future recommendations to halt the further spread of MPX to new places.
Although viral protein structure and replication mechanisms have been explored extensively with X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and population imaging studies, these methods are often not able to distinguish dynamic conformational changes in real time. Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) offers unique insights into interactions and states that may be missed in ensemble studies, such as nucleic acid or protein structure, and conformational transitions during folding, receptor–ligand interactions, and fusion. We discuss the application of smFRET to the study of viral protein conformational dynamics, with a particular focus on viral glycoprotein dynamics, viral helicases, proteins involved in HIV reverse transcription, and the influenza RNA polymerase. smFRET experiments have played a crucial role in deciphering conformational changes in these processes, emphasising the importance of smFRET as a tool to help elucidate the life cycle of viral pathogens and identify key anti-viral targets.
Patients with schizophrenia experience cognitive impairment, which could be related to neuroinflammation in the hippocampus. The cause for such hippocampal inflammation is still unknown, but it has been suggested that herpes virus infection is involved. This study therefore aimed to determine whether add-on treatment of schizophrenic patients with the anti- viral drug valaciclovir would reduce hippocampal neuroinflammation and consequently improve cognitive symptoms.
Methods
We performed a double-blind monocenter study in 24 male and female patients with schizophrenia, experiencing active psychotic symptoms. Patients were orally treated with the anti-viral drug valaciclovir for seven consecutive days (8 g/day). Neuroinflammation was measured with Positron Emission Tomography using the translocator protein ligand [11C]-PK11195, pre-treatment and at seven days post-treatment, as were psychotic symptoms and cognition.
Results
Valaciclovir treatment resulted in reduced TSPO binding (39%) in the hippocampus, as well as in the brainstem, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, amygdala, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, insula and cingulate gyri, nucleus accumbens and thalamus (31–40%) when using binding potential (BPND) as an outcome. With total distribution volume (VT) as outcome we found essentially the same results, but associations only approached statistical significance (p = 0.050 for hippocampus). Placebo treatment did not affect neuroinflammation. No effects of valaciclovir on psychotic symptoms or cognitive functioning were found.
Conclusion
We found a decreased TSPO binding following antiviral treatment, which could suggest a viral underpinning of neuroinflammation in psychotic patients. Whether this reduced neuroinflammation by treatment with valaciclovir has clinical implications and is specific for schizophrenia warrants further research.
How the Covid-19 pandemic affected sex including in single people and couples; how the pandemic changed sexually transmitted infections; lessons from other pandemics in the past; and why there should be more discussion and consideration around sex during pandemic(s).
A 16-month-old girl was referred for tachycardia and upper respiratory tract infection. Echocardiographic examination revealed pericardial effusion, mild mitral regurgitation, and left ventricle systolic dysfunction. Patient was positive for Parainfluenza type 4 virus. Her laboratory tests revealed increased troponin I level. The patient was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin considering acute viral myopericarditis. Two weeks after treatment, midventricular hypertrophy was detected.
The two major questions posed by this chapter are: What is life and how do we define and identify it? How did life originate? It discusses different definitions of life and the role of entropy as a constraint. It discusses some forms that may or may not meet differing definitions of life (e.g. prions, viruses). The various hypotheses, studies, and discoveries pertaining to the origins of life are explored, including the Miller–Urey experiment, the Murcheson meteorite, and more recent NASA experiments relating to the potential origins of DNA and complex proteins. It also discusses the conditions on Earth during the origins of life, and presents the current hypotheses for the origins of water on this planet. It also reviews the candidates for the earliest life on Earth discovered in the fossil record, and explores just how we would identify the oldest life.
Healthcare-associated infections and more specifically surgical site infections, represent one of the biggest challenges facing practitioners in the perioperative environment. This chapter addresses the key points related to the causes of infection, and how they can be prevented. Infections are caused by pathogenic organisms, consequently, it is important to understand how they enter the body. The chain of infection model describes a series of links that outlines how infections can spread and provides a foundation to understand how they can be prevented. It is essential that perioperative practitioners understand how to break the chain of infection as well as the consequences of not doing so.
The current COVID-19 pandemic contributed by the SARS-CoV-2 has put in place an urgent need for new and promising antiviral therapeutics. The viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) enzyme plays a vital role in viral replication for all RNA viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, thereby making it a prime and promising candidate for novel antiviral targeting. Interestingly, the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), a common catalytic subunit of the telomerase enzyme in many cancers, has also been identified with structural and functional similarities to the viral RdRp. Therefore, it becomes essential to evaluate and consider anticancer drugs that target hTERT towards antiviral RdRp activity, and vice versa. For instance, Floxuridine, an hTERT inhibitor, and VX-222, a hepatitis C virus RdRp inhibitor, are now gaining recognition as a potential antiviral against SARS-CoV-2 and anti-hTERT for cancer, simultaneously. While limited studies on hTERT inhibitors for use as viral RdRp, and anti-RdRp inhibitors as hTERT inhibitors are available, in this review, we aim at bringing to light this close structural and functional relationship between both these enzymes. We punctuate this idea with specific examples on how potential anticancer inhibitors can effectively be brought to use as inhibitors against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a relatively new pathogen, compared to the very well-studied field of cancer research.
Viruses completely rely on the energy and metabolic systems of host cells for life activities. Viral infections usually lead to cytopathic effects and host diseases. To date, there are still no specific clinical vaccines or drugs against most viral infections. Therefore, understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of viral infections is of great significance to prevent and treat viral diseases. A variety of viral infections are related to the p38 MAPK signalling pathway, and p38 is an important host factor in virus-infected cells. Here, we introduce the different signalling pathways of p38 activation and then summarise how different viruses induce p38 phosphorylation. Finally, we provide a general summary of the effect of p38 activation on virus replication. Our review provides integrated data on p38 activation and viral infections and describes the potential application of targeting p38 as an antiviral strategy.
They thought they felt something, perhaps. The wisp of an outline not distinct enough to trace. Good. They circled it, at times, and at other times found themselves within. As they walked (a sort of walking. Figurative but real. Digital, but here. Over months of events), it curled open and headed in several directions. Foldings in the backcloth that furrowed them along until, as they walked and talked, they felt that perhaps a territory was becoming simultaneously clearer and more obscure, that they might find a way to enquire, even as it meant becoming the folds themselves. As they coalesce, Scott, Jamie, and Dave each come to this project differently (of course). From their own situations, with their own problems and with different voices and ways of writing. We (for the first shift in voice) take post-qualitative inquiry to be infused with a question mark, wary of attempts to make it a ‘thing’. Yet here we are, drawn to potentials, to the opening of conditions, to the possibility of something still to come. We hope to make a shift, to realise (as in make manifest) ontology and its everyday performance as synonymous with environmental education. Environmental education as a life.
The COVID-19 pandemic struck Spain severely from the beginning. Prevention via information that fosters knowledge, reasonable concern, control, and personal care is the most effective means to slow down the pandemic. In this intervention field study, first, we assessed actual knowledge, concern, control, and care about the COVID-19 in 111 Spanish university teachers and students. Subsequently, we randomly assigned them to two groups. One group (n = 53) received uncertain information about prevention measures, whereas the other group (n = 58) received certain information. Analysis of covariance, using baseline measures as covariates, revealed that the group receiving the certain information reported an immediately increased perceived control and personal care about the pandemic. These findings suggest that measures that are known to be effective in COVID-19 prevention, if communicated with certainty (i.e., solid evidence), could influence people's attitudes, possibly through the schematic organisation of new information.
Risk in the global economy is often borne by those with the least political agency or monetary resources, who also bear the brunt of the environmental damage inflicted by a system of unstoppered industrial development. Environmental humanities seeks greater justice and equality within human societies and in all ecological relationships; it can therefore model how risk is absorbed by those without access to economic and political advantage. We have to imagine a more equitable society before we can build it. The environmental humanities can create opportunities for creative and scholarly work to rethink its organizational and logical structure, to risk upending received rhetorical models in creative and scholarly work. Environmental humanities has a chance to reconceive how the “human” relates to the world around it, questioning the human as primary subject and imagining a way of seeing and describing the world as a horizontal shared space rather than a vertical, teleological hierarchy. It’s risky to practice new modes of expression. It’s even riskier to subordinate the human in a field where the word “human” is predominant. Environmental humanities is the place to take that risk.
The association of urban population sociodemographic factors and components of pandemic influenza risk perception were studied.
Methods:
A prospective questionnaire-based study was undertaken between March 14, 2019 and October 18, 2019. A total of 464 questionnaires were distributed to 4 primary medical centers in 2 cities in England and Wales. Persons aged over 16 years presenting to the medical centers were asked to participate.
Results:
A total of 222 questionnaires were completed (return rate 47.8%). Participants were aged 16-84 years, with a median age of 45.5 years. Prevalence of 1 or more chronic diseases was 29.1%. Seasonal flu vaccination within 5 years was reported by 58.9%. Bivariate analyses of chronic disease and influenza vaccination observed a statistically significant association with influenza personal susceptibility expression (OR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.22 - 0.94) and (OR = 0.50; 95% CI: 0.25 - 0.99) respectively. Multivariate analysis observed a statistically significant association between the presence of chronic disease and low comparative risk expression (OR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.15 – 0.74) (P = 0.007).
Conclusions:
Respondents identifying as ‘healthy’ are more likely to express lower risk perception of pandemic influenza. Importantly, this target group is not the usual focus of influenza campaigns and are perhaps more likely to disregard health advice. Factors influencing perceptions of this target group could be an important focus of future pandemic risk perception research.
The chapter explores the prequel to the coronavirus crisis of 2020. Our knowledge of plagues dates back almost to the beginning of recorded history. They have haunted and hounded us for eons, now being no exception to the historical rule. The pandemic that most vividly predates this one, the deadly “Spanish Flu” that spread the world in 1918/19 provides an apt backdrop to the arrival of the new coronavirus for which Americans were prepared, but only poorly. Certainly, poorly in comparison with other countries loosely thought of as US peers, such as Germany in Europe and, in Asia, South Korea. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why people do a poor job of preparing for “predictable disasters.” Disasters which, though they are foretold, we prefer to avoid.
The chapter is a careful chronicle - specifically of what happened between January and June 2020, after the new coronavirus was introduced into the United States. The narrative proceeds on roughly a month by month basis – it is intended to provide readers with precise reminders of what happened when, and of who did what when. The progression of the disease – Covid-19 – is in stark evidence. This against the backdrop of an administration that prefers to deny what actually is happening, that opts to address the economic crisis without first addressing the health crisis, and that gradually ensnares a large cast of characters in a wide web of deception and destruction.
The prologue sets the stage for the book that follows. It describes where the book will go and how it will get there. It defines “enablers as followers who allow or even encourage their leaders to engage in, and then to persist in, behaviors that are destructive.” The prologue explores the all-important concept of followership, provides a brief history of relations between leaders and followers, and introduces the concept of the “leadership system,” that is, the equal importance of 1) leaders; 2) followers; 3) contexts. The concluding section of the prologue introduces distinctions among President Donald Trump’s enablers by dividing them into Trump’s Tribe and Trump’s Team. It similarly introduces the context of the book, which is the coronavirus crisis in the United States, especially during the first six months, January through June 2020.