Annual (2023) taxonomic update of RNA-directed RNA polymerase-encoding negative-sense RNA viruses (realm Riboviria: kingdom Orthornavirae: phylum Negarnaviricota).

In April 2023, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. The phylum was expanded by one new family, 14 new genera, and 140 new species. Two genera and 538 species were renamed. One species was moved, and four were abolished. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV.

Induction of experimental diabetes and diabetic nephropathy using anomer-equilibrated streptozotocin in male C57Bl/6J mice.

Streptozotocin (STZ) is widely used to induce experimental diabetes in murine models. However, the ability to induce diabetic nephropathy (DN) is more challenging. It has been recommended to inject STZ at multiple low doses within 15 min after dissolution due to its alleged instability. However, some studies suggest that STZ is stable for days due to equilibration of its two anomers (α and ß), 90 min after dissolution, and that this anomer-equilibrated STZ leads to higher survival rates and persistent hyperglycaemia with minimal weight loss. The aim of this study was to determine an optimal dose of anomer-equilibrated STZ to induce kidney tubular damage and compare it with the more commonly used freshly prepared STZ. We hypothesised that anomer-equilibrated STZ provides a better, reproducible experimental model of diabetes-induced kidney damage with improved animal welfare. Body measurements, fasting glycaemia, insulinemia and renal histology were assessed in male C57Bl/6J at two and six months of age treated with fresh (50 mg/kg) or anomer-equilibrated (dose ranging 35-50 mg/kg) STZ or vehicle control. We demonstrated a dose-dependent effect of anomer-equilibrated STZ on the induction of hypo-insulinaemia and hyperglycaemia, as well as body weight in two-month-old mice. Interestingly, in six-month-old mice STZ leads to body weight loss, independently of STZ preparation mode. Anomer-equilibrated STZ provoked moderate to severe kidney tubule structural damage, resulting in significant kidney hypertrophy, whereas freshly prepared STZ only caused mild alterations. In conclusion, our study proposes that anomer-equilibrated STZ provides a robust murine model of diabetes and early-stage diabetic nephropathy, which can be used to test therapeutic approaches to treat and/or prevent renal damage.

A methodology for preprocessing structured big data in the behavioral sciences.

The characteristics of big data, including high volume, increased variety, and velocity, pose special challenges for data analysis. As these characteristics generally preclude manual data inspection and processing, researchers must often use computational methodologies to deal with this type of data; techniques that may be unfamiliar to nonspecialists, including behavioral scientists. However, previous data analytics methodologies within the field of computer science, developed to handle the generic tasks of data collection, preprocessing, and analysis, can be appropriated for use in other disciplines. These methodologies involve a sequential pipeline of quality checks to prepare data sets for analysis and application. Building upon these methodologies, this paper describes the Big Data Quality & Statistical Assurance (BDQSA) model, applicable for researchers in the behavioral sciences. It involves a series of data preprocessing tasks, to achieve data understanding, as well as data screening, cleaning, and transformation. These are followed by a statistical quality phase, which includes extraction of the relevant data subset, type conversions, ensuring sample representativeness when appropriate, and assessing statistical assumptions. The resulting model thereby provides methodological guidance for the preprocessing of behavioral science big data, aimed at ensuring acceptable data quality before analysis is undertaken. Sample R code snippets demonstrating the application of this model are provided throughout the paper.

Differential and targeted vesiculation: pathologic cellular responses to elevated arterial pressure.

Extracellular vesicles are small membrane-enclosed particles released during cell activation or injury. They have been investigated for several decades and found to be secreted in various diseases. Their pathogenic role is further supported by the presence of several important molecules among their cargo, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Many studies have reported enhanced and targeted extracellular vesicle biogenesis in diseases that involve chronic or transient elevation of arterial pressure resulting in endothelial dysfunction, within either the general circulatory system or specific local vascular beds. In addition, several associated pathologic processes have been studied and reported. However, the role of elevated pressure as a common pathogenic trigger across vascular domains and disease chronicity has not been previously described. This review will therefore summarize our current knowledge of the differential and targeted biogenesis of extracellular vesicles in major diseases that are characterized by elevated arterial pressure leading to endothelial dysfunction and propose a unified theory of pressure-induced extracellular vesicle-mediated pathogenesis.

2022 taxonomic update of phylum Negarnaviricota (Riboviria: Orthornavirae), including the large orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales.

In March 2022, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. The phylum was expanded by two new families (bunyaviral Discoviridae and Tulasviridae), 41 new genera, and 98 new species. Three hundred forty-nine species were renamed and/or moved. The accidentally misspelled names of seven species were corrected. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV.

Insertion of the Liquid Crystal 5CB into Monovacancy Graphene.

Interfacial interactions between liquid crystal (LC) and two-dimensional (2D) materials provide a platform to facilitate novel optical and electronic material properties. These interactions are uniquely sensitive to the local energy landscape of the atomically thick 2D surface, which can be strongly influenced by defects that are introduced, either by design or as a byproduct of fabrication processes. Herein, we present density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the LC mesogen 4-cyan-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) on graphene in the presence of a monovacancy (MV-G). We find that the monovacancy strengthens the binding of 5CB in the planar alignment and that the structure is lower in energy than the corresponding homeotropic structure. However, if the molecule is able to approach the monovacancy homeotropically, 5CB undergoes a chemical reaction, releasing 4.5 eV in the process. This reaction follows a step-by-step process gradually adding bonds, inserting the 5CB cyano group into MV-G. We conclude that this irreversible insertion reaction is likely spontaneous, potentially providing a new avenue for controlling both LC behavior and graphene properties.

2021 Taxonomic update of phylum Negarnaviricota (Riboviria: Orthornavirae), including the large orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales.

In March 2021, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. The phylum was expanded by four families (Aliusviridae, Crepuscuviridae, Myriaviridae, and Natareviridae), three subfamilies (Alpharhabdovirinae, Betarhabdovirinae, and Gammarhabdovirinae), 42 genera, and 200 species. Thirty-nine species were renamed and/or moved and seven species were abolished. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV.

Enrollment Length, Service Category, and HIV Health Outcomes Among Low-Income HIV-Positive Persons Newly Enrolled in a Housing Program, New York City, 2014-2017.

Objectives. To evaluate the impact of duration and service category on HIV health outcomes among low-income adults living with HIV and enrolled in a housing program in 2014 to 2017.Methods. We estimated relative risk of engagement in care, viral suppression, and CD4 improvement for 561 consumers at first and second year after enrollment to matched controls through the New York City HIV surveillance registry, by enrollment length (enrolled for more than 1 year or not) and service category (housing placement assistance [HPA], supportive permanent housing [SPH], and rental assistance [REN]).Results. The SPH and REN consumers were enrolled longer and received more services, compared with HPA consumers. Long-term SPH and REN consumers had better engagement in care, viral suppression, and CD4 count than controls at both first and second year after enrollment, but the effect did not grow bigger from year 1 to 2. HPA consumers did not have better outcomes than controls regardless of enrollment length.Conclusions. Longer enrollment with timely housing placement and a higher number and more types of services are associated with better HIV health outcomes for low-income persons living with HIV with unmet housing needs.

2020 taxonomic update for phylum Negarnaviricota (Riboviria: Orthornavirae), including the large orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales.

In March 2020, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. At the genus rank, 20 new genera were added, two were deleted, one was moved, and three were renamed. At the species rank, 160 species were added, four were deleted, ten were moved and renamed, and 30 species were renamed. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV.

Multilevel Factors Associated with a Lack of Viral Suppression Among Persons Living with HIV in a Federally Funded Housing Program.

Persons with HIV who are receiving housing services often have high rates of engagement in care, yet many are not virally suppressed. We linked data from the New York City Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program to electronically reported laboratory tests from the HIV surveillance registry to examine factors associated with a lack of viral suppression. Of 1491 HOPWA consumers, 523 (35.1%) were not durably suppressed, and 253 (17.0%) were unsuppressed at their last viral load test. Substance use, age < 27 years, and emergency housing all independently predicted lack of durable viral suppression and lack of viral suppression at last viral load test.

Taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales: update 2019.

In February 2019, following the annual taxon ratification vote, the order Mononegavirales was amended by the addition of four new subfamilies and 12 new genera and the creation of 28 novel species. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).

Taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales: second update 2018.

In October 2018, the order Mononegavirales was amended by the establishment of three new families and three new genera, abolishment of two genera, and creation of 28 novel species. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the order Mononegavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).

Host specificity of avian metapneumoviruses.

To date, four subgroups of avian metapneumoviruses have been defined (AMPV-A, B, C and D) based on genetic and antigenic differences. The extent of infection in the three principal species (turkeys, chickens and ducks) by these subgroups is, however, not well defined. Here, a series of controlled and ethically approved experimental infections were performed in specific pathogen-free turkeys, chickens and ducks with each of the four AMPV subgroups. For subgroup C, one strain isolated from turkeys in the USA (turkey AMPV-C) and one isolated from ducks in France (duck AMPV-C) were compared. Globally, these extensive experimental trials demonstrated that AMPV-A, B, turkey C and D were well adapted to Galliformes, especially turkeys; however, chickens showed limited clinical signs and differences in seroconversion and transmission. Notably, chickens did not transmit AMPV-A to contacts and were shown for the first time to be susceptible to AMPV-D. The duck AMPV-C was well adapted to ducks; however, chickens and turkeys seroconverted and were positive by virus isolation. In addition, seroconversion of contact turkeys to duck AMPV-C demonstrated horizontal transmission of this virus in a non-palmiped species under our experimental conditions. Interestingly, in chickens and turkeys, duck AMPV-C isolation was possible despite a lack of detection of viral RNA. Likewise, the turkey AMPV-C virus was well adapted to turkeys yet was also isolated from chickens despite a lack of detection of viral RNA. These results would suggest a selection for viral genetic sequences that differ from the original strain upon adaptation to a 'non-conventional host'.

Aromaticity of unsaturated BEC4 heterocycles (E = N, P, As, Sb, O, S, Se, Te).

A compendium of pnictogen and chalcogen substituted boron heterocycles were assessed for their aromatic character by first principles density functional theory. Group-15 and Group-16 elements were placed at the ortho-, meta-, and para-positions of six-membered rings relative to boron to assess their impact on the aromaticity of the unsaturated heterocycles. Aromaticity was analyzed by a multidimensional approach using nuclear independent chemical shifts, gauge-including magnetically induced current, as well as natural bond orbital and natural resonance theory analyses. Based on these methods, we observe a general decline of aromaticity in heavier pnictaborines while the chalcogen analogues maintain relatively strong aromatic character. These general trends result from complementary π-π* natural bond order interactions that sustain resonance within the ring of each heterocycle establishing a pattern of cyclic delocalization. Consequently, natural resonance theory displays strong resonance, which is corroborated with the signed modulus of ring current, toroidal vortices of current maps, and elevated average induced current throughout the ring. The 1,3-configurations for pnictaborines and chalcogenaborines are generally more aromatic compared to the 1,2- and 1,4-isomers, which contain π-holes that limit diatropism within the heterocycles. However, an energetic trend favors the 1,2-heterocycles in both groups, with a few exceptions driven in large-part by π-donation of the lone pair on the heteroatom to the pz orbital on the adjacent boron resulting in stabilization. The importance of planarity for high aromaticity is demonstrated, especially in the pnictaborine isomers where pyramidalization at the pnictogen is favored, while bond regularity seems a less important criterion.

1,2-Phosphaborines: hybrid inorganic/organic P-B analogues of benzene.

Photolysis of the cyclic phosphine oligomer [PPh]5 in the presence of pentaarylboroles leads to the formation of 1,2-phosphaborines by the formal insertion of a phenylphosphinidene fragment into the endocyclic CB bond. The solid-state structure features a virtually planar central ring with bond lengths indicating significant delocalization. Appreciable ring current in the 1,2-phosphaborine core, detected in nuclear independent chemical shift (NICS) calculations, are consistent with aromatic character. These products are the first reported 1,2-BPC4 conjugated heterocycles and open a new avenue for BP as a valence isoelectronic substitute for CC in arene systems.

Genes Differentially Expressed Across Major Arteries Are Enriched in Endothelial Dysfunction-Related Gene Sets: Implications for Relative Inter-artery Atherosclerosis Risk.

Atherosclerosis differs across major arteries. Although the biological basis is not fully understood, limited evidence of genetic differences has been documented. This study, therefore, was aimed to identify differentially expressed genes between clinically relevant major arteries and investigate their enrichment in endothelial dysfunction-related gene sets. A bioinformatic analysis of publicly available gene-level read counts for coronary, aortic, and tibial arteries was performed. Differential gene expression was conducted with DeSeq2 at a false discovery rate of 0.05. Differentially expressed genes were then subjected to over-representation analysis and active-subnetwork-oriented enrichment analysis, both at a false discovery rate of 0.005. Enriched terms common to both analyses were categorized for each contrast into immunity/inflammation-, membrane biology-, lipid metabolism-, and coagulation-related terms, and the top differentially expressed genes validated against Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics' Bgee database. There was mostly upregulation of differentially expressed genes for the coronary/tibial and aorta/tibial contrasts, but milder changes for the coronary/aorta contrast. Transcriptomic differences between coronary or aortic versus tibial samples largely involved immunity/inflammation-, membrane biology-, lipid metabolism-, and coagulation-related genes, suggesting potential to modulate endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis. These results imply atheroprone coronary and aortic environments compared with tibial artery tissue, which may explain observed relative inter-artery atherosclerosis risk.

Enhancing Charge Transport Using Boron and Nitrogen Substitutions into Triphenylene-Based Discotic Liquid Crystals.

The substitution of p-block heteroatoms into polyaromatic hydrocarbons offers the potential for introducing enhanced molecular properties and advancing material development for electro-optical applications. Using density functional theory, we characterize the substitution of boron and nitrogen atoms into a 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexakis(hexathiol)triphenylene (TTP) core, a precursor for a material with a discotic liquid crystal phase, to determine the strength of exciton dissociation and the influence doping has on the formation of a heterojunction with graphene. The substitution of nitrogen and boron into the TTP motif enables tunability of both electron and hole coupling between hetero- and homodyads. The coupling is found to far exceed that of TTP and varied transport behavior with different combinations of doped cores of nitrogen-TTP and boron-TTP is reported. Heterodyads of nitrogen-TTP with boron-TTP appear to be ambipolar in electron/hole coupling, whereas heterodyads of boron- or nitrogen-TTP with TTP form strong electron coupling dyads and homodyads of nitrogen-TTP and boron-TTP form strong hole coupling. Finally, we describe the heterojunction of nitrogen- or boron-TTP with monolayer graphene and observe Ohmic contacts with large hole transport barriers. The presence of induced dipoles occurs at the interface in all heterojunctions, suggesting the possibility of tuning the junction with external potentials and improving exciton dissociation.

Country-level predictors of COVID-19 mortality.

This study aimed to identify country-level predictors of COVID-19 mortality, after controlling for diverse potential factors, and utilizing current worldwide mortality data. COVID-19 deaths, as well as geographic, demographic, socioeconomic, healthcare, population health, and pandemic-related variables, were obtained for 152 countries. Continuous variables were examined with Spearman's correlation, categorical variables with ANOVA or Welch's Heteroscedastic F Test, and country-level independent predictors of COVID-19 mortality identified by weighted generalized additive models. This study identified independent mortality predictors in six limited models, comprising groups of related variables. However, in the full model, only WHO region, percent of population ≥ 65 years, Corruption Perception Index, hospital beds/100,000 population, and COVID-19 cases/100,000 population were predictive of mortality, with model accounting for 80.7% of variance. These findings suggest areas for focused intervention in the event of similar future public health emergencies, including prioritization of the elderly, optimizing healthcare capacity, and improving deficient health sector-related governance.

Extracellular vesicles and atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease.

Atherogenesis involves a complex multifactorial process including chronic inflammation that requires the participation of several cell types and molecules. In addition to their role in vascular homeostasis, extracellular vesicles also appear to play an important role in atherogenesis, including monocyte transmigration and foam cell formation, SMC proliferation and migration, leukocyte transmigration, and thrombosis. Peripheral arterial disease, a major form of peripheral vascular disease, is characterized by structural or functional impairment of peripheral arterial supply, often secondary to atherosclerosis. Elevated levels of extracellular vesicles have been demonstrated in patients with peripheral arterial disease and implicated in the development of atherosclerosis within peripheral vascular beds. However, extracellular vesicles also appear capable of delivering cargo with atheroprotective effects. This capability has been exploited in vesicles engineered to carry content capable of neovascularization, suggesting potential for therapeutic angiogenesis. This dual capacity holds substantial promise for diagnosis and therapy, including possibly limb- and life-saving options for peripheral arterial disease management.