Benign acute childhood myositis following human Influenza B virus infection - A case series.

Influenza virus primarily affects ciliated cells of respiratory epithelium. Humans do not have innate immunity for these viruses and are vulnerable to get attacked. Benign acute childhood myositis usually occurs at the early convalescent phase of a influenza viral illness when fever, cough, myalgia, nasal discharge are the initial presentation.

Near-Complete Genome Sequence of a SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01 Strain in Peru.

A near-complete genome sequence was obtained for a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant of concern (VOC) 202012/01 strain obtained from an oropharyngeal swab sample from a Peruvian patient with coronavirus syndrome who had contact with an individual who had recently returned from England.

First Germanium-Based Constraints on Sub-MeV Dark Matter with the EDELWEISS Experiment.

We present the first Ge-based constraints on sub-MeV/c^{2} dark matter (DM) particles interacting with electrons using a 33.4 g Ge cryogenic detector with a 0.53 electron-hole pair (rms) resolution, operated underground at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane. Competitive constraints are set on the DM-electron scattering cross section, as well as on the kinetic mixing parameter of dark photons down to 1 eV/c^{2}. In particular, the most stringent limits are set for dark photon DM in the 6 to 9 eV/c^{2} range. These results demonstrate the high relevance of Ge cryogenic detectors for the search of DM-induced eV-scale electron signals.

Lycopene in association with alpha-tocopherol or tomato lipophilic extracts enhances acyl-platelet-activating factor biosynthesis in endothelial cells during oxidative stress.

Lipophilic compounds contained in tomato can prevent cardiovascular diseases by modulating the atherogenic processes in vascular endothelium mediated by oxidized low-density lipoproteins (LDLs). We investigated the effects of lycopene on the metabolism of platelet-activating factor (PAF) and its much less biologically active acyl analog, acyl-PAF, known to prevent LDL oxidation. Lycopene, or lycopene in association with alpha-tocopherol, or whole tomato lipophilic extracts (containing more than 80% lycopene) were used in experiments in which endothelial cells (ECs) are known to synthesize PAF following H(2)O(2)-induced oxidative stress. The results indicated that in each case H(2)O(2)-stimulated PAF biosynthesis in ECs, which is catalyzed by acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase (AT), appeared strongly inhibited. However, acyl-PAF biosynthesis, which also occurs through the PAF-dependent transacetylase (TA), was significantly increased by lycopene only when it was in association with alpha-tocopherol or with the minor compounds present in the whole lipophilic tomato extract. These findings suggest that alpha-tocopherol or lipophilic compounds present in tomato juice potentiate the effects of lycopene on the modulation of PAF and acyl-PAF biosynthesis in ECs during oxidative stress.

Dielectric constant of glasses: evidence for dipole-dipole interactions.

The 1 kHz real part chi(') of the dielectric constant of a structural glass (a-SiO(2+x)C(1+y)H(z)) was measured at low temperature T. Reducing the sample thickness h below 100 nm weakens the slope /delta(chi('))/delta (T) for T less than or approximately equal 0.1 K, for all measuring fields E. This contrasts with the predictions of the two-level system (TLS) model but is in agreement with the recently proposed delocalization of excitations derived from a field-induced TLS-TLS interaction mechanism. For small h this interaction is screened, which explains the h effects on chi('). Hence, interactions must play a key role in standard thick samples as soon as T less than or approximately equal 0.1 K.