Publications by authors named "C A Heaney"
Machine learning (ML) has benefited from both software and hardware advancements, leading to increasing interest in capitalising on ML throughout academia and industry. There have been efforts in the scientific computing community to leverage this development via implementing conventional partial differential equation (PDE) solvers with machine learning packages, most of which rely on structured spatial discretisation and fast convolution algorithms. However, unstructured meshes are favoured in problems with complex geometries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Critically ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 have greater antibody titers than those with mild to moderate illness, but their association with recovery or death from COVID-19 has not been characterized.
Methods: In a cohort study of 178 COVID-19 patients, 73 non-hospitalized and 105 hospitalized patients, mucosal swabs and plasma samples were collected at hospital enrollment and up to 3 months post-enrollment (MPE) to measure virus RNA, cytokines/chemokines, binding antibodies, ACE2 binding inhibition, and Fc effector antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2. The association of demographic variables and more than 20 serological antibody measures with intubation or death due to COVID-19 was determined using machine learning algorithms.
Article Synopsis
- A study in Atlanta investigated household COVID-19 infection rates and the role of children in the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 during early 2021.
- Researchers tested saliva samples from 66 individuals across 17 households that had at least one child and a COVID-19 case within the prior months, finding an average secondary infection rate (SIR) of 0.58.
- The results showed similar infection rates among children (62%) and adults (75%), and households with higher SIR also reported more symptomatic cases, indicating the need for continued focus on household transmission strategies.
Dried blood spots (DBS) and oral fluids (OF) are easily attainable biospecimen types that have enabled population scale antibody monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 exposure and vaccination. However, the degree to which the two different biospecimen types can be used interchangeably remains unclear. To begin to address this question, we generated contrived DBS (cDBS) and OF (cOF) from serum panels from SARS-CoV-2 infected, vaccinated, and uninfected individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUse of electron microscopy to determine presence of coal dust in a neighborhood bordering an open-air coal terminal in Curtis Bay, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Sci Total Environ
December 2024
Article Synopsis
- Despite a decline in coal use in the US, over 90 million metric tons were exported in 2023, creating concerns about coal dust exposure among residents of Curtis Bay, Baltimore, who live near an open-air coal terminal.
- A study aimed to address community concerns by analyzing settled dust samples from two locations near the terminal, using advanced techniques like scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to identify coal particles.
- The analysis confirmed the presence of coal dust in both residential areas, with higher concentrations closer to the terminal, substantiating the residents' long-standing worries about coal dust accumulation in their environment.