Optimal Annual COVID-19 Vaccine Boosting Dates Following Previous Booster Vaccination or Breakthrough Infection.

Background: COVID-19 booster vaccinations mitigate transmission and reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with infection. However, the optimal date for booster administration remains uncertain. Geographic variation in infection rates throughout the year makes it challenging to intuit the best yearly booster administration date to effectively prevent infection, and also challenging to provide best guidance on how to alter booster administration in response to a breakthrough infection.

Seasonality of endemic COVID-19.

The seasonality of COVID-19 is important for effective healthcare and public health decision-making. Previous waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections have indicated that the virus will likely persist as an endemic pathogen with distinct surges. However, the timing and patterns of potentially seasonal surges remain uncertain, rendering effective public health policies uninformed and in danger of poorly anticipating opportunities for intervention, such as well-timed booster vaccination drives.

Origins of lineage-specific elements via gene duplication, relocation, and regional rearrangement in Neurospora crassa.

The origin of new genes has long been a central interest of evolutionary biologists. However, their novelty means that they evade reconstruction by the classical tools of evolutionary modelling. This evasion of deep ancestral investigation necessitates intensive study of model species within well-sampled, recently diversified, clades.

Infection with alternate frequencies of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine boosting for patients undergoing antineoplastic cancer treatments.

Patients undergoing antineoplastic therapies often exhibit reduced immune response to COVID-19 vaccination, necessitating assessment of alternate booster vaccination frequencies. However, data on reinfection risks to guide clinical decision making are limited. Here, we quantified reinfection risks for patients undergoing distinct antineoplastic therapies, given alternative frequencies of boosting with Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2.

Infection by SARS-CoV-2 with alternate frequencies of mRNA vaccine boosting.

One of the most consequential unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic is the frequency at which vaccine boosting provides sufficient protection from infection. We quantified the statistical likelihood of breakthrough infections over time following different boosting schedules with messenger RNA (mRNA)-1273 (Moderna) and BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech). We integrated anti-Spike IgG antibody optical densities with profiles of the waning of antibodies and corresponding probabilities of infection associated with coronavirus endemic transmission.

Evaluation of Strategies to Reduce Equine Strongyle Infective Larvae on Pasture and Study of Larval Migration and Overwintering in a Nordic Climate.

Horses, as grazing animals, are inadvertently exposed to intestinal parasites that, if not controlled, may cause disease. However, the indiscriminate use of anthelmintic drugs has led to drug resistance, highlighting the need for pasture-management practices to reduce the level of parasitic exposure and lessen reliance on drugs. The efficacy of such methods depends both on the epidemiology of the parasites and the prevailing weather conditions.

The durability of natural infection and vaccine-induced immunity against future infection by SARS-CoV-2.

The durability of vaccine-mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the durations to breakthrough infection, and the optimal timings of booster vaccination are crucial knowledge for pandemic response. Here, we applied comparative evolutionary analyses to estimate the durability of immunity and the likelihood of breakthrough infections over time following vaccination by BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech), mRNA-1273 (Moderna), ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca), and Ad26.COV2.

Phylogenies of the 16S rRNA gene and its hypervariable regions lack concordance with core genome phylogenies.

Background: The 16S rRNA gene is used extensively in bacterial phylogenetics, in species delineation, and now widely in microbiome studies. However, the gene suffers from intragenomic heterogeneity, and reports of recombination and an unreliable phylogenetic signal are accumulating. Here, we compare core gene phylogenies to phylogenies constructed using core gene concatenations to estimate the strength of signal for the 16S rRNA gene, its hypervariable regions, and all core genes at the intra- and inter-genus levels.

The durability of immunity against reinfection by SARS-CoV-2: a comparative evolutionary study.

Background: Among the most consequential unknowns of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic are the durability of immunity and time to likely reinfection. There are limited direct data on SARS-CoV-2 long-term immune responses and reinfection. The aim of this study is to use data on the durability of immunity among evolutionarily close coronavirus relatives of SARS-CoV-2 to estimate times to reinfection by a comparative evolutionary analysis of related viruses SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, human coronavirus (HCoV)-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-NL63.

Population Gene Introgression and High Genome Plasticity for the Zoonotic Pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae.

The influence that bacterial adaptation (or niche partitioning) within species has on gene spillover and transmission among bacterial populations occupying different niches is not well understood. Streptococcus agalactiae is an important bacterial pathogen that has a taxonomically diverse host range making it an excellent model system to study these processes. Here, we analyze a global set of 901 genome sequences from nine diverse host species to advance our understanding of these processes.

Legionella clemsonensis sp. nov.: a green fluorescing Legionella strain from a patient with pneumonia.

A novel Legionella species was identified based on sequencing, cellular fatty acid analysis, biochemical reactions, and biofilm characterization. Strain D5610 was originally isolated from the bronchial wash of a patient in Ohio, USA. The bacteria were gram-negative, rod-shaped, and exhibited green fluorescence under long wave UV light.

Pre-, intra- and postoperative staging of gastric carcinoma and clinical outcome.

Background: We compared preoperative (combined clinical and radiological staging and endoscopical Borrmann classification), intraoperative (by the surgeon: curative/palliative; R0/R1/R2-resection; intraoperative stage I to IV) and postoperative staging including histological results (pTNM) in respect of resectability and prognosis.

Methods: All patients with adenocarcinoma of the stomach were prospectively and consecutively included in the study protocol and were staged during the hospitalisation by the different specialists. Out of 215 patients with malignant tumors of the stomach, 153 were finally evaluated for the study.

[Hemorrhage-induced rupture of the pancreatic pseudocyst].

Hemorrhage from pseudocyst may be the most serious complication of chronic pancreatitis: the mortality from such hemorrhage approaches 80%. The bleeding arises from a major artery--the artery is eroded by the basic process of autodigestion, and the pseudocyst is converted into a pseudoaneurysm. The wall of the pseudoaneurysm is subjected to arterial pressure and may perforate into the peritoneal cavity, an adjacent segment of the gastrointestinal tract, or the pancreatic ductal system.

[Choledochal cyst as an unexpected intraoperative finding].

In adulthood, choledochal cysts often surprisingly are discovered during cholecystectomy. Abdominal ultrasonography incorrectly identified the cyst as a dilated or septated gallbladder. Once suspected preoperatively, confirmation of the diagnosis is obtained by ultrasonography or computerized axial tomography, which define its relationship to the vascular structures in the porta.

[Injuries of the urogenital system].

Ultrasonography is accepted as a valuable screening method for the detection of renal trauma, although it does not make any functional contribution. Computerized tomography has replaced excretory urography for the evaluation of blunt renal trauma, because it makes more precise diagnosis possible. Arteriography is mandatory when injuries of the renal branch are suspected.

[Acute mesenteric ischemia].

83 patients with acute intestinal ischemia are presented. The aim of the study is to characterize anamnestic and clinical signs of this severe disease. Mainly old people with various cardiac illnesses suffer from acute intestinal ischemia.

[Cystadenoma of the pancreas].

We report on a patient with a microcystic adenoma of the head of the pancreas. Cystic neoplasms of the pancreas comprise only about 2% of all exocrine tumours. They can be divided into two distinct groups with different prognoses: the microcystic glycogen containing tumours, which are always benign and the mucinous cystic tumours, the majority of which shows malignant dysplasia.

Prophylactic treatment of acute gastroduodenal stress ulceration. Low-dose antacid treatment without and with additional ranitidine.

Low-dose antacid treatment without and with additional ranitidine in the prevention of acute gastroduodenal stress ulceration in high-risk patients was compared in a randomized, double-blind clinical trial with endoscopic examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract before entry and after the 7-day study period. Of 67 patients who entered the study, 56 could be evaluated. Only one patient, allocated to antacid and placebo, had massive acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding, arising from a gastric ulcer.

The role of computerized tomography in fever, septicemia and multiple system organ failure after laparotomy.

Fifty-two patients with postoperative sepsis were studied by abdominal and pelvic computerized tomography (CT) for the presence and location of septic foci. CT mapping of infected fluid collections had direct therapeutic consequences as it allowed the selection of patients for percutaneous drainage, local operative drainage or relaparotomy. As soon as sepsis is suspected, an abdominal and pelvic CT study should be performed so that therapeutic procedures may be carried out at a stage at which no organ is yet failing, that is, in a period of lowest mortality.

Colonic hemorrhage from a solitary minute ulcer. Report of three cases.

Three patients with massive lower gastrointestinal bleeding are reported. In all cases, the bleeding source was localized by emergency selective mesenteric angiography. The histologic lesion found in the resected specimen consisted of a minute mucosal ulcer with an abnormally large eroded submucosal artery without evidence of true angiodysplastic changes.