Structure of the aminoterminal domain of the birnaviral multifunctional VP3 protein and its unexplored critical role.

To overcome their limited genetic capacity, numerous viruses encode multifunctional proteins. The birnavirus VP3 protein plays key roles during infection, including scaffolding of the viral capsid during morphogenesis, recruitment, and regulation of the viral RNA polymerase, shielding of the double-stranded RNA genome and targeting of host endosomes for genome replication, and immune evasion. The dimeric form of VP3 is critical for these functions.

The recruitment of TRiC chaperonin in rotavirus viroplasms correlates with virus replication.

Unlabelled: Rotavirus (RV) replication takes place in the viroplasms, cytosolic inclusions that allow the synthesis of virus genome segments and their encapsidation in the core shell, followed by the addition of the second layer of the virion. The viroplasms are composed of several viral proteins, including NSP5, which serves as the main building block. Microtubules, lipid droplets, and miRNA-7 are among the host components recruited in viroplasms.

Political Ideology Direction of Policy Agendas and Maternal Mortality Outcomes in the U.S., 1915-2007.

Objectives: The causes for persistently high and increasing maternal mortality rates in the United States have been elusive.

Methods: We use the shift in the ideological direction of the Republican and the Democratic parties in the 1960s, to test the hypothesis that fluctuations in overall and race-specific maternal mortality rates (MMR) follow the power shifts between the parties before and after the Political Realignment (PR) of the 1960s.

Results: Using time-series data analysis methods, we find that, net of trend, overall and race-specific MMRs were higher under Democratic administrations than Republican ones before the PR (1915-1965)-i.

Mechanical disassembly of human picobirnavirus like particles indicates that cargo retention is tuned by the RNA-coat protein interaction.

Here we investigate the cargo retention of individual human picobirnavirus (hPBV) virus-like particles (VLPs) which differ in the N-terminal of their capsid protein (CP): (i) hPBV CP contains the full-length CP sequence; (ii) hPBV Δ45-CP lacks the first 45 N-terminal residues; and (iii) hPBV Ht-CP is the full-length CP with a N-terminal 36-residue tag that includes a 6-His segment. Consequently, each VLP variant holds a different interaction with the ssRNA cargo. We used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to induce and monitor the mechanical disassembly of individual hPBV particles.

Rotavirus Particle Disassembly and Assembly In Vivo and In Vitro.

Rotaviruses (RVs) are non-enveloped multilayered dsRNA viruses that are major etiologic agents of diarrheal disease in humans and in the young in a large number of animal species. The viral particle is composed of three different protein layers that enclose the segmented dsRNA genome and the transcriptional complexes. Each layer defines a unique subparticle that is associated with a different phase of the replication cycle.

Spontaneous Interconversion between Different Narrowly Defined Shapes of Rotavirus Double-Layered Particles Studied in Real Time by High-Resolution Mobility Analysis.

Rotavirus double-layered particles (DLPs) are studied in the gas phase with a high-resolution differential mobility analyzer (DMA). DLPs were transferred to 10 mM aqueous ammonium acetate, electrosprayed into the gas phase, converted into primarily singly charged particles, and DMA-analyzed. Up to seven slightly different conformations were resolved, whose apparently random, fast (minutes), and reversible interconversions were followed in real time.

Black-White differences in perceived lifetime discrimination by education and income in the MIDUS Study in the U.S.

There is growing evidence on the negative effects of perceived discrimination on health outcomes and their interactions with indicators of socioeconomic status. However, less has been studied on whether income and education lead individuals of a different race to encounter different discriminatory experiences in their lifetime. Using data from the national survey of the Midlife Development in the United States-MIDUS 1 (1995-1996) and MIDUS Refresher (2011-2014)-on eight measures of perceived lifetime discrimination, this study compares discriminatory experiences of Black and White persons in two time periods.

The Political Realignment of Health: How Partisan Power Shaped Infant Health in the United States, 1915-2017.

The US two-party system was transformed in the 1960s when the Democratic Party abandoned its Jim Crow protectionism to incorporate the policy agenda fostered by the civil rights movement, and the Republican Party redirected its platform toward socioeconomic and racial conservatism. The authors argue that the policy agendas promoted by the two parties through presidents and state legislatures codify a racially patterned access to resources and power detrimental to the health of all. To test the hypothesis that fluctuations in overall and race-specific infant mortality rates (IMRs) shift between the parties in power before and after the political realignment (PR), the authors apply panel data analysis methods to state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics for the period 1915 through 2017.

Partisan Control of U.S. State Governments: Politics as a Social Determinant of Infant Health.

Introduction: State policies and programs affect population health; yet, little is known about the connections between health and the political institutions and actors that prescribe and execute those policies and programs.

Methods: The 2-way fixed-effects regression models were fitted to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, 1969-2014, to estimate logged infant mortality rate differentials between Republican- and non-Republican‒controlled state legislatures. These data were used in 2020 to hypothesize that net of trend, fluctuations in infant mortality rates-overall and by race-correlate with the party that controls state legislatures (the Lower House, the Upper House, and Congress).

Nanotechnological Applications Based on Bacterial Encapsulins.

Encapsulins are proteinaceous nanocontainers, constructed by a single species of shell protein that self-assemble into 20-40 nm icosahedral particles. Encapsulins are structurally similar to the capsids of viruses of the HK97-like lineage, to which they are evolutionarily related. Nearly all these nanocontainers encase a single oligomeric protein that defines the physiological role of the complex, although a few encapsulate several activities within a single particle.

Highly vulnerable communities and the Affordable Care Act: Health insurance coverage effects, 2010-2018.

Initially implemented in 2014 in some U.S. states, the Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to make health insurance coverage more accessible to the low-income population.

Cryo-electron Microscopy Structure, Assembly, and Mechanics Show Morphogenesis and Evolution of Human Picobirnavirus.

Despite their diversity, most double-stranded-RNA (dsRNA) viruses share a specialized T=1 capsid built from dimers of a single protein that provides a platform for genome transcription and replication. This ubiquitous capsid remains structurally undisturbed throughout the viral cycle, isolating the genome to avoid triggering host defense mechanisms. Human picobirnavirus (hPBV) is a dsRNA virus frequently associated with gastroenteritis, although its pathogenicity is yet undefined.

African Swine Fever Virus Protein pE199L Mediates Virus Entry by Enabling Membrane Fusion and Core Penetration.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a complex nucleocytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV) causing a lethal hemorrhagic disease that currently threatens the global pig industry. Despite its relevance in the infectious cycle, very little is known about the internalization of ASFV in the host cell. Here, we report the characterization of ASFV protein pE199L, a cysteine-rich structural polypeptide with similarity to proteins A16, G9, and J5 of the entry fusion complex (EFC) of poxviruses.

Structure and assembly of double-stranded RNA mycoviruses.

Mycoviruses are a diverse group that includes ssRNA, dsRNA, and ssDNA viruses, with or without a protein capsid, as well as with a complex envelope. Most mycoviruses are transmitted by cytoplasmic interchange and are thought to lack an extracellular phase in their infection cycle. Structural analysis has focused on dsRNA mycoviruses, which usually package their genome in a 120-subunit T=1 icosahedral capsid, with a capsid protein (CP) dimer as the asymmetric unit.

The politics hypothesis and racial disparities in infants' health in the United States.

We propose the politics hypothesis-i.e., the hypothesis that political forces comprise either a powerful predecessor of the social determinants of health or are essential social determinants of health themselves.

Structural Insights into Rotavirus Entry.

To initiate infection, non-enveloped viruses must recognize a target cell and penetrate the cell membrane by pore formation or membrane lysis. Rotaviruses are non-enveloped dsRNA viruses that infect the mature intestinal epithelium. They are major etiologic agents of diarrheal disease in human infants, as well as in young individuals of various avian and mammalian species.

Weathering, Drugs, and Whack-a-Mole: Fundamental and Proximate Causes of Widening Educational Inequity in U.S. Life Expectancy by Sex and Race, 1990-2015.

Discussion of growing inequity in U.S. life expectancy increasingly focuses on the popularized narrative that it is driven by a surge of "deaths of despair.

Social stratification and allostatic load: shapes of health differences in the MIDUS study in the United States.

Social stratification is an important mechanism of human organization that helps to explain health differences between demographic groups commonly associated with socioeconomic gradients. Individuals, or group of individuals, with similar health profiles may have had different stratification experiences. This is particularly true as social stratification is a significant non-measurable source of systematic unobservable differences in both SES indicators and health statuses of disadvantage.

Biophysical properties of single rotavirus particles account for the functions of protein shells in a multilayered virus.

The functions performed by the concentric shells of multilayered dsRNA viruses require specific protein interactions that can be directly explored through their mechanical properties. We studied the stiffness, breaking force, critical strain and mechanical fatigue of individual Triple, Double and Single layered rotavirus (RV) particles. Our results, in combination with Finite Element simulations, demonstrate that the mechanics of the external layer provides the resistance needed to counteract the stringent conditions of extracellular media.

Health disparities, politics, and the maintenance of the status quo: A new theory of inequality.

Individuals participate in politics to influence the politicians that prescribe the policies and programs that distribute the public goods and services that shape the social determinants of health. But the opportunity to participate in politics is conditional on survival, and in the U.S.

Acquisition of functions on the outer capsid surface during evolution of double-stranded RNA fungal viruses.

Unlike their counterparts in bacterial and higher eukaryotic hosts, most fungal viruses are transmitted intracellularly and lack an extracellular phase. Here we determined the cryo-EM structure at 3.7 Å resolution of Rosellinia necatrix quadrivirus 1 (RnQV1), a fungal double-stranded (ds)RNA virus.

BA71ΔCD2: a New Recombinant Live Attenuated African Swine Fever Virus with Cross-Protective Capabilities.

African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease of mandatory declaration to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The lack of available vaccines makes its control difficult; thus, African swine fever virus (ASFV) represents a major threat to the swine industry. Inactivated vaccines do not confer solid protection against ASFV.

XTEND: Extending the depth of field in cryo soft X-ray tomography.

We have developed a new data collection method and processing framework in full field cryo soft X-ray tomography to computationally extend the depth of field (DOF) of a Fresnel zone plate lens. Structural features of 3D-reconstructed eukaryotic cells that are affected by DOF artifacts in standard reconstruction are now recovered. This approach, based on focal series projections, is easily applicable with closed expressions to select specific data acquisition parameters.

Measuring Recent Apparent Declines In Longevity: The Role Of Increasing Educational Attainment.

Independent researchers have reported an alarming decline in life expectancy after 1990 among US non-Hispanic whites with less than a high school education. However, US educational attainment rose dramatically during the twentieth century; thus, focusing on changes in mortality rates of those not completing high school means looking at a different, shrinking, and increasingly vulnerable segment of the population in each year. We analyzed US data to examine the robustness of earlier findings categorizing education in terms of relative rank in the overall distribution of each birth cohort, instead of by credentials such as high school graduation.