Assessing Military Mental Health during the Pandemic: A Five Country Collaboration.

Purpose Of Review: Members of a technical panel representing Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US collaborated to develop surveys designed to provide military leaders with information to guide decisions early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of this collaboration and a review of findings from the resulting body of work.

Recent Findings: While surveys pointed to relatively favorable mental health and perceptions of leadership among military personnel early in the pandemic, these observations did not reflect the experiences of personnel deployed in COVID-19 response operations, nor were these observations reflective of later stages of the pandemic.

International perspective on military exposure data sources, applications, and opportunities for collaboration.

Military personnel may be exposed to a range of hazards. The assessment, documentation and reporting of military exposure information are important steps to guide health protection, services, and research to support actively serving members and veterans. In 2021, a Working Group of researchers from veteran and defense administrations across the Five Eyes countries (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) was established to examine large military exposure data sources available in each country, their applications, and opportunities to leverage information across administrations and internationally.

A universal vaccine candidate against Plasmodium vivax malaria confers protective immunity against the three PvCSP alleles.

Malaria is a highly prevalent parasitic disease in regions with tropical and subtropical climates worldwide. Among the species of Plasmodium causing human malaria, P. vivax is the second most prevalent and the most geographically widespread species.

A single dose of ChAdOx1 Chik vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies against four chikungunya virus lineages in a phase 1 clinical trial.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a reemerging mosquito-borne virus that causes swift outbreaks. Major concerns are the persistent and disabling polyarthralgia in infected individuals. Here we present the results from a first-in-human trial of the candidate simian adenovirus vectored vaccine ChAdOx1 Chik, expressing the CHIKV full-length structural polyprotein (Capsid, E3, E2, 6k and E1).

Recombinant Plasmodium vivax circumsporozoite surface protein allelic variants: antibody recognition by individuals from three communities in the Brazilian Amazon.

Circumsporozoite protein (CSP) variants of P. vivax, besides having variations in the protein repetitive portion, can differ from each other in aspects such as geographical distribution, intensity of transmission, vectorial competence and immune response. Such aspects must be considered to P.

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis of phytoene desaturase in diploid and octoploid strawberry.

Background: Gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 is a simple and powerful tool for elucidating genetic controls and for crop improvement and its use has been reported in a growing number of important food crops, including recently . In order to inform application of the technology in e targeted the visible endogenous marker gene (phytoene desaturase) in diploid ssp. 'Hawaii 4' and octoploid  ×  'Calypso'.

The Spinal Cord Injury Pressure Ulcer Scale (SCIPUS): an assessment of validity using Rasch analysis.

Study Design: Secondary analysis of retrospective data.

Objective: The aim of this study was to further validate the Spinal Cord Injury Pressure Ulcer Scale (SCIPUS) using Rasch analysis.

Setting: Two rehabilitation centers in Canada.

ACTing in Partnership to Accelerate Impact.

Partnership between funders plays a vital role in tackling the AIDS epidemic and can help partners deliver "more than the sum of their parts." But how do partnerships form? How is value leveraged and maximized? How can partnerships achieve policy change? This article addresses these questions through the example of the Accelerating Children's HIV/AIDS Treatment Initiative, an ambitious $200 million public private partnership with a goal of doubling the number of children living with HIV on treatment in 9 priority African countries over a 2-year period. It describes how the partnership formed between the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and the differing styles, vision, and resources each organization contributed.

Inhibitors of retrograde trafficking active against ricin and Shiga toxins also protect cells from several viruses, Leishmania and Chlamydiales.

Medical countermeasures to treat biothreat agent infections require broad-spectrum therapeutics that do not induce agent resistance. A cell-based high-throughput screen (HTS) against ricin toxin combined with hit optimization allowed selection of a family of compounds that meet these requirements. The hit compound Retro-2 and its derivatives have been demonstrated to be safe in vivo in mice even at high doses.

Vaccinia Virus Uses Retromer-Independent Cellular Retrograde Transport Pathways To Facilitate the Wrapping of Intracellular Mature Virions during Virus Morphogenesis.

Poxviruses, such as vaccinia virus (VACV), undertake a complex cytoplasmic replication cycle which involves morphogenesis through four distinct virion forms and includes a crucial wrapping step whereby intracellular mature virions (IMVs) are wrapped in two additional membranes to form intracellular enveloped virions (IEVs). To determine if cellular retrograde transport pathways are required for this wrapping step, we examined VACV morphogenesis in cells with reduced expression of the tetrameric tethering factor known as the GARP (Golgi-associated retrograde pathway), a central component of retrograde transport. VACV multistep replication was significantly impaired in cells transfected with small interfering RNA targeting the GARP complex and in cells with a mutated GARP complex.

Risky driving among UK regular armed forces personnel: changes over time.

Objectives: To compare the prevalence of self-reported risky driving in a sample of UK military personnel at 2 different time points (2004 and 2009), and to identify the incidence of new onset risky driving and possible determinants of becoming a new risky driver.

Methods: Data were used from 2 phases of a military cohort study investigating the health and well-being of UK military personnel between 2004 and 2009. Participants were included if they were undertaking regular (rather than reserve) engagements, had completed both surveys and reported being a driver at both surveys.

Orally delivered water soluble Coenzyme Q10 (Ubisol-Q10) blocks on-going neurodegeneration in rats exposed to paraquat: potential for therapeutic application in Parkinson's disease.

Background: Paraquat, still used as an herbicide in some parts of the world, is now regarded as a dangerous environmental neurotoxin and is linked to the development Parkinson's disease (PD). Paraquat interacts with cellular redox systems and causes mitochondrial dysfunction and the formation of reactive oxygen species, which in turn, plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of PD. Various antioxidant therapies have been explored with the expectations that they deliver health benefits to the PD patients, however, no such therapies were effective.

Targeting the "cytokine storm" for therapeutic benefit.

Inflammation is the body's first line of defense against infection or injury, responding to challenges by activating innate and adaptive responses. Microbes have evolved a diverse range of strategies to avoid triggering inflammatory responses. However, some pathogens, such as the influenza virus and the Gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis, do trigger life-threatening "cytokine storms" in the host which can result in significant pathology and ultimately death.

What are the effects of having an illness or injury whilst deployed on post deployment mental health? A population based record linkage study of UK army personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Background: The negative impact of sustaining an injury on a military deployment on subsequent mental health is well-documented, however, the relationship between having an illness on a military operation and subsequent mental health is unknown.

Methods: Population based study, linking routinely collected data of attendances at emergency departments in military hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan [Operational Emergency Department Attendance Register (OpEDAR)], with data on 3896 UK Army personnel who participated in a military health study between 2007 and 2009 and deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan between 2003 to 2009.

Results: In total, 13.

Regions of the Cf-9B disease resistance protein able to cause spontaneous necrosis in Nicotiana benthamiana lie within the region controlling pathogen recognition in tomato.

The tomato Cf-9 and Cf-9B genes both confer resistance to the leaf mold fungus Cladosporium fulvum but only Cf-9 confers seedling resistance and recognizes the avirulence (Avr) protein Avr9 produced by C. fulvum. Using domain swaps, leucine-rich repeats (LRR) 5 to 15 of Cf-9 were shown to be required for Cf-9-specific resistance to C.

Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations.

Background: Little is known about self-harm in the armed forces.

Aims: To investigate the characteristics of armed forces personnel presenting to a general hospital following self-harm and compare these with matched controls who had self-harmed.

Method: Investigation of armed forces personnel presenting to hospital between 1989 and 2003 following self-harm and case-control comparison with people in the general population who had self-harmed.

The effect of sports injury on insulin-like growth factor-I and type 3 procollagen: implications for detection of growth hormone abuse in athletes.

Context: A method to detect exogenously administered growth hormone (GH) based on the measurement of two GH-dependent markers, IGF-I and type 3 procollagen (P-III-P) has been proposed. Skeletal or soft tissue injury may alter these markers. Elevations in either of these proteins after injury might lead to a false accusation of doping with GH.

Tomato BRI1 and systemin wound signalling.

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are perceived by Brassinosteroid Insensitive 1 (BRI1), that encodes a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase. Tomato BRI1 has previously been implicated in both systemin and BR signalling. The role of tomato BRI1 in BR signalling was confirmed, however it was found not to be essential for systemin/wound signalling.

Tomato BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE1 is required for systemin-induced root elongation in Solanum pimpinellifolium but is not essential for wound signaling.

The tomato Leu-rich repeat receptor kinase BRASSINOSTEROID INSENSITIVE1 (BRI1) has been implicated in both peptide (systemin) and steroid (brassinosteroid [BR]) hormone perception. In an attempt to dissect these signaling pathways, we show that transgenic expression of BRI1 can restore the dwarf phenotype of the tomato curl3 (cu3) mutation. Confirmation that BRI1 is involved in BR signaling is highlighted by the lack of BR binding to microsomal fractions made from cu3 mutants and the restoration of BR responsiveness following transformation with BRI1.

Helping to improve the group stereotype: on the strategic dimension of prosocial behavior.

Three studies consider a basis for intergroup helping. Specifically, they show that group members may help others to disconfirm a stereotype of their own group as mean. Study 1 shows that Scots believe they are seen as mean by the English, resent this stereotype, are motivated to refute it, and believe out-group helping is a particularly effective way of doing so.

Patterns of Dwarf expression and brassinosteroid accumulation in tomato reveal the importance of brassinosteroid synthesis during fruit development.

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are essential for many physiological functions in plants, however little is known concerning where and when they are synthesized. This is especially true during flower and fruit production. To address this we have used a promoter-GUS reporter fusion and RT-PCR to determine the relative expression levels of the tomato Dwarf (D) gene that encodes a BR C-6 oxidase.