In Rebuke of Trump, Tillerson Says Lies Are a Threat to Democracy – The New York Times

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom,” he said in a commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. Even small falsehoods and exaggerations are problematic, Mr. Tillerson said. (Mr. Trump is prone to both.) “When we as people, a free people, go wobbly on the truth even on what may seem the most trivial matters, we go wobbly on America,” Mr. Tillerson said.

Canada says it will cover losses in bid to finish Trans Mountain oil pipeline

Pipeline to endtime for panet!

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Pipeline builder had threatened to cancel the project as British Columbia blocks expansion on environmental grounds

Related: Canada quarrel pits British Columbia against Alberta in battle of oil and wine

Canada’s federal government will cover financial losses a pipeline builder might suffer if British Columbia’s provincial government continues to obstruct the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion said Bill Morneau, the country’s finance minister, on Wednesday.

Continue reading…

Mysterious rise in banned ozone-destroying chemical shocks scientists

Oops! Holy Ozone!

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CFCs have been outlawed for years but researchers have detected new production somewhere in east Asia

A sharp and mysterious rise in emissions of a key ozone-destroying chemical has been detected by scientists, despite its production being banned around the world.

Unless the culprit is found and stopped, the recovery of the ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from damaging UV radiation, could be delayed by a decade. The source of the new emissions has been tracked to east Asia, but finding a more precise location requires further investigation.

Continue reading…

Canada: Doug Ford rebuked after supporter chanted ‘lock her up’

Just what Canada does not need a clown posing as a political leader!

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Frontrunner for Ontario premier, the brother of former Toronto mayor Rob, has frequently rejected comparisons with Donald Trump

Doug Ford, the populist frontrunner in the race to become leader of Canada’s most populous province, has been accused of promoting “irresponsible rhetoric” after a supporter chanted “lock her up” about his rival at a campaign rally.

Related: Doug Ford supporters at Ontario debate revealed to be paid actors

Continue reading…

Emerg. Infect. & Microbes: Novel Triple-Reassortant influenza Viruses In Pigs, Guangxi, China

Yikes!

Triple%2BReassortment%2BIn%2BSwine%2BHos

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As pork production rises around the world – particularly in countries where there is poor biosecurity and little surveillance – the risks of seeing another novel swine flu virus emerge as a pandemic threat continues to grow. 

While we watch avian H5 & H7 flu viruses with particular concern – mainly due to their high mortality rates in humans – swine, or swine-avian-human triple reassortant viruses – are perhaps even more likely to emerge as a pandemic threat.

Two and a half years ago, Chen Hualan – director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory – gave an interview to Xinhua where she pegged the EA (Eurasian Avian-like) H1N1 swine virus (EAH1N1) as having perhaps the greatest pandemic potential of any of the novel viruses in circulation.

Avian-like H1N1 swine flu may “pose highest pandemic threat”: study

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) — The Eurasian avian-like H1N1 (EAH1N1) swine flu viruses, which have circulated in pigs since 1979, have obtained the ability to infect humans and may “pose the highest pandemic threat” among the flu viruses currently circulating in animals, Chinese researchers said Monday.

“Pigs are considered important intermediate hosts for flu viruses,” Chen Hualan, director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, who led the study, said in an written interview with Xinhua.

“Based on scientific analysis and comprehensive comparison of the main animal flu viruses: H1N1, H3N2, H5N1, H7N9, H9N2 and EAH1N1, we found the EAH1N1 is the one most likely to cause next human flu pandemic. We should attach great importance to the EAH1N1.”

(Continue . . . )

And indeed, we’ve been following the evolution of EAH1N1, along with other novel swine-origin viruses in China, with considerable interest.  A few recent blogs include:

Emerg. Microbes & Infect.: Effect Of D701N Substitution In PB2 Of EAH1N1 Swine Flu Viruses

J. Virology: A Single Amino Acid Change Alters Transmissability Of EAH1N1 In Guinea Pigs

Emerg. Microbes & Inf.: Pathogenicity & Transmission Of A Swine Influenza A(H6N6) Virus – China

Lest anyone think this is strictly a Chinese problem, we’ve also spent considerable time looking at the evolution and emergence of North American, European, and South American swine flu viruses as well.  Regions not mentioned are likely to have little or no surveillance and reporting.

I&ORV: Triple-Reassortant Novel H3 Virus of Human/Swine Origin Established In Danish Pigs

EID Journal: Characterization of a Novel Human Influenza A(H1N2) Virus Variant, Brazil

MMWR: Investigation Into H3N2v Outbreak In Ohio & Michigan – Summer 2016

J. Virol: Novel Reassortant Human-like H3N2 & H3N1 Influenza A Viruses In Pigs

And as we discussed yesterday (see PNAS: Broad Receptor Engagement of PDCoV May Potentiate Its Cross-Species Transmissibility), influenza isn’t the only zoonotic disease concern when it comes to pigs.

Nature’s Scientific Reports carries two related studies (albeit by different authors) on influenza in China’s commercial swine production industry.  The first, which is linked below with a short quote, is an article on surveillance.

Prospective surveillance for influenza. virus in Chinese swine farms

Benjamin D. Anderson, Mai-Juan Ma, Guo-Lin Wang, Zhen-Qiang Bi, Bing Lu, Xian-Jun Wang, Chuang-Xin Wang, Shan-Hui Chen, Yan-Hua Qian, Shao-Xia Song, Min Li, Teng Zhao, Meng-Na Wu, Laura K. Borkenhagen, Wu-Chun Cao & Gregory C. Gray

Excerpt

Overall, these first year data suggest that IAV is quite ubiquitous in the swine production environment and demonstrate an association between the different types of environmental sampling used. Given the mounting evidence that some of these viruses freely move between pigs and swine workers, and that mixing of these viruses can yield progeny viruses with pandemic potential, it seems imperative that routine surveillance for novel IAVs be conducted in commercial swine farms.

The second study (below) tells us a lot more about the growing number of novel triple reassortant swine-origin flu viruses circulating in Guangxi, China over the past few years.

Out of 15 isolates selected, researchers found 10 novel reassortant viruses (see chart below), all hybrids of EAH1N1, H1N1/09, CS H1N1, and HL H3N2, and all reportedly replicated in mice without adaptation, with several proving to be lethal. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41426-018-0088-z

Being a snapshot in time, and taken from a single Chinese province (ranked 11th in population), this likely only reveals a fraction of the viral diversity on Chinese pig farms.

I’ve only posted the link, abstract, and as short excerpt from the discussion. Follow the link below to read it in its entirety.

Novel triple-reassortant influenza viruses in pigs, Guangxi, China 

Ping He, Guojun Wang, Yanning Mo, Qingxiong Yu, Xiong Xiao, Wenjuan Yang,
Weifeng Zhao, Xuan Guo, Qiong Chen, Jianqiao He, Mingli Liang, Jian Zhu, Yangbao Ding, Zuzhang Wei, Kang Ouyang, Fang Liu, Hui Jian, Weijian Huang,
Adolfo García-Sastre & Ying Chen

Emerging Microbes & Infections volume 7, Article number: 85 (2018)
doi:10.1038/s41426-018-0088-z


Published:16 May 2018

Abstract

Considered a “mixing vessel” for influenza viruses, pigs can give rise to new influenza virus reassortants that can threaten humans. During our surveillance of pigs in Guangxi, China from 2013 to 2015, we isolated 11 H1N1 and three H3N2 influenza A viruses of swine origin (IAVs-S). 

Out of the 14, we detected ten novel triple-reassortant viruses, which contained surface genes (hemagglutinin and neuraminidase) from Eurasian avian-like (EA) H1N1 or seasonal human-like H3N2, matrix (M) genes from H1N1/2009 pandemic or EA H1N1, nonstructural (NS) genes from classical swine, and the remaining genes from H1N1/2009 pandemic. 

Mouse studies indicate that these IAVs-S replicate efficiently without prior adaptation, with some isolates demonstrating lethality. Notably, the reassortant EA H1N1 viruses with EA-like M gene have been reported in human infections. Further investigations will help to assess the potential risk of these novel triple-reassortant viruses to humans.

       (SNIP)

Currently, influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 viruses are the circulating seasonal influenza A viruses subtypes in human. The H1N1/2009 pandemic became the current seasonal H1N1 virus.

Our EA H1N1 HAs share < 73.7 and 78.1% similarity with the H1N1/2009 pandemic vaccine strain (A/Michigan/45/2015 H1N1), at nucleotide level and amino acid level, respectively. Our H3N2 IAVs-S share < 94.1 and 91.5% similarity with the H3N2 vaccine strain (A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 H3N2), at nucleotide level and amino acid level, respectively.

Studies have reported that seasonal trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine induce poor cross-reactive antibodies to EA H1N1 virus23 and does not protect against swine H3N257. Importantly, according to the risk assessment tool, which is developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States to evaluate the pandemic potential of different influenza strains58, we found that the EA H1N1 and swine H3N2 viruses are among the animal viruses with the highest risk score in Yang’s analysis26. Besides, at least one human infection with a similar reassortant IAV-S has been reported22.

We suggest that intensive surveillance of IAV-S and of swine-to-human infections with the IAV-S described in our study should be a priority for future research.

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Laila… what was her guilt to be killed? ليلى..بأي ذنب قتلت؟

“”What is the guilt of these children?
These young men and adults?
What guilt did a handicapped commit to being killed?
What sin does a child have to perish?
Why did Laila perish at the age eight months?
Do not lay the responsibility of our weakness on the victims.
Do not carry those who stand on the lines of fire and face aggression with their bare bodies, our falsified testimony to the occurring crimes.
The injustice that Gaza has been subjected to over the years is intolerable.
What we see is real heroism.
Un-armed bodies, young souls, lives annihilating in front of tyranny and massive military mechanisms.
The spirit of Laila and her fellow martyrs will be roaming above our fossilized hearts. Laila’s eyes, which were extinguished too early, will ask about the feasibility of seeing in a human being whose heart has been blinded.
I don’t find better than Mahmoud Darwish’s words about Gaza to close with :
“Because time in Gaza is not a neutral element … it does not push people to the coldness of observation … but it drives them to burst and to be influenced by the truth.
Time there does not take children from childhood to old age but makes them men in the first encounter with the enemy.
Time in Gaza is not relaxed but storming the burning afternoon … because the values in Gaza vary .. differ
The only benefit of the occupied is the extent of his resistance to the occupation.
It is the only competition there.
Gaza has become addicted to knowing this superior and cruel value. It has not learned from books or from urgent courses
Neither loud trumpets nor loudspeakers.
Gazans have learned it by experiment alone and with work that is not for advertising and image. ”

نادية حرحش

English follows

تملأ الصفحات أسماء وصور شهداء العودة، تحكي قصصاً لحياة كانت بالكاد تبدأ، أحلام وتوقعات، آمال وطموحات بالكاد ترى افقاً خارج حدود الحصار من كل الاتجاهات.

لوم وتساؤلات، عتب ومطالبة بمسؤوليات.

بين من يحمّل المسؤولين في غزة وزر القتل والذبح الحاصل، وبين من يتساءل عن سلاح المقاومة، يبقى الضحايا من الجرحى والشهداء هم أسياد الموقف.

هناك من يروج لفكرة ان ما يحدث من تعريض الابرياء للقتل ليس الا محاولة لفضح الاحتلال وبالتالي ما يجري من قتل يتحمل مسؤوليته اولياء الامر في البلاد.

وهناك من يروج في صحافة أخرى ان جيش الاحتلال يقتل اولئك المدججون بالسلاح من المصطفين على الحدود الشائكة، وهناك منهم من يروج بأن اولئك قد تم الدفع لهم مسبقاً من اجل ان يموتوا.

والحقيقة لا ارى فرقا بين اعلام يحمل القيادة في غزة المسؤولية عن قتل المتظاهرين وبين اعلام يحمل القتلى والجرحى المسؤولية عن قتلهم.

كعادة الحروب المستمرة هناك حسابات تدفع من قبل الشعب وتؤخذ من قبل…

View original post 1,275 more words

All Your Bases Belong to Us: A Conversation with Japanese Activist Hiroshi Inaba | In The Fray

US military bases occupy a fifth of the Japanese island of Okinawa. The latest round of base construction, says activist Hiroshi Inaba, threatens not only the environment but also the idea that the Okinawan people have a real say over what a foreign military does on their land.

Source: All Your Bases Belong to Us: A Conversation with Japanese Activist Hiroshi Inaba | In The Fray

Facebook lets advertisers target users based on sensitive interests

Social network categorises users based on inferred interests such as Islam or homosexuality

Facebook allows advertisers to target users it thinks are interested in subjects such as homosexuality, Islam or liberalism, despite religion, sexuality and political beliefs explicitly being marked out as sensitive information under new data protection laws.

The social network gathers information about users based on their actions on Facebook and on the wider web, and uses that data to predict on their interests. These can be mundane – football, Manhattan or dogs, for instance – or more esoteric.

Continue reading…

Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type 1 (HTLV-1): a primer

What is HTLV-1?

HTLV-1 is a human delta retrovirus assigned to the genus Deltaretrovirus, species Primate T-lymphotropic virus 1 [5]. It was first described in 1980.[10]

ViralZone:www.expasy.org/viralzone,
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics [6]

Soon thereafter Japanese researchers identified endemic virus, especially in southwestern Japan.[8,9]

These viruses infect a cell and make new DNA from their RNA genetic blueprint using an enzyme called reverse transcriptase.[7] This DNA then acts as a blueprint to manufacture more RNA and then viral proteins. The DNA form inserts into a random site in the host cell genome.[19] This form of HTLV-1 is called the provirus. The order of making RNA first then DNA is the reverse (retro) of the usual ‘direction’ of protein manufacture in human cells which is from DNA to RNA to protein.

HTLV-1 infects T and B lymphocytes, monocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts, using a common molecular, ubiquitous cell surface molecule, the glucose transporter 1, as its receptor.[12]

HTLV-1 is established mostly in resource-limited regions of the world, infecting an estimated 10-20 million people.[9] Australia hosts the distinct HTLV-1c strain although little is known about its distribution.[1,17] It is predicted that HTLV-1c arrived and then divided into at least 2 further distinct groups (clades) around 3,000-9,000 years ago.[17,18]

In Australia, HTLV-1 infection occurs in the middle of the country (‘central Australia’ mostly reported in the Northern Territory but also Western Australia and South Australia) and antibodies in sera collected in 1956 from Aboriginal Australians in Cape York, Queensland.[20] In some communities, greater than 40% of Aboriginal Australian adults are HTLV-1 infected.[13]

An HTLV-1 timeline. Some discoveries of interest are shown. Click to enlarge.

What does HTLV-1 do?

Infection is generally without symptoms. In 3-5% of those infected develop a highly malignant T-cell neoplasm known as adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATLL).[11] This can take decades to develop. There is an estimated 23.6 ATLL cases /100,000 population among Australian adult HTLV-1 carriers.[16]

Infection can also result in HTLV-1-associated-myeIopathy/tropical-spastic-paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and other inflammatory diseases involving the lungs, central nervous system and eyes.[1,10]

Crusted scabies has also been described as a marker for HTLV-1 infection.[2,3]

Bronchiectasis is the most common evidence of HTLV-1 infection among Aboriginal Australians.[1] 

How is HTLV-1 transmitted?

Epidemiological aspects and world distribution of HTLV-1 infection. Gessain & Cassar 2012. Front. Microbiol., 15 November 2012  [8]

The virus can be passed to a susceptible new host via prolonged breastfeeding, sexual transmission ( 4X more frequently male to female[9]),  via HTLV-1-contaminated blood or blood-product transfusion or intravenous drug use.[8]

Japan successfully deployed a program to reduce transmission methods to reduce mother-to-child-transmission.[14]

How do we test for HTLV-1?

Detecting the presence of antibody to viral proteins as a result of infection is a widely used and relatively inexpensive method that fits into the workflow of the modern serology laboratory. Specificity issues were an early and ongoing issue.[8]

The detection of proviral DNA using PCR methods is a sensitive way to identify infected blood cells. Enhanced methods can quantify how much provirus is present which is related to disease progression. A typical healthy infected person may have proviral DNA in 0.1-1% of peripheral blood cells.[10] Virus levels are generally stable but a rise has been associated with the development of HAM/TSP and proviral load is higher in bronchiectasis.[10,15] 

References…

  1. Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type 1c subtype proviral loads, chronic lung disease and survival in a prospective cohort of Indigenous Australians.
    http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0006281
  2. Crusted scabies: a clinical marker of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 infection in central Australia.
    https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2014/200/11/crusted-scabies-clinical-marker-human-t-lymphotropic-virus-type-1-infection
  3. HTLV-I and scabies in Australian Aborigines
    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PII0140-6736(93)91186-P/abstract
  4. Human T-lymphotropic virus 1: recent knowledge about an ancient infection
  5. https://talk.ictvonline.org/ictv-reports/ictv_9th_report/reverse-transcribing-dna-and-rna-viruses-2011/w/rt_viruses/161/retroviridae
  6. https://viralzone.expasy.org/59
  7. Retrovirus
    https://www.britannica.com/science/retrovirus
  8. Epidemiological aspects and world distribution of HTLV-1 infection
    https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00388/full
  9. HTLV-1 infections
    http://jcp.bmj.com/content/53/8/581
  10. Detection and isolation of type c retrovirus particles from fresh and cultured lymphocytes of a patient with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC350514/
  11. HTLV-1 Infection and Adult T-Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma—A Tale of Two Proteins: Tax and HBZ
    http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/8/6/161
  12. The Ubiquitous Glucose Transporter GLUT-1 Is a Receptor for HTLV
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(03)00881-X
  13. The prevalence and clinical associations of HTLV-1 infection in a remote Indigenous community
    https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2016/205/7/prevalence-and-clinical-associations-htlv-1-infection-remote-indigenous
  14. Establishment of the milk-borne transmission as a key factor for the peculiar endemicity of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1): the ATL Prevention Program Nagasaki
    https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/87/4/87_4_152/_article
  15. Higher Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Subtype C Proviral Loads Are Associated With
    Bronchiectasis in Indigenous Australians: Results of a Case-Control Study
    https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/ofid/ofu023
  16. Variant Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1c and Adult T-cell Leukemia, Australia
    https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/19/10/13-0105_article
  17. Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Subtype C Molecular Variants among Indigenous Australians: New Insights into the Molecular Epidemiology of HTLV-1 in Australo-Melanesia
    http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0002418
  18. Detailed phylogenetic analysis of primate T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (PTLV-1) sequences from orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) reveals new insights into the evolutionary history of PTLV-1 in Asia
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567134816302180
  19. Nonspecific integration of the HTLV provirus genome into adult T-cell leukaemia cells.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6328324
  20. Antibodies to HTLV‐I in populations of the southwestern Pacific
    https://ift.tt/2GqBKQG

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