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Letters: Indiana can reduce the spread of coronavirus by instituting mail voting

Our state is taking the wise step of reducing unnecessary public gatherings and that includes voting.

      




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Letters: Coronavirus spreads indiscriminately through communities

Take this virus seriously and do your part to protect everyone in the community, a letter to the editors says.

      




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IMPD targets illegal parties where virus may spread. One, some fear, ended a girl's life.

A bullet struck 16-year-old Nya Cope in the head just a short distance from a gathering that attracted large groups to an east side parking lot.

       




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With schools closed, day cares step up: What to know about child care as COVID-19 spreads

Indianapolis is partnering with YMCA, At Your School and Early Learning Indiana to provide care for children of first responders at a discounted rate.

      




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Pool rules: Riverside County says spread out, stay in your lane

Pool parties are frowned on, as health officials offer guidelines for the use of apartment and HOA pools and spas.




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Op-ed: Coronavirus spread in nursing homes not a result of inattentiveness

Because the virus is hard to control even with all the steps being taken, we must remain vigilant in the steps we are taking, Zach Cattell writes.

       




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How the spread of coronavirus is testing Africa

A surge in cases of Covid-19 will push the continent's health infrastructure to the limit.





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News24.com | WATCH | Faithful undeterred at Ramadan, even as virus spreads in Somalia

Adan Abdullahi knows that visiting the mosque for evening prayers is forbidden. There is a curfew in place in the Somali capital, and authorities have pleaded with worshippers to stay home as coronavirus infections rise.




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Facebook's fight against coronavirus misinformation could boost pressure on the company to get more aggressive in removing other falsehoods spreading across the social network (FB)

  • Facebook is taking a harder line on misinformation related to coronavirus than it has on other health topics in the past.
  • This decision may increase the pressure on the company to act more decisively against other forms of harmful falsehoods that spread on its social networks.
  • Facebook is banning events that promote flouting lockdown protests, and is removing the conspiracy theory video "Plandemic."
  • But false claims that vaccines are dangerous still proliferate on Facebook — even though they contribute to the deaths of children.

Amid the pandemic, Facebook is taking a harder line on misinformation than it has in the past. That decision may come back to haunt it.

As coronavirus has wreaked havoc across the globe, forcing lockdowns and disrupting economies, false information and hoaxes have spread like wildfire on social media. Miracle cures, intentional disinformation about government policies, and wild claims that Bill Gates orchestrated the entire health crisis abound.

In the past, Facebook has been heavily criticised for failing to take action to stop its platform being used to facilitate the spread of misinformation. To be sure, coronavirus falsehoods are still easily found on Facebook — but the company has taken more decisive action than in previous years:

But Facebook's actions to combat COVID-19 misinformation may backfire — in the sense that it has the potential to dramatically increase pressure on the company to take stronger action against other forms of misinformation.

The company has long struggled with how to handle fake news and hoaxes; historically, its approach is not to delete them, but to try to artificially stifle their reach via algorithmic tweaks. Despite this, pseudoscience, anti-government conspiracy theories, and other falsehoods still abound on the social network.

Facebook has now demonstrated that it is willing to take more decisive action on misinformation, when the stakes are high enough. Its critics may subsequently ask why it is so reticent to combat the issue when it causes harm in other areas — particularly around other medical misinformation.

One expected defence for Facebook? That it is focused on taking down content that causes "imminent harm," and while COVID-19 misinformation falls into that category, lots of other sorts of falsehoods don't.

However, using "imminence" as the barometer of acceptability is dubious: Vaccine denialism directly results in the deaths of babies and children. That this harm isn't "imminent" doesn't make it any less dangerous — but, for now, such material is freely posted on Facebook.

Far-right conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, and more recent, Qanon, have also spread on Facebook — stoking baseless fears of shadowy cabals secretly controlling the government. These theories don't intrinsically incite harm, but have been linked to multiple acts of violence, from a Pizzagate believer firing his weapon in a pizza parlour to the Qanon-linked killing of a Gambino crime boss. (Earlier this week, Facebook did take down some popular QAnon pages — but for breaking its rules on fake profiles, rather than disinformation.)

And Facebook is still full of groups rallying against 5G technology, making evidence-free claims about its health effects (and now, sometimes linking it to coronavirus in a messy web). These posts exist on a continuum, with believers at the extreme end attempting to burn down radio towers and assault technicians; Facebook does take down such incitements to violence, but the more general fearmongering that can act as a gateway to more extreme action remains.

This week, Facebook announced the first 20 members of its Oversight Board — a "Supreme Court"-style entity that will review reports from users make rulings as to what objectionable content is and isn't allowed on Facebook and Instagram, with — in theory — the power to overrule the company. It remains to be seen whether its decisions may affect the company's approach for misinformation, and it still needs to appoint the rest of its members and get up and running.

For now, limits remain in place as to what Facebook will countenance in its fight against coronavirus-specific misinformation.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would immediately take down posts advertising dangerous false cures to COVID-19, like drinking bleach. It is "obviously going to create imminent harm," he said in March. "That is just in a completely different class of content than the back-and-forth accusations a candidate might make in an election."

But in April, President Donald Trump suggested that people might try injecting a "disinfectant" as a cure, which both has the potential to be extremely harmful, and will not cure coronavirus.

Facebook is not taking down video of his comments.

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

SEE ALSO: Facebook announced the first 20 members of its oversight board that will decide what controversial content is allowed on Facebook and Instagram

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A cleaning expert reveals her 3-step method for cleaning your entire home quickly




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Fin24.com | WhatsApp tightens rules on sharing to curb spread of fake virus news

WhatsApp on Tuesday placed new limits on message forwarding as part of an effort to curb the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.




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Channel24.co.za | LISTEN: Miriam Makeba’s joyful Pata Pata re-recorded to spread information and hope in the time of Covid-19

You can listen to this version of the 'world's most joyous song' here.




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Man Posts Hilarious ‘Bad Dad Jokes’ Daily on Sign in Front Lawn To Spread Cheer to Neighbors

When jokes are so horrible, so obvious, so corny that they make your eyes roll, it’s a good chance that they’re what many call “dad jokes.” Bordering on lame, and all the more hilarious because of it, these jokes are so bad and yet fathers seem to get such joy from trotting out the perfect…

The post Man Posts Hilarious ‘Bad Dad Jokes’ Daily on Sign in Front Lawn To Spread Cheer to Neighbors appeared first on The Western Journal.





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Local health unit credits public with slowing COVID spread, encourages cottagers to stay home

While infection rates remain steady across the region, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is reporting more than half of all 360 cases have now recovered.




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The major subunit of widespread competence pili exhibits a novel and conserved type IV pilin fold [Protein Structure and Folding]

Type IV filaments (T4F), which are helical assemblies of type IV pilins, constitute a superfamily of filamentous nanomachines virtually ubiquitous in prokaryotes that mediate a wide variety of functions. The competence (Com) pilus is a widespread T4F, mediating DNA uptake (the first step in natural transformation) in bacteria with one membrane (monoderms), an important mechanism of horizontal gene transfer. Here, we report the results of genomic, phylogenetic, and structural analyses of ComGC, the major pilin subunit of Com pili. By performing a global comparative analysis, we show that Com pili genes are virtually ubiquitous in Bacilli, a major monoderm class of Firmicutes. This also revealed that ComGC displays extensive sequence conservation, defining a monophyletic group among type IV pilins. We further report ComGC solution structures from two naturally competent human pathogens, Streptococcus sanguinis (ComGCSS) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (ComGCSP), revealing that this pilin displays extensive structural conservation. Strikingly, ComGCSS and ComGCSP exhibit a novel type IV pilin fold that is purely helical. Results from homology modeling analyses suggest that the unusual structure of ComGC is compatible with helical filament assembly. Because ComGC displays such a widespread distribution, these results have implications for hundreds of monoderm species.




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A Proteome-wide, Quantitative Survey of In Vivo Ubiquitylation Sites Reveals Widespread Regulatory Roles

Sebastian A. Wagner
Oct 1, 2011; 10:M111.013284-M111.013284
Research




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On the solvability of a class of nonlinear integral equations in the problem of a spread of an epidemic

A. G. Sergeev and Kh. A. Khachatryan
Trans. Moscow Math. Soc. 80 (2020), 95-111.
Abstract, references and article information




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Resisting the Spread of Disease - Part 2

One of the most useful tools in analyzing the spread of disease is a system of evolutionary equations that reflects the dynamics among three distinct categories of a population: those susceptible (S) to a disease, those infected (I) with it, and those recovered (R) from it. This SIR model is applicable to a range of diseases, from smallpox to the flu. To predict the impact of a particular disease it is crucial to determine certain parameters associated with it, such as the average number of people that a typical infected person will infect. Researchers estimate these parameters by applying statistical methods to gathered data, which aren.t complete because, for example, some cases aren.t reported. Armed with reliable models, mathematicians help public health officials battle the complex, rapidly changing world of modern disease. Today.s models are more sophisticated than those of even a few years ago. They incorporate information such as contact periods that vary with age (young people have contact with one another for a longer period of time than do adults from different households), instead of assuming equal contact periods for everyone. The capacity to treat variability makes it possible to predict the effectiveness of targeted vaccination strategies to combat the flu, for instance. Some models now use graph theory and matrices to represent networks of social interactions, which are important in understanding how far and how fast a given disease will spread. For More Information: Mathematical Models in Population Biology and Epidemiology, Fred Brauer and Carlos Castillo-Chavez.




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Resisting the Spread of Disease - Part 1

One of the most useful tools in analyzing the spread of disease is a system of evolutionary equations that reflects the dynamics among three distinct categories of a population: those susceptible (S) to a disease, those infected (I) with it, and those recovered (R) from it. This SIR model is applicable to a range of diseases, from smallpox to the flu. To predict the impact of a particular disease it is crucial to determine certain parameters associated with it, such as the average number of people that a typical infected person will infect. Researchers estimate these parameters by applying statistical methods to gathered data, which aren.t complete because, for example, some cases aren.t reported. Armed with reliable models, mathematicians help public health officials battle the complex, rapidly changing world of modern disease. Today.s models are more sophisticated than those of even a few years ago. They incorporate information such as contact periods that vary with age (young people have contact with one another for a longer period of time than do adults from different households), instead of assuming equal contact periods for everyone. The capacity to treat variability makes it possible to predict the effectiveness of targeted vaccination strategies to combat the flu, for instance. Some models now use graph theory and matrices to represent networks of social interactions, which are important in understanding how far and how fast a given disease will spread. For More Information: Mathematical Models in Population Biology and Epidemiology, Fred Brauer and Carlos Castillo-Chavez.




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The more we lose biodiversity, the worse will be the spread of infectious diseases

Do biodiversity losses aggravate transmission of infectious diseases spread by animals to humans? The jury is still out but several scientists say there is a "biodiversity dilution effect" in which declining biodiversity results in increased infectious-disease transmission.




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CBD News: The guidance addresses a major pathway for introduction and spread of invasive alien species, as a significant percentage of global invasive introductions result from pets, aquarium and terrarium species that escape from confined conditions and




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CRISPR-Cas12a has widespread off-target and dsDNA-nicking effects [DNA and Chromosomes]

Cas12a (Cpf1) is an RNA-guided endonuclease in the bacterial type V-A CRISPR-Cas anti-phage immune system that can be repurposed for genome editing. Cas12a can bind and cut dsDNA targets with high specificity in vivo, making it an ideal candidate for expanding the arsenal of enzymes used in precise genome editing. However, this reported high specificity contradicts Cas12a's natural role as an immune effector against rapidly evolving phages. Here, we employed high-throughput in vitro cleavage assays to determine and compare the native cleavage specificities and activities of three different natural Cas12a orthologs (FnCas12a, LbCas12a, and AsCas12a). Surprisingly, we observed pervasive sequence-specific nicking of randomized target libraries, with strong nicking of DNA sequences containing up to four mismatches in the Cas12a-targeted DNA-RNA hybrid sequences. We also found that these nicking and cleavage activities depend on mismatch type and position and vary with Cas12a ortholog and CRISPR RNA sequence. Our analysis further revealed robust nonspecific nicking of dsDNA when Cas12a is activated by binding to a target DNA. Together, our findings reveal that Cas12a has multiple nicking activities against dsDNA substrates and that these activities vary among different Cas12a orthologs.




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Ultraviolet light exposes contagion spread from improper PPE use

(Florida Atlantic University) Despite PPE use, reports show that many health care workers contracted COVID-19. A novel training technique reinforces the importance of using proper procedures to put on and take off PPE when caring for patients during the pandemic. Researchers vividly demonstrate how aerosol-generating procedures can lead to exposure of the contagion with improper PPE use. The most common error made by the health care workers was contaminating the face or forearms during PPE removal.




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Study traces spread of early dairy farming across Western Europe

(University of York) An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of York, analysed the molecular remains of food left in pottery used by the first farmers who settled along the Atlantic Coast of Europe from 7,000 to 6,000 years ago.




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The major subunit of widespread competence pili exhibits a novel and conserved type IV pilin fold [Protein Structure and Folding]

Type IV filaments (T4F), which are helical assemblies of type IV pilins, constitute a superfamily of filamentous nanomachines virtually ubiquitous in prokaryotes that mediate a wide variety of functions. The competence (Com) pilus is a widespread T4F, mediating DNA uptake (the first step in natural transformation) in bacteria with one membrane (monoderms), an important mechanism of horizontal gene transfer. Here, we report the results of genomic, phylogenetic, and structural analyses of ComGC, the major pilin subunit of Com pili. By performing a global comparative analysis, we show that Com pili genes are virtually ubiquitous in Bacilli, a major monoderm class of Firmicutes. This also revealed that ComGC displays extensive sequence conservation, defining a monophyletic group among type IV pilins. We further report ComGC solution structures from two naturally competent human pathogens, Streptococcus sanguinis (ComGCSS) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (ComGCSP), revealing that this pilin displays extensive structural conservation. Strikingly, ComGCSS and ComGCSP exhibit a novel type IV pilin fold that is purely helical. Results from homology modeling analyses suggest that the unusual structure of ComGC is compatible with helical filament assembly. Because ComGC displays such a widespread distribution, these results have implications for hundreds of monoderm species.




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First case of Zika virus spread through sexual contact is detected in UK




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Mountcastle tries 1B as O's preach versatility

Taking reps behind Chris Davis at first base, Orioles prospect Ryan Mountcastle became the most high-profile participant yet in the club's grand spring experiment.




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Rogue tourists arrested as Hawaii tries to curb virus spread

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii authorities are cracking down on rogue tourists who are visiting beaches, riding personal watercraft, shopping and generally flouting strict requirements that they quarantine for 14 days after arriving. A newlywed...




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Jamaican art spreads warmth in St Petersburg

St Petersburg is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque cities in the world – from its European-inspired architecture, its signature colourful, eclectic-style to its neoclassical and Baroque style to its water corridors, and the art, the city is a...




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CRISPR-Cas12a has widespread off-target and dsDNA-nicking effects [DNA and Chromosomes]

Cas12a (Cpf1) is an RNA-guided endonuclease in the bacterial type V-A CRISPR-Cas anti-phage immune system that can be repurposed for genome editing. Cas12a can bind and cut dsDNA targets with high specificity in vivo, making it an ideal candidate for expanding the arsenal of enzymes used in precise genome editing. However, this reported high specificity contradicts Cas12a's natural role as an immune effector against rapidly evolving phages. Here, we employed high-throughput in vitro cleavage assays to determine and compare the native cleavage specificities and activities of three different natural Cas12a orthologs (FnCas12a, LbCas12a, and AsCas12a). Surprisingly, we observed pervasive sequence-specific nicking of randomized target libraries, with strong nicking of DNA sequences containing up to four mismatches in the Cas12a-targeted DNA-RNA hybrid sequences. We also found that these nicking and cleavage activities depend on mismatch type and position and vary with Cas12a ortholog and CRISPR RNA sequence. Our analysis further revealed robust nonspecific nicking of dsDNA when Cas12a is activated by binding to a target DNA. Together, our findings reveal that Cas12a has multiple nicking activities against dsDNA substrates and that these activities vary among different Cas12a orthologs.




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Coronavirus Is Spreading across Borders, But It Is Not a Migration Problem

Travel bans, border closures, and other migration management tools did not prove effective at blocking COVID-19 from spreading across international borders. Yet as governments have shifted from containment to mitigation with the coronavirus now in community transmission in many countries, these restrictions are a logical part of the policy toolkit in the context of social distancing and restricting all forms of human movement, as this commentary explores.




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Researchers discover microbe that could control spread of malaria

A microbe found in mosquitoes that appears to block malaria could be used to control spread of the disease in humans, according to researchers in Kenya and Britain.




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Strict Preanalytical Oral Glucose Tolerance Test Blood Sample Handling Is Essential for Diagnosing Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVE

Preanalytical processing of blood samples can affect plasma glucose measurement because on-going glycolysis by cells prior to centrifugation can lower its concentration. In June 2017, ACT Pathology changed the processing of oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) blood samples for pregnant women from a delayed to an early centrifugation protocol. The effect of this change on the rate of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) diagnosis was determined.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

All pregnant women in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are recommended for GDM testing with a 75-g OGTT using the World Health Organization diagnostic criteria. From January 2015 to May 2017, OGTT samples were collected into sodium fluoride (NaF) tubes and kept at room temperature until completion of the test (delayed centrifugation). From June 2017 to October 2018, OGTT samples in NaF tubes were centrifuged within 10 min (early centrifugation).

RESULTS

A total of 7,509 women were tested with the delayed centrifugation protocol and 4,808 with the early centrifugation protocol. The mean glucose concentrations for the fasting, 1-h and 2-h OGTT samples were, respectively, 0.24 mmol/L (5.4%), 0.34 mmol/L (4.9%), and 0.16 mmol/L (2.3%) higher using the early centrifugation protocol (P < 0.0001 for all), increasing the GDM diagnosis rate from 11.6% (n = 869/7,509) to 20.6% (n = 1,007/4,887).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study highlight the critical importance of the preanalytical processing protocol of OGTT blood samples used for diagnosing GDM. Delay in centrifuging of blood collected into NaF tubes will result in substantially lower rates of diagnosis than if blood is centrifuged early.




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Trade can spread economic toll of local disasters globally, study finds

Damage from a natural disaster in one place can spread globally due to urban trade networks, a Yale study said Monday.




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The Candidate, the Preacher and the Unconscious Mind

On the eve of crucial presidential primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has found himself dogged by questions about his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. As the Democratic front-runner's popularity has suffered after public statements by Wright about ra...




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Next Stop for Widespread Teacher Activism? North Carolina

Thousands of North Carolina teachers will take leave on May 16 to protest at the state capitol, forcing some school districts to close.




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The Pandemic Is Causing Widespread Emotional Trauma. Schools Must Be Ready to Help

Students and adults in the school community will all need more support when schools reopen, writes the head of the National Association of School Psychologists.




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Curbing the Spread of COVID-19, Anxiety, and Learning Loss for Youth Behind Bars

Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in pre- and post-trial correctional facilities across the United States, and the challenges of social distancing for students in regular districts are all massively compounded for students behind bars.




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The Pandemic Is Causing Widespread Emotional Trauma. Schools Must Be Ready to Help

Students and adults in the school community will all need more support when schools reopen, writes the head of the National Association of School Psychologists.




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Epidemic diphtheria : a research on the origin and spread of the disease from an international standpoint / by Arthur Newsholme.

London : Swan Sonnenschein, 1898.




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Short-term forecasts of COVID-19 spread across Indian states until 1 May 2020. (arXiv:2004.13538v2 [q-bio.PE] UPDATED)

The very first case of corona-virus illness was recorded on 30 January 2020, in India and the number of infected cases, including the death toll, continues to rise. In this paper, we present short-term forecasts of COVID-19 for 28 Indian states and five union territories using real-time data from 30 January to 21 April 2020. Applying Holt's second-order exponential smoothing method and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, we generate 10-day ahead forecasts of the likely number of infected cases and deaths in India for 22 April to 1 May 2020. Our results show that the number of cumulative cases in India will rise to 36335.63 [PI 95% (30884.56, 42918.87)], concurrently the number of deaths may increase to 1099.38 [PI 95% (959.77, 1553.76)] by 1 May 2020. Further, we have divided the country into severity zones based on the cumulative cases. According to this analysis, Maharashtra is likely to be the most affected states with around 9787.24 [PI 95% (6949.81, 13757.06)] cumulative cases by 1 May 2020. However, Kerala and Karnataka are likely to shift from the red zone (i.e. highly affected) to the lesser affected region. On the other hand, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh will move to the red zone. These results mark the states where lockdown by 3 May 2020, can be loosened.




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Far-Right Spreads COVID-19 Disinformation Epidemic Online

Far-right groups and individuals in the United States are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to promote disinformation, hate, extremism and authoritarianism. "COVID-19 has been seized by far-right groups as an opportunity to call for extreme violence," states a report from ISD, based on a combination of natural language processing, network analysis and ethnographic online research.




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The Great Barrier Reef Is Now Facing Most Widespread Bleaching Event Yet

The severity of this year's bleaching is second only to 2016, during which a third of the reef’s corals died




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Champion Manitoba jigger launches online competition to spread joy amid pandemic

Acclaimed jigger Ryan Richard, from Sandy Bay First Nation, is calling all dancers to showcase their skills in an online jigging competition.



  • News/Canada/Manitoba

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Community spread blamed for over half of Ontario's new COVID-19 cases, 'perplexing' top doctor

After several days in which fewer than 400 cases of COVID-19 were added to the provincial tally, Friday's report was up again, with 477 new cases reported.



  • News/Canada/Toronto

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Spreading the gospel

Siniore desires for her family and friends to know Christ’s love as she does. After a training, she took what she learnt and put it into practice.




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Paralysis provides platform to preach

Miraculous healing from sudden paralysis gives an OM worker opportunity to preach the gospel in a community.




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Camel and donkey preach the gospel to thousands

OM Ireland's two multi-media puppet shows perform over 75 times in schools around Ireland. The gospel message is expected to be heard by thousands.




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Coronavirus: Passengers entering UK 'to be quarantined for two weeks' to halt spread

People arriving in the UK could be forced to quarantine for two weeks to halt the spread of coronavirus under plans for the "second phase" of the Government's response.