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Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and multiple types of B cell malignancies. Emerging evidence demonstrates that KSHV reprograms host-cell central carbon metabolic pathways, which contributes to viral persistence and tumorigenesis. However, the mechanisms underlying KSHV-mediated metabolic reprogramming remain poorly understood. Carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamoylase, and dihydroorotase (CAD) is a key enzyme of the de novo pyrimidine synthesis, and was recently identified to deamidate the NF-κB subunit RelA to promote aerobic glycolysis and cell proliferation. Here we report that KSHV infection exploits CAD for nucleotide synthesis and glycolysis. Mechanistically, KSHV vCyclin binds to and hijacks cyclin-dependent kinase CDK6 to phosphorylate Ser-1900 on CAD, thereby activating CAD-mediated pyrimidine synthesis and RelA-deamidation-mediated glycolytic reprogramming. Correspondingly, genetic depletion or pharmacological inhibition of CDK6 and CAD potently impeded KSHV lytic replication and thwarted tumorigenesis of primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) cells in vitro and in vivo. Altogether, our work defines a viral metabolic reprogramming mechanism underpinning KSHV oncogenesis, which may spur the development of new strategies to treat KSHV-associated malignancies and other diseases. The oncogenic Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is known to reprogram cellular metabolism. Here, Wan et al show that viral Cyclin exploits host nucleotide synthesis and glycolysis to support KSHV pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of most invasive species suppression programs is to achieve long-term sustained reductions in population abundance, yet removal programs can be stymied by density-dependent population responses. We tested a harvest removal strategy for invasive Rusty Crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) at two nearshore native fish spawning habitats in northern Lake Michigan. Changes in average Rusty Crayfish densities were evaluated with a before-after reference-impact study design. We removed 3182 Rusty Crayfish, primarily adults (> 20 mm carapace length), at two sites over two harvest seasons, expending 17,825 trap days in effort. Generalized linear modeling results suggested a statistically significant reduction in Rusty Crayfish densities was achieved at one reef, Little Traverse Bay (LTB Crib). Reduced densities were sustained over the egg maturation period for native fish and into the following year after removal ceased. By late summer/early fall, between consecutive suppression efforts in 2018 and 2019, we observed a threefold increase in pre-removal densities. Size-frequency histograms from diver quadrat surveys showed higher abundances of juvenile (< 20 mm carapace length) size classes the following spring and summer at LTB Crib compared to its paired reference site. Stock-recruit curves fit to count data, pooled across all sites, provided further evidence of density-dependence. With a proviso that we only conducted two seasons of consecutive suppression, this study highlights an important aspect of invasive species management and raises questions about the efficacy of adult-only crayfish removal strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines why there exist important opportunities to think through what research on African urban sexualities—and specifically non-heteronormative sexualities—may mean moving forward. By looking back at the text Queer Visibilities that largely focused on articulating some of the relationships between the urban and sexuality over a decade ago in Cape Town, this article suggests at least three key opportunities in which future scholarship may wish to explore African urban sexualities in the current moment. These opportunities circulate around new theoretical insights that emerge from the South that may speak to but are not beholden to theories from the North, the urgent need for further empirical work on the ways sexuality interfaces with urbanisation dynamics on the continent, and to think through and give space to broader approaches to document the relationship between sexuality and the urban that include but also extend beyond more 'traditional' social science methods. This article then explores these opportunities in relation to the interventions that follow in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to summarise and draw out potential synergies across the contributions that preceded it to help chart potential future areas of research interest, and to acknowledge some of the persistent challenges that can hinder future research on the topic of African urban sexualities—and specifically non-heteronormative sexualities. As the second half of this article makes clear, it is vital that various challenges are acknowledged and hopefully addressed if the topic of African urban sexualities is to reach its fuller potential within the academy. First, however, I turn to the question of synergies and potential areas of future research interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all populations. The survey participants located in India and Italy perceived the largest drop in the air pollution concentration; conversely, the smallest variation was perceived among Chinese and Norwegian respondents. Among all the demographic indicators considered, only gender proved to be statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the potential for aquatic invasive species (AIS) to impact ecosystem function and services is an important component of ecological risk assessment. This study focuses on quantifying changes in biomass of food web groups in response to changes in AIS biomass as a function of variable AIS prey vulnerabilities (i.e. food availability) and AIS vulnerabilities to predators (i.e. predation pressure). We modified an existing Lake Erie food web model to assess the potential food web impacts of three benthic AIS (Eurasian ruffe Gymnocephalus cernua, killer shrimp Dikerogammarus villosus, and golden mussel Limnoperna fortunei) that may invade Lake Erie in the near future. Simulated biomass of golden mussels was most affected by bottom-up control, while killer shrimp and ruffe were affected by both top-down and bottom-up controls. AIS food web impacts showed both monotonic and non-monotonic responses to AIS biomass. Impacts from ruffe were highest when their biomass was high, while killer shrimp and golden mussels had maximal impacts at intermediate biomass levels on some food web groups. Our results suggest that golden mussels, which can feed at a lower trophic level and have fewer predators than ruffe or killer shrimp, may reach much higher equilibrium biomass under some scenarios and affect a broader range of food web groups. While all three species may induce negative effects if introduced to Lake Erie, golden mussels may pose the highest risk of impact for Lake Erie's food web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of invasive species before or soon after they establish in novel environments is critical to prevent widespread ecological and economic impacts. Environmental DNA (eDNA) surveillance and monitoring is an approach to improve early detection efforts. Here we describe a large-scale conservation application of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay with a case study for surveillance of a federally listed nuisance species (Ruffe, Gymnocephalus cernua) in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Using current Ruffe distribution data and predictions of future Ruffe spread derived from a recently developed model of ballast-mediated dispersal in US waters of the Great Lakes, we designed an eDNA surveillance study to target Ruffe at the putative leading edge of the invasion. We report a much more advanced invasion front for Ruffe than has been indicated by conventional surveillance methods and we quantify rates of false negative detections (i.e. failure to detect DNA when it is present in a sample). Our results highlight the important role of eDNA surveillance as a sensitive tool to improve early detection efforts for aquatic invasive species and draw attention to the need for an improved understanding of detection errors. Based on axes that reflect the weight of eDNA evidence of species presence and the likelihood of secondary spread, we suggest a two-dimensional conceptual model that management agencies might find useful in considering responses to eDNA detections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 20 years, sports concussion has become one of the most researched topics in sports medicine. Significant resources have been allocated to the study of this issue, with a dramatic increase in information concerning most aspects of this common sports injury. In light of this considerable increase in research, this review is offered to provide clinicians involved in the care of athletes a summary of key features of the evaluation and management of sports concussion with attention to recent contributions to the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the complex ways volunteer outreach workers can frame their engagement with a community-based HIV prevention programme for South African township MSM. Drawing on research conducted during the Ukwazana programme in Cape Town it begins by exploring limitations towards MSM participation with programme facilitators (namely previous feelings of mistrust and community homophobia) and strategies developed to offset these concerns. It then considers how great care must also be taken to appreciate how volunteers from marginalised groups can frame training as a key condition for participation. To understand this it is therefore necessary for facilitators to acknowledge a number of additional concerns. These include community status, a lack of bonding social capital between volunteers and a highly developed from of critical consciousness by volunteers regarding HIV prevention possibilities. This article therefore suggests that effort to initially engage marginalised communities must also be met with effort to understand the complex ways volunteers relate to other MSM and to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abiotic factors are important regulators of biological invasion and a recent study in Lake Tahoe (CA/NV, USA) showed that ultraviolet radiation (UV) can play a role in mediating warmwater fish invasion. In this study we highlight field and laboratory experiments that indicate strong species related differences in UV-induced stress between native and non-native fish species inhabiting the nearshore environment in Lake Tahoe. We use this differential UV sensitivity to develop a UV Attainment Threshold (UVAT) that if realized could be used to reduce susceptibility to warmwater fish invasion in nearshore environments. The UVAT is a target value for water transparency based on: (1) incident solar UV exposure levels during peak spawning season, and (2) experimentally derived UV exposure levels lethal to larval warmwater fish. We suggest that this value can be easily measured, monitored, and targeted to reduce the establishment and spread of invasive fish species. We also discuss how the UVAT increases the cost effectiveness of invasive species management. This approach could be relevant for any aquatic invasive species that is UV sensitive and constrained to relatively shallow water environments by, e.g. requirements for warmer spawning temperatures. Because many aquatic systems are threatened by both invasive species and declining water transparency we suggest that this research could have important applications in many systems, particularly in colder more UV transparent waters found in regions such as western North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much has been written concerning the effect of the post-apartheid transition upon gay communities in predominantly more affluent parts of South Africa, little is still known about how this transition affected black African residents in the former townships. This article therefore examines the impact that the political transition had on groups in the former townships through an exploration that highlights first the way it helped create delineated sexual binary relationships. It will then go on to explore how the social expression of these binary relationships has a unique geography within the former townships which in turn also allows us to see how an historically very Westerncentric term of identification ‘gay’ has been appropriated in unique ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vision is suppressed during blinks and saccadic eye movements. We hypothesized that visual reaction times (RTs) in a vigilance test would be significantly increased when a blink or a saccade happened to coincide with the stimulus onset. Thirty healthy volunteers each performed a visual RT test for 15 min while their eye and eyelid movements were monitored by a system of infrared reflectance oculography. RTs increased significantly, many by more than 200 msec, when a blink occurred between 75 msec before and up to 150 msec after the stimulus onset. A similar result was observed with saccades that started 75 to 150 msec after the stimulus. Vision or attention was evidently inhibited before each blink and for longer than the saccades lasted. We suggest that visual suppression is involved in this process, which could explain some of the normal variability in RTs over periods of seconds that has not been adequately explained before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of environmental DNA is a rapidly evolving approach for surveillance and detection of species. Often water samples are collected in the field and then immediately cooled, filtered, and the resulting filters are stored in freezers to preserve the DNA for subsequent analyses. Recently it was shown that filtered samples could be stored at room temperature for 14 days without any discernable loss in the total DNA. However, for many conservation applications, particularly in remote settings with limited capacity to freeze samples, it would be advantageous to store samples at room temperature for longer periods of time. Here we test for significant loss of DNA yield from storage of polycarbonate track etched filters in Longmire's lysis buffer at room temperature (20 °C) for 150 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Drowsy driving is believed to be a major factor in road crashes, but currently cannot be assessed accurately. A new system of infrared (IR) reflectance oculography is described that uses transducers attached to a glasses frame to measure drivers' drowsiness continuously on a new scale (JDS). Driving in a car simulator was investigated in relation to JDS scores per minute. Fifty volunteers had their eye and eyelid movements monitored while performing RT-tests when alert and when drowsy. Multiple regression analysis of ocular variables, measured every minute in alert and drowsy conditions, was used to establish the drowsiness scale (JDS). Driving off the road in the driving simulator was the criterion for dangerous driving by 8 sleep-deprived drivers. The regression predicting conditions was highly significant (R=0.70, p<0.0001). Mean JDS scores and mean RTs in all test conditions were highly correlated (r=0.70, n=88, p<0.001). There were 62 "off-road" events in 8 drowsy drivers, and 61 of them were preceded by JDS scores > 5. It is possible to measure drivers&#x2019; drowsiness continuously by IR oculography using the new JDS scale which does not require adjustment for individuals or the attachment of electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]