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Background Lassa fever and Ebola are characterized by non-specific initial presentations that can progress to severe multisystem illnesses with high fatality rates. Samples from additional subjects are examined to extend and corroborate biomarkers with prognostic value for these diseases. Methods Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry metabolomics was used to identify and confirm metabolites disrupted in the blood of Lassa fever and Ebola patients. Authenticated standards are used to confirm the identify of key metabolites. Results We confirm prior results by other investigators that the amino acid l-threonine is elevated during Ebola virus infection. l-Threonine is also elevated during Lassa virus infection. We also confirmed that platelet-activating factor (PAF) and molecules with PAF moiety are reduced in the blood of patients with fatal Lassa fever. Similar changes in PAF and PAF-like molecules were not observed in the blood of Ebola patients. Conclusions Metabolomics may provide tools to identify pathways that are differentially affected during viral hemorrhagic fevers and guide development of diagnostics to monitor and predict outcome.

Lassa fever, a hemorrhagic fever caused by Lassa virus (LASV), is endemic in West Africa. It is difficult to distinguish febrile illnesses that are common in West Africa from Lassa fever based solely on a patient’s clinical presentation. The field performance of recombinant antigen-based Lassa fever immunoassays was compared to that of quantitative polymerase chain assays (qPCRs) using samples from subjects meeting the case definition of Lassa fever presenting to Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. The recombinant Lassa virus (ReLASV) enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) for detection of viral antigen in blood performed with 95% sensitivity and 97% specificity using a diagnostic standard that combined results of the immunoassays and qPCR. The ReLASV rapid diagnostic test (RDT), a lateral flow immunoassay based on paired monoclonal antibodies to the Josiah strain of LASV (lineage IV), performed with 90% sensitivity and 100% specificity. ReLASV immunoassays performed better than the most robust qPCR currently available, which had 82% sensitivity and 95% specificity. The performance characteristics of recombinant antigen-based Lassa virus immunoassays indicate that they can aid in the diagnosis of LASV Infection and inform the clinical management of Lassa fever patients.

In the United States, a key goal of states’ climate change policies is to reduce CO2 emissions from electric power plants. This study shows that specific policy packages significantly shape CO2 emissions from individual power plants.

In recent years, several scholars have recommended that countries reduce their energy-related CO2 emissions by setting carbon intensity targets for their electricity sectors. Other research by Freudenberg suggests that countries could substantially cut their emissions simply by focusing on lowering the intensities of electricity’s most extreme polluters. Using a unique international data source on power plants, we inform this issue by analyzing the distribution of CO2 emissions and intensities within countries’ electricity sectors. We find that the dirtiest 5 % of power plants are responsible for huge shares of their sectors’ total emissions. If these plants continued generating the same amount of electricity but met particular intensity targets, the world’s total electricity-based CO2 emissions could be reduced by as much as 44 %.

William Freudenburg’s double diversion framework, describing tandem political processes of privileged access and privileged accounts, has been receiving growing attention in environmental sociology and environmental studies more broadly, warranting a close look at the evolutionary development of this framework in Freudenburg’s record of scholarship. We assess the notable contributions William Freudenburg has made to our understanding of decision-making in environmental politics through invoking this framework in several of his analyses. William Freudenburg’s passing has left much unfinished business to be taken up by his successors, however. We discuss several avenues of future research that could be employed to advance upon his groundbreaking work.