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Vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) is a newly recognized syndrome mediated by anti-platelet factor 4 antibodies induced by Covid-19 adenovirus-vectored vaccines including ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and Ad26.COV2.S. This study validated a proposed Brighton Collaboration case definition for VITT. A data collection form was developed and used to capture the variations in VITT criteria and assess their level of diagnostic certainty from adjudicated positive VITT case datasheets in Germany (n = 71), UK (n = 220), Australia (n = 203), and Taiwan (n = 56). We observed high prevalence of each component of the proposed VITT definition in positive cases (84%-100%), except for the occurrence of thrombosis or thromboembolism criterion in only 34% of VITT cases in Taiwan. The sensitivity of this proposed definition was 100% for Germany and UK, 92% for Australia, and 89% for Taiwan cases. These findings support the validity of this case definition for VITT., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: H. Tran reports project grant funding support outside of the submitted work from AstraZeneca and Sanofi. W.-I. Huang is a member of the national enhanced passive Covid-19 vaccine safety surveillance team in Taiwan. J. Buttery has served as an independent data monitoring committee member for CEPI SPEAC, GSK, Serum Institute of India, SK Biosciences and Clover Vaccines. His employer Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is compensated for his time. A. Greinacher reports grants and non-financial support from Aspen, Boehringer Ingelheim, MSD, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Paringenix, Bayer Healthcare, Gore Inc., Rovi, Sagent, Biomarin/Prosensa, personal fees from Aspen, Boehringer Ingelheim, MSD, Macopharma, BMS, Chromatec, Werfen, nonfinancial support from Boehringer Ingelheim, Portola, Ergomed, GTH e.V. outside the submitted work. No other authors report conflicts of interest. Parts of the German results reported have been obtained in a study conducted by Universitätsmedizin Greifswald under service contract No. EMA/2021/17/TDA. The views expressed are the personal views of the authors and may not be understood or quoted as being made on behalf of or reflecting the position of the European Medicines Agency or one of its Committees or Working Parties. The Taiwan VITT case information was based on data provided by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, operated by Taiwan Centers for Disease Control., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The combined effects of the herbicide glyphosate and elevated temperature were studied on the tropical staghorn coral Acropora formosa, in Nha Trang bay, Vietnam. The corals were collected from two different reefs, one close to a polluted fish farm and one in a marine-protected area (MPA). In the laboratory, branches of the corals were exposed to the herbicide glyphosate at ambient (28 °C) and at 3 °C elevated water temperatures (31 °C). Effects of herbicide and elevated temperature were studied on coral bleaching using photography and digital image analysis (new colorimetric method developed here based on grayscale), chlorophyll a analysis, and symbiotic dinoflagellate (Symbiodinium, referred to as zooxanthellae) counts. All corals from the MPA started to bleach in the laboratory before they were exposed to the treatments, indicating that they were very sensitive, as opposed to the corals collected from the more polluted site, which were more tolerant and showed no bleaching response to temperature increase or herbicide alone. However, the combined exposure to the stressors resulted in significant loss of color, proportional to loss in chlorophyll a and zooxanthellae. The difference in sensitivity of the corals collected from the polluted site versus the MPA site could be explained by different symbiont types: the resilient type C3u and the stress-sensitive types C21 and C23, respectively. The additive effect of elevated temperatures and herbicides adds further weight to the notion that the bleaching of coral reefs is accelerated in the presence of multiple stressors. These results suggest that the corals in Nha Trang bay have adapted to the ongoing pollution to become more tolerant to anthropogenic stressors, and that multiple stressors hamper this resilience. The loss of color and decrease of chlorophyll a suggest that bleaching is related to concentration of chloro-pigments. The colorimetric method could be further fine-tuned and used as a precise, non-intrusive tool for monitoring coral bleaching in situ.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) genomes in Taiwanese aborigines, whose ancestors have lived in Taiwan for over 10,000 years, have not been characterized. In order to characterize of HBV in this special population, serum samples were obtained from serologically HBsAg-positive 27 Taiwanese aborigines. The pre-S1/S2 region and the full-length 3.2 kb of the HBV genome were amplified by PCR. Obtained amplicons were sequenced and confirmed the HBV genotypes by phylogenetic analysis. By phylogenetic analysis of the sequence of pre-S1/pre-S2 region, HBV/B2 (21/27: 78 %) was the most prevalent followed by genotype D (6/27: 22 %). Two strains of HBV/B2, each having 3,215 bp genomes, had recombination with genotype C in the pre-C/C gene which is characteristic of subgenotype B2 circulating in Southeast Asia. Interestingly, six strains of genotype D formed a distinct cluster between subgenotypes D1 and D2 suggesting a novel group of HBV. A similar finding could also be confirmed based on the entire 3,182 bp genome from four strains of HBV/D. This new cluster was supported by a branch with 99 % bootstrap value and 3.4-5.8 % nucleotide divergence over the entire genome from other known subgenotypes D1 to D9. Four strains of the new D subgenotype showed serotype ayw2, but had unique amino acid sequences consisting of N115 in the preS/S gene; P41 in the X gene; S239, K/E295, V567, and P708 in the P gene, respectively. From the above results, we provisionally proposed to designate it as novel quasi-subgenotype D2 identified in Taiwanese aborigines.