Illness tracking in SARS-CoV-2 tested persons using a smartphone app: a non-interventional, prospective, cohort study.

There are few data on the range and severity of symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection or the impact on life quality in infected, previously healthy, young adults such as Swiss Armed Forces personnel. It is also unclear if an app can be used to remotely monitor symptoms in persons who test positive. Using a smartphone app called ITITP (Illness Tracking in Tested Persons) and weekly pop-up questionnaires, we aimed to evaluate the spectrum, duration, and impact of symptoms reported after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test according to sex, age, location, and comorbidities, and to compare these to responses from persons who tested negative. We followed up 502 participants (57% active participation), including 68 (13.5%) positive tested persons. Hospitalisation was reported by 6% of the positive tested participants. We found that positives reported significantly more symptoms that are typical of COVID-19 compared to negatives. These symptoms with odds ratio (OR > 1) were having difficulty breathing (OR 3.35; 95% CI: 1.16, 9.65; p = 0.03), having a reduced sense of taste (OR 5.45; 95% CI: 1.22, 24.34; p = 0.03) and a reduced sense of smell (OR 18.24; 95% CI: 4.23, 78.69; p < 0.001). Using a random forest model, we showed that tiredness was the single symptom that was rated as having a significant impact on daily activities, whereas the other symptoms, although frequent, had less impact. The study showed that the use of an app was feasible to remotely monitor symptoms in persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 and could be adapted for other settings and new pandemic phases such as the current Omicron wave.

Critical research needs for managing coral reef marine protected areas: perspectives of academics and managers.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a primary policy instrument for managing and protecting coral reefs. Successful MPAs ultimately depend on knowledge-based decision making, where scientific research is integrated into management actions. Fourteen coral reef MPA managers and sixteen academics from eleven research, state and federal government institutions each outlined at least five pertinent research needs for improving the management of MPAs situated in Australian coral reefs. From this list of 173 key questions, we asked members of each group to rank questions in order of urgency, redundancy and importance, which allowed us to explore the extent of perceptional mismatch and overlap among the two groups. Our results suggest the mismatch among MPA managers and academics is small, with no significant difference among the groups in terms of their respective research interests, or the type of questions they pose. However, managers prioritised spatial management and monitoring as research themes, whilst academics identified climate change, resilience, spatial management, fishing and connectivity as the most important topics. Ranking of the posed questions by the two groups was also similar, although managers were less confident about the achievability of the posed research questions and whether questions represented a knowledge gap. We conclude that improved collaboration and knowledge transfer among management and academic groups can be used to achieve similar objectives and enhance the knowledge-based management of MPAs.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 pol gene mutations in an AIDS patient treated with multiple antiretroviral drugs.

Multiple mutations were found in the human immunodeficiency virus pol gene following treatment of an AIDS patient with antiretroviral drugs. After approximately 2.5 years of monthly alternating therapy with 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and 2',3'-dideoxycytidine (ddC), most of the pol sequences amplified from the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cell DNA contained known AZT resistance mutations at codons 41, 67, and 215 and a putative ddC resistance mutation at codon 69 as well as other novel mutations. These mutations persisted for 6 months after the patient was switched to 2',3'-dideoxyinosine monotherapy. Mutations known to be associated with 2',3'-dideoxyinosine resistance did not occur during this time. Antiviral susceptibility testing of point mutants, introduced into the genetic background of laboratory strain NL4-3, showed that the codon 41 mutation antagonized ddC resistance when present with the codon 69 mutation. However, this antagonism was not found with a chimeric mutant containing the patient's pol gene sequence from codons 25 to 218, implying that other mutations compensated for the antagonism. Thus, alternating therapy with AZT and ddC resulted in the selection of viruses resistant to both drugs.

Who beats stress best--and how.

In a faster spinning world, managers are finding new ways to ease stress in workers and themselves. Wisdom comes from surprising sources--like the Army--and pays off.