Severe acute respiratory virus syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to a worldwide pandemic. Early studies in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients suggested a wide variety of presentations, however, there remains a paucity of robust data in this population. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of SOT recipients with SARS-CoV-2 infection from January 1 st t October 9 th , 2020. Pooled incidence of symptoms, treatments and outcomes were assessed. Two hundred and fifteen studies were included for systematic review and 60 for meta-analysis. We identified 2,772 unique SOT recipients including 1,500 kidney, 505 liver, 141 heart and 97 lung. Most common presenting symptoms were fever and cough in 70.2% and 63.8% respectively. Majority (81%) required hospital admission. Immunosuppressive medications, especially antimetabolites, were decreased in 76.2%. Hydroxychloroquine and interleukin six antagonists were administered in59.5% and 14.9% respectively, while only few patients received remdesivir and convalescent plasma. Intensive care unit admission was 29% from amongst hospitalized patients. Only few studies reported secondary infections. Overall mortality was 18.6%. Our analysis shows a high incidence of hospital admission in SOT recipients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. As management of SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, long-term outcomes among SOT recipients should be assessed in future studies.

Background The role of children in household transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains uncertain. Here, we describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of children with COVID-19 in Catalonia (Spain) and investigate the dynamics of household transmission. Methods Prospective, observational, multicenter study performed during summer and school periods (1 July-31 October, 2020), in which epidemiological and clinical features, and viral transmission dynamics were analyzed in COVID-19 patients <16 years. A pediatric index case was established when a child was the first individual infected within a household. Secondary cases were defined when another household member tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 before the child. The secondary attack rate (SAR) was calculated, and logistic regression was used to assess associations between transmission risk factors and SARS-CoV-2 infections. Results The study included 1040 COVID-19 patients <16 years. Almost half (47.2%) were asymptomatic, 10.8% had comorbidities, and 2.6% required hospitalization. No deaths were reported. Viral transmission was common among household members (62.3%). More than 70% (756/1040) of pediatric cases were secondary to an adult, whereas 7.7% (80/1040) were index cases. The SAR was significantly lower in households with COVID-19 pediatric index cases during the school period relative to summer (p=0.02), and when compared to adults (p=0.006). No individual or environmental risk factors associated with the SAR were identified. Conclusions Children are unlikely to cause household COVID-19 clusters or be major drivers of the pandemic even if attending school. Interventions aimed at children are expected to have a small impact on reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Background: One year into the pandemic, published data on hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) recipients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain limited. Methods: Single-center retrospective cohort study of adult HCT recipients with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Results: Twenty-eight consecutive transplantation and cellular therapy patients (autologous, n = 12; allogeneic, n = 15; chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy [CAR-T], n = 1) with COVID-19 were identified. The median age was 57 years. The median time from HCT to COVID-19 diagnosis was 656 days (interquartile range [IQR], 33-1274). Patients were followed for a median of 59 days (IQR, 40-88).Among assessable patients (n = 19), 10 (53%) had documented virological clearance; median time to clearance was 34 days (range, 21-56). Out of 28, 12 (43%), 6 (21%), and 10 (36%) patients had mild, moderate, and severe/critical disease, respectively.Overall mortality was 25%, nearly identical for autologous and allogeneic HCT, and exclusively seen in hospitalized patients, older than 50 years of age with severe COVID-19. None of the patients with mild (n = 12) or moderate (n = 6) COVID-19 died whereas 7/10 patients (70%) with severe/critical COVID-19 died (P = .0001). Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 within 12 months of HCT exhibited higher mortality (57% vs 14%; P = .04). All-cause 30-day mortality (n = 4) was 14%. A higher proportion of patients who died within 30 days of COVID-19 diagnosis (3/4) were receiving ≥2 immunosuppressants, compared with patients who survived beyond 30 days after COVID-19 diagnosis (2/24; 75% vs. 8%; P = .01). Conclusions:Mortality in COVID-19 HCT patients is higher than that of the agecomparable general population and largely dependent on age, disease severity, timing from HCT, and intensity of immunosuppression.

Soil DNA profiling has potential as a forensic tool to establish a link between soil collected at a crime scene and soil recovered from a suspect. However, a quantitative measure is needed to investigate the spatial/temporal variability across multiple scales prior to their application in forensic science. In this study, soil DNA profiles across Miami-Dade, FL, were generated using length heterogeneity PCR to target four taxa. The objectives of this study were to (i) assess the biogeographical patterns of soils to determine whether soil biota is spatially correlated with geographic location and (ii) evaluate five machine learning algorithms for their predictive ability to recognize biotic patterns which could accurately classify soils at different spatial scales regardless of seasonal collection. Results demonstrate that soil communities have unique patterns and are spatially autocorrelated. Bioinformatic algorithms could accurately classify soils across all scales with Random Forest significantly outperforming all other algorithms regardless of spatial level.

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Our observations point to the complexity of fixation parameters. The association of increasingly eccentric and unstable fixation with longer disease duration that is typically found in cross-sectional studies may be countered within individual patients by poorly understood processes like neuronal adaptation. Nevertheless, fixation parameters may serve as useful secondary outcome parameters in selected cases and for counseling patients to explain changes to their visual functionality.

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Cannabis sativa is the most frequently used of all illicit drugs in the USA. Cannabis has been used throughout history for its stems in the production of hemp fiber, seed for oil and food, and buds and leaves as a psychoactive drug. Short tandem repeats (STRs) were chosen as molecular markers owing to their distinct advantages over other genetic methods. STRs are codominant, can be standardized such that reproducibility between laboratories can be easily achieved, have a high discrimination power, and can be multiplexed. In this study, six STR markers previously described for C. sativa were multiplexed into one reaction. The multiplex reaction was able to individualize 98 cannabis samples (14 hemp and 84 marijuana, authenticated as originating from 33 of the 50 states of the USA) and detect 29 alleles averaging 4.8 alleles per loci. The data did not relate the samples from the same state to each other. This is the first study to report a single-reaction sixplex and apply it to the analysis of almost 100 cannabis samples of known geographic origin.