Last. Ron Milo(Weizmann Institute of Science)H-Index: 74
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Quantitatively describing the time course of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109 to 1...
Low plasma arginine bioavailability has been implicated in endothelial dysfunction and immune dysregulation. The role of arginine in COVID-19 is unknown, but could contribute to cellular damage if low. Our objective was to determine arginine bioavailability in adults and children with COVID-19 vs. healthy controls. We hypothesized that arginine bioavailability would be low in patients with COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). We conducted a prospective observationa...
A large and highly valuable category of forensic evidence consists of patterned impressions created during the perpetration of a crime. These crime scene artifacts, such as fingerprints or tire tracks, offer visual sensory information that is assessed by trained human observers and compared to sensory experiences elicited by model patterns that would have been produced under a hypothesized set of conditions. By means of this "forensic feature comparison," the observer makes a judgment about whet...
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global health crisis. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of COVID-19. Subversion of host protein synthesis is a common strategy that pathogenic viruses use to replicate and propagate in their host. In this study, we show that SARS-CoV-2 is able to shut down host protein synthesis and that SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein NSP14 exerts this activity. We show that the translation inhibition ac...
In recent years, scientists have begun to use magic effects to investigate the blind spots in our attention and perception [G. Kuhn, Experiencing the Impossible: The Science of Magic (2019); S. Macknik, S. Martinez-Conde, S. Blakeslee, Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions (2010)]. Recently, we suggested that similar techniques could be transferred to nonhuman animal observers and that such an endeavor would provide insight into the inherent commo...
Because of the outbreak of COVID-19, most countries have implemented measures aimed at reducing the number of infected people. However, these measures only work if they are generally accepted by the public. We conducted a two-wave longitudinal survey in Switzerland (n = 1,223) to study the factors that would influence perceived risks and the acceptance of the measures. Our findings showed that people with individualistic worldviews, high general interpersonal trust, low social trust, a low level...