Rhinovirus - The Common Cold
Introduction: Rhinovirus, pictured above, is best known as the common cold. It is a member of the picornaviridae family along with more virulent viruses such as polio and hepatitis A. The viruses of this family are characterized as small (20-30nm genome) positive polarity RNA viruses consisting of one genome segment and a nonenveloped capsid. Unlike the its more lethal relatives, Rhinovirus is designed to attack a host numerous times during their lifetime. It is the perfect pathogen. It is estimated that adults suffer from 2 to 4 infections with the virus each year. The statistics below show the toll that the virus has on the United States Population:
. There are nearly 62 million cases of the common cold annually in the US
. 52.2 million of these cases affect Americans under age 17
. There are nearly 22 million school-loss days annually due to the common cold
. There are approximately 45 million bed days annually associated with the common cold
. Seventy-five percent of common colds suffered by children under 5 years are medically
attended
Source: Vital and Health Statistics Series 10, No. 200
The economic impact of the cold is estimated at 5 billion dollars, but is far greater in indirect costs when considering loss of productivity and school abscence.
Encounter: It is virtually impossible to avoid Rhinovirus encounter because it is one of the few pathogens that is present in the environment year round. There are over 100 serotypes making it unlikely to have antibodies to each strain. It often enters the upper respitory tract via aerosolized droplets coming from an infectious individuals coughing or sneezing. It is also possible to spread the pathogen through saliva. However, studies have proven that contact transmission is the dominant mode of contraction. [9] This is possible because infected individuals can shed the virus 24 hours before symptoms and as long as 2 weeks after symptoms cease. Contrary to popular belief, there is no valid clinical evidence that exposure to cold or moisture will result in infection.
Entry: Primary infection occurs in the nasal mucosa and occasionally the conjunctiva. Once exposed to the epithelial cells, the virus attempts to bind to intracellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM1).
ICAM-1 is regularly used by the immune system to bind endothelial cells to leukocytes. However, as the picture above shows, Rhinovirus is able to take advantage of this property and recognizes it with its own receptors.
and ears, and in the mouth and pharynx. The causative virus has been shown to be
Center for Planetary Studies. "Deforestation Isn't the Real Problem in the Amazon." June 1996. http://www.ctr_planets/Amazon.html (7 June 2003).
...ction. Lots of indians die because of the Amazon getting destroyed. The climate is changing because of so much of the disappearing of the rainforest. In every 40 years 20 percent of the Amazon is completely gone. Sadly in about 30 - 40 years we will not have a Amazon rainforest. People are clearing out the Amazon because they want to grow plants and food but we used to have a lot of food but because of the Amazon getting destroying the we don’t have as much, and people want to clear out land for plants and foods but because of destruction the soil will dry out and we will have no more exzotic fruits. As you can see the Amazons environmental problems are devastating.
Cell phones are gradually affecting American culture today because they are becoming a key part of everyday life. The cell phone is "?an indispensable companion that serves without favor or prejudice. It has reached into every civilized corner of the world--and often brought civilization with it. From its wires spring the words of history in the making, the chatter of daily life" ("43 Years" sc. 1). The cell phone enables individuals to communicate rapidly over great distances and obtain information like never before. People can now pick up the phone and get information on the weather, time, stock market quotations, and other things simply by dialing a few numbers. Cell phones connect the world together, to the point where individuals become almost helpless without it. The next time you find yourself waiting at a stoplight, take the time to observe the people around you. There will likely be at least one person in the surrounding cars who is talking on the phone. Even on the streets, people continue to chat on the phone. Cell phones are everywhere. One resident in Greenville, S.C. admitted that he uses his cell phone at least 15 times a day (Chany sc. 2). The cell phone is in such high use that the traditional phones in homes and offices almost become antique devices on display. Although traditional phones are still around, individuals are quicker to pick up their cell phone.
There are many rainforests in the world but one of the biggest one is the Amazon rainforest, which is located in the northern half of South America and lies in the countries of Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The Amazon also lies in between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. The size of the Amazon resembles the size of the United States from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Since this rain forest lies next to the Equator, the climate is warm and humid. The average temperature is in between sixty-eight to ninety- three degrees. The Amazon has two seasons but each one is six months each. They are classified as the wet season and the dry season. The wet season occurs between December to May and the dry season occurs between June to November. The average rainfall is fifty to two hundred and sixty inches per year. The forest floor only gets up to two to five percent of sunlight since the canopy blocks the sunlight from getting to the forest floor. The Amazon rain forest got the nickname, the world’s pharmacy, because many medicines have been found in the tree bark, the tree’s leaves, and other parts of the trees.
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
Viruses can be transmitted in many ways. Being in contact with an infected person will most likely transfer the virus. One can also obtain the virus through swallowing, inhaling, and unsafe sex. Poor hygiene and eating habits usually increase the risk of catching a viral infection. Contracting a viral infection is followed by adverse s...
The cell phone is a great thing. Did you know that about 90% of the population owns a cell phone(Madrigal, Alexis C)? Our society is affected greatly by the use of cellphones in such ways as; sleep deprivation, communication, and Distraction. There are many things that the cell phone is good for but there are just as many negatives that come from them, if not there are more. The number of people who own cell phones has gone up about 27% since year 2004(Madrigal, Alexis C).
Powell, Devin. "Amazon could become part of climate problem: drying trend may release stored carbon to atmosphere." Science News 11 Feb. 2012: 5+. Student Edition. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
The rainforests are the world’s oldest ecosystems dating back to almost 100 million years. The largest rainforests are located around the Amazon in South America, around the Equator in Africa, and in South Asia. Smaller rainforests thrive in Central America, Islands on the Pacific and Caribbean, and Mexico. Rainforests maintain a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit and get between 160 to 400 inches of rain per year. The conditions that the Rainforests have are exemplary for life to grow and flourish. The area where the rainforests are located saves them from natural disasters and saved them from the loss of life during the ice ages. Due to these conditions the Rainforest is home to 50-70 million species (Facts about Rainforests). The rainforest’s resources began to be favored by the economy in the early 1990’s.
... carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas so if people cut down the trees of the Amazon Rainforest then terrible things will happen because of it around the world.
This report will discuss the effects of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest on the people and Environment and suggest possible solutions for deforestation. The Amazon Rainforest located near Brazil is being cut down at a rate of roughly 10,000km every year according to Source 1. Deforestation is affecting the entire planet.
During the past several decades, changes in the global climatic pattern has become evident and has attracted much attention from both the general public and the professional environmental organizations. Deforestation is one of the main reasons for these known changes. One of the reasons that cause the disappearing of the Amazon rainforest is industrial logging, which is the single largest problem. Other problems that also contribute to the disappearing of the Amazon forests include road construction, cattle ranching, and the production of wood products, all of which are important factors to be considered. The Amazon rainforest is the world's largest rain forest today, which has 54 percent of the total rainforests that are remaining on the planet. If Amazonia is a country, it would be the ninth largest country in the world. The Amazon is very important because it is a major contributor to the balance of global climatic patterns and because it provides places for variety of living organisms. A single pond in Brazil can contain more kinds of fish than are found in all of Europe's rivers. Twenty-five acre of rainforest in Borneo may contain over seven hundred species of trees, which is equal to the number of trees in the whole North America; one single rainforest in Peru has more bird species than the entire United States. One tree in Peru had forty-three different species of ants, which is the estimated to be equal to the number of ant species in the British Isles. The Amazon rainforest is truly amazing. (Taylor, Leslie. Herbal Secrets of the Rainforest. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA)
The DENV envelope protein E, which is found on the virus surface, has a role as a mediating factor in the initial attachment of the virus to the host cell. Further, several cellular proteins and carbohydrate molecules that act as attachment factors interacting with the viral envelope protein E have been identified. These factors allow the virus population to concentrate on the cell surface thus increasing their chance of access to their target cellular receptor(s). Some of these known molecules that interact with the vi...
Cell phones have created one of the biggest social changes in human history. We as people have gone from speaking face to face, to call each other on the phone occasionally, to today where we all carry a computer in our pockets that can do anything you want it to. We as people have gone from being social with one another to posting things on social media. It’s crazy to think that just 25 years ago you couldn’t communicate with someone else across town without being at home using the telephone. Cell phones have changed us socially in a drastic way. It has changed the way we communicate with one another, it has changed how we interact with others, and it has changed the way we act in public places and social gatherings.