Juvenile alligators may help transmit West Nile virus in some areas.

Both theoretical and experimental studies are reported for the gas-phase reactions of protonated hydroxylamine with acetic and propanoic acids which yield protonated glycine and alanine, GlyH+ and AlaH+, respectively. The key step for these reactions is an insertion of the amino group into a C-H bond. For the formation of AlaH+, the reaction barrier for insertion into a Cbeta-H bond is ca. 5 kcal.mol-1 lower than that for the insertion into a Calpha-H bond; the product beta-AlaH+ is ca. 6 kcal mol-1 lower in energy than alpha-AlaH+. Thus, both kinetics and thermodynamics favor formation of the beta-form. The energetic preference for the beta-form is due to more efficient hydrogen bonding between the amino group and the carbonyl oxygen in the limiting transition structure and in the beta-AlaH+ product. These theoretical results are in excellent accord with selected ion flow tube measurements of the gas-phase synthesis which show striking specificity for the beta-isomer according to multi-collision-induced dissociation of the AlaH+ product ion. The results suggest that Gly and beta-Ala found in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites are products of interstellar chemistry.

Novel star‐like polymers are prepared via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride (PHMG) macromonomer and acrylamide (AM) using β‐cyclodextrin (CD) with 8‐active and 5‐active sites as a macroinitiator. The resulting star‐like polymers are characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and 1H NMR and are used for deactivating bacteria and viruses. It is found that star polymers with comparable amounts of PHMG possess excellent antimicrobial activity, which, however, strongly depends on the topological structure (i.e., the arm number and the monomer ratio) of the composing copolymers. The in vitro antibacterial activities of the synthesized polymers are investigated against Escherichia coli in terms of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), whereas the antiviral activity of star copolymers is assessed via a plaque assay against non‐enveloped adenovirus (ADV). The results show that the highest antimicrobial activity is achieved by the star‐like copolymer with the monomer ratio of 20:3 (AM:PHGM, mol/mol), while the number of functional arms is fixed at 8. The incorporation of PHMG also renders the star copolymer highly antiviral, thus permitting it to be used as an effective antibacterial/antiviral agent for various applications.

In September 2010, an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis affected members of a swimming club. A cohort study was undertaken to identify the number affected and risk factors for infection. Of 101 respondents, 48 met the case definition for probable cryptosporidiosis. Multivariate analysis demonstrated a strong and highly significant association between illness and attendance at a training session on 13 September 2010 (adjusted odds ratio 28, P < 0.0001). No faecal incidents were reported and pool monitoring parameters were satisfactory. The competitive nature of club swimming requires frequent training and participation in galas, potentially facilitating contamination into other pools and amplification of outbreaks among wider groups of swimmers. There was a lack of awareness of the 2-week exclusion rule among swimmers and coaches, and a high level of underreporting of illness. The study demonstrates the benefits of rapid field epidemiology in identifying the true burden of illness, the source of infection and limiting spread.