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Each year the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association curates a special issue highlighting sociological contributions to technology and media studies. That tradition continued in 2020, even as everything else changed. The articles included in this year's special issue were mostly written pre-Pandemic, yet their implications seem amplified by the current historical moment. With a globe gone remote, mediated communication rose from a specialist academic subject to an acute social consideration, intersecting with and illuminating basic sociological concerns about inequality, the nature of work, family life, and the compounding effects of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they interplay with social and material conditions. These topics are all reflected in the articles from this year's issue, now inflected with a post-Pandemic reality that shows insights from CITAMS are needed now, more than ever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae in pigs and Mycoplasma bovis in cattle are major pathogens affecting livestock across Europe and are the focus of the MycoPath pan-European antimicrobial susceptibility monitoring programme. Fifty M. hyopneumoniae isolates from Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK), and 156 M. bovis isolates from France, Hungary, Spain and the UK that met specific criteria were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility in a central laboratory by using a microbroth dilution method. Specific isolate criteria included recovery from animals not recently treated with antimicrobials, isolates from different locations within each country and retaining only one isolate per farm. MIC 50/ MIC 90 values were 0.031/0.5, 0.031/0.5, 0.062/0.25, ≤0.001/0.004, 0.031/0.125, 0.25/0.5 and 0.062/0.25 mg/L for enrofloxacin, marbofloxacin, spiramycin, tulathromycin, tylosin, florfenicol and oxytetracycline respectively against M. hyopneumoniae and 0.25/4, 1/4, 4/16, >64/ >64, 32/ > 64, 2/4 and 4/64 mg/L, respectively against M. bovis. MIC 50 /MIC 90 values for tiamulin and valnemulin against M. hyopneumoniae were 0.016/0.062 and ≤0.001/ ≤0.001 mg/L respectively. The MIC 50 /MIC 90 values of danofloxacin and gamithromycin for M. bovis were 0.25/1 and >64/ >64 mg/L respectively. The highest MIC 90 values for M. hyopneumoniae were found in the UK at 1.0 mg/L for enrofloxacin, marbofloxacin and florfenicol. In contrast, for M. bovis the lowest MIC 90 value was 1.0 mg/L, but ranged to >64 mg/L. Specific laboratory standards and clinical breakpoints for veterinary Mycoplasma species are required as no independently validated clinical breakpoints are specified for veterinary Mycoplasma species, which makes data interpretation and correlation to in vivo efficacy difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dengue (DEN) is an infectious disease caused by the DEN virus (DENV), which belongs to the Flavivirus genus in the family Flaviviridae. It has a (+) sense RNA genome and is mainly transmitted to humans by the vector mosquito Aedes aegypti. Dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4). Epidemiological and evolutionary studies have indicated that host and viral factors are involved in determining disease outcome and have proved the importance of viral genotype in causing severe epidemics. Host immune status and mosquito vectorial capacity are also important influences on the severity of infection. Therefore, an understanding of the relationship between virus variants with altered amino acids and high pathogenicity will provide more information on the molecular epidemiology of DEN. Accordingly, knowledge of the DENV serotypes and genotypes circulating in the latest DEN outbreaks around the world, including Mexico, will contribute to understanding DEN infections. Results: 1. We obtained 88 isolates of DENV, 27 from Oaxaca and 61 from Veracruz. 2. Of these 88 isolates, 16 were serotype 1; 62 serotype 2; 7 serotype 3; and 2 serotype 4. One isolate had 2 serotypes (DENV-2 and -1). 3. Partial nucleotide sequences of the genes encoding C- prM (14 sequences), the NS3 helicase domain (7 sequences), the NS5 S-adenosyl methionine transferase domain (7 sequences) and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domain (18 sequences) were obtained. Phylogenetic analysis showed that DENV-2 isolates belonged to the Asian/ American genotype. In addition, the Asian/American genotype was divided into two clusters, one containing the isolates from 2001 and the other the isolates from 2005-2006 with high bootstrap support of 94%. Conclusion: DENV-2 was the predominant serotype in the DF and DHF outbreak from 2005 to 2006 in Oaxaca State as well as in the 2006 outbreak in Veracruz State, with the Asian/American genotype prevalent in both states. Interestingly, DENV-1 and DENV-2 were the only serotypes related to DHF cases. In contrast, DENV-3 and DENV-4 were poorly represented according to epidemiological data reported in Mexico. We found that isoleucine was replaced by valine at residue 106 of protein C in the isolates from these 2005-2006 outbreaks and in those from the 1997, 1998 and 2001 outbreaks in the Caribbean islands. We suggested that this amino acid change may be used as a signature for isolates arising in the Caribbean islands and pertaining to the Asian/ American genotype. Other amino acid changes are specific for the Asian/American, Asian and American strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]