Base data for the updated Estonian mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) list

This table contains the count data of mosquitoes collected between 2008 to 2020 in Estonia. Specimens have been identified to species or species group level mostly based on morphological markers, but DNA barcoding, using the partial sequence of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI or COX1), was also employed in some cases.Important notice: this dataset includes the collection records previously reported in Kirik_et_al._base_data.xlsx (DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14198951).</div

Table_1_Wild boar (Sus scrofa) carcasses as an attraction for scavengers and a potential source for soil contamination with the African swine fever virus.docx

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is a social animal species native to Eurasia. During the last decade, the wild boar population in Estonia has been severely affected by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), which has also affected domestic pig farming. The potential transmission routes of ASFV remain unclear and are currently under intensive investigation. This pilot study aimed to clarify the frequency and characteristics of contacts between living wild boars and the carcasses of their conspecifics, which could play a role in the transmission of ASFV. Wild animals' contact and scavenging behavior on wild boar carcasses were studied using trail cameras in an experimental setting on Hiiumaa, Western Estonia. Four legally hunted carcasses were used in the present study. This study aimed to determine whether intraspecies scavenging occurs in wild boars. The persistence of ASFV DNA in soil contaminated with infected wild boar carcasses was investigated separately. Among the 17 identified wildlife species that visited wild boar carcasses, the common raven (Corvus corax) was the most frequent one (37.26%), followed by raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides; 4.25%), carcass conspecific/wild boars (3.16%), and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes; 2.14%). Regarding the direct contact with the carcass, the same species ranking was detected: common raven (74.95%), raccoon dogs (9.94%), wild boars (4.21%), and red foxes (4.21%). No clear signs of cannibalism were noted among the wild boars, although brief physical contact with the carcasses was evident. The persistence of ASFV DNA in soil contaminated by infected wild boar carcasses was investigated separately. This study revealed that ASFV DNA from infected carcasses could be detected in forest soil for prolonged periods, even after removing the carcasses. Hence, the carcasses of infected wild boars may play an important role in spreading the African swine fever virus in wild boar populations; thus, prompt removal and disinfection of the soil could be considered necessary to limit the spread of the infection.</p

<i>Taenia solium</i> ELISA and cysticercosis western blot (WB) results including those that tested positive (POS) and those that tested positive or yielded a grey zone result twice (POS+GREY) in the general population, children, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and hunters in Estonia.

Taenia solium ELISA and cysticercosis western blot (WB) results including those that tested positive (POS) and those that tested positive or yielded a grey zone result twice (POS+GREY) in the general population, children, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and hunters in Estonia.</p

<i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> ELISA results including those that tested positive (POS) and those that tested positive or yielded a grey zone result twice (POS+GREY) in the general population, children, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and hunters in Estonia.

<p><i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> ELISA results including those that tested positive (POS) and those that tested positive or yielded a grey zone result twice (POS+GREY) in the general population, children, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and hunters in Estonia.</p

An exemplar of how an MA research project unlocked leadership and management potential in a secondary/ HEI partnership

This paper provides a summary of a completed research project from an MA Education: Leadership and Management thesis on a whole school assessment strategy. It shows how Leadership and Management potential has been successfully unlocked through the research process, and at various levels across the secondary school. This was a partner school that had a two year cohort undertaking an Education Masters programme with a specific Leadership and Management angle. The individuals co-writing the paper and presenting are the (now graduated) student, who is a Curriculum Lead, and has subsequently gone on to be selected as a Specialist Leader in Education (an SLE) and her thesis supervisor, who raises issues found in her own doctoral research process. The paper traces the recent journey of systems leadership, and looks at how SLE roles are being used as an alternative path to traditional forms of school leadership. The paper concludes by suggesting that more research is needed to record the impact of SLE roles. Introduction This paper provides a summary of a completed research project from an MA Education: Leadership and Management thesis on a whole school assessment strategy. It shows how Leadership and Management potential has been successfully unlocked through the research process, and at various levels across the secondary school, and into a wider area of the city beyond. The former student presenting (who is an Assistant Head from this September), used her research process across her school, then in her SLE role brought the process to various School Improvement Inspectors and processes. This has led to changes in the City’s schools, and a wider awareness of the impact that assessment strategies can have across the City’s borders into the County beyond. This small scale individual research is put into a wider context here using some of the themes from the research inside the MA supervisor’s own doctoral research process Role of postgraduate study The role of postgraduate study in education has been long recognised with the TDA funding Masters programmes for teachers in the last decade, and more recently Teach First having an integrated Masters programme. O’Grady and Cottle (2015) write about the journey of postgraduate study in Education and conclude that ‘the outcome can be rewarding and transformational for students as their confidence rises, their academic relationships are shaped and their practice emerges in creative and innovative ways’ (O’Grady and Cottle, 2015: 10). This paper highlights a particular case of where this process has taken place

<i>Ascaris lumbricoides</i> ELISA results including those that tested positive (POS) and those that tested positive or yielded a grey zone result twice (POS+GREY) in the general population, children, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and hunters in Estonia.

Ascaris lumbricoides ELISA results including those that tested positive (POS) and those that tested positive or yielded a grey zone result twice (POS+GREY) in the general population, children, veterinarians, animal caretakers, and hunters in Estonia.</p

Relative abundance of the most abundant bacterial and fungal OTUs found in the vaginal communities of 181 women.

<p>Taxonomic assignments are indicated on the right of the heatmap at the Genus and Species level. The relative abundance is color coded and indicated by the color key on the left top of the map. The tree on the top of the heatmap characterizes the similarity of analyzed samples.</p

Characterization of the Vaginal Micro- and Mycobiome in Asymptomatic Reproductive-Age Estonian Women

<div><p>The application of high-throughput sequencing methods has raised doubt in the concept of the uniform healthy vaginal microbiota consisting predominantly of lactobacilli by revealing the existence of more variable bacterial community composition. As this needs to be analyzed more extensively and there is little straightforward data regarding the vaginal mycobiome of asymptomatic women we aimed to define bacterial and fungal communities in vaginal samples from 494 asymptomatic, reproductive-age Estonian women. The composition of the vaginal microbiota was determined by amplifying bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) regions and subsequently sequencing them using 454 Life Sciences pyrosequencing. We delineated five major bacterial community groups with distinctive diversity and species composition. Lactobacilli were among the most abundant bacteria in all groups, but also members of genus <i>Gardnerella</i> had high relative abundance in some of the groups. Microbial diversity increased with higher vaginal pH values, and was also higher when a malodorous discharge was present, indicating that some of the women who consider themselves healthy may potentially have asymptomatic bacterial vaginosis (BV). Our study is the first of its kind to analyze the mycobiome that colonizes the healthy vaginal environment using barcoded pyrosequencing technology. We observed 196 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs), including 16 OTUs of <i>Candida spp.</i>, which is more diverse than previously recognized. However, assessing true fungal diversity was complicated because of the problems regarding the possible air-borne contamination and bioinformatics used for identification of fungal taxons as significant proportion of fungal sequences were assigned to unspecified OTUs.</p></div

The distribution of 10 most relatively abundant OTUs in determined vaginal bacterial community groups.

<p>The distribution is presented based on mean relative abundance values (x-axis) of these OTU-s among bacterial community groups (y-axis).</p

Relative abundance of bacterial OTUs found in the vaginal communities of healthy Estonian women (n = 432).

<p>Bacterial taxonomic assignments are indicated on the right of the heatmap at the Genus and Species level. The relative abundance is color coded and indicated by the color key on the left top of the map. The tree on the top of the heatmap characterizes the similarity of analyzed samples based on OTU composition of vaginal microbiota.</p