Estimation of Ascaris infection risks in children under 15 from the consumption of wastewater-irrigated carrots

Ascaris lumbricoides, the large human roundworm, infects ,1,200 million people, with children under the age of 15 being particularly at risk. Monte Carlo quantitative microbial risk analyses were undertaken to estimate median Ascaris infection risks in children under 15 from eating raw carrots irrigated with wastewater. For a tolerable additional disease burden of 1025 DALY (disability-adjusted life year) loss per person per year (pppy), the tolerable Ascaris infection risk is ,1023 pppy, which can be achieved in hyperendemic areas by a 4-log unit Ascaris reduction. This reduction can be easily achieved by wastewater treatment in a 1-day anaerobic pond and 5-day facultative pond (2 log units) and peeling prior to consumption (2 log units)

The development of a land use inventory for regional planning using satellite imagery

Water quality planning in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana is reviewed in terms of use of land use data and satellite imagery. A land use inventory applicable to water quality planning and developed through computer processing of LANDSAT-1 imagery is described

The aggregation of Brucella abortus occurs under microaerobic conditions and promotes desiccation tolerance and biofilm formation

Brucella abortus causes brucellosis mainly in cattle. The infection is transmitted to humans by ingestion of animal products or direct contact with infected material. While the intracellular lifestyle of Brucella is well characterized, its extracellular survival is poorly understood. In nature, bacterial persistence is associated with biofilms, where aggregated cells are protected from adversity. The inability of Brucella abortus to aggregate under aerobiosis and that fact that the replicative niche of Brucella is characterized by microaerobic conditions prompted us to investigate the capacity of this pathogen to aggregate and grow in biofilms under microaerobiotic conditions. The results show that B. abortus aggregates and produces biofilms. The aggregates tolerate desiccation better than planktonic cells do, adhere and displace even in the absence of the lipopolysaccharide-O antigen, flagella, the transcriptional regulator VjbR, or the enzymes that synthesize, transport, and modify cyclic β (1,2) glucan.Fil: Almiron, Marta A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Roset, Mara Sabrina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Sanjuan, Norberto Aníbal. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentin

Modelling Oscillator synchronisation during vertebrate axis segmentation

he somitogenesis clock regulates the periodicity with which somites form in the posterior pre-somitic mesoderm. Whilst cell heterogeneity results in noisy oscillation rates amongst constituent cells, synchrony within the population is maintained as oscillators are entrained via juxtracine signalling mechanisms. Here we consider a population of phase-coupled oscillators and investigate how biologically motivated perturbations to the entrained state can perturb synchrony within the population. We find that the ratio of mitosis length to clock period can influence levels of desynchronisation. Moreover, we observe that random cell movement, and hence change of local neighbourhoods, increases synchronisation

A COMPARISON OF FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES

The social safety nets in Mexico and the United States rely heavily on food assistance programs to ensure food security and access to safe and nutritious foods. To achieve these general goals, both countries' programs are exclusively paid for out of internal funds and both target low-income households and/or individuals. Despite those similarities, economic, cultural, and demographic differences between the countries lead to differences in their abilities to ensure food security and access to safe and nutritious foods. Mexico uses geographic and household targeting to distribute benefits while the United States uses only household targeting. U.S. food assistance programs tend to be countercyclical (as the economy expands, food assistance expenditures decline and vice-versa). Mexican food assistance programs appear to be neither counter- nor procyclical. Food assistance programs have little effect on the extent of poverty in Mexico, while the opposite is true in the United States, primarily because the level of benefits as a percentage of income is much lower in Mexico and a much higher percentage of eligible households receive benefits from food assistance programs in the United States.Food assistance programs, social safety net, targeting methods, macroeconomy, poverty, Progresa, DICONSA, FIDELIST, LICONSA, DIF, Food Stamp Program, WIC, the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,