Ranavirus Ecology and Evolution: From Epidemiology to Extinction

Ranaviruses have been identified in wild and captive populations of ectothermic vertebrates around the world. Ranavirus epidemics can result in a range of effects on their host populations, from apparently benign infections to mass mortality and local extirpation. In this chapter, we review the current status of ranavirus epidemiology and ecology in amphibians, fish, and reptiles. Ranavirus epidemics in amphibians and fish usually have a rapid onset in the mid-to-late summer while outbreaks in reptiles occur irregularly. Susceptibility to ranavirus differs among host species, and may be influenced by the type of ranavirus and natural or anthropogenic stressors. Ranaviruses can be transmitted within and between host species via several routes, but there is a need for transmission estimates in natural environments. Generally, ranaviruses are locally adapted to their host populations, but movement of infected hosts over long distances can disrupt these associations. There is evidence of increased virulence of ranaviruses in captive fish and amphibian populations raised for production. Given their broad host ranges, potential for high virulence, multiple routes of transmission, and frequent movement of amphibians, fish and reptiles in global trade, it appears that some ranaviruses have the potential to significantly impact host populations and even cause extinctions in the wild

Automatic Evaluation of Multidisciplinary Derivatives Using a Graph-Based Problem Formulation in OpenMDAO

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140432/1/6.2014-2042.pd

Costs and Treatment Pathways for Type 2 Diabetes in the UK:A Mastermind Cohort Study

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.INTRODUCTION: Medication therapy for type 2 diabetes has become increasingly complex, and there are few reliable data on the current state of clinical practice. We report treatment pathways and associated costs of medication therapy for people with type 2 diabetes in the UK, their variability and changes over time. METHODS: Prescription and biomarker data for 7159 people with type 2 diabetes were extracted from the GoDARTS cohort study, covering the period 1989-2013. Average follow-up was 10 years. Individuals were prescribed on average 2.4 (SD: 1.2) drugs with average annual costs of £241. We calculated summary statistics for first- and second-line therapies. Linear regression models were used to estimate associations between therapy characteristics and baseline patient characteristics. RESULTS: Average time from diagnosis to first prescription was 3 years (SD: 4.0 years). Almost all first-line therapy (98%) was monotherapy, with average annual cost of £83 (SD: £204) for 3.8 (SD: 3.5) years. Second-line therapy was initiated in 73% of all individuals, at an average annual cost of £219 (SD: £305). Therapies involving insulin were markedly more expensive than other common therapies. Baseline HbA1c was unrelated to future therapy costs, but higher average HbA1c levels over time were associated with higher costs. CONCLUSIONS: Medication therapy has undergone substantial changes during the period covered in this study. For example, therapy is initiated earlier and is less expensive than in the past. The data provided in this study will prove useful for future modelling studies, e.g. of stratified treatment approaches.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Association of the British Pharma Industry (ABPI) for “Mastermind” (MRC APBI STratification and Extreme Response Mechanism IN Diabetes–MASTERMIND. Grant Ref.: MRIK005707/1). ERP holds Wellcome Trust New Investigator award 102820/Z/13/Z. GoDARTS was funded by the Wellcome Trust as the Wellcome Trust Type 2 diabetes case control study

Neural responses to facial and vocal expressions of fear and disgust

Neuropsychological studies report more impaired responses to facial expressions of fear than disgust in people with amygdala lesions, and vice versa in people with Huntington's disease. Experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have confirmed the role of the amygdala in the response to fearful faces and have implicated the anterior insula in the response to facial expressions of disgust. We used fMRI to extend these studies to the perception of fear and disgust from both facial and vocal expressions. Consistent with neuropsychological findings, both types of fearful stimuli activated the amygdala. Facial expressions of disgust activated the anterior insula and the caudate-putamen; vocal expressions of disgust did not significantly activate either of these regions. All four types of stimuli activated the superior temporal gyrus. Our findings therefore (i) support the differential localization of the neural substrates of fear and disgust; (ii) confirm the involvement of the amygdala in the emotion of fear, whether evoked by facial or vocal expressions; (iii) confirm the involvement of the anterior insula and the striatum in reactions to facial expressions of disgust; and (iv) suggest a possible general role for the perception of emotional expressions for the superior temporal gyrus

EviAtlas : a tool for visualising evidence synthesis databases

Abstract: Systematic mapping assesses the nature of an evidence base, answering how much evidence exists on a particular topic. Perhaps the most useful outputs of a systematic map are an interactive database of studies and their meta-data, along with visualisations of this database. Despite the rapid increase in systematic mapping as an evidence synthesis method, there is currently a lack of Open Source software for producing interactive visualisations of systematic map databases. In April 2018, as attendees at and coordinators of the first ever Evidence Synthesis Hackathon in Stockholm, we decided to address this issue by developing an R-based tool called EviAtlas, an Open Access (i.e. free to use) and Open Source (i.e. software code is freely accessible and reproducible) tool for producing interactive, attractive tables and figures that summarise the evidence base. Here, we present our tool which includes the ability to generate vital visualisations for systematic maps and reviews as follows: a complete data table; a spatially explicit geographical information system (Evidence Atlas); Heat Maps that cross-tabulate two or more variables and display the number of studies belonging to multiple categories; and standard descriptive plots showing the nature of the evidence base, for example the number of studies published per year or number of studies per country. We believe that EviAtlas will provide a stimulus for the development of other exciting tools to facilitate evidence synthesis