Occupational Disruption: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Behavioral Inflexibility and Anxiety of Autistic Children

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes to the lives of many. The aim of this paper was to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted behavioral inflexibility (BI) and anxiety among autistic children and how autistic children and their families have adapted to COVID-19-related routine changes. Methods: This sequential mixed-method study included two phases. During the first phase, parents of autistic children (N = 48) completed an online survey consisting of the Behavioral Inflexibility Scale (BIS) and the Parent-Rated Anxiety Scale – Autism Spectrum Disorder (PRAS-ASD). During the second phase, a subset of parents (parents of adolescents, N = 11) was invited to participate in a virtual focus-group. Results: The parents reported a wide range of BI during the pandemic (BIS M = 2.03, SD = 1.02, range = 0.21 – 3.86). Child BI was a significant predictor of anxiety (t[40] = 5.56, p \u3c .0001). From the focus groups, 155 codes were organized into four themes, two of which are discussed in this paper: child client factors that have changed during the pandemic and changes to family routines. Conclusions: In this preliminary study, the parents identified problematic BI and anxiety among their autistic children. The outcomes of this small-scale study indicate that some of the changes to routines brought about by the pandemic may be helpful for autistic children after the pandemic restrictions have ended. We provide a unique perspective on how to leverage occupational changes that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic to aid autistics during non-pandemic times

Remote sensing of fish-processing in the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, Bangladesh: an insight into the modern slavery-environment nexus in the coastal fringe

© 2020, The Author(s). Land-based fish-processing activities in coastal fringe areas and their social-ecological impacts have often been overlooked by marine scientists and antislavery groups. Using remote sensing methods, the location and impacts of fish-processing activities were assessed within a case study of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans mangrove forests. Ten fish-processing camps were identified, with some occurring in locations where human activity is banned. Environmental degradation included the removal of mangroves, erosion, and the destruction of protected areas. Previous studies have identified cases of labour exploitation and modern slavery occurring within the Sundarbans, and remote sensing was used to triangulate these claims by providing spatial and temporal analysis to increase the understanding of the operational trends at these locations. These findings were linked to the cyclical relationship between modern slavery and environmental degradation, whereby environmental damage is both a driver and result of workers subjected to modern slavery. Remote sensing can be used as an additional methodological tool to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide evidence to support the promotion of the “freedom dividend” which would have far-reaching economic, social, cultural, and environmental benefits. Satellite remote sensing is likely to play an important role going forward for understanding these issues but should be augmented with ground-based data collection methods

Slavery from Space: Demonstrating the role for satellite remote sensing to inform evidence-based action related to UN SDG number 8

The most recent Global Slavery Index estimates that there are 40.3 million people enslaved globally. The UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goal number 8, section 8.7 specifically refers to the issue of forced labour: ending modern slavery and human trafficking, including child labour, in all forms by 2025. Although there is a global political commitment to ending slavery, one of the biggest barriers to doing so is having reliable and timely, spatially explicit and scalable data on slavery activity. The lack of these data compromises evidence-based action and policy formulation. Thus, to meet the challenge of ending modern slavery new and innovative approaches, with an emphasis on efficient use of resources (including financial) are needed. This paper demonstrates the fundamental role of remote sensing as a source of evidence. We provide an estimate of the number of brick kilns across the ‘Brick Belt’ that runs across south Asia. This is important because these brick kilns are known sites of modern-day slavery. This paper reports the first rigorous estimate of the number of brick kilns present and does so using a robust method that can be easily adopted by key agencies for evidence-based action (i.e. NGOs etc) and is based on freely available and accessible remotely sensed data. From this estimate we can not only calculate the scale of the slavery problem in the Brick Belt, but also calculate the impact of slavery beyond that of the enslaved people themselves, on, for example, environmental change and impacts on ecosystem services – this links to other Sustainable Development Goals. As the process of achieving key Sustainable Development Goal targets will show, there are global benefits to ending slavery - this will mean a better world for everyone: safer, greener, more prosperous, and more equal. This is termed here a Freedom Dividend

Citizen Science for Earth Observation (Citzens4EO): Understanding Current Use in the UK

The role of Earth observation (EO) data in addressing societal problems from environmental through to humanitarian should not be understated. Recent innovation in EO means provision of analysis ready data and data cubes, which allows for rapid use of EO data. This in combination with processing technologies such as Google Earth Engine and open source algorithms/software for EO data integration and analyses has afforded an explosion of information to answer research questions and/or inform policy making. However, there is still a need for both training and validation data within EO projects – often this can be challenging to obtain. It has been suggested that citizen science can help here to provide these data, yet there is some perceived hesitancy in using citizen science within EO projects. This paper reports on the Citizen Science 4 EO (Citizens4EO) project that aimed to obtain an in-depth understanding of researchers’ and practitioners’ experiences with citizen science data in EO within the UK. Through a mixed methods approach (online and in-depth surveys and a spotlight case study) it was found that although the benefits of using citizen science data in EO projects were many (and highlighted in the spotlighted “Slavery from Space” case study), there were a number of common concerns around using citizen science. These were around the mechanics of deploying citizen science and the unreliability of a potentially misinformed or undertrained citizen base. As such, comparing the results of this study with those of a similar survey undertaken in 2016, it is apparent that progress towards optimising citizen science use in EO has been incremental but positive with evidence of the realisation of the benefits of citizen science for EO (Citizens4EO). As such, we conclude by offering priority action areas to support further use of citizen science by the EO community within the UK, which ultimately should be adopted further afield

Occupational Disruption: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Behavioral Inflexibility and Anxiety of Autistic Children

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented changes to the lives of many. The aim of this paper was to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted behavioral inflexibility (BI) and anxiety among autistic children and how autistic children and their families have adapted to COVID-19-related routine changes. Methods: This sequential mixed-method study included two phases. During the first phase, parents of autistic children (N = 48) completed an online survey consisting of the Behavioral Inflexibility Scale (BIS) and the Parent-Rated Anxiety Scale – Autism Spectrum Disorder (PRAS-ASD). During the second phase, a subset of parents (parents of adolescents, N = 11) was invited to participate in a virtual focus-group. Results: The parents reported a wide range of BI during the pandemic (BIS M = 2.03, SD = 1.02, range = 0.21 – 3.86). Child BI was a significant predictor of anxiety (t[40] = 5.56, p < .0001). From the focus groups, 155 codes were organized into four themes, two of which are discussed in this paper: child client factors that have changed during the pandemic and changes to family routines. Conclusions: In this preliminary study, the parents identified problematic BI and anxiety among their autistic children. The outcomes of this small-scale study indicate that some of the changes to routines brought about by the pandemic may be helpful for autistic children after the pandemic restrictions have ended. We provide a unique perspective on how to leverage occupational changes that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic to aid autistics during non-pandemic times

Slavery from space: demonstrating the role for satellite remote sensing to inform evidence-based action related to UN SDG Number 8

The most recent Global Slavery Index estimates that there are 40.3 million people enslaved globally. The UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goal number 8, section 8.7 specifically refers to the issue of forced labour: ending modern slavery and human trafficking, including child labour, in all forms by 2025. Although there is a global political commitment to ending slavery, one of the biggest barriers to doing so is having reliable and timely, spatially explicit and scalable data on slavery activity. The lack of these data compromises evidence-based action and policy formulation. Thus, to meet the challenge of ending modern slavery new and innovative approaches, with an emphasis on efficient use of resources (including financial) are needed. This paper demonstrates the fundamental role of remote sensing as a source of evidence. We provide an estimate of the number of brick kilns across the ‘Brick Belt’ that runs across south Asia. This is important because these brick kilns are known sites of modern-day slavery. This paper reports the first rigorous estimate of the number of brick kilns present and does so using a robust method that can be easily adopted by key agencies for evidence-based action (i.e. NGOs etc) and is based on freely available and accessible remotely sensed data. From this estimate we can not only calculate the scale of the slavery problem in the Brick Belt, but also calculate the impact of slavery beyond that of the enslaved people themselves, on, for example, environmental change and impacts on ecosystem services – this links to other Sustainable Development Goals. As the process of achieving key Sustainable Development Goal targets will show, there are global benefits to ending slavery - this will mean a better world for everyone: safer, greener, more prosperous, and more equal. This is termed here a Freedom Dividend

A Reverse Genetics Platform That Spans the Zika Virus Family Tree

ABSTRACT Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus discovered in 1947, has only recently caused large outbreaks and emerged as a significant human pathogen. In 2015, ZIKV was detected in Brazil, and the resulting epidemic has spread throughout the Western Hemisphere. Severe complications from ZIKV infection include neurological disorders such as Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults and a variety of fetal abnormalities, including microcephaly, blindness, placental insufficiency, and fetal demise. There is an urgent need for tools and reagents to study the pathogenesis of epidemic ZIKV and for testing vaccines and antivirals. Using a reverse genetics platform, we generated six ZIKV infectious clones and derivative viruses representing diverse temporal and geographic origins. These include three versions of MR766, the prototype 1947 strain (with and without a glycosylation site in the envelope protein), and H/PF/2013, a 2013 human isolate from French Polynesia representative of the virus introduced to Brazil. In the course of synthesizing a clone of a circulating Brazilian strain, phylogenetic studies identified two distinct ZIKV clades in Brazil. We reconstructed viable clones of strains SPH2015 and BeH819015, representing ancestral members of each clade. We assessed recombinant virus replication, binding to monoclonal antibodies, and virulence in mice. This panel of molecular clones and recombinant virus isolates will enable targeted studies of viral determinants of pathogenesis, adaptation, and evolution, as well as the rational attenuation of contemporary outbreak strains to facilitate the design of vaccines and therapeutics. IMPORTANCE Viral emergence is a poorly understood process as evidenced by the sudden emergence of Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean. Malleable reagents that both predate and span an expanding epidemic are key to understanding the virologic determinants that regulate pathogenesis and transmission. We have generated representative cDNA molecular clones and recombinant viruses that span the known ZIKV family tree, including early Brazilian isolates. Recombinant viruses replicated efficiently in cell culture and were pathogenic in immunodeficient mice, providing a genetic platform for rational vaccine and therapeutic design

The genome of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida A449: insights into the evolution of a fish pathogen

Background Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida is a Gram-negative bacterium that is the causative agent of furunculosis, a bacterial septicaemia of salmonid fish. While other species of Aeromonas are opportunistic pathogens or are found in commensal or symbiotic relationships with animal hosts, A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida causes disease in healthy fish. The genome sequence of A. salmonicida was determined to provide a better understanding of the virulence factors used by this pathogen to infect fish. Results The nucleotide sequences of the A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida A449 chromosome and two large plasmids are characterized. The chromosome is 4,702,402 bp and encodes 4388 genes, while the two large plasmids are 166,749 and 155,098 bp with 178 and 164 genes, respectively. Notable features are a large inversion in the chromosome and, in one of the large plasmids, the presence of a Tn21 composite transposon containing mercury resistance genes and an In2 integron encoding genes for resistance to streptomycin/spectinomycin, quaternary ammonia compounds, sulphonamides and chloramphenicol. A large number of genes encoding potential virulence factors were identified; however, many appear to be pseudogenes since they contain insertion sequences, frameshifts or in-frame stop codons. A total of 170 pseudogenes and 88 insertion sequences (of ten different types) are found in the A. salmonicida genome. Comparison with the A. hydrophila ATCC 7966T genome reveals multiple large inversions in the chromosome as well as an approximately 9% difference in gene content indicating instances of single gene or operon loss or gain. A limited number of the pseudogenes found in A. salmonicida A449 were investigated in other Aeromonas strains and species. While nearly all the pseudogenes tested are present in A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida strains, only about 25% were found in other A. salmonicida subspecies and none were detected in other Aeromonas species. Conclusion Relative to the A. hydrophila ATCC 7966T genome, the A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida genome has acquired multiple mobile genetic elements, undergone substantial rearrangement and developed a significant number of pseudogenes. These changes appear to be a consequence of adaptation to a specific host, salmonid fish, and provide insights into the mechanisms used by the bacterium for infection and avoidance of host defence systems.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Comparative genomics profiling of clinical isolates of Aeromonas salmonicida using DNA microarrays

BACKGROUND: Aeromonas salmonicida has been isolated from numerous fish species and shows wide variation in virulence and pathogenicity. As part of a larger research program to identify virulence genes and candidates for vaccine development, a DNA microarray was constructed using a subset of 2024 genes from the draft genome sequence of A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida strain A449. The microarray included genes encoding known virulence-associated factors in A. salmonicida and homologs of virulence genes of other pathogens. We used microarray-based comparative genomic hybridizations (M-CGH) to compare selected A. salmonicida sub-species and other Aeromonas species from different hosts and geographic locations. RESULTS: Results showed variable carriage of virulence-associated genes and generally increased variation in gene content across sub-species and species boundaries. The greatest variation was observed among genes associated with plasmids and transposons. There was little correlation between geographic region and degree of variation for all isolates tested. CONCLUSION: We have used the M-CGH technique to identify subsets of conserved genes from amongst this set of A. salmonicida virulence genes for further investigation as potential vaccine candidates. Unlike other bacterial characterization methods that use a small number of gene or DNA-based functions, M-CGH examines thousands of genes and/or whole genomes and thus is a more comprehensive analytical tool for veterinary or even human health research