The influence of depth and velocity on age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon prey consumption: Implications for aquatic habitat restoration

After the pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) was listed as endangered in 1990, a variety of management actions focusing on early life history needs have been implemented to aid species recovery. Given the scarcity of age‐0 pallid sturgeon, managers and scientists have relied on sympatric congeners to evaluate the effectiveness of management actions in the short term; however, increased understanding of habitat requirements for age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon is still needed to appropriately focus management efforts. Recently, a lack of food‐producing and foraging habitats were proposed as potential limiting factors for pallid sturgeon, and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the current definition of these habitats at multiple spatial scales using data from age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon (shovelnose sturgeon [Scaphirhynchus platyrhynchus] or hybrid [shovelnose sturgeon x pallid sturgeon]). Results showed the water depths and velocities that currently define age‐0 pallid sturgeon foraging habitat had little effect on age‐0 Scaphirhynchus sturgeon prey consumption. Similar results occurred when evaluating the relationship between prey consumption and food‐producing habitat present 10, 20, and 30 days before capture. Assuming that individuals captured during this study were a valid surrogate, these results suggest that increasing foraging and food‐producing habitat as defined by the current depth and velocity criteria is unlikely to result in the desired benefits of increased growth and survival of age‐0 pallid sturgeon

Core components of a rehabilitation program in pediatric cardiac disease

There is increasing effort in both the inpatient and outpatient setting to improve care, function, and quality of life for children with congenital heart disease, and to decrease complications. As the mortality rates of surgical procedures for congenital heart disease decrease, improvement in perioperative morbidity and quality of life have become key metrics of quality of care. Quality of life and function in patients with congenital heart disease can be affected by multiple factors: the underlying heart condition, cardiac surgery, complications, and medical treatment. Some of the functional areas affected are motor abilities, exercise capacity, feeding, speech, cognition, and psychosocial adjustment. Rehabilitation interventions aim to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life for those with physical impairments or disabilities. Interventions such as exercise training have been extensively evaluated in adults with acquired heart disease, and rehabilitation interventions for pediatric patients with congenital heart disease have similar potential to improve perioperative morbidity and quality of life. However, literature regarding the pediatric population is limited. We have gathered a multidisciplinary team of experts from major institutions to create evidence- and practice-based guidelines for pediatric cardiac rehabilitation programs in both inpatient and outpatient settings. To improve the quality of life of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease, we propose the use of individualized multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs that include: medical management; neuropsychology; nursing care; rehabilitation equipment; physical, occupational, speech, and feeding therapies; and exercise training

Sociocultural considerations in aging men's health: implications and recommendations for the clinician

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jomh.2009.07.00

Capsules from Pathogenic and Non-Pathogenic Cryptococcus spp. Manifest Significant Differences in Structure and Ability to Protect against Phagocytic Cells

Capsule production is common among bacterial species, but relatively rare in eukaryotic microorganisms. Members of the fungal Cryptococcus genus are known to produce capsules, which are major determinants of virulence in the highly pathogenic species Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii. Although the lack of virulence of many species of the Cryptococcus genus can be explained solely by the lack of mammalian thermotolerance, it is uncertain whether the capsules from these organisms are comparable to those of the pathogenic cryptococci. In this study, we compared the characteristic of the capsule from the non-pathogenic environmental yeast Cryptococcus liquefaciens with that of C. neoformans. Microscopic observations revealed that C. liquefaciens has a capsule visible in India ink preparations that was also efficiently labeled by three antibodies generated to specific C. neoformans capsular antigens. Capsular polysaccharides of C. liquefaciens were incorporated onto the cell surface of acapsular C. neoformans mutant cells. Polysaccharide composition determinations in combination with confocal microscopy revealed that C. liquefaciens capsule consisted of mannose, xylose, glucose, glucuronic acid, galactose and N-acetylglucosamine. Physical chemical analysis of the C. liquefaciens polysaccharides in comparison with C. neoformans samples revealed significant differences in viscosity, elastic properties and macromolecular structure parameters of polysaccharide solutions such as rigidity, effective diameter, zeta potential and molecular mass, which nevertheless appeared to be characteristics of linear polysaccharides that also comprise capsular polysaccharide of C. neoformans. The environmental yeast, however, showed enhanced susceptibility to the antimicrobial activity of the environmental phagocytes, suggesting that the C. liquefaciens capsular components are insufficient in protecting yeast cells against killing by amoeba. These results suggest that capsular structures in pathogenic Cryptococcus species and environmental species share similar features, but also manifest significant difference that could influence their potential to virulence

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Building a global atlas of zoonotic viruses.

Submitted by Fabricia Pimenta ([email protected]) on 2018-04-03T11:19:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos_Morel_CDTS_2018.pdf: 74786 bytes, checksum: 91fac39c9c57c6c87a1cb8c0380e1f25 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Fabricia Pimenta ([email protected]) on 2018-04-03T11:40:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos_Morel_CDTS_2018.pdf: 74786 bytes, checksum: 91fac39c9c57c6c87a1cb8c0380e1f25 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-03T11:40:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos_Morel_CDTS_2018.pdf: 74786 bytes, checksum: 91fac39c9c57c6c87a1cb8c0380e1f25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-05United States Agency for International Development. Bureau for Global Health. Pandemic Influenza and other Emerging Threats Unit. Washington DC, United States of America.EcoHealth Alliance. New York, United States of America.University of California. School of Veterinary Medicine. One Health Institute. Davis, California, United States of America.EcoHealth Alliance. New York, United States of America.University of California. School of Veterinary Medicine. One Health Institute. Davis, California, United States of America.United States Agency for International Development. Bureau for Global Health. Pandemic Influenza and other Emerging Threats Unit. Washington DC, United States of America.Metabiota. San Francisco, California, United States of America.Metabiota. San Francisco, California, United States of America.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Saúde. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Chinese Academy of Sciences. Institute of Microbiology. Beijing, China.Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. International Law Department. Geneva, Switzerland.Hong Kong University. School of Public Health. Hong Kong, China.Mahidol University. Siriraj Hospital. Faculty of Medicine. Department of Microbiology. Bangkok, Thailand.University of Lagos. Nigerian Academy of Science. Lagos, Nigeria.At the Prince Mahidol Awards Conference on 30 January 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand, policy- and decision-makers, experts, researchers, donors and private sector representatives from across the globe came together to introduce and explore the dynamics of the Global Virome Project. The project is an innovative 10-year proposed partnership to develop a global atlas of most of the planet’s naturally occurring potentially zoonotic viruses. The project aims to transform the study of emerging diseases by building an unprecedented database of viruses in their ecological contexts. This foundation of information on viral sequences, geographic ranges and host distributions will be used to drive the development of prevention efforts against future threats. This international alliance will connect the next generation of scientists, build capacity at hotspots of viral emergence and promote equitable access to data and strategies to prevent epidemics