Reconstructing Colonization Dynamics of the Human Parasite Schistosoma mansoni following Anthropogenic Environmental Changes in Northwest Senegal

© 2015 Van den Broeck et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Beta-delayed deuteron emission from 11Li: decay of the halo

The deuteron-emission channel in the beta-decay of the halo-nucleus 11Li was measured at the ISAC facility at TRIUMF by implanting post-accelerated 11Li ions into a segmented silicon detector. The events of interest were identified by correlating the decays of 11Li with those of the daughter nuclei. This method allowed the energy spectrum of the emitted deuterons to be extracted, free from contributions from other channels, and a precise value for the branching ratio B_d = 1.30(13) x 10-4 to be deduced for E(c.m.) > 200 keV. The results provide the first unambiguous experimental evidence that the decay takes place essentially in the halo of 11Li, and that it proceeds mainly to the 9Li + d continuum, opening up a new means to study of the halo wave function of 11Li.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Potential of Citizen-Driven Monitoring of Freshwater Snails in Schistosomiasis Research

Schistosomiasis is a tropical parasitic disease affecting more than 200 million people worldwide, predominantly in Africa. The World Health Organization recently highlighted the importance of targeted control of the freshwater snails acting as intermediate hosts for the parasites causing schistosomiasis. However, because of a shortage of trained experts and resources, detailed information on spatiotemporal snail distributions, which is needed for targeted control measures, is often missing. We explore the potential of citizen science to build these much-needed datasets through fine-grained, frequent snail sampling. We trained a network of 25 citizen scientists to weekly report on snail host abundances in 77 predefined water contact sites in and around Lake Albert (western Uganda). Snail abundance, together with marked GPS locations, water chemistry parameters, and photographs of the identified snails are recorded and submitted using the freely available mobile phone application KoBoToolbox. Trained researchers then engage in remote, semi-automatic validation of the submissions, after which there is an opportunity to provide targeted feedback to the citizen scientists. Five months after the operationalisation of the network, a total of 570 reports were submitted and personalized feedback was given, resulting in lasting improvements in subsequent reporting and snail genus identification. The preliminary results show the possibility of citizen science to independently obtain reliable data on the presence of schistosome snail hosts. We therefore argue that citizen-driven monitoring on a high spatiotemporal resolution could help to generate the much-needed data to support local targeted snail control measures in remote and/or resource-limited environments

Characterization of the low-lying 0(+) and 2(+) states in Ni-68 via beta decay of the low-spin Co-68 isomer

The low-energy structure of the neutron-rich nucleus Ni-68 has been investigated by measuring the beta decay of the low-spin isomer in Co-68 selectively produced in the decay chain of Mn-68. A revised level scheme has been built based on the clear identification of beta-gamma-E0 delayed coincidences. Transitions between the three lowest-lying 0(+) and 2(+) states are discussed on the basis of measured intensities or their upper limits for unobserved branches and state-of-the-art shell model calculations

Evolutionary Analysis of Mitogenomes from Parasitic and Free-Living Flatworms

Copyright: © 2015 Solà et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

The European Consultation-Liaison Workgroup (ECLW) Collaborative Study. I. General outline.

Previous C-L psychiatric service research is seriously limited by its parochial nature; very few results can be generalized outside of the hospital in which the original study was performed because of differences in the nature of the hospital and the type of C-L service. This article presents the general outline and methodology of a European multicentered C-L service delivery study effected by the European Consultation-Liaison Workgroup for General Hospital Psychiatry and Psychosomatics (ECLW). The study is unique in its kind as it allows the comparison of very different C-L services; for example, some services are run by C-L psychiatrists, others are run by C-L psychosomaticists and the study encompasses a large variety of different settings. As a result, both common factors in C-L service delivery and specific local patterns can be explored. The overall hypothesis tested in this study was that the most developed services would see (as well as more patients) a wider variety of clinical problems than small services. The implication is that the absence of well-developed C-L services in a general hospital may mean that there are patients with unmet mental health needs. In separate articles the training and reliability testing of the new Patient Registration Form (PRF) and the Institutional and Provider characteristics will be described. The former includes the use of ICD-10 in the general hospital setting. This study is a collaborative effort made by 226 consultants from 56 psychiatric C-L services in 11 countries. Each consultant recorded details of 1 year's caseload leading to a thorough description of 14,717 patients collected between 1991 and 1993. The advanced methodology included a multicentered international approach, rigid training for all participating consultants, and the development and testing of new instruments. This will allow us to assess the impact of important structural and process variables on the outcome of C-L service delivery in several European countries. These results will be reported in papers both in the international and national literature of the participating countries

beta-decay study of Cu-77

A beta-decay study of Cu-77 has been performed at the ISOLDE mass separator with the aim to deduce its beta-decay properties and to obtain spectroscopic information on Zn-77. Neutron-rich copper isotopes were produced by means of proton- or neutron-induced fission reactions on U-238. After the production, Cu-77 was selectively laser ionized, mass separated and sent to different detection systems where beta-gamma and beta-n coincidence data were collected. We report on the deduced half-live, decay scheme, and possible spin assignment of 77Cu

Low-energy Coulomb excitation of 62^{62}Fe and 62^{62}Mn following in-beam decay of 62^{62}Mn

Sub-barrier Coulomb-excitation was performed on a mixed beam of $^{62}$Mn and $^{62}$Fe, following in-trap $\beta^{-}$ decay of $^{62}$Mn at REX-ISOLDE, CERN. The trapping and charge breeding times were varied in order to alter the composition of the beam, which was measured by means of an ionisation chamber at the zero-angle position of the Miniball array. A new transition was observed at 418~keV, which has been tentatively associated to a $(2^{+},3^{+})\rightarrow1^{+}_{g.s.}$ transition. This fixes the relative positions of the $\beta$-decaying $4^{+}$ and $1^{+}$ states in $^{62}$Mn for the first time. Population of the $2^{+}_{1}$ state was observed in $^{62}$Fe and the cross-section determined by normalisation to the $^{109}$Ag target excitation, confirming the $B(E2)$ value measured in recoil-distance lifetime experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure