Body Temperature In Captive Long-Beaked Echidnas (Zaglossus Bartoni)

The routine occurrence of both short-term (daily) and long-term torpor (hibernation) in short-beaked echidnas, but not platypus, raises questions about the third monotreme genus, New Guinea's Zaglossus. We measured body temperatures (Tb) with implanted data loggers over three and a half years in two captive Zaglossus bartoni at Taronga Zoo, Sydney. The modal Tb of both long-beaks was 31 degrees C, similar to non-hibernating short-beaked echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus, in the wild (30-32 degrees C) and to platypus (32 degrees C), suggesting that this is characteristic of normothermic monotremes. Tb cycled daily, usually over 2-4 degrees C. There were some departures from this pattern to suggest periods of inactivity but nothing to indicate the occurrence of long-term torpor. In contrast, two short-beaked echidnas monitored concurrently in the same pen showed extended periods of low Tb in the cooler months (hibernation) and short periods of torpor at any time of the year, as they do in the wild. Whether torpor or hibernation occurs in Zaglossus in the wild or in juveniles remains unknown. However, given that the environment in this study was conducive to hibernation in short-beaks, which do not easily enter torpor in captivity, and their large size, we think that torpor in wild adult Zaglossus is unlikely

Enduring effects of large legumes and phosphorus fertiliser on jarrah forest restoration 15 years after bauxite mining

Restoring nutrients lost in the mining process and re-establishing nutrient-cycling are often key goals of mine restoration. One common strategy to facilitate these goals is to seed fast-growing legumes combined with one application of P-fertiliser to maximise legume growth and increase soil-N. However, the longer term effects of this strategy have received little attention. Here we report the results of a 15-year-old experiment that was established to test the effects of fertiliser-P application and seeding large understorey legumes, both singly and in combination, on jarrah forest restoration after bauxite mining. Fifteen years after the establishment of this experiment, the majority of the seeded legumes had senesced, with total legume cover having declined significantly compared with results of the same experiment at 5-years-of-age. Yet, despite the legumes having senesced there were still negative effects of both large legumes and P-fertiliser on species richness and abundance of non-leguminous understorey species. These negative effects may be mediated by the persistent effects of legume competition that was evident at 5 years and the accumulation of significant quantities of leaf litter and fine woody debris in the large legume × P-addition treatments. Compared with the 0 kg P ha−1 treatment, application of 20 kg P ha−1 significantly increased jarrah tree growth, but there was no additional benefit of 80 kg P ha−1. These data suggest that moderation of P-fertiliser and large understorey legumes could maximise understorey cover, tree growth and understorey species richness, and therefore simultaneously address multiple key restoration goals

Co-designing drug alerts for health and community workers for an emerging early warning system in Victoria, Australia

Background: Alerts about changes in unregulated drug markets may be useful for supporting health and community workers to anticipate, prevent, and respond to unexpected adverse drug events. This study aimed to establish factors influencing the successful design and implementation of drug alerts for use in clinical and community service settings in Victoria, Australia. Methods: An iterative mixed methods design was used to co-produce drug alert prototypes with practitioners and managers working across various alcohol and other drug services and emergency medicine settings. A quantitative needs-analysis survey (n = 184) informed five qualitative co-design workshops (n = 31). Alert prototypes were drafted based on findings and tested for utility and acceptability. Applicable constructs from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research helped to conceptualise factors that impact successful alert system design. Results: Timely and reliable alerts about unexpected drug market changes were important to nearly all workers (98%) yet many reported insufficient access to this kind of information (64%). Workers considered themselves ‘conduits’ for information-sharing and valued alerts for increasing exposure to drug market intelligence; facilitating communication about potential threats and trends; and improving capacity for effective responding to drug-related harm. Alerts should be ‘shareable’ across a range of clinical and community settings and audiences. To maximise engagement and impact, alerts must command attention, be easily recognisable, be available on multiple platforms (electronic and printable formats) in varying levels of detail, and be disseminated via appropriate notification mechanisms to meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups. Three drug alert prototypes (SMS prompt, summary flyer, and a detailed poster) were endorsed by workers as useful for supporting their work responding to unexpected drug-related harms. Discussion: Alerts informed by coordinated early warning networks that offer close to real-time detection of unexpected substances can provide rapid, evidence-based drug market intelligence to inform preventive and responsive action to drug-related harm. The success of alert systems requires adequate planning and resourcing to support design, implementation, and evaluation, which includes consultation with all relevant audiences to understand how to maximise engagement with information, recommendations, and advice. Our findings about factors impacting successful alert design have utility to inform the development of local early warning systems

The UK's Global Health Respiratory Network: Improving respiratory health of the world's poorest through research collaborations.

Respiratory disorders are responsible for considerable morbidity, health care utilisation, societal costs and approximately one in five deaths worldwide [1-4]. Yet, despite this substantial health and societal burden – which particularly affects the world’s poorest populations and as such is a major contributor to global health inequalities – respiratory disorders have historically not received the policy priority they warrant. For example, despite causing an estimated 1000 deaths per day, less than half of the world’s countries collect data on asthma prevalence (http://www.globalasthmareport.org/). This is true for both communicable and non-communicable respiratory disorders, many of which are either amenable to treatment or preventable

Highly diastereoselective synthesis of substituted pyrrolidines using a sequence of azomethine ylide cycloaddition and nucleophilic cyclization

Abstract: Although cycloadditions of azomethine ylides usually give mixtures of endo/exo adducts, we successfully tuned the mechanistic path of a new reaction cascade to afford substituted pyrrolidines in high yields and diastereomeric purity. This was achieved by forcing the demetalation of tin- or silicon-substituted iminium ions, followed by azomethine ylide cycloaddition and nucleophilic cyclization. Structural complexity is thus built rapidly in a fully controlled one-pot reaction cascade

Air pollution, ethnicity and telomere length in east London schoolchildren: An observational study

This study was funded/supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, Dr. and Mrs. Lee Iu Cheung Fund, and Hackney Primary Care Trust (PCT)

Associations between age and sleep apnea risk among newborn infants

ObjectiveAmong older children, sleep‐disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with measurable neurocognitive consequences. However, diagnostic SDB thresholds are lacking for infants < 12 months. We sought to evaluate the relationship between SDB indices, gestational age (GA), and postmenstrual age (PMA) for infants who underwent clinically‐indicated polysomnograms at a tertiary care center.MethodsEvery infant < 3‐months chronological age whose first clinically‐indicated polysomnogram was between 2/2012 and 2/2017 was included. Linear regression was used to evaluate associations between apnea‐hypopnea index (AHI), obstructive‐apnea index (OAI), and GA and PMA for infants with and without obvious clinical risk factors for SDB (eg, micrognathia and cleft palate).ResultsFor 53 infants without obvious SDB risk factors (GA 35.6 ± 4.5 weeks; PMA 41.2 ± 4.0 weeks), mean AHI was 27 ± 18 and OAI 2.9 ± 4.5. There was a weak inverse relationship between AHI and PMA (r2 = 0.12, P = 0.01), but AHI was not predicted by GA (r2 = 0.04, P = 0.13). Conversely, OAI was more strongly associated with GA (r2 = 0.33, P < 0.0001) than PMA (r2 = 0.08, P = 0.036). For 28 infants with congenital structural anomalies that predispose to SDB (GA 38.0 ± 3.1 weeks, PMA 43.1 ± 3.3 weeks, AHI 37.7 ± 30, OAI 8.2 ± 11.8), neither AHI nor OAI were related to PMA or GA.ConclusionsAmong infants who received clinically‐indicated polysomnograms but did not have obvious structural risk for SDB, AHI declined with advancing PMA, but obstructive‐apnea was best predicted by prematurity. In contrast, the SDB risk did not improve with increasing GA or PMA for infants with congenital structural risk factors; such infants may not outgrow their risk for SDB.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150552/1/ppul24354_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150552/2/ppul24354.pd

Initial conditions can have long-term effects on plant species diversity in jarrah forest restored after bauxite mining

Much of the remarkable plant species diversity of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region can be attributed to high diversity of the understorey in its forests and woodlands, including 400–600 understorey species per km2 in the Northern Jarrah Forest alone. Consequently, returning species diversity is a key challenge for postmining ecological restoration in the region. Each year, Alcoa of Australia undertakes restoration of mined areas within the Northern Jarrah Forest with a goal of returning a self-sustaining jarrah forest ecosystem. To meet this goal, it is important to understand long-term (i.e. > 20 years) trajectories of vegetation development and the restoration practices that direct species diversity outcomes. Here, we report the results of several experiments, the oldest of which is 45 years of age, which together demonstrate significant longer-term effects on understorey species diversity of restoration practices determining initial conditions including topsoil handling, fertiliser application, seeding rates of large legumes, and tree (overstorey) species stocking rates. Our research highlights (1) that ‘historical contingency’ can determine the trajectory of jarrah forest restoration and (2) that longer-term studies are critical as they give a different, sometimes conflicting, perspective to short-term datasets. Notably, after 27 years, we found an inverse relationship between plant cover and P fertilisation, where plant cover was highest in the in the absence of P fertiliser and lowest at the uppermost P amendment rate. We also found that the long-accepted Initial Floristics Model of succession does not fit well with our data. Our overall findings are likely useful to restore understorey diversity to woodlands, forests, and abandoned farmlands elsewhere in the region

Sensitive Detection of Plasmodium vivax Using a High-Throughput, Colourimetric Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (HtLAMP) Platform: A Potential Novel Tool for Malaria Elimination.

INTRODUCTION: Plasmodium vivax malaria has a wide geographic distribution and poses challenges to malaria elimination that are likely to be greater than those of P. falciparum. Diagnostic tools for P. vivax infection in non-reference laboratory settings are limited to microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests but these are unreliable at low parasitemia. The development and validation of a high-throughput and sensitive assay for P. vivax is a priority. METHODS: A high-throughput LAMP assay targeting a P. vivax mitochondrial gene and deploying colorimetric detection in a 96-well plate format was developed and evaluated in the laboratory. Diagnostic accuracy was compared against microscopy, antigen detection tests and PCR and validated in samples from malaria patients and community controls in a district hospital setting in Sabah, Malaysia. RESULTS: The high throughput LAMP-P. vivax assay (HtLAMP-Pv) performed with an estimated limit of detection of 1.4 parasites/ μL. Assay primers demonstrated cross-reactivity with P. knowlesi but not with other Plasmodium spp. Field testing of HtLAMP-Pv was conducted using 149 samples from symptomatic malaria patients (64 P. vivax, 17 P. falciparum, 56 P. knowlesi, 7 P. malariae, 1 mixed P. knowlesi/P. vivax, with 4 excluded). When compared against multiplex PCR, HtLAMP-Pv demonstrated a sensitivity for P. vivax of 95% (95% CI 87-99%); 61/64), and specificity of 100% (95% CI 86-100%); 25/25) when P. knowlesi samples were excluded. HtLAMP-Pv testing of 112 samples from asymptomatic community controls, 7 of which had submicroscopic P. vivax infections by PCR, showed a sensitivity of 71% (95% CI 29-96%; 5/7) and specificity of 93% (95% CI87-97%; 98/105). CONCLUSION: This novel HtLAMP-P. vivax assay has the potential to be a useful field applicable molecular diagnostic test for P. vivax infection in elimination settings

Selection at a single locus leads to widespread expansion of toxoplasma gondii lineages that are virulent in mice

The determinants of virulence are rarely defined for eukaryotic parasites such as T. gondii, a widespread parasite of mammals that also infects humans, sometimes with serious consequences. Recent laboratory studies have established that variation in a single secreted protein, a serine/threonine kinase known as ROPO18, controls whether or not mice survive infection. Here, we establish the extent and nature of variation in ROP18among a collection of parasite strains from geographically diverse regions. Compared to other genes, ROP18 showed extremely high levels of diversification and changes in expression level, which correlated with severity of infection in mice. Comparison with an out-group demonstrated that changes in the upstream region that regulates expression of ROP18 led to an historical increase in the expression and exposed the protein to diversifying selective pressure. Surprisingly, only three atypically distinct protein variants exist despite marked genetic divergence elsewhere in the genome. These three forms of ROP18 are likely adaptations for different niches in nature, and they confer markedly different virulence to mice. The widespread distribution of a single mouse-virulent allele among geographically and genetically disparate parasites may have consequences for transmission and disease in other hosts, including humans