Variable strength of forest stand attributes and weather conditions on the questing activity of Ixodes ricinus ticks over years in managed forests

Given the ever-increasing human impact through land use and climate change on the environment, we crucially need to achieve a better understanding of those factors that influence the questing activity of ixodid ticks, a major disease-transmitting vector in temperate forests. We investigated variation in the relative questing nymph densities of Ixodes ricinus in differently managed forest types for three years (2008–2010) in SW Germany by drag sampling. We used a hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach to examine the relative effects of habitat and weather and to consider possible nested structures of habitat and climate forces. The questing activity of nymphs was considerably larger in young forest successional stages of thicket compared with pole wood and timber stages. Questing nymph density increased markedly with milder winter temperatures. Generally, the relative strength of the various environmental forces on questing nymph density differed across years. In particular, winter temperature had a negative effect on tick activity across sites in 2008 in contrast to the overall effect of temperature across years. Our results suggest that forest management practices have important impacts on questing nymph density. Variable weather conditions, however, might override the effects of forest management practices on the fluctuations and dynamics of tick populations and activity over years, in particular, the preceding winter temperatures. Therefore, robust predictions and the detection of possible interactions and nested structures of habitat and climate forces can only be quantified through the collection of long-term data. Such data are particularly important with regard to future scenarios of forest management and climate warming

Public engagement on global health challenges

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Experience with public engagement activities regarding the risks and benefits of science and technology (S&T) is growing, especially in the industrialized world. However, public engagement in the developing world regarding S&T risks and benefits to explore health issues has not been widely explored.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This paper gives an overview about public engagement and related concepts, with a particular focus on challenges and benefits in the developing world. We then describe an Internet-based platform, which seeks to both inform and engage youth and the broader public on global water issues and their health impacts. Finally, we outline a possible course for future action to scale up this and similar online public engagement platforms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The benefits of public engagement include creating an informed citizenry, generating new ideas from the public, increasing the chances of research being adopted, increasing public trust, and answering ethical research questions. Public engagement also fosters global communication, enables shared experiences and methodology, standardizes strategy, and generates global viewpoints. This is especially pertinent to the developing world, as it encourages previously marginalized populations to participate on a global stage. One of the core issues at stake in public engagement is global governance of science and technology. Also, beyond benefiting society at large, public engagement in science offers benefits to the scientific enterprise itself.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Successful public engagement with developing world stakeholders will be a critical part of implementing new services and technologies. Interactive engagement platforms, such as the Internet, have the potential to unite people globally around relevant health issues.</p

Molecular Characterization of Cryptosporidium Species and Giardia duodenalis from Symptomatic Cambodian Children

Background: In a prospective study, 498 single faecal samples from children aged under 16 years attending an outpatient clinic in the Angkor Hospital for Children, northwest Cambodia, were examined for Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts using microscopy and molecular assays. Methodology/Principal Findings: Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected in 2.2% (11/498) of samples using microscopy and in 7.7% (38/498) with molecular tests. Giardia duodenalis cysts were detected in 18.9% (94/498) by microscopy and 27.7% (138/498) by molecular tests; 82% of the positive samples (by either method) were from children aged 1–10 years. Cryptosporidium hominis was the most common species of Cryptosporidium, detected in 13 (34.2%) samples, followed by Cryptosporidium meleagridis in 9 (23.7%), Cryptosporidium parvum in 8 (21.1%), Cryptosporidium canis in 5 (13.2%), and Cryptosporidium suis and Cryptosporidium ubiquitum in one sample each. Cryptosporidium hominis and C. parvum positive samples were subtyped by sequencing the GP60 gene: C. hominis IaA16R6 and C. parvum IIeA7G1 were the most abundant subtypes. Giardia duodenalis was typed using a multiplex real-time PCR targeting assemblages A and B. Assemblage B (106; 76.8% of all Giardia positive samples) was most common followed by A (12.3%) and mixed infections (5.1%). Risk factors associated with Cryptosporidium were malnutrition (AOR 9.63, 95% CI 1.67–55.46), chronic medical diagnoses (AOR 4.51, 95% CI 1.79–11.34) and the presence of birds in the household (AOR 2.99, 95% CI 1.16–7.73); specifically C. hominis (p = 0.03) and C. meleagridis (p<0.001) were associated with the presence of birds. The use of soap was protective against Giardia infection (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.58–0.95). Conclusions/Significance: This is the first report to describe the different Cryptosporidium species and subtypes and Giardia duodenalis assemblages in Cambodian children. The variety of Cryptosporidium species detected indicates both anthroponotic and zoonotic transmission in this population. Interventions to improve sanitation, increase hand washing after defecation and before preparing food and promote drinking boiled water may reduce the burden of these two parasites

Recruitment in the sea: bacterial genes required for inducing larval settlement in a polychaete worm

Metamorphically competent larvae of the marine tubeworm Hydroides elegans can be induced to metamorphose by biofilms of the bacterium Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea strain HI1. Mutational analysis was used to identify four genes that are necessary for metamorphic induction and encode functions that may be related to cell adhesion and bacterial secretion systems. No major differences in biofilm characteristics, such as biofilm cell density, thickness, biomass and EPS biomass, were seen between biofilms composed of P. luteoviolacea (HI1) and mutants lacking one of the four genes. The analysis indicates that factors other than those relating to physical characteristics of biofilms are critical to the inductive capacity of P. luteoviolacea (HI1), and that essential inductive molecular components are missing in the non-inductive deletion-mutant strains

Testing foundations of quantum mechanics with photons

The foundational ideas of quantum mechanics continue to give rise to counterintuitive theories and physical effects that are in conflict with a classical description of Nature. Experiments with light at the single photon level have historically been at the forefront of tests of fundamental quantum theory and new developments in photonics engineering continue to enable new experiments. Here we review recent photonic experiments to test two foundational themes in quantum mechanics: wave-particle duality, central to recent complementarity and delayed-choice experiments; and Bell nonlocality where recent theoretical and technological advances have allowed all controversial loopholes to be separately addressed in different photonics experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, published as a Nature Physics Insight review articl

Use of hospitalisation history (lookback) to determine prevalence of chronic diseases: impact on modelling of risk factors for haemorrhage in pregnancy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Concern about the completeness of comorbidity information in hospital records has been raised as a limitation of using hospital discharge data for research. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of additional comorbidity information from prior hospital admissions on estimation of prevalence and modelling of risk factors for obstetric haemorrhage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A range of chronic disease prevalence for 53,438 women who had their first birth in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, 2005-2006, were ascertained for up to five years prior to the birth admission (for pregnancy, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year periods) and obstetric haemorrhage was identified from maternal hospital records for 2005 and 2006.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ascertainment of chronic disease prevalence increased with increasing length of lookback. However, the rate of the increase was slower after 2 to 3 years than for the more recent periods. The effect size of chronic diseases on obstetric haemorrhage risk decreased with the increased case ascertainment associated with longer lookback. Furthermore, longer lookback did not improve the predictive capacity (C-statistic: 0.624) of a model that was based only on the birth admission records.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Longer ascertainment periods resulted in improved identification of chronic disease history among pregnant women, but the additional information from prior admissions did little to improve the modelling of risk factors for obstetric haemorrhage.</p

Mega-evolutionary dynamics of the adaptive radiation of birds

The origin and expansion of biological diversity is regulated by both developmental trajectories and limits on available ecological niches. As lineages diversify, an early and often rapid phase of species and trait proliferation gives way to evolutionary slow- downs as new species pack into ever more densely occupied regions of ecological niche space. Small clades such as Darwin’s finches demonstrate that natural selection is the driving force of adaptive radiations, but how microevolutionary processes scale up to shape the expansion of phenotypic diversity over much longer evolutionary timescales is unclear. Here we address this problem on a global scale by analysing a crowd-sourced dataset of three-dimensional scanned bill morphology from more than 2,000 species. We find that bill diversity expanded early in extant avian evolutionary history, before transitioning to a phase dominated by packing of morphological space. However, this early phenotypic diversification is decoupled from temporal variation in evolutionary rate: rates of bill evolution vary among lineages but are comparatively stable through time. We find that rare, but major, discontinuities in phenotype emerge from rapid increases in rate along single branches, sometimes leading to depauperate clades with unusual bill morphologies. Despite these jumps between groups, the major axes of within-group bill-shape evolution are remarkably consistent across birds. We reveal that macroevolutionary processes underlying global-scale adaptive radiations support Darwinian and Simpsonian ideas of microevolution within adaptive zones and accelerated evolution between distinct adaptive peaks

Identifying associations between diabetes and acute respiratory distress syndrome in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure: an analysis of the LUNG SAFE database

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a common co-existing disease in the critically ill. Diabetes mellitus may reduce the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), but data from previous studies are conflicting. The objective of this study was to evaluate associations between pre-existing diabetes mellitus and ARDS in critically ill patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure (AHRF). Methods: An ancillary analysis of a global, multi-centre prospective observational study (LUNG SAFE) was undertaken. LUNG SAFE evaluated all patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) over a 4-week period, that required mechanical ventilation and met AHRF criteria. Patients who had their AHRF fully explained by cardiac failure were excluded. Important clinical characteristics were included in a stepwise selection approach (forward and backward selection combined with a significance level of 0.05) to identify a set of independent variables associated with having ARDS at any time, developing ARDS (defined as ARDS occurring after day 2 from meeting AHRF criteria) and with hospital mortality. Furthermore, propensity score analysis was undertaken to account for the differences in baseline characteristics between patients with and without diabetes mellitus, and the association between diabetes mellitus and outcomes of interest was assessed on matched samples. Results: Of the 4107 patients with AHRF included in this study, 3022 (73.6%) patients fulfilled ARDS criteria at admission or developed ARDS during their ICU stay. Diabetes mellitus was a pre-existing co-morbidity in 913 patients (22.2% of patients with AHRF). In multivariable analysis, there was no association between diabetes mellitus and having ARDS (OR 0.93 (0.78-1.11); p = 0.39), developing ARDS late (OR 0.79 (0.54-1.15); p = 0.22), or hospital mortality in patients with ARDS (1.15 (0.93-1.42); p = 0.19). In a matched sample of patients, there was no association between diabetes mellitus and outcomes of interest. Conclusions: In a large, global observational study of patients with AHRF, no association was found between diabetes mellitus and having ARDS, developing ARDS, or outcomes from ARDS. Trial registration: NCT02010073. Registered on 12 December 2013