Helminth infections in Apodemus sylvaticus in southern England: interactive effects of host age, sex and year on the prevalence and abundance of infections

Helminth parasites were studied in the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, in southern England in September of each of four successive years (1994-1997). Nine species of helminths were recorded: five nematodes (Heligmosomoides polygyrus, Syphacia stroma, Pelodera strongyloides, Trichuris muris, Capillaria murissylvatici), two cestodes (Microsomacanthus crenata, Taenia taeniaeformis) and two trematodes (Corrigia vitta, Brachylaemus recurvum). In total, 134 mice were examined and 91.8% carried at least one species of helminth. The majority of mice carried two to three species (60.5%) and the highest combination was six of the nine species recorded in the study. The patterns of between-year variations in the prevalence and abundance of infection were different for each of the six species for which sufficient quantitative data were available to enable statistical analysis. For H, polygyrus, the most important source of variation arose from between-year differences, host age and. the interaction of these factors: abundance increased with host age but in 1995 the age pattern was markedly different from that in the remaining years. The abundance of C. vitta also varied significantly between years but additionally there was a strong independent age effect. For M. crenata, the year x age interaction was significant, indicating that abundance among different age cohorts varied from year to year but there was also a weak significant main effect of age arising from the youngest age cohort carrying no parasites and the oldest age cohort the heaviest infections. For P, strongyloides the only significant factor was between-year variation with 1995 being a year of exceptionally low prevalence and abundance of infection. No significant between-year variation was detected for S. stroma but there was a strong sex effect (males carrying heavier infections) and an age effect (older mice of both sexes carrying heavier infections). The abundance of Trichuris muris varied only in relation to host age, worm burdens growing in intensity with increasing age, but there was also a significant interaction between year and host sex with respect to prevalence. For the remaining three species, the prevalence of infections was too low (<8.2%) to enable any meaningful interpretation. This analysis emphasizes the need for carefully controlled statistical procedures in aiding the interpretation and the prioritization of the factors affecting worm burdens in wild rodents

Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries

Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries examines the library’s role in the development, implementation, and instruction of successful digital humanities projects. It pays special attention to the critical role of librarians in building sustainable programs. It also examines how libraries can support the use of digital scholarship tools and techniques in undergraduate education. Academic libraries are nexuses of research and technology; as such, they provide fertile ground for cultivating and curating digital scholarship. However, adding digital humanities to library service models requires a clear understanding of the resources and skills required. Integrating digital scholarship into existing models calls for a reimagining of the roles of libraries and librarians. In many cases, these reimagined roles call for expanded responsibilities, often in the areas of collaborative instruction and digital asset management, and in turn these expanded responsibilities can strain already stretched resources. Laying the Foundation provides practical solutions to the challenges of successfully incorporating digital humanities programs into existing library services. Collectively, its authors argue that librarians are critical resources for teaching digital humanities to undergraduate students and that libraries are essential for publishing, preserving, and making accessible digital scholarship.https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/1032/thumbnail.jp

Novel Analysis of Oceanic Surface Water Metagenomes Suggests Importance of Polyphosphate Metabolism in Oligotrophic Environments

Polyphosphate is a ubiquitous linear homopolymer of phosphate residues linked by high-energy bonds similar to those found in ATP. It has been associated with many processes including pathogenicity, DNA uptake and multiple stress responses across all domains. Bacteria have also been shown to use polyphosphate as a way to store phosphate when transferred from phosphate-limited to phosphate-rich media – a process exploited in wastewater treatment and other environmental contaminant remediation. Despite this, there has, to date, been little research into the role of polyphosphate in the survival of marine bacterioplankton in oligotrophic environments. The three main proteins involved in polyphosphate metabolism, Ppk1, Ppk2 and Ppx are multi-domain and have differential inter-domain and inter-gene conservation, making unbiased analysis of relative abundance in metagenomic datasets difficult. This paper describes the development of a novel Isofunctional Homolog Annotation Tool (IHAT) to detect homologs of genes with a broad range of conservation without bias of traditional expect-value cutoffs. IHAT analysis of the Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) dataset revealed that genes associated with polyphosphate metabolism are more abundant in environments where available phosphate is limited, suggesting an important role for polyphosphate metabolism in marine oligotrophs.</p

Pilot Testing Behavior Therapy for Chronic Tic Disorders in Neurology and Developmental Pediatrics Clinics

Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) is an efficacious treatment with limited regional availability. As neurology and pediatric clinics are often the first point of therapeutic contact for individuals with tics, the present study assessed preliminary treatment response, acceptability, and feasibility of an abbreviated version, modified for child neurology and developmental pediatrics clinics. Fourteen youth (9-17) with Tourette disorder across 2 child neurology clinics and one developmental pediatrics clinic participated in a small case series. Clinician-rated tic severity (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale) decreased from pre- to posttreatment, z = –2.0, P \u3c .05, r = –.48, as did tic-related impairment, z = –2.4, P \u3c .05, r = –.57. Five of the 9 completers (56%) were classified as treatment responders. Satisfaction ratings were high, and therapeutic alliance ratings were moderately high. Results provide guidance for refinement of this modified CBIT protocol

Modelling the hepatitis B vaccination programme in prisons

A vaccination programme offering hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine at reception into prison has been introduced into selected prisons in England and Wales. Over the coming years it is anticipated this vaccination programme will be extended. A model has been developed to assess the potential impact of the programme on the vaccination coverage of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and injecting drug users (IDUs). Under a range of coverage scenarios, the model predicts the change over time in the vaccination status of new entrants to prison, current prisoners and IDUs in the community. The model predicts that at baseline in 2012 57% of the IDU population will be vaccinated with up to 72% being vaccinated depending on the vaccination scenario implemented. These results are sensitive to the size of the IDU population in England and Wales and the average time served by an IDU during each prison visit. IDUs that do not receive HBV vaccine in the community are at increased risk from HBV infection. The HBV vaccination programme in prisons is an effective way of vaccinating this hard-to-reach population although vaccination coverage on prison reception must be increased to achieve this