THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON RANAVIRUSES:: ADVANCING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE THREAT OF RANAVIRUSES TO NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOFAUNA

Members of the genus Ranavirus, one of five genera withinthe family Iridoviridae, encompass a group of large, doublestrandedDNA viruses that infect all three classes of ectothermicvertebrates: fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Ranaviruses areglobally emerging pathogens that cause considerable morbidityand mortality among diverse populations. In North America,ranavirus epizootics are regularly reported in wild and culturedfish, amphibian, and reptile populations

Chapter 17: Vulnerability of coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) contains the most extensive coral reef ecosystem on earth. It consists of 2900 coral reefs and 900 coral cays that cover approximately 20,000 km2 of the total 345,000 km2 area of the GBR Marine Park. As a consequence of unusually high summer sea surface temperatures, between 42 to 60 percent of the reefs of the GBR experienced mass coral bleaching in 19988. Bleaching was also reported from 31 other nations around the world during 1997–1998. For example, about 50 percent of reefs in the Indian Ocean and south Asia lost much of their coral cover, and an estimated 16 percent of the world’s area of coral reefs was severely damaged. The event coincided with the strongest recorded El Niño-Southern Oscillation event (ENSO) and one of the warmest years on record.This is Chapter 17 of Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment. The entire book can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11017/13

Panton-Valentine leukocidin associated staphylococcal disease: a cross-sectional study at a London hospital, England

AbstractRecently, there has been international concern at the rapid emergence of highly pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus associated with a toxin called Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL). In the UK, these strains are considered to be rare and mainly severe. We estimate the proportion of staphylococcal infections that are caused by strains containing the PVL genes, and describe risk factors for these infections. Three hundred and ninety consecutive S. aureus clinical isolates, submitted for routine diagnostic purposes were screened for PVL genes. Risk factors for infection were identified from the patient medical record. 9.7% (95% CI 7.0–13.1%) of clinical isolates and 20.8% of skin and soft tissue specimens contained the genes for PVL. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus with PVL was rare (0.8% of all isolates) but PVL with methicillin-sensitive S. aureus was common (9.0% of all specimens). PVL infection was more frequent in males (OR 3.0, 95% CI 1.3–7.0), and in young adults aged 20–39 years (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.3–10.4). Over half of PVL positive S. aureus infections originated in patients based in the community. Community-onset PVL-associated disease is common in the UK and mainly causes skin and soft tissue infections that do not require admission to hospital. Consideration should be given to current infection control strategy, which advocates household contact screening and decolonization on the assumption that PVL-associated disease is rare

Maternal health, pregnancy and birth outcomes for women involved in care proceedings in Wales: a linked data study

Background: Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities in Wales, UK, can issue care proceedings if they are concerned about the welfare of a child, which can lead to removal of a child from parents. For mothers at risk of child removal, timely intervention during pregnancy may avert the need for this and improve maternal/fetal health; however, little is known about this specific population during the antenatal period. The study examined maternity characteristics of mothers whose infants were subject to care proceedings, with the aim of informing preventative interventions targeted at high risk mothers. Methods: Anonymised administrative data from Cafcass Cymru, who provide child-focused advice and support for family court proceedings in Wales, were linked to population-based maternity and health records held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank. Linked data were available for 1111 birth mothers of infants involved in care proceedings between 2015 and 2018. Findings were benchmarked with reference to an age-deprivation-matched comparison group (n = 23,414), not subject to care proceedings but accessing maternity services during this period. Demographic characteristics, maternal health, reproductive history, interaction with midwifery services, and pregnancy and birth outcomes were examined. Descriptive and statistical tests of independence were used. Results: Half of the women in the cohort (49.4%) resided in the most deprived areas. They were more likely to be younger at entry to motherhood (63.5% <21 years-of-age compared to 42.7% in the comparison group), to have mental health (28.6% compared to 8.2%) and substance use issues (10.4% compared to 0.6%) and to smoke (62.7% compared to 24.8%) during pregnancy. The majority first engaged with maternity services within their first trimester of pregnancy (63.5% compared to 84.4%). Babies were more likely to be born preterm (14.2% compared to 6.7%) and, for full-term babies, to have low birthweights (8.0% compared to 2.8%). Conclusion: This novel linkage study highlights multiple vulnerabilities experienced by pregnant mothers who have experienced care proceedings concerning an infant. Policy and practice colleagues require a clearer picture of women’s needs if child protection and health services are to offer effective services which prevent the need for family court proceedings and infant removal

Louse (Insecta : Phthiraptera) mitochondrial 12S rRNA secondary structure is highly variable

Lice are ectoparasitic insects hosted by birds and mammals. Mitochondrial 12S rRNA sequences obtained from lice show considerable length variation and are very difficult to align. We show that the louse 12S rRNA domain III secondary structure displays considerable variation compared to other insects, in both the shape and number of stems and loops. Phylogenetic trees constructed from tree edit distances between louse 12S rRNA structures do not closely resemble trees constructed from sequence data, suggesting that at least some of this structural variation has arisen independently in different louse lineages. Taken together with previous work on mitochondrial gene order and elevated rates of substitution in louse mitochondrial sequences, the structural variation in louse 12S rRNA confirms the highly distinctive nature of molecular evolution in these insects

\u3ci\u3eIshtarella thailandica\u3c/i\u3e Martens, new genus, new species (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) of aphid parasitoid from Thailand, with a country checklist of Aphidiinae

Ishtarella Martens new genus (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) and I. thailandica Martens new species are described and illustrated from Doi Phu Kha National Park, Nan Province, Thailand. The genus is assigned to the tribe Aphidiini, subtribe Trioxina. Based on morphology, Ishtarella appears most closely related to Binodoxys Mackauer. An updated checklist of the aphidiine fauna of Thailand, based on published records, is presented. Parasitoid wasps in the subfamily Aphidiinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) comprise about 60 genera and more than 650 species worldwide (Yu et al. 2016). The Aphidiinae of Thailand were all but unknown prior to a Thai­land Inventory Group for Entomological Research (TIGER) project from 2006–2009 (Starý et al. 2008). As part of the TIGER project the Thai aphidiine fauna was surveyed using Malaise and pan traps; 20 species collectively representing 15 genera were reported from mixed deciduous or pine forests from 230 m to 2500 m above sea level (Starý et al. 2008, 2010a, 2010b). Although there are no identification keys to the Thai Aphidiinae, genus-level identifications can be made using the keys presented in Starý and Schlinger (1967), Starý and Ghosh (1983), Raychaudhuri (1990), and Chen and Shi (2001). The new genus described herein is assigned to the tribe Aphidiini, subtribe Trioxina. Females of most genera in this subtribe possess an elongate and curved ovipositor sheath and ovipositor. Additionally, females of some genera, like Binodoxys Mackauer and Trioxys Haliday, possess distinctive hypopygial prongs that are used to hold and restrain the aphid host during oviposition (Völkl and Mackauer 2000)

The usability of description logics: understanding the cognitive difficulties presented by description logics

Description Logics have been extensively studied from the viewpoint of decidability and computational tractability. Less attention has been given to their usability and the cognitive difficulties they present, in particular for those who are not specialists in logic. This paper reports on a study into the difficulties associated with the most commonly used Description Logic features. Psychological theories are used to take account of these. Whilst most of the features presented no difficulty to participants, the comprehension of some was affected by commonly occurring misconceptions. The paper proposes explanations and remedies for some of these difficulties. In addition, the time to confirm stated inferences was found to depend both on the maximum complexity of the relations involved and the number of steps in the argument