Connecting the West Bank and Gaza Strip: questions of safe passage

Safe-passage for Palestinians was part of the 1995 Oslo II Interim Agreement. The time elapsed since Oslo II has produced very little progress on the “safe-passage” issue. Necessitated in part by the recent unilateral actions of the GOI, and the greater danger that the window of opportunity is closing, the time has come for the issue of “safe-passage” to be re-examined with a serious effort to reach agreement. This analysis examines several different aspects of the “safe passage” issue relative to connecting the West Bank and Gaza while addressing the current political situation and necessities

Economic Transformation and Development in Palestine

Serious foreign investment is desperately needed in Palestine. However,simply adding additional money into the Palestinian economy will not ensure economic transformation. Much more money must be specifically invested to create the institutions and infrastructure that will allow for Palestinian economic growth

Generation of Genic Diversity among Streptococcus pneumoniae Strains via Horizontal Gene Transfer during a Chronic Polyclonal Pediatric Infection

Although there is tremendous interest in understanding the evolutionary roles of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) processes that occur during chronic polyclonal infections, to date there have been few studies that directly address this topic. We have characterized multiple HGT events that most likely occurred during polyclonal infection among nasopharyngeal strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae recovered from a child suffering from chronic upper respiratory and middle-ear infections. Whole genome sequencing and comparative genomics were performed on six isolates collected during symptomatic episodes over a period of seven months. From these comparisons we determined that five of the isolates were genetically highly similar and likely represented a dominant lineage. We analyzed all genic and allelic differences among all six isolates and found that all differences tended to occur within contiguous genomic blocks, suggestive of strain evolution by homologous recombination. From these analyses we identified three strains (two of which were recovered on two different occasions) that appear to have been derived sequentially, one from the next, each by multiple recombination events. We also identified a fourth strain that contains many of the genomic segments that differentiate the three highly related strains from one another, and have hypothesized that this fourth strain may have served as a donor multiple times in the evolution of the dominant strain line. The variations among the parent, daughter, and grand-daughter recombinant strains collectively cover greater than seven percent of the genome and are grouped into 23 chromosomal clusters. While capturing in vivo HGT, these data support the distributed genome hypothesis and suggest that a single competence event in pneumococci can result in the replacement of DNA at multiple non-adjacent loci

Evaluating the Influence of Epidemiological Parameters and Host Ecology on the Spread of Phocine Distemper Virus through Populations of Harbour Seals

Catriona Harris was supported by a grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council. The funders had no role in study design, data collections and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Background: Outbreaks of phocine distemper virus (PDV) in Europe during 1988 and 2002 were responsible for the death of around 23,000 and 30,000 harbour seals, respectively. These epidemics, particularly the one in 2002, provided an unusual opportunity to estimate epidemic parameters for a wildlife disease. There were marked regional differences in the values of some parameters both within and between epidemics. Methodology and Principal Findings: We used an individual-based model of seal movement that allowed us to incorporate realistic representations of space, time and animal behaviour into a traditional epidemiological modelling framework. We explored the potential influence of a range of ecological (foraging trip duration, time of epidemic onset, population size) and epidemiological (length of infectious period, contact rate between infectious and susceptible individuals, case mortality) parameters on four readily-measurable epidemic characteristics (number of dead individuals, duration of epidemic, peak mortality date and prevalence) and on the probability that an epidemic would occur in a particular region. We analysed the outputs as if they were the results of a series of virtual experiments, using Generalised Linear Modelling. All six variables had a significant effect on the probability that an epidemic would be recognised as an unusual mortality event by human observers. Conclusions: Regional and temporal variation in contact rate was the most likely cause of the observed differences between the two epidemics. This variation could be a consequence of differences in the way individuals divide their time between land and sea at different times of the year.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Body condition score accuracy and repeatability from evaluation of cull sow digital images at a midwestern harvest facility

Objective The objective of this study was to assess accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility when evaluating cull sow body condition score (BCS) using a digital medium. Materials and Methods Selected digital images were sourced from recorded images of sows brought to a Midwest abattoir. Digital images were collected on 2 separate occasions. Each sample, grouped by capture date, represented a unique scoring session. Scorers (n = 6) with experience at assessing sow body condition used images to assign a BCS to each sow using a 7-point BCS scale. Using applied values, scores were adjusted to the standard 5-point scale. Because scorers assessed individual sows’ body condition from recorded video images, the mode score (BCSMode) was calculated for each sow and considered the gold standard. Scoring distributions, mode scores, individual bias, percent agreement with BCSMode, percent interobserver agreement, Spearman correlations evaluating scorer agreement, repeatability, and reproducibility were calculated. Results and Discussion Scorer bias from the pooled cull sow groups (n = 386 total available video images from 2 separate collections) ranged from −0.25 (±0.5) to 0.51 (±0.9). Spearman correlation coefficients for cull sow BCS measured on all sows for all scores during the second scoring round were lower than those observed in the first round. Additionally, it was observed that repeatability estimates improved from round 1 and round 2 (Rd 1 = 0.74 and Rd 2 = 0.76), and reproducibility slightly decreased between round 1 and round 2 (Rd 1 = 0.52 and Rd 2 = 0.47). These repeatability and reproducibility changes demonstrate that as experience level increases, scorers begin to develop their interpretation of the scale used to assess body condition. In turn, they become more repeatable within themselves but may differ from other scorers. Implications and Applications The ability for scorers to accurately identify low-BCS sows could serve as a cumulative lifetime welfare indicator where harvest facilities could provide valuable BCS feedback on individual sow and group average basis. The accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility reported in this study suggest that digital images are an effective medium to assess cull sow BCS.This is a manuscript of an article published as Taylor, W. E., D. C. Humphrey, B. D. Peyer, A. K. Johnson, J. T. Brown, S. T. Millman, A. L. Chipman, C. J. Cassady, S. M. Lonergan, and K. J. Stalder. "Body condition score accuracy and repeatability from evaluation of cull sow digital images at a midwestern harvest facility." Applied Animal Science 38, no. 6 (2022): 627-638. DOI: 10.15232/aas.2022-02295. Copyright 2022 Elsevier. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Posted with permission

Ultralow Dispersion Multicomponent Thin‐Film Chalcogenide Glass for Broadband Gradient‐Index Optics

A novel photothermal process to spatially modulate the concentration of sub-wavelength, high-index nanocrystals in a multicomponent Ge-As-Pb-Se chalcogenide glass thin film resulting in an optically functional infrared grating is demonstrated. The process results in the formation of an optical nanocomposite possessing ultralow dispersion over unprecedented bandwidth. The spatially tailored index and dispersion modification enables creation of arbitrary refractive index gradients. Sub-bandgap laser exposure generates a Pb-rich amorphous phase transforming on heat treatment to high-index crystal phases. Spatially varying nanocrystal density is controlled by laser dose and is correlated to index change, yielding local index modification to ≈+0.1 in the mid-infrared

Generation of genic diversity among Streptococcus pneumoniae strains via horizontal gene transfer during a chronic polyclonal pediatric infection.

Although there is tremendous interest in understanding the evolutionary roles of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) processes that occur during chronic polyclonal infections, to date there have been few studies that directly address this topic. We have characterized multiple HGT events that most likely occurred during polyclonal infection among nasopharyngeal strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae recovered from a child suffering from chronic upper respiratory and middle-ear infections. Whole genome sequencing and comparative genomics were performed on six isolates collected during symptomatic episodes over a period of seven months. From these comparisons we determined that five of the isolates were genetically highly similar and likely represented a dominant lineage. We analyzed all genic and allelic differences among all six isolates and found that all differences tended to occur within contiguous genomic blocks, suggestive of strain evolution by homologous recombination. From these analyses we identified three strains (two of which were recovered on two different occasions) that appear to have been derived sequentially, one from the next, each by multiple recombination events. We also identified a fourth strain that contains many of the genomic segments that differentiate the three highly related strains from one another, and have hypothesized that this fourth strain may have served as a donor multiple times in the evolution of the dominant strain line. The variations among the parent, daughter, and grand-daughter recombinant strains collectively cover greater than seven percent of the genome and are grouped into 23 chromosomal clusters. While capturing in vivo HGT, these data support the distributed genome hypothesis and suggest that a single competence event in pneumococci can result in the replacement of DNA at multiple non-adjacent loci.</p