Habitat properties are key drivers of Borrelia burgdorferi (s.l.) prevalence in Ixodes ricinus populations of deciduous forest fragments

Background: The tick Ixodes ricinus has considerable impact on the health of humans and other terrestrial animals because it transmits several tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) such as B. burgdorferi (sensu lato), which causes Lyme borreliosis (LB). Small forest patches of agricultural landscapes provide many ecosystem services and also the disservice of LB risk. Biotic interactions and environmental filtering shape tick host communities distinctively between specific regions of Europe, which makes evaluating the dilution effect hypothesis and its influence across various scales challenging. Latitude, macroclimate, landscape and habitat properties drive both hosts and ticks and are comparable metrics across Europe. Therefore, we instead assess these environmental drivers as indicators and determine their respective roles for the prevalence of B. burgdorferi in I. ricinus. Methods: We sampled I. ricinus and measured environmental properties of macroclimate, landscape and habitat quality of forest patches in agricultural landscapes along a European macroclimatic gradient. We used linear mixed models to determine significant drivers and their relative importance for nymphal and adult B. burgdorferi prevalence. We suggest a new prevalence index, which is pool-size independent. Results: During summer months, our prevalence index varied between 0 and 0.4 per forest patch, indicating a low to moderate disservice. Habitat properties exerted a fourfold larger influence on B. burgdorferi prevalence than macroclimate and landscape properties combined. Increasingly available ecotone habitat of focal forest patches diluted and edge density at landscape scale amplified B. burgdorferi prevalence. Indicators of habitat attractiveness for tick hosts (food resources and shelter) were the most important predictors within habitat patches. More diverse and abundant macro- and microhabitat had a diluting effect, as it presumably diversifies the niches for tick-hosts and decreases the probability of contact between ticks and their hosts and hence the transmission likelihood.[br/] Conclusions: Diluting effects of more diverse habitat patches would pose another reason to maintain or restore high biodiversity in forest patches of rural landscapes. We suggest classifying habitat patches by their regulating services as dilution and amplification habitat, which predominantly either decrease or increase B. burgdorferi prevalence at local and landscape scale and hence LB risk. Particular emphasis on promoting LB-diluting properties should be put on the management of those habitats that are frequently used by humans. In the light of these findings, climate change may be of little concern for LB risk at local scales, but this should be evaluated further

The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralised approach to equitable biodiversity genomics.

ABSTRACT: A global genome database of all of Earth’s species diversity could be a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. However, regardless of the major advances in genome sequencing technologies, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. To contribute to a more complete planetary genomic database, scientists and institutions across the world have united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), which plans to sequence and assemble high-quality reference genomes for all ∼1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species through a stepwise phased approach. As the initiative transitions into Phase II, where 150,000 species are to be sequenced in just four years, worldwide participation in the project will be fundamental to success. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) seeks to implement a new decentralised, accessible, equitable and inclusive model for producing high-quality reference genomes, which will inform EBP as it scales. To embark on this mission, ERGA launched a Pilot Project to establish a network across Europe to develop and test the first infrastructure of its kind for the coordinated and distributed reference genome production on 98 European eukaryotic species from sample providers across 33 European countries. Here we outline the process and challenges faced during the development of a pilot infrastructure for the production of reference genome resources, and explore the effectiveness of this approach in terms of high-quality reference genome production, considering also equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned during this pilot provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational and national genomic resource projects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Solving patients with rare diseases through programmatic reanalysis of genome-phenome data.

Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Health (FP7-HEALTH - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Health); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100011272; Grant(s): 305444, 305444Funder: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329Funder: Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002809Funder: EC | European Regional Development Fund (Europski Fond za Regionalni Razvoj); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100008530Funder: Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática ELIXIR Implementation Studies Centro de Excelencia Severo OchoaFunder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Health (FP7-HEALTH - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Health)Reanalysis of inconclusive exome/genome sequencing data increases the diagnosis yield of patients with rare diseases. However, the cost and efforts required for reanalysis prevent its routine implementation in research and clinical environments. The Solve-RD project aims to reveal the molecular causes underlying undiagnosed rare diseases. One of the goals is to implement innovative approaches to reanalyse the exomes and genomes from thousands of well-studied undiagnosed cases. The raw genomic data is submitted to Solve-RD through the RD-Connect Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform (GPAP) together with standardised phenotypic and pedigree data. We have developed a programmatic workflow to reanalyse genome-phenome data. It uses the RD-Connect GPAP's Application Programming Interface (API) and relies on the big-data technologies upon which the system is built. We have applied the workflow to prioritise rare known pathogenic variants from 4411 undiagnosed cases. The queries returned an average of 1.45 variants per case, which first were evaluated in bulk by a panel of disease experts and afterwards specifically by the submitter of each case. A total of 120 index cases (21.2% of prioritised cases, 2.7% of all exome/genome-negative samples) have already been solved, with others being under investigation. The implementation of solutions as the one described here provide the technical framework to enable periodic case-level data re-evaluation in clinical settings, as recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics

Barns upplevelser av sjukvård : En litteraturöversikt

Bakgrund: 95 000 barn vårdas varje år på sjukhus. Trots att många barn vårdas varje år, blir barnsbehov ofta förbisedda av personal och föräldrar och det är de vuxna som utformar barnets vård ochbehandling. Detta kan leda till en rädsla hos barn för att vårdas på sjukhus och det är därför viktigt attbeakta deras behov av information och delaktighet. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskrivabarns upplevelser av att vårdas på sjukhus. Metod: Studien gjordes i form av en litteraturöversiktbaserad på arton vetenskapliga artiklar tre med kvantitativmetod och femton med kvalitativmetod.Resultat: Barns upplevelser under vårdtiden var huvudsakligen positiv. De negativa upplevelsernahade sin grund i att bli lämnad ensamma, oro inför olika undersökningar och provtagningar då deblev utsatta för smärta. Om barn fick känna sig delaktiga i vården, så tillfrisknade de snabbare.Diskussion: Det är bra att barnen haft positiva upplevelser under vårdtiden. Det behövs merforskning om barns delaktighet i vården. För att kunna anpassa vården med rätt insatser och förbättrabarns vård. Slutsats: Barns upplevelser under vårdtiden var övervägande positiv. När barn uppleverdelaktighet i vården påskyndas tillfrisknandet

Elektriskt ledande filter : funktionoch prestanda

Denna rapport ger en bild över luftfilteroch dess funktioner. Syftet med arbetet var att undersöka hur elektriskt ledande luftfilter tillsammans med en joniseringsenhet fungerar samt hur de står sig i förhållande till de mekaniska.Det låg även i syftet att titta på hur andra parametrar påverkar filtrering såsom tjocklek och innehåll av olika andel konduktivt material. Bakgrunden till arbetet var att VokesAir AB hade testat att tillverka elektriskt ledande filter med jonisering i filtret vilket hade fungerat i lite skala men inte i större. Det gjorde att man i detta arbete ville titta på om det kunde fungera om man satte joniseringen utanför filtret istället. Nio stycken luftfilter tillverkades i ennon-woven konstruktion med olika andel konduktivt material och i olika tjocklekar. Utförandetav testerna gjordes i entestriggliknande den i EN779:2012dock med vissa modifieringar. En av dem varatt ett joniseringsrörsomvar fäst före filtretsom tillverkar joner som i sin tur kan fastna på partiklar vilket ger partiklar en laddning. När partiklar tillsammans med joner sedan kommernära luftfiltret innehållande konduktivt material kan de fastnai filtret.Resultatet visade att deelektriska ledande filtrena hade en högre effektivitet när det gällde filtrering av partiklar än de mekaniska. Dock visade inte resultaten någon tydlig skillnad vad det gäller effektiviteten. När det gäller hur tjockleken och andelen konduktivt material påverkade filtreringsförmågan var det svårt att utläsa några tydliga trender. Andelen konduktivt material hade en viss riktning åt att mera andel konduktivtProgram: Textilingenjörsutbildninge

Disruption of estrogen receptor β gene impairs spatial learning in female mice

Here we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that estradiol (E(2)) affects learning and memory via the newly discovered estrogen receptor β (ERβ). In this study, ERβ knockout (ERβKO) and wild-type littermates were tested for spatial learning in the Morris water maze after ovariectomy, appropriate control treatment, or one of two physiological doses of E(2). Regardless of treatment, all wild-type females displayed significant learning. However, ERβKOs given the low dose of E(2) were delayed in learning acquisition, and ERβKOs administered the higher dose of E(2) failed to learn the task. These data show that ERβ is required for optimal spatial learning and may have implications for hormone replacement therapy in women