Public-private partnerships for biosecurity: an opportunity for risk sharing

Private efforts to prevent and control biological pests and infectious diseases can be a public good, and so incentivising private biosecurity management actions is both desirable and problematic. Compensation contracts can encourage biosecurity efforts, provide support against the collapse of economic sectors, and create an insurance network. We conceptualise a novel biosecurity instrument relying on formal compensation private–public partnerships using contract theory. Our framework explains how the public sector can harness increased private biosecurity measures by making payments to agents which depend both on their performance and that of the other stakeholders. Doing so allows the government to spread the risk across signatory agents. The framework also improves our understanding of government involvement due to public effects of biosecurity, influenced by the private agents’ capacity to derive private benefit from their own efforts on monitoring and control. Lastly, these theoretical results provide a foundation for further study of contractual responsibility sharing for pest management

Continuous combined microwave and hot air treatment of apples for fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni and B. jarvisi) disinfestation

Apples at 24 ± 2 °C were heated in a pilot scale hot air assisted (40 °C) continuous pentagonal microwave system, to evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment on insect mortality (variety Mutsu) and fruit quality (variety Granny Smith). An average temperature of 53.4 ± 1.3 °C at core, bottom and flesh of the apple was recorded at the end of the treatment. One hundred percent mortality of the most tolerant stage of Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni, Froggatt) and Jarvis's fruit fly (Bactrocera jarvisi, Tryon), were observed when the Mortality value (M52, equivalent time of isothermal treatment at 52 °C) at the slowest heating point applicable for each experiment was ≥ 50 min and ≥ 37 min, respectively. Results showed that microwave heat treatment is effective for insect disinfestation without any adverse impact on total soluble solids, flesh or peel firmness of the treated apples. The treated apples recorded a significantly higher pH and lower ion leakage than the untreated apples after 3 or 4 weeks. Therefore, the microwave heat treatment has the potential to be developed as an alternative chemical free quarantine treatment against economically significant insect pests. Industrial relevance Hot air assisted microwave heating of fruits and vegetables, is more cost effective compared to vapour heat treatment and ionising radiation for disinfestation of insects. Microwave treatment is environmentally friendly compared to fumigation and chemical treatments. Hot air assisted microwave disinfestation can be performed at farms or centralised pack houses since the capital cost would be comparatively lower than vapour heat or ionising radiation treatments

Silent slips, trips and broken hips in the under 60s: a review of the literature

This critical review of the literature regarding the recovery experiences and healthcare needs of people under 60 following a fragility hip fracture seeks to identify the associated implications for nursing practice and inform care delivery. Forty papers were included following a structured database, citation and grey literature search and filtering of results in line with specified inclusion criteria. Hip fracture is a common, serious and complex injury and an important cause of morbidity, mortality and rising healthcare costs worldwide. This review indicates that although commonly associated with the elderly, incidence and impact in the under 60s has been under-explored. Current health policy, professional and social norms almost exclusively focus on the elderly, surgical interventions and short-term outcomes, rendering the under 60s an inadvertently marginalised, relatively 'silent' sub-set of the hip fracture population. Nurses must be aware, however, of the different recovery needs of this younger group. The limited evidence available indicates these include work related needs and long term physical and psychosocial limitations in this socially and economically active group. Priorities are identified for research to inform policy and practice. Meanwhile, nurses can address the needs of this group by listening to and involving them and their families as healthcare partners. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A transcriptome-based analytical workflow for identifying loci for species diagnosis: a case study with Bactrocera fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Development of novel molecular methods for accurate and economical identification of species has become critical both for pure biological research and for a wide range of applied areas. The most widely used current molecular diagnostic tool, the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI), the so-called DNA barcode, has been highly criticised and is known to be ineffective at distinguishing species in many groups. Alternative markers are needed to circumvent these issues and provide diagnosticians with a greater range of tools for making accurate identifications. To address this, we describe here a novel analytical workflow for diagnostic marker development that utilises near-genomic-scale data to search for potential informative loci. The workflow takes advantage of orthologous gene databases, in combination with tests of phylogenetic resolution, and benchmarking of nucleotide variation against COI, to determine putative loci that might outperform COI. We use transcriptomes of 14 tephritid fruit flies and especially the taxonomically complex genus Bactrocera, as a case study. Of 1646 orthologues searched, our workflow retained a total of five loci following our conservative filtering strategy. One locus, POP4, had strong potential as a novel diagnostic marker for Bactrocera fruit flies. POP4 discriminates most species in the training set of taxa, but like COI fails to separate the sibling species Bactrocera tryoni and Bactrocera neohumeralis. Further validation of this potential new marker against a broader taxonomic sample is ongoing. We advocate that this simple and efficient workflow is, with minor modification, customisable for diagnostic development in almost any taxonomic group.</p