The changing global distribution and prevalence of canine transmissible venereal tumour.

BACKGROUND: The canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) is a contagious cancer that is naturally transmitted between dogs by the allogeneic transfer of living cancer cells during coitus. CTVT first arose several thousand years ago and has been reported in dog populations worldwide; however, its precise distribution patterns and prevalence remain unclear. RESULTS: We analysed historical literature and obtained CTVT prevalence information from 645 veterinarians and animal health workers in 109 countries in order to estimate CTVT's former and current global distribution and prevalence. This analysis confirmed that CTVT is endemic in at least 90 countries worldwide across all inhabited continents. CTVT is estimated to be present at a prevalence of one percent or more in dogs in at least 13 countries in South and Central America as well as in at least 11 countries in Africa and 8 countries in Asia. In the United States and Australia, CTVT was reported to be endemic only in remote indigenous communities. Comparison of current and historical reports of CTVT indicated that its prevalence has declined in Northern Europe, possibly due to changes in dog control laws during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Analysis of factors influencing CTVT prevalence showed that presence of free-roaming dogs was associated with increased CTVT prevalence, while dog spaying and neutering were associated with reduced CTVT prevalence. Our analysis indicated no gender bias for CTVT and we found no evidence that animals with CTVT frequently harbour concurrent infectious diseases. Vincristine was widely reported to be the most effective therapy for CTVT. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide a survey of the current global distribution of CTVT, confirming that CTVT is endemic in at least 90 countries worldwide. Additionally, our analysis highlights factors that continue to modify CTVT's prevalence around the world and implicates free-roaming dogs as a reservoir for the disease. Our analysis also documents the disappearance of the disease from the United Kingdom during the twentieth century, which appears to have been an unintentional result of the introduction of dog control policies.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version of this article has been published by BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/10/168

An Environment-Sensitive Synthetic Microbial Ecosystem

Microbial ecosystems have been widely used in industrial production, but the inter-relationships of organisms within them haven't been completely clarified due to complex composition and structure of natural microbial ecosystems. So it is challenging for ecologists to get deep insights on how ecosystems function and interplay with surrounding environments. But the recent progresses in synthetic biology show that construction of artificial ecosystems where relationships of species are comparatively clear could help us further uncover the meadow of those tiny societies. By using two quorum-sensing signal transduction circuits, this research designed, simulated and constructed a synthetic ecosystem where various population dynamics formed by changing environmental factors. Coherent experimental data and mathematical simulation in our study show that different antibiotics levels and initial cell densities can result in correlated population dynamics such as extinction, obligatory mutualism, facultative mutualism and commensalism. This synthetic ecosystem provides valuable information for addressing questions in ecology and may act as a chassis for construction of more complex microbial ecosystems

Race, circulation, and the city: the case of the Chicago city sticker controversy

The city sticker controversy began when an anonymous, openly racist blog accused a Latino boy of smuggling gang imagery into his contest-winning design for the 2012 Chicago vehicle sticker. It continued when mainstream media outlets repeatedly cited the blog’s accusations without acknowledging its racism. I argue that a form of circulation that contains bodies of color and promotes the mobility of other bodies helped to secure the credibility of the blog’s claims, consolidating the association of bodies of color with gang violence. I explore the relationships among the processes and practices of urban circulation, race, digital media, and mainstream media

Physical activity with congenital heart disease. Current options and future developments

BackgroundAdequate physical activity is an important component of ahealthy, age-appropriate development even in children and adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD).ObjectiveThis article provides an overview on current structures of care and a current outlook on recent developments in the field of physical activity for children and adolescents with CHD.MethodsSelective review of the literature in PubMed in association with current guidelines and review articles.ResultsIn Germany there are three options for children and adolescents with CHD to participate in physical exercise activities. These include exercise with healthy people and depending on their disease severity exercise cohorts with other CHD patients or as an individual person. Access to sporting activities can be difficult for children and adolescents with CHD in individual cases. The reasons for this can be found in the areas of supply structures and organizations, as well as in the field of information policies for parents, sports trainers and teachers. This notably concerns patients with complex CHD, which may be accompanied by the risk of exercise-induced cardiac arrhythmias.ConclusionAn age, disease and demand-specific cardiological care for children and adolescents with CHD is urgently needed, ideally with additional skills in sports medicine. Contemporary e-health solutions as add-ons to local care may enable improvement in the access options for physical activity of patients with CHD, individualize care and thus increase safety, especially in individual sport training

Observation of the Decay $\K_{L}^{0}\rightarrow\mu^{+}\mu^{-}

An experiment performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory alternating-gradient synchrotron has yielded six events above negligible background which satisfy criteria for the decay K L0 -->µ+µ-. The K L0 flux, measured by means of the decay K L0 --> pi + pi -, leads to a value for the branching ratio Gamma (K L0 -->µ+µ-) / Gamma (KL-->all)=11 x 10-9