Compliance with Hygiene Recommendations for Human-animal Contact at Petting Zoos

Background: Most children at petting zoos are at least somewhat naïve with respect to animal contact, which is probably why they are being taken to a petting zoo. Unfortunately, their immune systems may be equally naïve, thereby putting these children at high risk of contracting one of several enteric zoonotic diseases. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine public and organizational compliance with current recommendations for hygiene and public safety for human-animal contact at permanent and temporary petting zoos. Methods: A single investigator visited 17 petting zoos across Michigan to evaluate both facilityrelated and visitor-related risk factors for zoonotic enteric disease transmission. We observed 246 children at 6 permanent Michigan petting zoos and 11 temporary Michigan petting zoos associated with agricultural fairs. No contact was made with any petting zoo visitors, and factors such as age and gender were subjectively accessed by visual observation. Results: Permanent zoos were more likely to have signs regarding hand hygiene and sanitizing facilities than did temporary or “traveling” petting zoos. Zoo personnel reminded 1.2% of visitors to wash their hands, and less than a third of all children were observed to have washed their hands following animal contact. Of the 246 children observed, about 50% (122) touched their own face, eyes, nose or mouth and 42% (104) touched the animals’ mouth. In addition, one child was seen ingesting goat feces, three were seen drinking out of the animals’ water trough, and one child was seen sucking on a fence rail; all in the presence of exhibit personnel who did not intervene. No association was observed between rates of hand washing and the degree of parental supervision. Conclusions: We concluded that the current CDC hygiene recommendations for visits to petting zoos are generally not being followed by visitors or by exhibitors. Most parental and exhibitor supervision appeared to be focused on preventing physical trauma to the animals and to the children. Further educational outreach and/or regulation may be indicated to prevent enteric disease transmission from animal contact at petting zoos. However, it may be difficult for young children to understand that animal contact is safe and desirable only if proper hygiene practices are followed

He Was Only A Private, That\u27s All

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1561/thumbnail.jp

Tetra-n-butyl­ammonium bis­(1,1-dicyano­ethyl­ene-2,2-dithiol­ato)platinum(II)

In the title compound, (C16H36N)2[Pt(C4N2S2)2], the PtII center adopts a distorted square-planar geometry due to the 4-membered chelate rings formed by coordination to the S atoms of the 1,1-dicyano­ethyl­ene-2,2-dithiol­ate (i-mnt) ligands [bite angle 74.35 (4)°]. The bond distances in the coordinated i-mnt ligands indicate some delocalization of the π-system

Nutrient addition effects on tropical dry forests: a mini-review from microbial to ecosystem scales.

Humans have more than doubled inputs of reactive nitrogen globally and greatly accelerated the biogeochemical cycles of phosphorus and metals. However, the impacts of increased element mobility on tropical ecosystems remain poorly quantified, particularly for the vast tropical dry forest biome. Tropical dry forests are characterized by marked seasonality, relatively little precipitation, and high heterogeneity in plant functional diversity and soil chemistry. For these reasons, increased nutrient deposition may affect tropical dry forests differently than wet tropical or temperate forests. Here, we review studies that investigated how nutrient availability affects ecosystem and community processes from the microsite to ecosystem scales in tropical dry forests. The effects of N and P addition on ecosystem carbon cycling and plant and microbial dynamics depend on forest successional stage, soil parent material, and rainfall regime. Responses may depend on whether overall productivity is N- vs. P-limited, although data to test this hypothesis are limited. These results highlight the many important gaps in our understanding of tropical dry forest responses to global change. Large-scale experiments are required to resolve these uncertainties

Accounting for albedo change to identify climate-positive tree cover restoration

Restoring tree cover changes albedo, which is the fraction of sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface. In most locations, these changes in albedo offset or even negate the carbon removal benefits with the latter leading to global warming. Previous efforts to quantify the global climate mitigation benefit of restoring tree cover have not accounted robustly for albedo given a lack of spatially explicit data. Here we produce maps that show that carbon-only estimates may be up to 81% too high. While dryland and boreal settings have especially severe albedo offsets, it is possible to find places that provide net-positive climate mitigation benefits in all biomes. We further find that on-the-ground projects are concentrated in these more climate-positive locations, but that the majority still face at least a 20% albedo offset. Thus, strategically deploying restoration of tree cover for maximum climate benefit requires accounting for albedo change and we provide the tools to do so

Unilateral versus coordinated effects:comparing the impact on consumer welfare of alternative merger outcomes

The nature of tacitly collusive behaviour often makes coordination unstable, and this may result in periods of breakdown, during which consumers benet from reduced prices. This is allowed for by adding demand uncertainty to the Compte et al. (2002) model of tacit collusion amongst asymmetric rms. Breakdowns occur when a rm cannot exclude the possibility of a deviation by a rival. It is then possible that an outcome with collusive behaviour, subject to long/frequent break downs, can improve consumer welfare compared to an alternative with sustained unilateral conduct. This is illustrated by re-examining the Nestle/Perrier merger analyzed by Compte et al., but now also taking into account the potential for welfare losses arising from unilateral behaviour

The ENIGMA Stroke Recovery Working Group: Big data neuroimaging to study brain–behavior relationships after stroke

The goal of the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta‐Analysis (ENIGMA) Stroke Recovery working group is to understand brain and behavior relationships using well‐powered meta‐ and mega‐analytic approaches. ENIGMA Stroke Recovery has data from over 2,100 stroke patients collected across 39 research studies and 10 countries around the world, comprising the largest multisite retrospective stroke data collaboration to date. This article outlines the efforts taken by the ENIGMA Stroke Recovery working group to develop neuroinformatics protocols and methods to manage multisite stroke brain magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral and demographics data. Specifically, the processes for scalable data intake and preprocessing, multisite data harmonization, and large‐scale stroke lesion analysis are described, and challenges unique to this type of big data collaboration in stroke research are discussed. Finally, future directions and limitations, as well as recommendations for improved data harmonization through prospective data collection and data management, are provided

Ectopic Expression of Vaccinia Virus E3 and K3 Cannot Rescue Ectromelia Virus Replication in Rabbit RK13 Cells

Citation: Hand, E. S., Haller, S. L., Peng, C., Rothenburg, S., & Hersperger, A. R. (2015). Ectopic Expression of Vaccinia Virus E3 and K3 Cannot Rescue Ectromelia Virus Replication in Rabbit RK13 Cells. Plos One, 10(3), 15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0119189As a group, poxviruses have been shown to infect a wide variety of animal species. However, there is individual variability in the range of species able to be productively infected. In this study, we observed that ectromelia virus (ECTV) does not replicate efficiently in cultured rabbit RK13 cells. Conversely, vaccinia virus (VACV) replicates well in these cells. Upon infection of RK13 cells, the replication cycle of ECTV is abortive in nature, resulting in a greatly reduced ability to spread among cells in culture. We observed ample levels of early gene expression but reduced detection of virus factories and severely blunted production of enveloped virus at the cell surface. This work focused on two important host range genes, named E3L and K3L, in VACV. Both VACV and ECTV express a functional protein product from the E3L gene, but only VACV contains an intact K3L gene. To better understand the discrepancy in replication capacity of these viruses, we examined the ability of ECTV to replicate in wild-type RK13 cells compared to cells that constitutively express E3 and K3 from VACV. The role these proteins play in the ability of VACV to replicate in RK13 cells was also analyzed to determine their individual contribution to viral replication and PKR activation. Since E3L and K3L are two relevant host range genes, we hypothesized that expression of one or both of them may have a positive impact on the ability of ECTV to replicate in RK13 cells. Using various methods to assess virus growth, we did not detect any significant differences with respect to the replication of ECTV between wild-type RK13 compared to versions of this cell line that stably expressed VACV E3 alone or in combination with K3. Therefore, there remain unanswered questions related to the factors that limit the host range of ECTV