Prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides among food vendors on a university campus in Ghana

Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) constitute one of the major public health problems in developing countries and are transmitted in poor hygienic conditions. One of the modes of transmission of IPIs is through ingestion of contaminated food. Therefore, the high patronage of food outside the home in recent years, pose a threat to public health safety. In view of this, a study was undertaken to determine the types and prevalence of intestinal parasites among food vendors on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (K.N.U.S.T.), Kumasi. A total of 140 food vendors from five different food stalls on campus, namely: the University Hall, Africa Hall, Queens Hall, Republic Hall and the Biology Canteen, were examined for the presence of parasite eggs, cysts and larvae using the saline method and the formol-ether concentration technique. Questionnaires were used to collect demographic data from the food vendors. The study revealed significant burden (p<0.05) of gastrointestinal parasitic infections among the food vendors in the study area with seventeen different intestinal parasites, namely: Ascaris lumbricoides (37.1%), Hookworm (17.9%), Entamoeba coli (12.1%), Taenia sp. (11.4%), Fasciola hepatica (11.4%), Giardia duodenalis (10.7%), Entamoeba histolytica/dispar (7.1%), Iodamoeba butschlii (7.1%), Hymenolepis nana (6.4%), Schistosoma mansoni (6.4%), Balantidium coli (5.7%), Schistosoma haematobium (2.9%), Strongyloides stercoralis (2.9%), Fasciolopsis buski (2.1%), Diphylobothrium latum (1.4%), Trichostrongyle (1.4%) and Trichuris trichiura (0.7%). The study revealed majority (78.6%) of the food vendors had IPIs with a high prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides recorded, followed by Hookworm. Trichuris trichiura however, recorded the lowest prevalence. This raises the concern that, there is the need for the implementation of food handling policies and workshops to educate food vendors on the importance of personal and environmental hygiene and also deworming at least once in every three months. Keywords: Food vendors, Intestinal parasites, K.N.U.S.T., Kumasi, Prevalenc

Telomere length regulation: coupling DNA end processing to feedback regulation of telomerase

The conventional DNA polymerase machinery is unable to fully replicate the ends of linear chromosomes. To surmount this problem, nearly all eukaryotes use the telomerase enzyme, a specialized reverse transcriptase that utizes its own RNA template to add short TG-rich repeats to chromosome ends, thus reversing their gradual erosion occurring at each round of replication. This unique, non-DNA templated mode of telomere replication requires a regulatory mechanism to ensure that telomerase acts at telomeres whose TG tracts are too short, but not at those with long tracts, thus maintaining the protective TG repeat cap at an appropriate average length. The prevailing notion in the field is that telomere length regulation is brought about through a negative feedback mechanism that counts TG repeat-bound protein complexes to generate a signal that regulates telomerase action. This review summarizes experiments leading up to this model and then focuses on more recent experiments, primarily from yeast, that begin to suggest how this counting mechanism might work. The emerging picture is that of a complex interplay between the conventional DNA replication machinery, DNA damage response factors, and a specialized set of proteins that help to recruit and regulate the telomerase enzyme

Decaying neutron propagation in the Galaxy and the Cosmic Ray anisotropy at 1 EeV

We study the cosmic ray arrival distribution expected from a source of neutrons in the galactic center at energies around 1 EeV and compare it with the anisotropy detected by AGASA and SUGAR. Besides the point-like signal in the source direction produced by the direct neutrons, an extended signal due to the protons produced in neutron decays is expected. This associated proton signal also leads to an excess in the direction of the spiral arm. For realistic models of the regular and random galactic magnetic fields, the resulting anisotropy as a function of the energy is obtained. We find that for the anisotropy to become sufficiently suppressed below E\sim 10^{17.9}eV, a significant random magnetic field component is required, while on the other hand, this also tends to increase the angular spread of the associated proton signal and to reduce the excess in the spiral arm direction. The source luminosity required in order that the right ascension anisotropy be 4% for the AGASA angular exposure corresponds to a prediction for the point-like flux from direct neutrons compatible with the flux detected by SUGAR. We also analyse the distinguishing features predicted for a large statistics southern observatory.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, minor changes to match published versio

(Wild)fire is not an ecosystem service

In their paper entitled “Wildfires as an ecosystem service”, Pausas and Keeley (2019) summarize the benefits generated by – as well as the evolutionary and socioecological importance of – wildfires for humankind. Although we recognize the importance of wildfires in such a context, we argue that presenting wildfire per se as an ecosystem service is conceptually incorrect and can be misleading for policy makers and resource managers. Throughout their paper, the authors repeatedly refer to (wild)fire as a potential provider of multiple ecosystem services (and not as an ecosystem service itself, as indicated in their article’s title). We believe that this is more than a dispute over semantics, for such a contradiction could lead to misperceptions about the definition of the term “ ecosystem services”, which is especially concerning in light of its real-world applications to fire management.ÂS received support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through PhD grant SFRH/BD/ 132838/2017, funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and by the European Social Fund–Operational Program Human Capital within the 2014–2020 EU Strategic Framework. AR is funded by Xunta de Galicia (post-doctoral fellowship ED481B2016/084-0). This research was developed as part of the project FirESmart (PCIF/MOG/0083/2017), which received funding from the FCT. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Internal lee waves and baroclinic bores over a tropical seamount shark ‘hot-spot’

This work was supported by the Bertarelli Foundation and we thank them for their generous and sustained financial support in making the 2 cruises possible.Oceanographic observations were made with a subsurface oceanographic mooring over the summit and flanks of two neighbouring seamounts in the tropical Indian Ocean to identify processes that may be responsible for the aggregation of silvertip sharks (Carcharhinus albimarginatus) in the deep water drop-off surrounding the summits. The seamounts, which are in the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territories, are narrow in horizontal extent (15°) sides that rise from depths of > 600 m, and flat summits at a depth of 70 m. They are subjected to forcing at subinertial, basin-scales and local scales that include a mixed tidal regime and storm-generated near inertial waves. At the drop-off, at a depth of between 70 and 100 m, isotherms oscillate at both diurnal and semidiurnal frequencies with amplitudes of ∼ 20–30 m. The waves of tidal origin are accompanied by short period (∼5 min) internal waves with amplitudes O(10 m) and frequencies close to the local buoyancy frequency, N, within the thermocline which is the maximum frequency possible for freely propagating internal waves. The tidal oscillations result from internal lee waves with 30 m vertical wavelength generated by the prevailing currents over the supercritical seamount flanks, whereby the bottom slope is greater than the internal tide wave slope. The ‘near-N’ waves are due to enhanced shear associated with the hydraulic jumps that form from the lee waves due to the abrupt transition from steeply sloping sides to a relatively flat summit. The jumps manifest themselves as bottom-trapped bores that propagate up the slope towards the summit. Further observations over the summit reveal that the bores subsequently flush the summits with cold water with tidal periodicity. The bores, which have long wave phase speeds more than double that of the bore particle velocities, are characterised by intense vertical velocities (>0.1 m s−1) and inferred local resuspension but relatively little turbulence based on temperature overturns. Our results strongly implicate lee waves as the dynamic mechanism of leading order importance to the previously observed accumulation of biomass adjacent to the supercritical slopes that are commonplace throughout the archipelago. We propose that further investigation should identify the spatiotemporal correlation between internal wave activity and fish schooling around the summit, and whether such schooling attracts predators.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Unexpected Consequences: Women’s experiences of a self-hypnosis intervention to help with pain relief during labour.

Background Self-hypnosis is becoming increasingly popular as a means of labour pain management. Previous studies have produced mixed results. There are very few data on women’s views and experiences of using hypnosis in this context. As part of a randomized controlled trial of self-hypnosis for intra-partum pain relief (the SHIP Trial) we conducted qualitative interviews with women randomized to the intervention arm to explore their views and experiences of using self-hypnosis during labour and birth. Methods Participants were randomly selected from the intervention arm of the study, which consisted of two antenatal self-hypnosis training sessions and a supporting CD that women were encouraged to listen to daily from 32 weeks gestation until the birth of their baby. Those who consented were interviewed in their own homes 8-12 weeks after birth. Following transcription, the interviews were analysed iteratively and emerging concepts were discussed amongst the authors to generate organizing themes. These were then used to develop a principal organizing metaphor or global theme, in a process known as thematic networks analysis. Results Of the 343 women in the intervention group, 48 were invited to interview, and 16 were interviewed over a 12 month period from February 2012 to January 2013. Coding of the data and subsequent analysis revealed a global theme of ‘unexpected consequences’, supported by 5 organising themes, ‘calmness in a climate of fear’, ‘from sceptic to believer’, ‘finding my space’, ‘delays and disappointments’ and ‘personal preferences’. Most respondents reported positive experiences of self-hypnosis and highlighted feelings of calmness, confidence and empowerment. They found the intervention to be beneficial and used a range of novel strategies to personalize their self-hypnosis practice. Occasionally women reported feeling frustrated or disappointed when their relaxed state was misinterpreted by midwives on admission or when their labour and birth experiences did not match their expectations. Conclusion The women in this study generally appreciated antenatal self-hypnosis training and found it to be beneficial during labour and birth. The state of focused relaxation experienced by women using the technique needs to be recognized by providers if the intervention is to be implemented into the maternity service

Redox linked flavin sites in extracellular decaheme proteins involved in microbe-mineral electron transfer

Extracellular microbe-mineral electron transfer is a major driving force for the oxidation of organic carbon in many subsurface environments. Extracellular multi-heme cytochromes of the Shewenella genus play a major role in this process but the mechanism of electron exchange at the interface between cytochrome and acceptor is widely debated. The 1.8 Å x-ray crystal structure of the decaheme MtrC revealed a highly conserved CX8C disulfide that, when substituted for AX8A, severely compromised the ability of S. oneidensis to grow under aerobic conditions. Reductive cleavage of the disulfide in the presence of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) resulted in the reversible formation of a stable flavocytochrome. Similar results were also observed with other decaheme cytochromes, OmcA, MtrF and UndA. The data suggest that these decaheme cytochromes can transition between highly reactive flavocytochromes or less reactive cytochromes, and that this transition is controlled by a redox active disulfide that responds to the presence of oxygen

Long-term lymphoid progenitors independently sustain naïve T and NK cell production in humans.

Our mathematical model of integration site data in clinical gene therapy supported the existence of long-term lymphoid progenitors capable of surviving independently from hematopoietic stem cells. To date, no experimental setting has been available to validate this prediction. We here report evidence of a population of lymphoid progenitors capable of independently maintaining T and NK cell production for 15 years in humans. The gene therapy patients of this study lack vector-positive myeloid/B cells indicating absence of engineered stem cells but retain gene marking in both T and NK. Decades after treatment, we can still detect and analyse transduced naïve T cells whose production is likely maintained by a population of long-term lymphoid progenitors. By tracking insertional clonal markers overtime, we suggest that these progenitors can support both T and NK cell production. Identification of these long-term lymphoid progenitors could be utilised for the development of next generation gene- and cancer-immunotherapies

Combinations of motor measures more strongly predict adverse health outcomes in old age: the rush memory and aging project, a community-based cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>Motor impairment in old age is a growing public-health concern, and several different constructs have been used to identify motor impairments in older people. We tested the hypothesis that combinations of motor constructs more strongly predict adverse health outcomes in older people.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In total, 949 people without dementia, history of stroke or Parkinson's disease, who were participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project (a longitudinal community-based cohort study), underwent assessment at study entry. From this, three constructs were derived: 1) physical frailty based on grip strength, timed walk, body mass index and fatigue; 2) Parkinsonian Signs Score based on the modified motor section of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale; and 3) a motor construct, based on nine strength measures and nine motor performances. Disability and cognitive status were assessed annually. A series of Cox proportional-hazards models, controlling for age, sex and education, were used to examine the association of each of these three constructs alone and in various combinations with death, disability and Alzheimer's disease (AD).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All three constructs were related (mean <it>r </it>= 0.50, all <it>P </it>< 0.001), and when considered individually in separate proportional-hazards models, were associated with risk of death, incident disability and AD. However, when considered together, combinations of these constructs more strongly predicted adverse health outcomes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Physical frailty, parkinsonian signs score and global motor score are related constructs that capture different aspects of motor function. Assessments using several motor constructs may more accurately identify people at the highest risk of adverse health consequences in old age.</p

Intrastrain genomic and phenotypic variability of the commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain Zymaflore VL1 reveals microevolutionary adaptation to vineyard environments

The maintenance of microbial species in different environmental conditions is associated with adaptive microevolutionary changes that are shown here to occur within the descendants of the same strain in comparison with the commercial reference strain. However, scarce information is available regarding changes that occur among strain descendants during their persistence in nature. Herein we evaluate genome variations among four isolates of the commercial winemaking strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae Zymaflore VL1 that were re-isolated from vineyards surrounding wineries where this strain was applied during several years, in comparison with the commercial reference strain. Comparative genome hybridization showed amplification of 14 genes among the recovered isolates being related with mitosis, meiosis, lysine biosynthesis, galactose and asparagine catabolism, besides 9 Ty elements. The occurrence of microevolutionary changes was supported by DNA sequencing that revealed 339-427 SNPs and 12-62 indels. Phenotypic screening and metabolic profiles also distinguished the recovered isolates from the reference strain. We herein show that the transition from nutrient-rich musts to nutritionally scarce natural environments induces adaptive responses and microevolutionary changes promoted by Ty elements and by nucleotide polymorphisms that were not detected in the reference strain.Ricardo Franco-Duarte and Ines Mendes are recipients of a fellowship from the Portuguese Science Foundation, FCT (SFRH/BD/48591/2008, SFRH/BD/74798/2010, respectively). Financial support was obtained from FEDER funds through the program COMPETE, by national funds through FCT by the projects FCOMP-01-0124-008775 (PTDC/AGR-ALI/103392/2008) and PTDC/AGR-ALI/121062/2010, and through the strategic funding UID/BIA/04050/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio