Evaluating Streams in Illinois Based on Aquatic Biodiversity

Annual Project Report 2006, Project #: T-20-P-001, July 30, 2005 - July 29, 2006INHS Technical Report prepared for Illinois Department of Natural Resource

Важливе історико-географічне дослідження

Рец. на кн. Темушева В.Н. "Гомельская земля в конце XV первой половине XVI в. Территориальные трансформации в пограничном регионе". — М.: "Квадрига", 2009. — 190 с.Review of the book: Temushev V.N. "Gomel Land in the Late 15th — the 1st half of the 16th Centuries. Territorial Transformations in the Frontier Area". — Moscow: "Kvadriga", 2009. — 190 p

A Research Agenda for Helminth Diseases of Humans: Towards Control and Elimination

Human helminthiases are of considerable public health importance in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The acknowledgement of the disease burden due to helminth infections, the availability of donated or affordable drugs that are mostly safe and moderately efficacious, and the implementation of viable mass drug administration (MDA) interventions have prompted the establishment of various large-scale control and elimination programmes. These programmes have benefited from improved epidemiological mapping of the infections, better understanding of the scope and limitations of currently available diagnostics and of the relationship between infection and morbidity, feasibility of community-directed or school-based interventions, and advances in the design of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) protocols. Considerable success has been achieved in reducing morbidity or suppressing transmission in a number of settings, whilst challenges remain in many others. Some of the obstacles include the lack of diagnostic tools appropriate to the changing requirements of ongoing interventions and elimination settings; the reliance on a handful of drugs about which not enough is known regarding modes of action, modes of resistance, and optimal dosage singly or in combination; the difficulties in sustaining adequate coverage and compliance in prolonged and/or integrated programmes; an incomplete understanding of the social, behavioural, and environmental determinants of infection; and last, but not least, very little investment in research and development (R&D). The Disease Reference Group on Helminth Infections (DRG4), established in 2009 by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), was given the mandate to undertake a comprehensive review of recent advances in helminthiases research, identify research gaps, and rank priorities for an R&D agenda for the control and elimination of these infections. This review presents the processes undertaken to identify and rank ten top research priorities; discusses the implications of realising these priorities in terms of their potential for improving global health and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); outlines salient research funding needs; and introduces the series of reviews that follow in this PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases collection, “A Research Agenda for Helminth Diseases of Humans.

Micronutrient fortification of food and its impact on woman and child health: A systematic review

Background: Vitamins and minerals are essential for growth and metabolism. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 billion people are deficient in key vitamins and minerals. Groups most vulnerable to these micronutrient deficiencies are pregnant and lactating women and young children, given their increased demands. Food fortification is one of the strategies that has been used safely and effectively to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies.Methods: A comprehensive search was done to identify all available evidence for the impact of fortification interventions. Studies were included if food was fortified with a single, dual or multiple micronutrients and impact of fortification was analyzed on the health outcomes and relevant biochemical indicators of women and children. We performed a meta-analysis of outcomes using Review Manager Software version 5.1.Results: Our systematic review identified 201 studies that we reviewed for outcomes of relevance. Fortification for children showed significant impacts on increasing serum micronutrient concentrations. Hematologic markers also improved, including hemoglobin concentrations, which showed a significant rise when food was fortified with vitamin A, iron and multiple micronutrients. Fortification with zinc had no significant adverse impact on hemoglobin levels. Multiple micronutrient fortification showed non-significant impacts on height for age, weight for age and weight for height Z-scores, although they showed positive trends. The results for fortification in women showed that calcium and vitamin D fortification had significant impacts in the post-menopausal age group. Iron fortification led to a significant increase in serum ferritin and hemoglobin levels in women of reproductive age and pregnant women. Folate fortification significantly reduced the incidence of congenital abnormalities like neural tube defects without increasing the incidence of twinning. The number of studies pooled for zinc and multiple micronutrients for women were few, though the evidence suggested benefit. There was a dearth of evidence for the impact of fortification strategies on morbidity and mortality outcomes in women and children.Conclusion: Fortification is potentially an effective strategy but evidence from the developing world is scarce. Programs need to assess the direct impact of fortification on morbidity and mortality

Evaluating streams in Illinois based on aquatic biodiversity

IDNR State Wildlife Grant Grant/Contract No: T-20-P-001INHS Technical Report Prepared for IDNR, State Wildlife Grant progra

Amphibian recruitment success at a landscape scale

Size fluctuations in amphibian populations at single breeding sites are related to variations in recruitment from the larval stage. However, overall patterns of abundance should be related to the pattern of recruitment success at the many sites where breeding occurs over a landscape. Recruitment patterns for six amphibian species, Ambystoma laterale, A. maculatum, Bufo americanus, Hyla versicolor, Pseudacris crucifer and Rana sylvatica, were investigated at multiple sites within the 10 km 2 Mont St. Hilaire nature reserve during 2001 and 2002. Amphibians bred at eighteen sites but recruitment occurred at only 8 and 11 sites in each year, respectively. Hydroperiod and predation were the most important determinants of recruitment. Four species suffered multiple recruitment failures both years. However, when sites were considered collectively, recruitment was successful for all species because of asynchronous recruitment patterns across heterogeneous sites. Amphibian population dynamics may be stochastic at any single site but recruitment success at multiple sites is a plausible predictor of abundance and trends in regional population persistence

Development and Expansion of the Natural Resource Data and Information Systems in Support of the Illinois Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plan

Project Completion Report 2006, Project: T-02-P-001-Final, 1 February 2003 to 30 September 2006Report issued on: November 2006Submitted to Illinois Department of Natural Resource

Forest baseline and deforestation map of the Dominican Republic through the analysis of time series of MODIS data

Deforestation is one of the major threats to habitats in the Dominican Republic. In this work we present a forest baseline for the year 2000 and a deforestation map for the year 2011. Maps were derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Radiometer (MODIS) products at 250 m resolution. The vegetation continuous fields product (MOD44B) for the year 2000 was used to produce the forest baseline, while the vegetation indices product (MOD13Q1) was used to detect change between 2000 and 2011. Major findings based on the data presented here are reported in the manuscript “Habitat suitability and protection status of four species of amphibians in the Dominican Republic” (Sangermano et al., Appl. Geogr.,) [7].63, 2015, 55–6

Habitat suitability and protection status of four species of amphibians in the Dominican Republic

Hispaniola Island has both a high level of amphibian endemism, and a high level of habitat degradation due to agriculture, infrastructure development, and extractive industries. The objective of this work was to evaluate the capacity of Dominican Republic\u27s current network of protection to maintain the habitat of four species of amphibians endemic to Hispaniola (. Osteopilus pulchrilineatus, Osteopilus vastus, Hypsiboas heilprini, and Eleutherodactylus flavescens). Spatial analysis was performed to relate observations of the target species to environmental factors using a maximum entropy algorithm (Maxent). Results of this analysis produced maps of probability of occurrence for each species. Analysis of habitat degradation was based on a change analysis of vegetation, by evaluating trends in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) between 2000 and 2011. Results show that forest loss and species habitat loss within protected areas are smaller but similar to those extracted for the country as a whole, suggesting that the current protected area network is not effective for the maintenance of the habitat of the amphibians analyzed. Enforcement of established protection and restoration within current protected areas could facilitate the protection of up to 25.7% of target amphibian habitat. The methodologies presented here can be applied to measure biodiversity offset effectiveness