A new species of Dialeurodes Cockerell (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on Schefflera Forst and Forst in Florida

Descriptions of pupal cases of Dialeurodes schefflerae, new species, as well as distribution records are presented. This species is known to occur in Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico appearing to feed only on species of Schefflera Forst and Forst. This restriction to plant hosts in the Asian genus Schefflera, along with its affinities with Dialeurodes agalmae Takahashi, Dialeurodes citri (Ashmead) and Dialeurodes kirkaldyi (Kotinsky), suggests it is an invasive species, probably endemic to the Asian region

Enhanced Bezier curve models incorporating local information

The Bezier curve is fundamental to many challenging and practical applications, ranging from computer aided geometric design and postscript font representations through to generic object shape descriptors and surface representation. A drawback of the Bezier curve however, is that it only considers global information about the control points, so there is often a large gap between the curve and its control polygon, leading to considerable error in curve representations. To address this issue, this paper presents enhanced Bezier curve (EBC) models which seamlessly incorporate local information. The performance of the models is empirically evaluated upon a number of natural and synthetic objects having arbitrary shape and both qualitative and quantitative results confirm the superiority of both EBC models in comparison with the classical Bezier curve representation, with no increase in the order of computational complexity

"Do probiotics mitigate GI-induced inflammation and perceived fatigue in athletes? A systematic review"

BackgroundFatigue and gastrointestinal (GI) distress are common among athletes with an estimated 30-90% of athletes participating in marathons, triathlons, or similar events experiencing GI complaints. Intense exercise can lead to increased intestinal permeability, potentially allowing members of the gut microbiota to permeate into the bloodstream, resulting in an inflammatory response and cascade of performance-limiting outcomes. Probiotics, through their capacity to regulate the composition of the gut microbiota, may act as an adjunctive therapy by enhancing GI and immune function while mitigating inflammatory responses. This review investigates the effectiveness of probiotic supplementation on fatigue, inflammatory markers, and exercise performance based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs).MethodsThis review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines and PICOS (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Study design) framework. A comprehensive search was conducted in Sportdiscus, PubMed, and Scopus databases, and the screening of titles, abstracts, and full articles was performed based on pre-defined eligibility criteria. Of the 3505 records identified, 1884 were screened using titles and abstracts, of which 450 studies were selected for full-text screening. After final screening, 13 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included for review. The studies contained 513 participants, consisting of 351 males and 115 females, however, two studies failed to mention the sex of the participants. Among the participants, 246 were defined as athletes, while the remaining participants were classified as recreationally active (n = 267). All trials were fully described and employed a double- or triple-blind placebo-controlled intervention using either a single probiotic strain or a multi-strain synbiotic (containing both pro- and pre-biotics).ResultsThis review assesses the effects of daily probiotic supplementation, ranging from 13 to 90 days, on physical performance and physiological markers in various exercise protocols. Ten studies reported improvements in various parameters, such as, enhanced endurance performance, improved anxiety and stress levels, decreased GI symptoms, and reduced upper respiratory tract infections (URTI). Moreover, despite no improvements in maximal oxygen uptake (VO2), several studies demonstrated that probiotic supplementation led to amelioration in lactate, creatine kinase (CK), and ammonia concentrations, suggesting beneficial effects on mitigating exercise-induced muscular stress and damage.ConclusionProbiotic supplementation, specifically at a minimum dosage of 15 billion CFUs daily for a duration of at least 28 days, may contribute to the reduction of perceived or actual fatigue

Cochrane Centralised Search Service showed high sensitivity identifying randomized controlled trials: A retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is compiled from a number of sources, including PubMed and Embase. Since 2017, we have increased the number of sources feeding into CENTRAL and improved the efficiency of our processes through the use of APIs, machine learning and crowdsourcing. OBJECTIVES: Our objectives were twofold: (1) Assess the effectiveness of Cochrane's centralised search and screening processes to correctly identify references to published reports which are eligible for inclusion in Cochrane systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). (2) Identify opportunities to improve the performance of Cochrane's centralised search and screening processes to identify references to eligible trials. METHODS: We identified all references to RCTs (either published journal articles or trial registration records) with a publication or registration date between 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2018 that had been included in a Cochrane intervention review. We then viewed an audit trail for each included reference to determine if it had been identified by our centralised search process and subsequently added to CENTRAL. RESULTS: We identified 650 references to included studies with a publication year of 2017 or 2018. Of those, 634 (97.5%) had been captured by Cochrane's Centralised Search Service (CSS). Sixteen references had been missed by the CSS: six had PubMed-not-MEDLINE status, four were missed by the centralised Embase search, three had been misclassified by Cochrane Crowd, one was from a journal not indexed in MEDLINE or Embase, one had only been added to Embase in 2019, and one reference had been rejected by the automated RCT machine learning classifier. Of the sixteen missed references, eight were the main or only publication to the trial in the review in which it had been included. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis has shown that Cochrane's centralised search and screening processes are highly sensitive. It has also helped us to understand better why some references to eligible RCTs have been missed. The CSS is playing a critical role in helping to populate CENTRAL and is moving us towards making CENTRAL a comprehensive repository of RCTs

The Fate of Foodborne Pathogens in Manure Treated Soil

Publication history: Accepted - 22 November 2021; Published online - 10 December 2021.The aim of this review was to provide an update on the complex relationship between manure application, altered pathogen levels and antibiotic resistance. This is necessary to protect health and improve the sustainability of this major farming practice in agricultural systems based on high levels of manure production. It is important to consider soil health in relation to environment and land management practices in the context of the soil microflora and the introduction of pathogens on the health of the soil microbiome. Viable pathogens in manure spread on agricultural land may be distributed by leaching, surface run-off, water source contamination and contaminated crop removal. Thus it is important to understand how multiple pathogens can persist in manures and on soil at farm-scale and how crops produced under these conditions could be a potential transfer route for zoonotic pathogens. The management of pathogen load within livestock manure is a potential mechanism for the reduction and prevention of outbreaks infection with Escherichia coli, Listeria Salmonella, and Campylobacter. The ability of Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella to combat environmental stress coupled with their survival on food crops and vegetables postharvest emphasizes the need for further study of these pathogens along with the emerging pathogen Providencia given its link to disease in the immunocompromised and its’ high levels of antibiotic resistance. The management of pathogen load within livestock manure has been widely recognized as a potential mechanism for the reduction and prevention of outbreaks infection but any studies undertaken should be considered as region specific due to the variable nature of the factors influencing pathogen content and survival in manures and soil. Mediocre soils that require nutrients could be one template for research on manure inputs and their influence on soil health and on pathogen survival on grassland and in food crops.This work was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA); https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk) as part of the DAERA Postgraduate Studentship Programme and by the DAERA Evidence and Innovation project 18/1/21: Evaluating the impact of a range of organic manures applied to arable land on soil, crop and NI agriculture

Biological and synthetic surfactant exposure increases antimicrobial gene occurrence in a freshwater mixed microbial biofilm environment

Publication history: Accepted - 8 March 2023; Published - 17 March 2023.Aquatic habitats are particularly susceptible to chemical pollution, such as antimicrobials, from domestic, agricultural, and industrial sources. This has led to the rapid increase of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene prevalence. Alternate approaches to counteract pathogenic bacteria are in development including synthetic and biological surfactants such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and rhamnolipids. In the aquatic environment, these surfactants may be present as pollutants with the potential to affect biofilm formation and AMR gene occurrence. We tested the effects of rhamnolipid and SDS on aquatic biofilms in a freshwater stream in Northern Ireland. We grew biofilms on contaminant exposure substrates deployed within the stream over 4 weeks. We then extracted DNA and carried out shotgun sequencing using a MinION portable sequencer to determine microbial community composition, with 16S rRNA analyses (64,678 classifiable reads identified), and AMR gene occurrence (81 instances of AMR genes over 9 AMR gene classes) through a metagenomic analysis. There were no significant changes in community composition within all systems; however, biofilm exposed to rhamnolipid had a greater number of unique taxa as compared to SDS treatments and controls. AMR gene prevalence was higher in surfactant-treated biofilms, although not significant, with biofilm exposed to rhamnolipids having the highest presence of AMR genes and classes compared to the control or SDS treatments. Our results suggest that the presence of rhamnolipid encourages an increase in the prevalence of AMR genes in biofilms produced in mixed-use water bodies.EPSRC, Grant/Award Number: EP/P032427/1; University of Ulste

Proteomics Analysis and Protein Expression during Sporozoite Excystation of Cryptosporidium parvum (Coccidia, Apicomplexa)

Cryptosporidiosis, caused by coccidian parasites of the genus Cryptosporidium, is a major cause of human gastrointestinal infections and poses a significant health risk especially to immunocompromised patients. Despite intensive efforts for more than 20 years, there is currently no effective drug treatment against these protozoa. This study examined the zoonotic species Cryptosporidium parvum at two important stages of its life cycle: the non-excysted (transmissive) and excysted (infective) forms. To increase our understanding of the molecular basis of sporozoite excystation, LC-MS/MS coupling with a stable isotope N-terminal labeling strategy using iTRAQ (TM) reagents was used on soluble fractions of both non-excysted and excysted sporozoites, i.e. sporozoites both inside and outside oocysts were examined. Sporozoites are the infective stage that penetrates small intestinal enterocytes. Also to increase our knowledge of the C. parvum proteome, shotgun sequencing was performed on insoluble fractions from both non-excysted and excysted sporozoites. In total 303 C. parvum proteins were identified, 56 of which, hitherto described as being only hypothetical proteins, are expressed in both excysted and non-excysted sporozoites. Importantly we demonstrated that the expression of 26 proteins increases significantly during excystation. These excystation-induced proteins included ribosomal proteins, metabolic enzymes, and heat shock proteins. Interestingly three Apicomplexa-specific proteins and five Cryptosporidium-specific proteins augmented in excysted invasive sporozoites. These eight proteins represent promising targets for developing vaccines or chemotherapies that could block parasite entry into host cells

An evaluation of Cochrane Crowd found that crowdsourcing produced accurate results in identifying randomised trials

BACKGROUND: Filtering the deluge of new research to facilitate evidence synthesis has proven to be unmanageable using current paradigms of search and retrieval. Crowdsourcing, a way of harnessing the collective effort of a 'crowd' of people, has the potential to support evidence synthesis by addressing this information overload created by the exponential growth in primary research outputs. Cochrane Crowd, Cochrane's citizen science platform, offers a range of tasks aimed at identifying studies related to healthcare. Accompanying each task are brief, interactive training modules and agreement algorithms that help ensure accurate collective decision-making. OUR OBJECTIVES WERE: (1) to evaluate the performance of Cochrane Crowd in terms of its accuracy, capacity and autonomy; and (2) to examine contributor engagement across three tasks aimed at identifying randomised trials. STUDY DESIGN: Crowd accuracy was evaluated by measuring the sensitivity and specificity of crowd screening decisions on a sample of titles and abstracts, compared with 'quasi gold-standard' decisions about the same records using the conventional methods of dual screening. Crowd capacity, in the form of output volume, was evaluated by measuring the number of records processed by the crowd, compared with baseline. Crowd autonomy, the capability of the crowd to produce accurate collectively-derived decisions without the need for expert resolution, was measured by the proportion of records that needed resolving by an expert. RESULTS: The Cochrane Crowd community currently has 18,897 contributors from 163 countries. Collectively, the Crowd has processed 1,021,227 records, helping to identify 178,437 reports of randomised trials (RCTs) for Cochrane's Central Register of Controlled Trials. The sensitivity for each task was 99.1% for the randomised controlled trial identification task (RCT ID), 99.7% for the randomised controlled trial identification task of trial from ClinicalTrials.gov (CT ID) and 97.7% for identification of randomised controlled trials from the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP ID). The specificity for each task was 99% for RCT ID, 98.6% for CT ID and 99.1% for ICTRP ID. The capacity of the combined Crowd and machine learning workflow has increased five-fold in six years, compared with baseline. The proportion of records requiring expert resolution across the tasks ranged from 16.6% to 19.7%. CONCLUSION: Cochrane Crowd is sufficiently accurate and scalable to keep pace with the current rate of publication (and registration) of new primary studies. It has also proved to be a popular, efficient and accurate way for a large number of people to play an important voluntary role in health evidence production. Cochrane Crowd is now an established part of Cochrane's effort to manage the deluge of primary research being produced

Comprehension as social and intellectual practice: Rebuilding curriculum in low socioeconomic and cultural minority schools

This article reframes the concept of comprehension as a social and intellectual practice. It reviews current approaches to reading instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse and low socioeconomic students, noting an emphasis on comprehension as autonomous skills. The Four Resources model (Freebody & Luke, 1990) is used to make the case for the integration of comprehension instruction with an emphasis on student cultural and community knowledge, and substantive intellectual and sociocultural content in elementary school curricula. Illustrations are drawn from research underway on the teaching of literacy in primary schools in low SES communities