Army women's reasons for not using condoms in relationships

Purpose: The purpose of this secondary analysis was two-fold: 1) to examine condom use practices among military women; and 2) to compare their reasons for condom use and disuse based on relationship status. Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are at pandemic proportions globally. Women are disproportionately affected both in incidence of STIs and in developing complications from these infections. Military women are a special sub-population of women in relation to STIs. The incidence of STIs is four times higher in military populations than civilian populations. Little is known about military women’s use of condoms, which could protect them from contracting STIs. Subjects: Army women (N=131) from military posts around the country participated in this study. They ranged in age from 18-68 years (M = 29.5, SD = 14.4). The sample was of mixed ethnicity (Caucasian 52.5%). The average age of vaginal sexual debut was 17 years (SD = 2.5) with an average lifetime number of vaginal sexual partners of 9 (SD = 8.8). Women were divided into two subgroups. The first consisted of women who were either married or in an ongoing relationship (n=97) and the second group was either single or divorced (n=30). The average number of sexual partners in the past year from married/ongoing relationship women was 1.43 (SD=1.6) and 2.3 (SD = 2.3) for single/divorced women. Methods: After IRB approval, questionnaires were distributed to Army posts around the country. Women returned the questionnaires directly to the PI of the primary study. No identifying information was taken on the questionnaires. Participants completed a series of open-and closed-ended questions regarding condom use practices and reasons for condom use and disuse. Closed-ended questions were analyzed with descriptive statistics and open-ended responses were content analyzed (McLaughlin & Marascuilo, 1990). Nonparametric statistics and t-tests were used to examine differences. Results: Women rated their general use of condoms (scale 0 (never) – 4 (all the time) for vaginal sex at 1.8 (SD = 1.5) in the married/ongoing relationship group and 2.7 (SD = 1.2) in the single/divorced group. A greater number of women used condoms with the last casual partner (50.8% married/ongoing relationship and 73.1% single/divorced) than with the last regular partner (21.5% married/ongoing relationship and 39.3% single/divorced). Single women were significantly less likely to use condoms during vaginal sex (p = .003), have more anal sex partners (p = .01), more likely to use condoms during anal sex (p = .01), and have more casual sex partners (p = .04) than married/ongoing relationship women. Reasons why married/ongoing relationship women did not use condoms included having the same partner (79.7%) and using other forms of birth control (18.6%). Reasons why single/divorced women did not use condoms included having the same partner (41.7%) and abstinence from sex (33.3%). The most often cited reasons for using condoms between the groups was contraception (married/ongoing = 68.0%; single/divorced = 23.1%) and protection from STIs (married/ongoing = 36.0%; single/divorced = 61.5%). Conclusions: Results can help practitioners tailor current education programs to the needs of this population.TriService Nursing Research Progra

Molecular barcoding of Australian ticks

Globally, ticks (Acari: Ixodida) are one of the most important vectors of disease due to their ability to transmit a wide variety of pathogenic bacteria, protozoa, and viruses during blood feeding. The microbes transmitted by ticks varies by species, and so it is essential that ticks are able to be identified correctly. However, the identification and discrimination of tick species still relies on traditional morphological techniques, which can at times be ambiguous, particularly in the case of subadult ticks. This study tested previously developed molecular barcoding assays to facilitate the identification of Australian ticks using DNA sequences in the case that morphology is inconclusive. Using reference ticks from eight native species of medical and veterinary importance (Amblyomma triguttatum, Bothriocroton auruginans, Haemaphysalis bancrofti, Haemaphysalis humerosa, Ixodes cornuatus, Ixodes hirsti, Ixodes holocyclus and Ixodes tasmani), four potential barcoding genes were trialled (Cytochrome c oxidase (COI), Internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), 16S rRNA and 12S rRNA). Amplification was successful in 98.3% of samples (n=58) for COI, 89.6% (n=48) of samples for ITS2, and 100% of samples for both 16S rRNA and 12S rRNA (n=58 and n=48 respectively). Following Sanger sequencing, all four genes were found to be suitable for specimen identification using BLAST when genetic data was available. However, analysis of the sequences generated using Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) indicated that COI was the most efficient gene for species delimitation. This analysis revealed three new species group hypotheses and pairwise distances confirmed high levels of genetic divergence within these species. Further research is required to investigate the validity of these species groups, and to ensure that the assays tested in this study are suitable for all Australian ticks. Lastly, this study provided new genetic information for nine species based on 17 sequences, and these data will become publicly available on the genetic database, GenBank

Effective engagement of conservation scientists with decision-makers

This chapter offers advice on how the conservation science community can effectively engage with decision-makers. The rationales for why we, as scientists, need to do this have been widely discussed in the literature. Often, the reasons offered are normative, pragmatic, or instrumental (de Vente, 2016); in other words, there is a belief that engaging with decision-makers leads to better informed, more acceptable decisions. Indeed, better engagement may lead to the greater uptake of evidence for conservation decisions, something which some scholars argue is a priority for effective management (e.g. Gardner et al., 2018; Sutherland and Wordley, 2017)

Saving our Species: Guidelines for estimating a evaluating species' response to management

Provides guidance to species' managers within the Saving our Species program on how to estimate a species’ response to management for the purpose of setting targets for adaptive management. These guidelines were developed through a series of end user workshops and are designed as a\ua0tool for using expert judgement in the absence of quantitative data. This is a acheived using a combination of conceptual modelling\ua0and a structured elicitiation protocol. This work was commissioned by the NSW Department on Planning Industry and the Environment (formerly Office of Environment and Heritage) and carried out in conjunction with the National Environmental Science Program Threatened Species Recovery Hub

Global shifts in mammalian population trends reveal key predictors of virus spillover risk.

Emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health. To investigate drivers of virus spillover, we evaluated the number of viruses mammalian species have shared with humans. We discovered that the number of zoonotic viruses detected in mammalian species scales positively with global species abundance, suggesting that virus transmission risk has been highest from animal species that have increased in abundance and even expanded their range by adapting to human-dominated landscapes. Domesticated species, primates and bats were identified as having more zoonotic viruses than other species. Among threatened wildlife species, those with population reductions owing to exploitation and loss of habitat shared more viruses with humans. Exploitation of wildlife through hunting and trade facilitates close contact between wildlife and humans, and our findings provide further evidence that exploitation, as well as anthropogenic activities that have caused losses in wildlife habitat quality, have increased opportunities for animal-human interactions and facilitated zoonotic disease transmission. Our study provides new evidence for assessing spillover risk from mammalian species and highlights convergent processes whereby the causes of wildlife population declines have facilitated the transmission of animal viruses to humans