Digital Commons Network^™

Relações Entre As Doenças Respiratórias E A Poluição Atmosférica E Variáveis Climáticas Na Cidade De Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil, Paulo R.B. Guimarães, Ricardo Berger, Fernando Lucambio Perez, Paulo Dt Dl Pires

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Neste estudo, foram observados níveis de concentrações de poluentes atmosféricos da cidade de Curitiba, no período de novembro de 2003 a junho de 2008, da estação automática de monitoramento da praça Ouvidor Pardinho. O objetivo foi desenvolver uma metodologia de modelagem estatística que explique o número de notificações de doenças respiratórias registradas em idosos (acima de 60 anos) e crianças (abaixo de 5 anos). Além das concentrações de poluentes, algumas variáveis climáticas foram analisadas. Após estudo de diversas metodologias estatísticas, considerou-se mais adequado o ajuste de Modelos Aditivos Generalizados para Locação, Escala e Forma. Os modelos ajustados apresentaram resultados satisfatórios …

Strategies For Wildlife Disease Surveillance, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Christopher J. Brand, Scott D. Wright

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Epidemiologic surveillance is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the "ongoing systematic and continuous collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data': The objective of surveillance is to generate data for rapid response to the detection of a disease of concern to apply prevention, control, or eradication measures as well as to evaluate such interventions. This is distinct from disease monitoring, which usually does not involve a particular response to disease detection.

Surveillance for wildlife diseases has increased in importance due to the emergence and re-emergence of wildlife diseases that are threats to human, animal, and …

Drosophila Melanogaster Selection For Survival Of Bacillus Cereus Infection: Life History Trait Indirect Responses, Junjie Ma, Andrew K. Benson, Stephen D. Kachman, Zhen Hu, Lawrence G. Harshman

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

To study evolved resistance/tolerance in an insect model, we carried out an experimental evolution study using D. melanogaster and the opportunistic pathogen B. cereus as the agent of selection. The selected lines evolved a 3.0- to 3.3-log increase in the concentration of spores required for 50% mortality after 18–24 generations of selection. In the absence of any treatment, selected lines evolved an increase in egg production and delayed development time. The latter response could be interpreted as a cost of evolution. Alternatively, delayed development might have been a target of selection resulting in increased adult fat body function including production …

The View From Ventress - 2012, University Of Mississippi. College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Newsletters

Special Section: Beloved Professors. Jere Allen, Alexander Lee Bondurant, Vaughn Grisham, Ed Keiser, Eldon Miller, Charles Noyes, John Pilkington, James Silver, Sheila Skemp, Russell Stokes, Lucy Turnbull, John Winkle, Kwang Yun

Humanistic Mathematics: An Oxymoron?, Gizem Karaali

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Mathematics faculty are trained as mathematicians, first and foremost. If we did not experience the soul-expanding possibilities of liberal education during our own undergraduate years, we may hesitate to bridge disciplinary divides when pursuing our core human need to inquire and understand. Although most mathematicians I know are amazing teachers, communicators, and mentors, many still teach the same material that their professors and their professors’ professors taught. This time-tested approach can be powerful, fascinating, and even quite entertaining. But it can also seem far removed from the world we inhabit. Yes, we teach “real world applications” of mathematical concepts. Yet …

Health Status, Infection And Disease In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus) Studied Using A Canine Microarray Platform And Machine-Learning Approaches, Annalaura Mancia, James C. Ryan, Robert W. Chapman, Qingzhong Wu, Gregory W. Warr, Frances M.D. Gulland, Frances M. Van Dolah

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Conservation biologists face many challenges in assessing health, immune status and infectious diseases in protected species. These challenges include unpredictable sample populations, diverse genetic and environmental backgrounds of the animals, as well as the practical, legal and ethical issues involved in experimentation. The use of whole genome scale transcriptomics with animal samples obtained in a minimally invasive manner is an approach that shows promise for health assessment. In this study we assessed the utility of a microarray to identify changes in gene expression predictive of health status by interrogating blood samples from California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) in …

Disease Will Limit Future Food Supply From The Global Crustacean Fishery And Aquaculture Sectors, G.D. Stentiford, D.M. Neil, E.J. Peeler, J.D. Shields, H.J. Small, T.W. Flegel, J.M. Vlak, B. Jones, F. Morado, S. Moss, J. Lotz, L. Bartholomay, D.C. Behringer, C. Hauton, D.V. Lightner

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Seafood is a highly traded food commodity. Farmed and captured crustaceans contribute a significant proportion with annual production exceeding 10 M metric tonnes with first sale value of $40bn. The sector is dominated by farmed tropical marine shrimp, the fastest growing sector of the global aquaculture industry. It is significant in supporting rural livelihoods and alleviating poverty in producing nations within Asia and Latin America while forming an increasing contribution to aquatic food supply in more developed countries. Nations with marine borders often also support important marine fisheries for crustaceans that are regionally traded as live animals and commodity products. …

Climate Change And Infectious Disease Dynamics, Raina K. Plowright, Paul C. Cross, Gary M. Tabor, Emily Almberg, Leslie Bienen, Peter J. Hudson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The International Panel on Climate Change has made an unequivocal case that the earth's climate is changing in profound ways, and that human activities are contributing significantly to climate disruption (IPCC 2007). The weight of evidence demonstrates warming global temperatures, changing patterns of precipitation, and increasing climate variability, with more extreme events. Thus, the physical underpinnings of ecology are changing, with pervasive effects on disease dynamics. Interactions among environment, hosts, and pathogens drive disease processes, and climate change will influence every interaction in this triad, directly and indirectly.

Sorta Situ: The New Reality Of Management Conditions For Wildlife Populations In The Absence Of "Wild" Spaces, Barbara A. Wolfe, Roberto F. Aguilar, A. Alonso Aguirre, Glenn H. Olsen, Evan S. Blumer

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The rate of species loss today is approaching catastrophic levels. Scientists project that over the next two decades, more than 1 million species of plants and animals will become extinct. E.O. Wilson has estimated that "the rate ofloss may exceed 50,000 a year, 137 a day ... this rate, while horrendous, is actually the minimal estimate, based on the species/area relationship alone" (Kellert and Wilson 1993, p. 16; Aguirre 2009). Ever-expanding communities, strained natural resources, changes in land use, and other anthropogenic drivers are compromising ecosystems and rapidly changing the landscape and the availability of "wild" spaces.

Plants Of The Western United States: Expanding The Collection And Biological Testing Of Extracts, Fernando N. Galvan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this research was to find compounds with the potential for use as medicines. Many microorganisms use a mechanism known as active efflux to move antibiotics out of cells. As a result, the effectiveness of antibiotics may be partially or completely reduced allowing the pathogen to survive. A major theme of this research was to look for compounds in plants that inhibit active efflux processes and that are related to multi-drug resistance. After the diffusion of an antibiotic into a bacterial cell, an efflux pump inhibitor may prevent the antibiotic from being expelled from the organism, leading to …

Toward The Synthesis Of 5-Benzyl-3-Hydroxy-1,3-Azaborines As Potential Inhibitors Of Hiv-1 Protease, Julia Jennings

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Currently, approximately 33.3 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide and each year an additional 2.1 million people become infected. The goal of this research is to develop 1,3-azaborines that could potentially inhibit HIV-1 protease. HIV-1 protease is an enzyme involved in the protein processing step of the replication cycle. By inhibiting HIV-1 protease, the drug would slow the progression of HIV into AIDS. The target compounds are expected to have both competitive and associative inhibition and may inhibit mutated HIV viruses as well. To synthesize these compounds, boronic acids were coupled with a chiral directing/protecting group. A homologation was …

Exploring Conformational Variability Of An Rna Domain In The Ribosome: From Structure And Function To Potential Antibiotic Targeting, Yogo Sakakibara

Wayne State University Dissertations

RNA in nature is modified at many specific sites to order to gain extra functions or to expand the genetic code. One of such RNAs is ribosomal RNA (rRNA), which contains several modified bases, particularly around the functionally significant sites. We have focused on understanding the influences of modified base on RNA structure and function by employing helix 69 (H69), which is a good region to evaluate the roles of modified bases since it contains three pseudouridines in the loop region and exists at the core of the ribosome.

Previous model studies using small hairpin H69 showed the conformational differences …

Ectoparasites Of Bats In Mongolia, Part 2 (Ischnopsyllidae, Nycteribiidae, Cimicidae And Acari), Ingo Scheffler, Dietrich Dolch, Jargalsaikhan Ariunbold, Annegret Stubbe, Andreas Abraham, Klaus Thiele

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

This study analyses ectoparasites found on Mongolian bats between 2008 and 2011. We examined 12 different bat species, with a total of 23 ectoparasite species present. Apart from reporting distributions, we also discuss specific host-parasite relationships. Owing to recent taxonomic changes splitting the Myotis mystacinus-group into several new taxa, their corresponding ectoparasite fauna could also be addressed in detail. Introducing ectoparasitic insects at length elsewhere (Scheffler et al. 2010), this paper focuses on the analysis of parasitic Acari. Additional findings for Spinturnicidae (wing mites) and Macronyssidae broadened the spectrum of known parasites. Altogether, the knowledge of bat ectoparasites from Mongolia …

Siphonaptera Of Mongolia And Tuva: Results Of The Mongolian- German Biological Expeditions Since 1962 – Years 1999-2003, Daniel Kiefer, Michael Stubbe, Annegret Stubbe, Scott Lyell Gardner, D. Tserenorov, R. Samiya, D. Otgonbaatar, D. Sumiya, Matthias S. Kiefer

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

This report provides an overview of flea species and the corresponding hosts in Mongolia and Tuva during 1999-2003. The taxonomical development of this vector group of great medical importance covers more than a century of flea research in Mongolia, resulting in the current number of 162 species known from this area.

Analysis Of Illicit Drugs, Their Metabolites And Other Micropollutants In Water By Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Deepika P. Panawennage

Dissertations

The goal of this project is to develop liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) methods for the analysis of different, novel micropollutants in waste water and natural water. Micropollutants are compounds that can exert adverse environmental and human health effects at low concentrations. Most of these compounds include personal care products and pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics and controlled substances. In the first part of this study, we focused in the analysis of illicit drugs and drug metabolites because these analyses have the potential to serve as markers of drug abuse. We have detected over sixteen different illicit drugs and their …

Research Week 2012, Linda Gardiner

Office of Research Institutional Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Ontology For Parasite Lifecycle (Opl): Towards A Consistent Vocabulary Of Lifecycle Stages In Parasitic Organisms, Priti Parikh, Jie Zheng, Flora J. Logan-Klumpler, Christian J. Stoeckert, Pantelis Topalis, Anna Protasio, Amit P. Sheth, Mark Carrington, Matthew Berriman, Satya S. Sahoo

Kno.e.sis Publications

Background

Genome sequencing of many eukaryotic pathogens and the volume of data available on public resources have created a clear requirement for a consistent vocabulary to describe the range of developmental forms of parasites. Consistent labeling of experimental data and external data, in databases and the literature, is essential for integration, cross database comparison, and knowledge discovery. The primary objective of this work was to develop a dynamic and controlled vocabulary that can be used for various parasites. The paper describes the Ontology for Parasite Lifecycle (OPL) and discusses its application in parasite research.

Results

The OPL is based on …

A Multi-Beach Study Of Staphylococcus Aureus, Mrsa, And Enterococci In Seawater And Beach Sand, Kelly D. Goodwin, Melody Mcnay, Yiping Cao, Darcy Ebentier, Melissa Madison, John F. Griffith

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Incidences of Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) have risen worldwide prompting a need to better understand routes of human exposure and whether standard bacterial water quality monitoring practices adequately account for this potential threat. Beach water and sand samples were analyzed during summer months for S. aureus, enterococci, and MRSA at three southern California beaches (Avalon, Doheny, Malibu Surfrider). S. aureus frequently was detected in samples of seawater (59%, n = 328) and beach sand (53%, n = 358). MRSA sometimes was detected in seawater (1.6%, n = 366) and sand (2.7%, n = 366) at …

A Generalized Cholera Model And Epidemic-Endemic Analysis, Jin Wang, Shu Liao

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

The transmission of cholera involves both human-to-human and environment-to-human pathways that complicate its dynamics. In this paper, we present a new and unified deterministic model that incorporates a general incidence rate and a general formulation of the pathogen concentration to analyse the dynamics of cholera. Particularly, this work unifies many existing cholera models proposed by different authors. We conduct equilibrium analysis to carefully study the complex epidemic and endemic behaviour of the disease. Our results show that despite the incorporation of the environmental component, there exists a forward transcritical bifurcation at R₀ = 1 for the combined human-environment epidemiological …

Circulation And Water Properties And Their Relationship To The Oyster Disease Msx In Delaware Bay, Zhiren Wang, Dale B. Haidvogel, David Bushek, Susan E. Ford, Eileen E. Hofmann, Eric N. Powell, John Wilkin

CCPO Publications

We apply a high-resolution hydro-dynamical model to investigate the role of physical factors influencing infection prevalence of Haplosporidium nelsoni, causative agent of MSX disease in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica), in Delaware Bay, USA. Validation studies conducted for the years 2000 and 2010-2011 confirm that the model, based upon the Regional Ocean Modeling System, has significant skill in the recovery of observed water level, temperature, salinity, and velocity. Multi-year simulations are performed for periods representing temporal and spatial variations in H. nelsoni infection prevalence (1974-76, 1979-81, 1984-86, 1990-92, and 2006-09) to assess the degree to which the …

Modeling The Dispersal Of Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Larvae In Delaware Bay, Diego A. Narvaez, John M. Klinck, Eric N. Powell, Eileen E. Hofmann, John Wilkin, Dale B. Haidvogel

CCPO Publications

The interactions of circulation and growth processes in determining the horizontal distribution of eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) larvae in the Delaware Bay estuary were investigated with a coupled circulation-individual-based larvae model that used environmental conditions from the spawning seasons (mid-June to mid-September) of 1984, 1985, 1986, 2000, and 2001. Particles, representing oyster larvae, were released at five-day intervals from areas in Delaware Bay that correspond to natural oyster reefs. The simulated larval development time was used to estimate potential larval success, determined by the percent of larvae that successfully reached settlement size (330 µm) within the planktonic larval …

Establishing Winter Origins Of Migrating Lesser Snow Geese Using Stable Isotopes, Viviane Hénaux, Larkin A. Powell, Mark P. Vrtiska, Keith A. Hobson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Increases in Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) populations and large-scale habitat changes in North America have contributed to the concentration of migratory waterfowl on fewer wetlands, reducing resource availability, and enhancing risks of disease transmission. Predicting wintering locations of migratory individuals is critical to guide wildlife population management and habitat restoration. We used stable carbon (δ¹³C), nitrogen (δ ¹⁵N), and hydrogen (δ²H) isotope ratios in muscle tissue of wintering Snow Geese to discriminate four major wintering areas, the Playa Lake Region, Texas Gulf Coast, Louisiana Gulf Coast, and Arkansas, and infer the wintering locations …

Evaluating Retention In Medical Care And Its Impact On The Health Outcomes Of Individuals Living With Human Inmmunodeficiency Virus, Timothy N. Crawford

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

In the last few years, engagement in medical care among individuals living with HIV has become a major priority among HIV medical providers and public health researchers. Engagement in medical care is an important concept as it involves the process of linking newly diagnosed individuals into medical care and retaining those individuals in care throughout the course of their infection. Although there have been major advances in the management of HIV, like the advent of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, morbidity and mortality due to HIV cannot be fully reduced if the individual does not optimally retain in care. Retention in …

Publications And Reports: Research And Extension 2011 Annual Summary, Department Of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Table of Contents:
[Page] 3 Introduction
[Page] 4 Department Faculty List
[Page] 5 Departmental Graduate Students
[Page] 9 Peer-reviewed publications
[Page] 15 Publications in proceedings and other journals
[Page] 17 Books or book chapters
[Page] 19 Extension reports
[Page] 21 Other reports (e.g., agency reports, completion records)
[Page] 24 popular records

The Rise And Fall Of Crassostrea Virginica Oyster Reefs: The Role Of Disease And Fishing In Their Demise And A Vignette On Their Management, Eric N. Powell, John M. Klinck, Kathryn Ashton-Alcox, Eileen E. Hofmann, Jason Morson

CCPO Publications

We describe a model designed to simulate the shell carbonate budget of an oyster reef.We identify five parameters descriptive of basic characteristics of the shell carbonate budget of a reef that limit simulation accuracy. Two describe the TAZ (taphonomically-active zone) and the distribution of shell carbonate within it. One is the taphonomic rate in the TAZ. Two determine the volume contribution of shell carbonate and the taphonomic loss rate within the reef framework. For Mid-Atlantic estuaries, model simulations suggest that reef accretion only occurs if oyster abundance is near carrying capacity. Simulations further suggest that reef accretion is infeasible for …

Circulation And Behavior Controls On Dispersal Of Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Larvae In Delaware Bay, Diego A. Narvaez, John M. Klinck, Eric N. Powell, Eileen E. Hofmann, John Wilkin, Dale B. Haidvogel

CCPO Publications

The degree of genetic connectivity among populations in a metapopulation has direct consequences for species evolution, development of disease resistance, and capacity of a metapopulation to adapt to climate change. This study used a metapopulation model that integrates population dynamics, dispersal, and genetics within an individual-based model framework to examine the mechanisms and dynamics of genetic connectivity within a metapopulation. The model was parameterized to simulate four populations of oysters (Crassostrea virginica) from Delaware Bay on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. Differences among the four populations include a strong spatial gradient in mortality, a spatial gradient …

Developing A Geospatial Protocol For Coral Epizootiology, Jennifer Anne Lentz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics, specifically the techniques used to map, detect, and spatially analyze disease epidemics, could be used to advance our understanding of coral reef health. Given that different types of spatial analysis, as well as different parameter settings within each analysis, can produce noticeably different results, poor selection or improper use of a given technique would likely lead to inaccurate representations of the spatial distribution and false interpretations of the disease. For this reason, I performed a comprehensive review of the following types of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA): mapping and …

An Introduction To Ecology Of Infectious Diseases - Oysters And Estuaries, Eileen E. Hofmann, Susan E. Ford

OES Faculty Publications

Infectious diseases are recognized as an important factor regulating marine ecosystems (Harvell et al., 1999, 2002, 2004; Porter et al., 2001; McCallum et al., 2004; Ward and Lafferty, 2004; Stewart et al., 2008; Bienfang et al., 2011). Many of the organisms affected by marine diseases have important ecological roles in estuarine and coastal environments and some are also commercially important. Outbreaks of infectious diseases in these environments, referred to as epizootics, can produce significant population declines and extinctions, both of which threaten biodiversity, food web interactions, and ecosystem productivity (Harvell et al., 2002, 2004).

Stochastic Modeling Of Network-Centric Epidemiological Processes, Divine Wanduku

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The technological changes and educational expansion have created the heterogeneity in the human species. Clearly, this heterogeneity generates a structure in the population

dynamics, namely: citizen, permanent resident, visitor, and etc. Furthermore, as the heterogeneity in the population increases, the human mobility between meta-populations patches

also increases. Depending on spatial scales, a meta-population patch can be decomposed into sub-patches, for examples: homes, neighborhoods, towns, etc. The dynamics of human

mobility in a heterogeneous and scaled structured population is still its infancy level. We develop and investigate (1) an algorithmic two scale human mobility dynamic model for a meta-population. Moreover,the two …

Drug Discovery From Floridian Mangrove Endophytes, Jeremy Beau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant challenge of the 21st century is the growing health threat stemming from drug-resistant infectious diseases. There is an undeniable need to discover new, safe and effective drugs with novel mechanisms of action to combat this threat. A study of drugs currently on the market showed that natural products account for approximately 75% of new anti-infective drugs, either as new agents or analogs based upon their structure. Unfortunately, major pharmaceutical companies have cut back tremendously in natural products research in part due to the frustrating obstacle of frequent rediscovery of compounds. Fungi in particular are difficult to work with …