The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease in West Africa was of unprecedented magnitude and changed our perspective on this lethal but sporadically emerging virus. This outbreak also marked the beginning of large-scale realtime molecular epidemiology. Here, we show how evolutionary analyses of Ebola virus genome sequences provided key insights into virus origins, evolution and spread during the epidemic.

Cameroon achieved the elimination target of leprosy in 2000, and has maintained this status ever since. However, a number of health districts in the country continue to report significant numbers of leprosy cases. The aim of this study was to assess the burden of leprosy in Cameroon from 2000 to 2014.

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This study identifies the capabilities needed by small-scale fishers to participate in Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) for yellowfin tuna in the Philippines. The current literature provides little empirical evidence on how different models, or types of FIPs, influence the participation of fishers in their programs and the degree which FIPs are able to foster improvements in fishing practices. To address this literature gap, two different FIPs are empirically analysed, each with different approaches for fostering improvement.

Worldwide riverine thermal pollution patterns were investigated by combining mean annual heat rejection rates from power plants with once-through cooling systems with the global hydrological-water temperature model variable infiltration capacity (VIC)-RBM. The model simulates both streamflow and water temperature on 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution worldwide and by capturing their effect, identifies multiple thermal pollution hotspots.

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Presently, the lack of data on soil organic carbon (SOC) in relation to land-use types and biophysical characteristics prevents reliable estimates of carbon stocks in montane landscapes of mainland SE Asia. Our study, conducted in a 10,000-hectare landscape in Xishuangbanna, SW China, aimed at assessing the spatial variability in SOC and its relationships with land-use cover and key biophysical characteristics at multiple spatial scales.

Dengue is a major public health problem in the tropics. Despite its global importance, population-based mortality rates attributable to dengue are largely unknown. Dengue vaccines are now in late stage clinical trials and one vaccine has been licensed in several countries. Evidence-based decisions regarding the future use of dengue vaccines will depend on robust estimates of disease burden which should include mortality.

The strong association between the initiation of smoking and peer-group smoking during adolescence has prompted numerous studies to examine the possible causal links between individuals’ and peers’ smoking behavior. A particular research focus has been to understand the development of smoking during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. Research on adolescents’ smoking behavior is relevant because adolescence has been identified as the most critical period for the initiation of smoking.

Human management of ecological systems, including issues like fisheries, invasive species, and restoration, as well as others, often must be undertaken with limited information. This means that developing general principles and heuristic approaches is important. Here, I focus on one aspect, the importance of an explicit consideration of time, which arises because of the inherent limitations in the response of ecological systems. I focus mainly on simple systems and models, beginning with systems without density dependence, which are therefore linear.

Widespread use of oral poliovirus vaccine has led to an ≈99.9% decrease in global incidence of poliomyelitis (from ≈350,000 cases in 1988 to 74 cases in 2015) and eradication of wild-type poliovirus serotypes 2 and 3. However, patients with primary immunodeficiency might shed vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) for an extended period, which could pose a major threat to polio eradication programs. Since 1995, sixteen VDPV populations have been isolated from 14 patients with immunodeficiency in Iran.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the association between the income status of a country and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the three most common bacteria causing infections in hospitals and in the community: third-generation cephalosporin (3GC)-resistant Escherichia coli, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and 3GC-resistant Klebsiella species.

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