Red Fluorescing Phototrophic Picoplankton in the Laurentian Great Lakes: What Are They and What Are They Doing?

Epifluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the community of red fluorescing (emission >665 nm when excited with blue light) phototrophic picoplankton (RFPP) in lakes Huron and Michigan. A population of coccoid to ovate eukaryotic cells with a mean size of 1.2 μm dominated the RFPP community in both surface and deep water samples. Abundant prochlorophyte populations were not found in any samples. Comparisons of counts with epifluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry, revealed that RFPP were adequately enumerated with standard epifluorescence microscopy. These RFPP were significant contributors to total phototrophic picoplankton abundance in both lakes Michigan (24%) and Huron (18%), with maximum seasonal abundance during the May-June period (surface mixing layer temperatures, 3-9 °C). During thermal stratification, maximum vertical abundance was found in the metalimnion/hypolimnion at the 1-5% isolumes. RFPP were only minor contributors (1-7%) to total primary production. Growth rates of RFPP measured with dilution and small inocula growth experiments ranged from 0.05-1.0 d⁻¹. Microzooplankton grazing rates on RFPP measured with dilution experiments were similar to estimated growth rates, accounting for 52-280% of growth on any given date.     

“They Know,They Agree,but They Don’t Do”- The Paradox of Tuberculosis Case Notification by Private Practitioners in Alappuzha District,Kerala, India

Background

Despite being a recognized standard of tuberculosis (TB) care internationally, mandatory TB case notification brings forth challenges from the private sector. Only three TB cases were notified in 2013 by private practitioners compared to 2000 TB cases notified yearly from the public sector in Alappuzha district. The study objective was to explore the knowledge, opinion and barriers regarding TB Notification among private practitioners offering TB services in Alappuzha, Kerala state, India.

Methods & Findings

This was a mixed-methods study with quantitative (survey) and qualitative components conducted between December 2013 and July 2014. The survey, using a structured questionnaire, among 169 private practitioners revealed that 88% were aware of mandatory notification. All patient-related details requested in the notification form (except government-issued identification number) were perceived to be important and easy to provide by more than 80% of practitioners. While more than 95% felt that notification should be mandatory, punitive action in case of failure to notify was considered unnecessary by almost two third. General practitioners (98%) were more likely to be aware of notification than specialists (84 %). (P<0.01). Qualitative purposive personal interviews (n=34) were carried out among private practitioners and public health providers. On thematic framework analysis of the responses, barriers to TB notification were grouped into three themes: ‘private provider misconceptions about notification’, ‘patient confidentiality, and stigma and discrimination ’and ‘lack of cohesion and coordination between public and private sector’. Private practitioners did not consider it necessary to notify TB cases treated with daily regimen.

Conclusion

Communication strategies like training, timely dissemination of information of policy changes and one-to-one dialogue with private practitioners to dispel misconceptions may enhance TB notification. Trust building strategies like providing feedback about referred cases from private sector, health personnel visit or a liaison private doctor may ensure compliance to public health activities.     

The Spratlys: Are They Rocks or Islands?

The South China Sea is a multilateral battlefield of conflicting claims to sovereignty over island features and vast areas of maritime jurisdiction. In the middle of the South China Sea lies the Spratly archipelago - some 150 small island features to which six states have made claims. The core of the SCS dispute is access to natural resources, and the rivalling claims to sovereignty over islands are largely based on the assumption that whoever has sovereignty to the features can also claim large areas of ocean space attached to them. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has codified the regimes of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone, and it is accepted that islands, as well as continental territory, generate such zones of maritime jurisdiction. However, one category of islands cannot generate these extensive maritime zones. Article 121(3) of the convention states that "rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf." This provision, if applied to certain features, has the potential to significantly change the scope of the conflict in the Spratlys.     

Integrated Surveys of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Southern Sudan: How Much Do They Cost and Can They Be Refined?

Background

Increasing emphasis on integrated control of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) requires identification of co-endemic areas. Integrated surveys for lymphatic filariasis (LF), schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection have been recommended for this purpose. Integrated survey designs inevitably involve balancing the costs of surveys against accuracy of classifying areas for treatment, so-called implementation units (IUs). This requires an understanding of the main cost drivers and of how operating procedures may affect both cost and accuracy of surveys. Here we report a detailed cost analysis of the first round of integrated NTD surveys in Southern Sudan.

Methods and Findings

Financial and economic costs were estimated from financial expenditure records and interviews with survey staff using an ingredients approach. The main outcome was cost per IU surveyed. Uncertain variables were subjected to univariate sensitivity analysis and the effects of modifying standard operating procedures were explored. The average economic cost per IU surveyed was USD 40,206 or USD 9,573, depending on the size of the IU. The major cost drivers were two key categories of recurrent costs: i) survey consumables, and ii) personnel.

Conclusion

The cost of integrated surveys in Southern Sudan could be reduced by surveying larger administrative areas for LF. If this approach was taken, the estimated economic cost of completing LF, schistosomiasis and STH mapping in Southern Sudan would amount to USD 1.6 million. The methodological detail and costing template provided here could be used to generate cost estimates in other settings and readily compare these to the present study, and may help budget for integrated and single NTDs surveys elsewhere.     

Where Are Zoos Going—or Are They Gone?

ABSTRACT

To some, zoos are prisons exploiting animals. In reality zoos range from bad to better. I make this distinction: A bad zoo makes animals work for it; a good zoo works for animals. Good zoos do effective conservation work and continually strive to improve exhibits, relevance to conservation, and inspiring public engagement for wildlife. Many zoos have improved enormously; the better ones being crucial in saving species that would have otherwise gone extinct. Nonetheless, for some people the mere word “zoo” carries impressions of old zoos, bad zoos, circuses, and theme-park shows that many find distasteful. Good zoos know they must innovate forward. As society grows increasingly estranged from nature and continues driving broad declines of wildlife, wild lands, and natural systems, the goal of zoos and every organization concerned with animal welfare should not be to separate humans from other animals, but to entangle all humans in nonhuman lives. Zoos of the next decades must become the first stage in bringing young people into life-long, engaged caring about animals. They could carry on that mission in their communities, in schools, in wild lands, as well as inside their gates. Without a strong public constituency, wild animals will not withstand continued human proliferation. Zoos and aquariums must innovate toward being a crucial force abetting the continued existence of wildness on Earth. Zoos of the future must become uplifting places of respect, rescue, enhancement, conservation, and public engagement.     

Limbs vs. Jaws: Can They Be Compared?

Current experimental research on mammalian limb muscle structureand function is compared to that on mammalian jaw muscles. Twomajor areas of comparison are stressed: structural and functional.Comparisons of limbs and jaws are made from the point of viewof the impact of recent studies on simple mechanical modelsof limb/jaw muscle function. Limb muscle structure is comparedto jaw muscles at the level of muscle architecture, muscle histochemicaland motor unit properties, and the organization of motor unitsinto neuromuscular compartments. Such comparisons reveal thatalthough limb muscles and jaw muscles might be organized insimilar ways, fundamental differences exist, both in terms ofmuscle structure and the functional conclusions which have beenbased on studies of muscle structure. The comparisons also demonstratethat much recent evidence from structural studies have had littledirect impact on simple models of muscle function but a muchlarger influence on the assumptions of the models. Comparisonsof limb/jaw muscle function from kinematic and EMG studies,indicate that many masticatory strategies are used by differentmammals but the basic problems of posture and locomotion havebeen met with essentially similar solutions, even among diversemammalian groups. The results of such comparisons demonstratethat both limb and jaw muscle function are sufficiently complexthat new or re-vitalized models are needed if the relationshipbetween structure and function are ever to be understood.     

ROC Volumes – Should They Be Used?

Invited comment on Alonzo, T.A. and Nakas, C.T. (2007). Comparison of ROC umbrella volumes with an application to the assessment of lung cancer diagnostic markers. Biometrical Journal 49, 654-664. Issues remain as to the appropriateness of volumes as summary measures of accuracy when distinguishing between multiple disease classes and when comparing accuracy of tests.     

Cell Penetrating Peptides: How Do They Do It?

Cell penetrating peptides consist of short sequences of amino acids containing a large net positive charge that are able to penetrate almost any cell, carrying with them relatively large cargoes such as proteins, oligonucleotides, and drugs. During the 10 years since their discovery, the question of how they manage to translocate across the membrane has remained unanswered. The main discussion has been centered on whether they follow an energy-independent or an energy-dependent pathway. Recently, we have discovered the possibility of an energy-independent pathway that challenges fundamental concepts associated with protein-membrane interactions (Herce and Garcia, PNAS, 104: 20805 (2007) [1]). It involves the translocation of charged residues across the hydrophobic core of the membrane and the passive diffusion of these highly charged peptides across the membrane through the formation of aqueous toroidal pores. The aim of this review is to discuss the details of the mechanism and interpret some experimental results consistent with this view.     

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Produce the Same Types of ‘Laugh Faces’ when They Emit Laughter and when They Are Silent

The ability to flexibly produce facial expressions and vocalizations has a strong impact on the way humans communicate, as it promotes more explicit and versatile forms of communication. Whereas facial expressions and vocalizations are unarguably closely linked in primates, the extent to which these expressions can be produced independently in nonhuman primates is unknown. The present work, thus, examined if chimpanzees produce the same types of facial expressions with and without accompanying vocalizations, as do humans. Forty-six chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were video-recorded during spontaneous play with conspecifics at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage. ChimpFACS was applied, a standardized coding system to measure chimpanzee facial movements, based on FACS developed for humans. Data showed that the chimpanzees produced the same 14 configurations of open-mouth faces when laugh sounds were present and when they were absent. Chimpanzees, thus, produce these facial expressions flexibly without being morphologically constrained by the accompanying vocalizations. Furthermore, the data indicated that the facial expression plus vocalization and the facial expression alone were used differently in social play, i.e., when in physical contact with the playmates and when matching the playmates’ open-mouth faces. These findings provide empirical evidence that chimpanzees produce distinctive facial expressions independently from a vocalization, and that their multimodal use affects communicative meaning, important traits for a more explicit and versatile way of communication. As it is still uncertain how human laugh faces evolved, the ChimpFACS data were also used to empirically examine the evolutionary relation between open-mouth faces with laugh sounds of chimpanzees and laugh faces of humans. The ChimpFACS results revealed that laugh faces of humans must have gradually emerged from laughing open-mouth faces of ancestral apes. This work examines the main evolutionary changes of laugh faces since the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.     

What Do Mexican Fruit Flies Learn When They Experience Fruit?

Mexican fruit flies learn fruit characteristics that enable them to distinguish familiar fruits from novel fruits. We investigated whether mature Mexican fruit flies learn fruit color, size or odor. We found no evidence that female flies learn fruit color or size after experience with host fruit, including oviposition. However, green fruit and fruit models were more attractive than yellow and red fruit and fruit models regardless of previous experience. Females with grapefruit experience were more attracted to fruit models with extract of either grapefruit peel or pulp, than to models without extract. Females with no experience with grapefruit were not attracted to models treated with grapefruit extract. These results indicate that females learned fruit odor during exposure to grapefruit.     

Plant Sphingolipids Today ‐ Are They Still Enigmatic?

Abstract: Sphingolipids are a diverse group of lipids found in all eukaryotes and some bacteria, consisting of a hydrophobic ceramide and a hydrophilic head group. We have summarised the contemporary understanding of the structure of plant sphingolipids with an emphasis on glucosylceramides and inositolphosphorylceramides. Plant glucosylceramides are important structural components of plasma and vacuole membranes. Inositolphosphorylceramides have been identified as moieties of the glycosylphosphorylinositol (GPI) anchors of plant proteins targeted to the plasma membrane. In the last few years, progress has been made in the cloning of plant genes coding for enzymes involved in sphingolipid metabolism. As found in yeast and mammals, the plant sphingolipid pathway is a potential generator of powerful cell signals. The role of plant sphingolipid metabolites in programmed cell death and calcium influx is discussed.     

Biogeography and Limno-terrestrial Tardigrades: Are They Truly Incompatible Binomials?

Due to the passive dispersal, tardigrades have been traditionally considered unsuitable for biogeographical studies. However, this paper provides some biogeographical and biological data supporting the possibility of using those animals to solve biogeographical problems at continental level.     

Macroparasite Infections of Amphibians: What Can They Tell Us?

Understanding linkages between environmental changes and disease emergence in human and wildlife populations represents one of the greatest challenges to ecologists and parasitologists. While there is considerable interest in drivers of amphibian microparasite infections and the resulting consequences, comparatively little research has addressed such questions for amphibian macroparasites. What work has been done in this area has largely focused on nematodes of the genus Rhabdias and on two genera of trematodes (Ribeiroia and Echinostoma). Here, we provide a synopsis of amphibian macroparasites, explore how macroparasites may affect amphibian hosts and populations, and evaluate the significance of these parasites in larger community and ecosystem contexts. In addition, we consider environmental influences on amphibian-macroparasite interactions by exploring contemporary ecological factors known or hypothesized to affect patterns of infection. While some macroparasites of amphibians have direct negative effects on individual hosts, no studies have explicitly examined whether such infections can affect amphibian populations. Moreover, due to their complex life cycles and varying degrees of host specificity, amphibian macroparasites have rich potential as bioindicators of environmental modifications, especially providing insights into changes in food webs. Because of their documented pathologies and value as bioindicators, we emphasize the need for broader investigation of this understudied group, noting that ecological drivers affecting these parasites may also influence disease patterns in other aquatic fauna.     

Will They Stay or Will They Go? International Graduate Students and Their Decisions to Stay or Leave the U.S. upon Graduation

The U.S. currently enjoys a position among the world’s foremost innovative and scientifically advanced economies but the emergence of new economic powerhouses like China and India threatens to disrupt the global distribution of innovation and economic competitiveness. Among U.S. policy makers, the promotion of advanced education, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, has become a key strategy for ensuring the U.S.’s position as an innovative economic leader. Since approximately one third of science and engineering post-graduate students in the U.S. are foreign born, the future of the U.S. STEM educational system is intimately tied to issues of global competitiveness and American immigration policy. This study utilizes a combination of national education data, a survey of foreign-born STEM graduate students, and in-depth interviews of a sub-set of those students to explain how a combination of scientists’ and engineers’ educational decisions, as well as their experience in school, can predict a students’ career path and geographical location, which can affect the long-term innovation environment in their home and destination country. This study highlights the fact that the increasing global competitiveness in STEM education and the complex, restrictive nature of U.S. immigration policies are contributing to an environment where the American STEM system may no longer be able to comfortably remain the premier destination for the world’s top international students.