Which Factors Affect the Success or Failure of Eradication Campaigns against Alien Species?

Although issues related to the management of invasive alien species are receiving increasing attention, little is known about which factors affect the likelihood of success of management measures. We applied two data mining techniques, classification trees and boosted trees, to identify factors that relate to the success of management campaigns aimed at eradicating invasive alien invertebrates, plants and plant pathogens. We assembled a dataset of 173 different eradication campaigns against 94 species worldwide, about a half of which (50.9%) were successful. Eradications in man-made habitats, greenhouses in particular, were more likely to succeed than those in (semi-)natural habitats. In man-made habitats the probability of success was generally high in Australasia, while in Europe and the Americas it was higher for local infestations that are easier to deal with, and for international campaigns that are likely to profit from cross-border cooperation. In (semi-) natural habitats, eradication campaigns were more likely to succeed for plants introduced as an ornamental and escaped from cultivation prior to invasion. Averaging out all other factors in boosted trees, pathogens, bacteria and viruses were most, and fungi the least likely to be eradicated; for plants and invertebrates the probability was intermediate. Our analysis indicates that initiating the campaign before the extent of infestation reaches the critical threshold, starting to eradicate within the first four years since the problem has been noticed, paying special attention to species introduced by the cultivation pathway, and applying sanitary measures can substantially increase the probability of eradication success. Our investigations also revealed that information on socioeconomic factors, which are often considered to be crucial for eradication success, is rarely available, and thus their relative importance cannot be evaluated. Future campaigns should carefully document socioeconomic factors to enable tests of their importance.     

The use of biochemical solid-phase techniques in the study of alcohol dehydrogenase. 1. Some studies on subunit interactions in alcohol dehydrogenase with subunits covalently bound to agarose

The EE and SS isozymes of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase have been immobilized separately to weakly CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B. The resulting immobilized dimeric preparations lost practically all of their activity after treatment with 6 M urea. However, enzyme activity was regenerated by allowing the urea-treated Sepharose-bound alcohol dehydrogenase to interact specifically with either soluble subunits of dissociated horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase or soluble dimeric enzyme. The regeneration of steroid activity in the immobilized preparations after treatment of the bound S subunits with soluble E subunits seems to show that true reassociation of the enzyme had taken place on the solid phase, since only isozymes with an S-polypeptide chain are active when using 5 beta-dihydrotestosterone as substrate. The results presented in this paper indicate that immobilized single subunits of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase are inactive and that dimer formation is a prerequisite for the enzymic activity.     

Digital transformation—life cycle assessment of digital services,multifunctional devices and cloud computing

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment -     

Identification by families of pediatric adverse events and near misses overlooked by health care providers

Background:

Identifying adverse events and near misses is essential to improving safety in the health care system. Patients are capable of reliably identifying and reporting adverse events. The effect of a patient safety reporting system used by families of pediatric inpatients on reporting of adverse events by health care providers has not previously been investigated.

Methods:

Between Nov. 1, 2008, and Nov. 30, 2009, families of children discharged from a single ward of British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital were asked to respond to a questionnaire about adverse events and near misses during the hospital stay. Rates of reporting by health care providers for this period were compared with rates for the previous year. Family reports for specific incidents were matched with reports by health care providers to determine overlap.

Results:

A total of 544 familes responded to the questionnaire. The estimated absolute increase in reports by health care providers per 100 admissions was 0.5% (95% confidence interval −1.8% to 2.7%). A total of 321 events were identified in 201 of the 544 family reports. Of these, 153 (48%) were determined to represent legitimate patient safety concerns. Only 8 (2.5%) of the adverse events reported by families were also reported by health care providers.

Interpretation:

The introduction of a family-based system for reporting adverse events involving pediatric inpatients, administered at the time of discharge, did not change rates of reporting of adverse events and near misses by health care providers. Most reports submitted by families were not duplicated in the reporting system for health care providers, which suggests that families and staff members view safety-related events differently. However, almost half of the family reports represented legitimate patient safety concerns. Families appeared capable of providing valuable information for improving the safety of pediatric inpatients.It has been estimated that adverse events occur in about 1% of children treated in hospital and that, on average, 60% of these events are preventable.¹ To increase institutional awareness of adverse events, hospitals have implemented systems to encourage health care providers to report adverse events.² The reporting of adverse events can be improved by making electronic systems for reporting readily accessible³ and by ensuring a “just culture,” which includes nonpunitive reporting policies.⁴ However, adverse events reported by health care providers account for only a small fraction of total adverse events as determined by chart review.⁵ Time pressures to treat patients, fear of punishment, lack of belief in the benefit of reporting and differing opinions of what defines a reportable event contribute to low reporting rates.⁶ However, patients and their families are readily available, keen and motivated observers who may not be subject to these reporting barriers. Family members are capable of observing and reporting adverse events in a variety of clinical settings.⁷ It is known that the interpretation of safety events and the threshold for reporting differ among health care disciplines and individual health care providers.⁶ However, it is not clear how families of pediatric patients interpret safety-related events or what their threshold would be for reporting events.The purpose of this study was to test whether the introduction of an adverse event reporting system for use by families of pediatric patients at the time of discharge from a surgical ward would significantly change the rate of reporting of adverse events by health care providers. We also evaluated the types of events that families reported, the relevance of these events with respect to patient safety, families’ desires for anonymous reporting and families’ assessments of institutional responses to reported events. We anticipated that health care providers’ reporting rates would rise with the introduction of the family reporting system, on the assumption that greater attention would be paid to reporting safety-related events on the ward. We also anticipated that families would provide useful information about safety-related events, at least some of the time. In particular, we thought that facilitating communication from the patient’s family directly to the study institution’s Quality, Safety and Outcome Improvement Department would allow more opportunities to improve safety through changes in practice.     

Distinct functions for ERK1 and ERK2 in cell migration processes during zebrafish gastrulation

The MAPKs are key regulatory signaling molecules in many cellular processes. Here we define differential functions for ERK1 and ERK2 MAPKs in zebrafish embryogenesis. Morpholino knockdown of ERK1 and ERK2 resulted in cell migration defects during gastrulation, which could be rescued by co-injection of the corresponding mRNA. Strikingly, Erk2 mRNA cross-rescued ERK1 knockdown, but erk1 mRNA was unable to compensate for ERK2 knockdown. Cell-tracing experiments revealed a convergence defect for ERK1 morphants without a severe posterior-extension defect, whereas ERK2 morphants showed a more severe reduction in anterior-posterior extension. These defects were primary changes in gastrulation cell movements and not caused by altered cell fate specification. Saturating knockdown conditions showed that the absence of FGF-mediated dual-phosphorylated ERK2 from the blastula margin blocked initiation of epiboly, actin and tubulin cytoskeleton reorganization processes and further arrested embryogenesis, whereas ERK1 knockdown had only a mild effect on epiboly progression. Together, our data define distinct roles for ERK1 and ERK2 in developmental cell migration processes during zebrafish embryogenesis.     

Stridulation and hearing in the noctuid mothThecophora fovea (Tr.)

Summary MaleThecophora fovea (Tr.) (Noctuidae) sing continuously for several minutes by rubbing the 1. tarsal segment of the metathoracic leg against a stridulatory swelling on the hindwing. In Northern Yugoslavia (Slovenia) the males emerge in late October and start stridulating about a week later when the females emerge.The sounds are pulse trains consisting of 10–12 ms long sound pulses with main energy around 32 kHz and a PRR of 20 pulses/s. The mechanics of the sound producing apparatus was studied by activating the stridulatory swelling with short sound impulses. The impulse response of the swelling was recorded by laser vibrometry and amplitude spectra of the vibrations showed maximum velocities between 25 and 35 kHz. Hence, it seems likely that the stridulatory swelling is driven as a mechanical oscillator with a resonance frequency which determines the carrier frequency of the sounds.Audiograms of both males and females showed peak sensitivities at 25–30 kHz. The median threshold at the BF was 36 dB SPL. The peak intensity of the sound pulses was 83 dB SPL at 1 m, which should enable the moths to hear each other at distances of around 30 m. Therefore sound production inT. fovea might function in long distance calling. It is argued thatT. fovea can survive making such a noise in spite of being palatable to bats because it flies so late in the year that it is temporally isolated from bats.Abbreviations PRR pulse repetition rate - SPL sound pressure level - BF best frequency     

Cdc37p is involved in osmoadaptation and controls high osmolarity-induced cross-talk via the MAP kinase Kss1p

Cdc37p, the p50 homolog of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is an Hsp90 cochaperone involved in the targeting of protein kinases to Hsp90. Here we report a role for Cdc37p in osmoadaptive signalling in this yeast. The osmosensitive phenotype that is displayed by the cdc37-34 mutant strain appears not to be the consequence of deficient signalling through the high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) MAP kinase pathway. Rather, Cdc37p appears to play a role in the filamentous growth (FG) pathway, which mediates adaptation to high osmolarity parallel to the HOG pathway. The osmosensitive phenotype of the cdc37-34 mutant strain is aggravated upon the deletion of the HOG gene. We report that the hyper-osmosensitive phenotype of the cdc37-34, hog1 mutant correlates to a reduced of activity of the FG pathway. We utilized this phenotype to isolate suppressor genes such as KSS1 that encodes a MAP kinase that functions in the FG pathway. We report that Kss1p interacts physically with Cdc37p. Like Kss1p, the second suppressor that we isolated, Dse1p, is involved in cell wall biogenesis or maintenance, suggesting that Cdc37p controls osmoadapation by regulating mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling aimed at adaptive changes in cell wall organization.     

Multicenter evaluation of reverse line blot assay for detection of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates

A multicenter study was conducted with the objective to evaluate a reverse line blot (RLB) assay to detect resistance to rifampin (RIF), isoniazid (INH), streptomycin (STR), and ethambutol (EMB) in clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Oligonucleotides specific for wild type and mutant (drug resistance linked) alleles of the selected codons in the genes rpoB, inhA, ahpC, rpsL, rrs, embB, were immobilized on a nylon membrane. The RLB assay conditions were optimized following analysis of DNA samples with known sequences of the targeted genes. For validation of the method at different geographical locations, the membranes were sent to seven laboratories in six countries representing the regions with high burdens of multudrug-resistant tuberculosis. The reproducibility of the assay for detection of rpoB genotypes was initially evaluated on a blinded set of twenty reference DNA samples with known allele types and overall concordant results were obtained. Further mutation analysis was performed by each laboratory on the local strains. Upon RLB analysis of 315 clinical isolates from different countries, 132 (85.2%) of 155 RIF-resistant and 28 (51.0%) of 55 EMB-resistant isolates were correctly identified, showing applicability of the assay when targeting the rpoB hot-spot region and embB306. Mutations in the inhA and ahpC promoter regions, conferring resistance to INH, were successfully identified in respectively 16.9% and 13.2% of INH-resistant strains. Likewise, mutations in rrs513 and rpsL88 that confer resistance to STR were identified in respectively 15.1% and 10.7% of STR-resistant strains. It should be mentioned that mutation analysis of the above targets usually requires rather costly DNA sequencing to which the proposed RLB assay presents rapid and inexpensive alternative. Furthermore, the proposed method requires the same simple equipment as that used for spoligotyping and permits simultaneous analysis of up to 40 samples. This technique is a first attempt to combine different targets in a single assay for prediction of antituberculosis drugs resistance. It is open to further development as it allows easy incorporation of new probes for detection of mutations in other genes associated with resistance to second-line (e.g., fluoroquinolones) and new antituberculosis compounds.