scholarly journals Emerging Mosquito-Borne Threats and the Response from European and Eastern Mediterranean Countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 2775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Johnson ◽  
Mar Fernández de Marco ◽  
Armando Giovannini ◽  
Carla Ippoliti ◽  
Maria Danzetta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Wildlife Migration ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Autochthonous Transmission

Mosquito-borne viruses are the cause of some of the greatest burdens to human health worldwide, particularly in tropical regions where both human populations and mosquito numbers are abundant. Due to a combination of anthropogenic change, including the effects on global climate and wildlife migration there is strong evidence that temperate regions are undergoing repeated introduction of mosquito-borne viruses and the re-emergence of viruses that previously were not detected by surveillance. In Europe, the repeated introductions of West Nile and Usutu viruses have been associated with bird migration from Africa, whereas the autochthonous transmission of chikungunya and dengue viruses has been driven by a combination of invasive mosquitoes and rapid transcontinental travel by infected humans. In addition to an increasing number of humans at risk, livestock and wildlife, are also at risk of infection and disease. This in turn can affect international trade and species diversity, respectively. Addressing these challenges requires a range of responses both at national and international level. Increasing the understanding of mosquito-borne transmission of viruses and the development of rapid detection methods and appropriate therapeutics (vaccines / antivirals) all form part of this response. The aim of this review is to consider the range of mosquito-borne viruses that threaten public health in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, and the national response of a number of countries facing different levels of threat.

scholarly journals Fossil crocodilian distributions, Upper Cretaceous to present: implications for paleoclimate

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 198-198
Author(s):  
Paul Markwick
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Cooling Trend ◽  
Geologic Record ◽  
Continental Interior ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Limited Scope

The present day distribution of crocodilians appears to be climatically controlled, at least in part, with the group restricted to tropical through sub-tropical regions. Studies have shown that although crocodiles may be able to withstand sub-zero temperatures they can do so for only limited periods. By analogy the presence of fossil crocodilians in the geologic record has been interpretated as indicating warmth. However previous studies have generally been of limited scope. This study uses global paleodistributions of the crocodilians to map gross global climate for the last 100 million years.A comprehensive database of published occurrences of fossil crocodilians from the late Cretaceous to the Present has been constructed. Taphonomic and collection biases have been addressed using ‘control groups', these are respectively the Testudines and the vertebrates in general. Problems of taxonomic inconsistency have been dealt with by ‘accepting’ a standard published taxonomic scheme (Carroll, 1988). Geographic and temporal uncertainties and imprecisions are coded on the database to facilitate sorting; this allows the analyses to be run at different levels of precision and provides an opportunity to understand the way biogeographic and hence paleoclimatic interpretations may be influenced by both the nature of the geologic record itself and by a priori decisions made by the worker. The database also includes lithologic, stratigraphic and environmental information on some 3300 localities and includes specimen information for the taxa entered (>14000 separate entries assembled from 1000 references).Preliminary analyses of paleolatitudinally reconstructed localities reveals the following trends: an overall equatorward movement of the poleward limit of the crocodiles from the late Cretaceous to the present; this is punctuated by an abrupt equatorward excursion of almost 10° during the Oligocene and another of similar magnitude at the end of the Miocene, with an apparent Miocene ‘recovery’ in between (this trend is shown most clearly by the families Alligatoridae and Crocodylidae). At the suborder level the Mesosuchians (excluding the Sebecidae) show a distinct equatorial shift from the Campanian through to the middle Eocene when they disappear; inclusion of the Sebecidae in the Mesosuchia gives rise to a sudden poleward expansion in the middle Eocene of some 20° paleolatitude. Map reconstructions, especially for North America, reveal an eastward shift of crocodilian localities as the Tertiary progresses, perhaps due in part to a taphonomic artifact, viz., the migration of the locus of sedimentation. With the late Miocene the crocodilians disappeared completely from the continental interior record, a transition which seems tied to increased aridity (as indicated by the development of caliches in many areas) and increased seasonality of temperature. This pattern is also seen in the southern ‘U.S.S.R’.The distributions of the Crocodylia through time therefore reflect and support established views concerning late Cretaceous through Tertiary climate with a general cooling trend from the late Cretaceous to the present punctuated by abrupt coolings in the Oligocene and around the Miocene-Pliocene boundary.

scholarly journals Comparative assessment of genetic diversity in wild and primitive cultivated barley in a center of diversity.

Genetics ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 981-990
Author(s):  
S Jana ◽  
L N Pietrzak
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Hordeum Spontaneum ◽  
Hordeum Vulgare L ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Isozyme Loci ◽  
Cultivated Barley ◽  
Multilocus Associations ◽  
High Degree

Abstract Wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum K.) and indigenous primitive varieties of cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), collected from 43 locations in four eastern Mediterranean countries, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Greece, were electrophoretically assayed for genetic diversity at 16 isozyme loci. Contrary to a common impression, cultivated barley populations were found to maintain a level of diversity similar to that in its wild progenitor species. Apportionment of overall diversity in the region showed that in cultivated barley within-populations diversity was of higher magnitude than the between-populations component. Neighboring populations of wild and cultivated barleys showed high degree of genetic identity. Groups of 3 or 4 isozyme loci were analyzed to detect associations among loci. Multilocus associations of varying order were detected for all three groups chosen for the analysis. Some of the association terms differed between the two species in the region. Although there was no clear evidence for decrease in diversity attributable to the domestication of barley in the region, there was an indication of different multilocus organizations in the two closely related species.

scholarly journals Own-price and cross-price elasticities of demand for cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco in three Eastern Mediterranean countries: a volumetric choice experiment

2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2021-056616
Author(s):  
Ali Chalak ◽  
Rima Nakkash ◽  
Niveen M E Abu-Rmeileh ◽  
Yousef S Khader ◽  
Mohammed Jawad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Choice Experiment ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Tobacco Consumption ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Demand Elasticity ◽  
Tobacco Products ◽  
Price Elasticities ◽  
Mediterranean Countries

BackgroundWaterpipe tobacco smoking rates in the Eastern Mediterranean region are among the highest worldwide, yet little evidence exists on its economics. Estimates of demand elasticities for tobacco products are largely limited to cigarettes. This study aimed to estimate own-price and cross-price elasticities of demand for cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco products in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine.MethodsA volumetric choice experiment was conducted using nationally representative household surveys. The choice experiment elicited respondents’ stated purchases of eight cigarette and waterpipe tobacco product varieties by hypothetically varying prices. Data were analysed using zero-inflated Poisson models that yielded demand elasticity estimates of cigarette and waterpipe tobacco consumption.ResultsThe study included 1680 participants in Lebanon (50% female), 1925 in Jordan (44.6% female) and 1679 in Palestine (50% female). We found the demand for premium cigarettes to be price elastic (range, −1.0 to −1.2) across all three countries, whereas the demand for discount cigarettes was less elastic than premium cigarettes in Lebanon (−0.6) and Jordan (−0.7) and more elastic in Palestine (−1.2). The demand for premium waterpipe tobacco was highly elastic in Lebanon (−1.9), moderately elastic in Jordan (−0.6) and inelastic in Palestine (0.2). The cross-price elasticity between cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco was near zero, suggesting that the two products are not considered to be close substitutes by consumers.ConclusionsThese results serve as a strong evidence base for developing and implementing fiscal policies for tobacco control in the Eastern Mediterranean region that address cigarettes and waterpipe tobacco products.

Global climate instability reflected by Eastern Mediterranean marine records during the late Holocene

2001 ◽  
Vol 176 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 157-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Schilman ◽  
Miryam Bar-Matthews ◽  
Ahuva Almogi-Labin ◽  
Boaz Luz
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Global Climate

scholarly journals Global climate change amplifies the entry of tropical species into the eastern Mediterranean Sea

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 1478-1484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dionysios E. Raitsos ◽  
Gregory Beaugrand ◽  
Dimitrios Georgopoulos ◽  
Argyro Zenetos ◽  
Antonietta M. Pancucci-Papadopoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Tropical Species ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Sea

scholarly journals Prevalence of dental caries in students with different levels of anxiety

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (23) ◽  
pp. 55-57
Author(s):  
S. N. Razumova ◽  
N. B. Karabushchenko ◽  
O. M. Bait Said ◽  
G. M. Mkhoyan ◽  
G. A. Наrutyunyan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Dental Caries ◽  
Young People ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Different Levels

Dental incidence of caries has a significant impact on human health and currently affects the bulk of the world's population, despite numerous attempts to reduce it. One of the groups at risk of developing this disease is young people (students) who experience anxiety throughout the entire learning process.

scholarly journals EVALUATION OF SEMANTIC SEGMENTATION METHODS FOR DEFORESTATION DETECTION IN THE AMAZON

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIII-B3-2020 ◽  
pp. 1497-1505
Author(s):  
R. B. Andrade ◽  
G. A. O. P. Costa ◽  
G. L. A. Mota ◽  
M. X. Ortega ◽  
R. Q. Feitosa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Semantic Segmentation ◽  
Training Sample ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Amazon Forest ◽  
Convolutional Network ◽  
Detection Approach ◽  
Segmentation Methods

Abstract. Deforestation is a wide-reaching problem, responsible for serious environmental issues, such as biodiversity loss and global climate change. Containing approximately ten percent of all biomass on the planet and home to one tenth of the known species, the Amazon biome has faced important deforestation pressure in the last decades. Devising efficient deforestation detection methods is, therefore, key to combat illegal deforestation and to aid in the conception of public policies directed to promote sustainable development in the Amazon. In this work, we implement and evaluate a deforestation detection approach which is based on a Fully Convolutional, Deep Learning (DL) model: the DeepLabv3+. We compare the results obtained with the devised approach to those obtained with previously proposed DL-based methods (Early Fusion and Siamese Convolutional Network) using Landsat OLI-8 images acquired at different dates, covering a region of the Amazon forest. In order to evaluate the sensitivity of the methods to the amount of training data, we also evaluate them using varying training sample set sizes. The results show that all tested variants of the proposed method significantly outperform the other DL-based methods in terms of overall accuracy and F1-score. The gains in performance were even more substantial when limited amounts of samples were used in training the evaluated methods.

‘Ruins’ of the Forest Social Complexity and Tropical Cities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Lost City ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
European Thought

The above quote from a recent Hollywood film presentation of Colonel Percival Fawcett’s obsessive early twentieth-century search for the remains of the Lost City of Z (Gray, 2016) highlights the effort that it has taken to convince the academic world and the public alike that large urban forms can be developed in tropical forest settings. While the film, and the book by David Grann (2009) upon which it was based, grossly overplay the exploration credentials, respect for Indigenous peoples, and scientific abilities of Colonel Fawcett (Hemming, 2017), this quote encapsulates the difficult working conditions and environmental determinism in western thought that have led to perceptions of ‘impossibility’ of extensive settlements and social complexity in tropical forests. Beyond searches for debated ‘lost’ cities, even where the clear ruins of ancient urban sites have been found in tropical forests, as with the Classic Maya in North and Central America and the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, their collapse has been seen as almost inevitable given necessary forest clearance, soil erosion, and population pressure on these delicate environments (Webster, 2002; Diamond, 2005; Chen et al., 2014; Lentz et al., 2014). In particular, the intensive agriculture seen as necessary to fuel the ‘urban revolution’ (Childe, 1950) and the development of cities and elite structures familiar to most archaeological definitions of cities (Adams, 1981; Postgate, 1992), has been considered impossible on the fragile, low nutrient soils of tropical forest habitats (Meggers, 1954, 1971, 1977, 1987). Other, less-discussed threats include natural disasters, such as mudslides and mass-flooding, that continue to trouble tropical regions prone to high annual or seasonal rainfall (Larsen, 2017). Nevertheless, new methodologies and theoretical shifts are highlighting the clear emergence of social complexity and extensive human populations prior to the arrival of European settlers in many of the world’s tropical forest settings. Here, I review the growing dataset of past ‘urban’ forms in tropical forests. As with ‘the origins of agriculture’ in Chapter 5, tropical forests have been crucial in demonstrating that traditional ideas of ‘urbanism’ in archaeology–namely ‘compact’, bounded, and dense populations documented in early Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, and that dominate European thought—do not capture the whole wealth of ‘urban’ diversity and settlement networks that began to develop from the Middle Holocene.

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