Multiple Novel Clades of Anopheline Mosquitoes Caught Outdoors in Northern Zambia

Residual vector populations that do not come in contact with the most frequently utilized indoor-directed interventions present major challenges to global malaria eradication. Many of these residual populations are mosquito species about which little is known. As part of a study to assess the threat of outdoor exposure to malaria mosquitoes within the Southern and Central Africa International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research, foraging female anophelines were collected outside households in Nchelenge District, northern Zambia. These anophelines proved to be more diverse than had previously been reported in the area. In order to further characterize the anopheline species, sequencing and phylogenetic approaches were utilized. Anopheline mosquitoes were collected from outdoor light traps, morphologically identified, and sent to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for sequencing. Sanger sequencing from 115 field-derived samples yielded mitochondrial COI sequences, which were aligned with a homologous 488 bp gene segment from known anophelines (n = 140) retrieved from NCBI. Nuclear ITS2 sequences (n = 57) for at least one individual from each unique COI clade were generated and compared against NCBI’s nucleotide BLAST database to provide additional evidence for taxonomical identity and structure. Molecular and morphological data were combined for assignment of species or higher taxonomy. Twelve phylogenetic groups were characterized from the COI and ITS2 sequence data, including the primary vector species Anopheles funestus s.s. and An. gambiae s.s. An unexpectedly large proportion of the field collections were identified as An. coustani and An. sp. 6. Six phylogenetic groups remain unidentified to species-level. Outdoor collections of anopheline mosquitoes in areas frequented by people in Nchelenge, northern Zambia, proved to be extremely diverse. Morphological misidentification and underrepresentation of some anopheline species in sequence databases confound efforts to confirm identity of potential malaria vector species. The large number of unidentified anophelines could compromise the malaria vector surveillance and malaria control efforts not only in northern Zambia but other places where surveillance and control are focused on indoor-foraging and resting anophelines. Therefore, it is critical to continue development of methodologies that allow better identification of these populations and revisiting and cleaning current genomic databases.

KRYZYS CZY NOWY ETAP ROZWOJU? Z BADAŃ NAD PRZEOBRAŻENIAMI PIASTOWSKICH OŚRODKÓW GRODOWYCH W XII I XIII WIEKU – PRZYKŁADY KRUSZWICY I LĄDU NAD WARTĄ

The article presents the transformation of stronghold in Poland in the 12th and 13th centuries. By providing the examples of Kruszwica (Kuyavia) and Ląd (Wielkopolska), attention has been drawn to the fact that, despite the collapse of the strongholds around which gords were once organised, they could continue development and remain political, societal, religious, economic and cultural centres. They allow historians to take a different view of the operations of the then territorial and administrative organisation in Poland as well as the gradual disintegration of the system.

Alkyne modified purines for assessing activation of Plasmodium vivax hypnozoites and growth of pre-erythrocytic and erythrocytic stages in Plasmodium spp.

Malaria is a major global health problem which predominantly afflicts developing countries. Although many antimalarial therapies are currently available, the protozoan parasite causing this disease, Plasmodium spp., continues to evade eradication efforts. One biological phenomenon hampering eradication efforts is the ability of. the parasite to arrest development, transform into a drug-insensitive form, and then resume growth post-therapy. Currently, the mechanisms by which the parasite enters arrested development, or dormancy, and later recrudesces or reactivates to continue development, are unknown and the malaria field lacks techniques to study these elusive mechanisms. Since Plasmodium spp. salvage purines for DNA synthesis, we hypothesized that alkyne-containing purine nucleosides could be used to develop a DNA synthesis marker which could be used to investigate mechanisms behind dormancy. Using copper-catalyzed click chemistry methods, we observe incorporation of alkyne modified adenosine, inosine, and hypoxanthine in actively replicating asexual blood stages of P. falciparum and incorporation of modified adenosine in actively replicating liver stage schizonts of P. vivax. Notably, these modified purines were not incorporated in dormant liver stage hypnozoites, suggesting this marker could be used as a tool to differentiate replicating and non-replicating liver forms and, more broadly, a tool for advancing our understanding Plasmodium dormancy mechanisms.

Assessing the Accuracy of Popular Commercial Technologies That Measure Resting Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability

Commercial off-the shelf (COTS) wearable devices continue development at unprecedented rates. An unfortunate consequence of their rapid commercialization is the lack of independent, third-party accuracy verification for reported physiological metrics of interest, such as heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). To address these shortcomings, the present study examined the accuracy of seven COTS devices in assessing resting-state HR and root mean square of successive differences (rMSSD). Five healthy young adults generated 148 total trials, each of which compared COTS devices against a validation standard, multi-lead electrocardiogram (mECG). All devices accurately reported mean HR, according to absolute percent error summary statistics, although the highest mean absolute percent error (MAPE) was observed for CameraHRV (17.26%). The next highest MAPE for HR was nearly 15% less (HRV4Training, 2.34%). When measuring rMSSD, MAPE was again the highest for CameraHRV [112.36%, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC): 0.04], while the lowest MAPEs observed were from HRV4Training (4.10%; CCC: 0.98) and OURA (6.84%; CCC: 0.91). Our findings support extant literature that exposes varying degrees of veracity among COTS devices. To thoroughly address questionable claims from manufacturers, elucidate the accuracy of data parameters, and maximize the real-world applicative value of emerging devices, future research must continually evaluate COTS devices.

BANJARBARU YOUTH CENTER

Banjarbaru is a developing city, also known as the City of Students, where this is of course closely related to students, the majority of whom are teenagers, which then become the nation's potential and assets as the next generation to continue development. Banjarbaru Youth Center is a public open space to accommodate teenagers so they can learn and develop in a positive and healthy environment. In this design, the authors uses park as an open space for adolescents as an answers to design problems by using the third place method so that the design elements are personalized to the conditions, needs, and activities in accordance with the characteristics of today's youth to be able become a space of expression place for adolescents to doing activities and develop in a social and environmentally friendly space.

Analysis of Volatile Profiles for Tracking Asymptomatic Infections of Phytophthora ramorum and other pathogens in Rhododendron

Phytophthora ramorum is an invasive, broad host-range pathogen that causes ramorum blight and sudden oak death in forest landscapes of western North America. In commercial nurseries, asymptomatic infections of nursery stock by P. ramorum and other Phytophthora species create unacceptable risk, and complicate inspection and certification programs designed to prevent introduction and spread of these pathogens. In this study, we continue development of a volatile organic compound (VOC)-based test for detecting asymptomatic infections of P. ramorum in Rhododendron sp. We confirm detection of P. ramorum from volatiles collected from asymptomatic root-inoculated Rhododendron plants in a nursery setting, finding that the VOC profile of infected plants is detectably different from that of healthy plants, both when measured from ambient VOC emissions and from VOCs extracted from leaf material. Predicting infection status was successful from ambient volatiles, which had a mean area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.71 ± 0.17, derived from corresponding receiver operating characteristic curves from an extreme gradient boosting discriminant analysis (XGB-DA). This compares with extracted leaf volatiles, which resulted in a lower AUC value of 0.51 ± 0.21. In a growth chamber, we contrasted volatile profiles of asymptomatic Rhododendron plants having roots infected with one of three pathogens: P. ramorum, Phytophthora cactorum and Rhizoctonia solani. Each pathogen induced unique and measurable changes, but generally the infections reduced volatile emissions until 17 weeks after inoculation, when emissions trended upwards relative to mock-inoculated controls. Forty-five compounds had significant differences compared to mock-inoculated controls in at least one host-pathogen combination

IMPACT OF DIET ON INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE SYMPTOMS: AN ADOLESCENT VIEWPOINT

Background Dietary modification shows promise as therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); however, it is unknown whether adolescents are interested in a dietary approach. Methods Cross-sectional survey of adolescents with IBD ages 14–21 on disease knowledge, dietary habits, and perceptions of diet therapy. Results A total of 132 subjects (48.5% female), mean age of 17.8 years and median disease length of 5 years (range 0, 16), completed the survey. Diet was perceived as a symptom trigger by 59.8% of subjects, and 45.4% had tried using diet as a treatment for symptom resolution, often without physician supervision and with limited success. Overall, subjects reported following a diet significantly more often than documented in the electronic medical record (EMR) by the physician (25.0% vs. 15.0%, p=0.033), with 72% agreement between subject response and EMR documentation on current status of diet modification (AC1=0.59, CI=0.45, 0.73). Subjects experiencing active disease symptoms as determined by Manitoba IBD Index were more likely to be currently modifying their diet compared to subjects without active disease symptoms (OR = 4.11, CI=1.58, 10.73, p=0.003). The subjects reporting unsuccessful dietary modification compliancy (25.7%, n=34) most commonly cited perceived lack of improvement in their IBD symptoms as the primary reason for stopping the diet (48.4%, n=15). Conclusions Adolescents with IBD perceive a relationship between diet and disease symptoms and are interested in dietary modification as a symptom management option. Our study suggests that a large proportion of adolescent IBD patients may already be attempting dietary modification, and therefore would be receptive to a modified dietary plan under the guidance of their gastroenterologist and dietitian. Much is still unknown about how dietary modification will fit in with current treatment regimens, but patient interest informs us that it is necessary to continue development and research of this promising therapeutic option.

A Systematic Review of Virtual Reality Interfaces for Controlling and Interacting with Robots

There is a significant amount of synergy between virtual reality (VR) and the field of robotics. However, it has only been in approximately the past five years that commercial immersive VR devices have been available to developers. This new availability has led to a rapid increase in research using VR devices in the field of robotics, especially in the development of VR interfaces for operating robots. In this paper, we present a systematic review on VR interfaces for robot operation that utilize commercially available immersive VR devices. A total of 41 papers published between 2016–2020 were collected for review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Papers are discussed and categorized into five categories: (1) Visualization, which focuses on displaying data or information to operators; (2) Robot Control and Planning, which focuses on connecting human input or movement to robot movement; (3) Interaction, which focuses on the development of new interaction techniques and/or identifying best interaction practices; (4) Usability, which focuses on user experiences of VR interfaces; and (5) Infrastructure, which focuses on system architectures or software to support connecting VR and robots for interface development. Additionally, we provide future directions to continue development in VR interfaces for operating robots.

A sustainability compass for policy navigation to sustainable food systems

The growing acknowledgement that food systems require transformation has led to a call for comprehensive sustainability assessments to support decision-making. For frameworks to serve sustainability governance, they must show the trade-offs and unintended consequences that might result from policy decisions across key goals relevant to food system actors. This paper reviews existing literature and frameworks and builds on stakeholder input to present a sustainability compass with associated metrics for food system assessments. The compass defines sustainability scores for four societal goals, underpinned by areas of concern. The operationalisation approach for assessment balances policy-usability, system complexity and comprehensiveness, while providing actionable insights. It concludes by outlining additional challenges for research to continue development of food system frameworks that support sustainability governance.

Domestic Violence Interventions in Social and Health Care Settings: Challenges of Temporary Projects and Short-Term Solutions

Social welfare service and health care providers are in a key position to implement successful domestic violence (DV) interventions. However, it is known that DV intervention and prevention work is often lacking in coordination and continuity. In addition, the limited resources, hectic work pace, and changing practices negatively affect the development of successful ways to prevent and intervene in DV. This qualitative study involving 11 focus groups, composed of social welfare and health care professionals ( n = 51) in a midsized Finnish hospital, examined the challenges and possibilities within DV interventions and the adoption of good practices produced by a DV intervention development project funded by the European Union (EU). The results show that short-term development projects, amid the pressure of limited time and resources, encounter serious challenges when applied to wicked and ignored problems, such as DV. Developing successful violence intervention practices requires a broad understanding of the challenges that rapid development projects present to professionals and social welfare service and health care practices at the organizational level. Hence, the implementation of good practices requires continuity in managerial and organizational support, distribution of information, documentation of DV, awareness raising, education, training, and agreement on basic tasks and responsibilities. Otherwise, the failure to continue development work derails the results of such work, and short project durations lead to unnecessary work and the need to reinvent temporary work practices time and again. Short-term interventions provide inefficient solutions to the problem of DV, and a built-in organizational structure can prevent the misuse of organizational and human resources.