Volatile Emissions and Relative Attraction of the Fungal Symbionts of Tea Shot Hole Borer (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Euwallacea perbrevis is an ambrosia beetle that vectors fungal pathogens causing Fusarium dieback in Florida avocado trees. Current monitoring lures contain quercivorol, a fungus-produced volatile, but the exact attractant is unknown since lures contain a mixture of p-menth-2-en-1-ol isomers and both α- and β-phellandrene. This study used pure cultures of six symbiotic fungi isolated from E. perbrevis to document volatile emissions and determine the relative attraction of symbionts in binary choice assays. In a comparative test, headspace solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy was used to identify and quantify emissions from 3-week-old cultures. In a temporal study, Super-Q collection followed by gas chromatography–flame ionization detection was used to measure cis- and trans-p-menth-2-en-1-ol emissions for three months. A total of 15 compounds were detected, with monoterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated monoterpenoids predominating. Only trans-p-menth-2-en-1-ol was common to all six symbionts. Peak levels of both isomers were observed at day 7, then gradually declined over a 90 day period. In choice tests, avocado sawdust disks inoculated with Fusarium sp. nov. were the most attractive. This symbiont produced only two volatiles, trans-p-menth-2-en-1-ol and limonene. The combined results indicate that trans-p-menth-2-en-1-ol is the primary female attractant emitted from symbiotic fungi, but limonene may be a secondary attractant of E. perbrevis.

Temporal Study of Salmonella enterica Serovars Isolated from Fluff Samples from Ontario Poultry Hatcheries between 2009 and 2018

The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence, temporal trends, seasonal patterns, and temporal clustering of Salmonella enterica isolated from fluff samples from poultry hatcheries in Ontario between 2009 and 2018. A scan statistic was used to identify clusters of common serovars and those of human health concern. A multi-level logistic regression model was used to identify factors (poultry commodity, year, season) associated with S. enterica presence. The period prevalence of S. enterica was 7.5% in broiler hatcheries, 1.6% in layer hatcheries, 7.6% in turkey hatcheries, 29.7% in waterfowl hatcheries, and 13.8% in game-bird hatcheries. An overall increasing trend in S. enterica prevalence was identified in waterfowl and game-bird hatcheries, while a decreasing trend was identified in broiler and turkey hatcheries. Overall, the most common S. enterica serovars were Kentucky, Enteritidis, Heidelberg, and Senftenberg. Salmonella enterica ser. Enteritidis was the most common serovar in waterfowl hatcheries. Temporal clusters were identified for all poultry commodities. Seasonal effects varied by commodity, with the highest odds of S. enterica occurring in the summer and fall. Our study offers information on the prevalence and temporality of S. enterica serovars that might guide prevention and control programs at the hatchery level.

Young adults vulnerability to COVID-19 in Brazil: an overview across the country

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions, where many smaller countries would fit. In addition to demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural differences, hospital infrastructure and healthcare varies across all 27 federative units. Therefore, the evolution of COVID-19 pandemic did not manifest itself in a homogeneous and predictable trend across the nation. In late 2020 and early 2021, new waves of the COVID-19 outbreak have caused an unprecedented sanitary collapse in Brazil. Unlike the first COVID-19 wave, in subsequent waves, preliminary evidence has pointed to an increase in the daily reported cases among younger people being hospitalized, overloading the healthcare system. In this comprehensive retrospective study, confirmed cases of hospitalization, ICU admission, IMV requirement and in-hospital death from Brazilian COVID-19 patients throughout 2020 until the beginning of 2021 were analyzed through a spatio-temporal study for patients aged 20-59 years. All Brazilian federative units had their data disaggregated in six periods of ten epidemiological weeks each. We found that there is a wide variation in the waves dynamic due to SARS-CoV-2 infection, both in the first and in subsequent outbreaks in different federative units over the analyzed periods. As a result, atypical waves can be seen in the Brazil data as a whole. The analysis showed that Brazil is experiencing a numerical explosion of hospitalizations and deaths for patients aged 20-59 years, especially in the state of Sao Paulo, with a similar proportion of hospitalizations for this age group but higher proportion of deaths compared to the first wave.

Conceptual proposal of the landscape as an environmental indicator for the spatial and temporal study of the territory

Objective: To propose the landscape as an environmental indicator that spatially and temporally, describes, analyzes, and evaluates territory, by changing some natural, social, economic, and cultural components. Approach: Different methodological concepts of the landscape and environmental indicators were reviewed, as well as their characteristics to describe and evaluate the environment. Results: It was found that the landscape is a comprehensive analysis method for the study of the environment, by selecting the parameters that describe and represent each landscape, through shapes, size, colors, textures, shadows, patterns, situations, associated features, and structures arranged under a spatial and temporal order which, when perceived by humans, present a given form of organization or disorganization in the environment. Implications: The environmental indicator allows to analyze and evaluate the changes in space and time, with updated qualitative and quantitative research. These changes play an important role in building the perception of environmental problems through the landscape. Conclusion: Landscape is an integral component that describes the biotic and abiotic elements of a given space. While, as an environmental indicator, it analyzes and evaluates changes in the composition and configuration of the environment, both spatially and temporally.

SPATIO-TEMPORAL STUDY OF THE DETERMINANTS OF RESIDENTIAL SATISFACTION IN NEW YORK CITY DURING COVID-19 USING CROWDSOURCED DATA

Residential satisfaction, an indicator of the quality of life, can be conceptualized with the objective and subjective evaluation of the physical and ecological characteristics of dwellings and neighbourhoods. The majority of the New Yorkers remained indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the importance of the residential environment and satisfaction like never before. Noise and safety are two major determinants of residential satisfaction that changed much during the pandemic lockdown. We used citizen-generated non-emergency (NYC311) and emergency (NYPD911) complaint data to investigate the spatial and temporal change dynamics of complaints related to noise and safety. In the noise domain, we focused on NYC311 complaints associated with the noise from neighbours, streets, and illegal fireworks. In the safety domain, we examined the change of both physical and economic safety. For physical safety, we used the NYPD 911 data related to burglary and vehicle larceny, where for economic safety, we used NYC311 complaints correspond to price gouging. We spatially aggregated the complaints at the census tract level (total = 2123) and performed Welsch’s t-test to identify the change dynamics of the satisfaction during the pandemic for different socioeconomic factors. We found the overall residential satisfaction decreased during the pandemic with extreme noise exposure and inadequate safety. The study also found the economic and racial disparity in residential satisfaction during the pandemic, as with statistical significance, the complaints regarding noise, physical and financial safety generated from the Black, Latinx, and impoverished communities were significantly higher than White, Asian and affluent communities.

A spatial-epidemiological dataset of subjects infected by SARS-CoV-2 during the first wave of the pandemic in Mashhad, second-most populous city in Iran

Objective In March 2020, Iran tackled the first national wave of COVID-19 that was particularly felt in Mashhad, Iran’s second-most populous city. Accordingly, we performed a spatio-temporal study in this city to investigate the epidemiological aspects of the disease in an urban area and now wish to release a comprehensive dataset resulting from this study. Data description These data include two data files and a help file. Data file 1: “COVID-19_Patients_Data” contains the patient sex and age + time from symptoms onset to hospital admission; hospitalization time; co-morbidities; manifest symptoms; exposure up to 14 days before admission; disease severity; diagnosis (with or without RT-PCR assay); and outcome (recovery vs. death). The data covers 4000 COVID-19 patients diagnosed between 14 Feb 2020 and 11 May 2020 in Khorasan-Razavi Province. Data file 2: “COVID-19_Spatiotemporal_Data” is a digital map of census tract divisions of Mashhad, the capital of the province, and their population by gender along with the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths including the calculated rates per 100,000 persons. This dataset can be a valuable resource for epidemiologists and health policymakers to identify potential risk factors, control and prevent pandemics, and optimally allocate health resources.