White-tailed Deer Browsing and Rubbing Preferences for Trees and Shrubs That Produce Nontimber Forest Products

Nontimber forest products (food, herbal medicinals, and woody floral and handicraft products) produced in forest, agroforestry, and horticultural systems can be important sources of income to landowners. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) can reduce the quality, quantity, and profitability of forest products by browsing twigs and rubbing stems, resulting in direct and indirect losses to production enterprises. We evaluated deer damage (frequency and intensity of browsing and rubbing) sustained by 26 species of trees and shrubs, the relationships among morphological features of trees and shrubs to damage levels, and the economic impacts of deer damage on the production of nontimber forest products. Levels of browsing were high (frequency \u3e93% and intensity \u3e50%) in most species of trees and shrubs, with the highest intensity (\u3e60%) occurring in chinese chestnut (Castanea mollisima) and dogwood (Cornus spp.), and the lowest (Ginkgo biloba), curly willow (Salix matsudana), ‘Scarlet Curls’ curly willow, smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), and pussy willow (Salix caprea). Species of trees or shrubs with one or a few stout stems unprotected by dense branching [e.g., american elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), smooth sumac, and curly willow] sustained the most damage by rubbing. Trees and shrubs with many small diameter stems or with dense tangled branching [e.g. redozier dogwood (Cornus sericea), forsythia (Forsythia suspensa), ‘Flame’ willow (Salix alba), and ‘Streamco’ basket willow (Salix purpurea)] were damaged the least by rubbing. Annual economic costs of deer damage to producers of nontimber forest products can range from $26/acre for pussy willow to$1595/acre for curly willow

The first wave of pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 in Germany: From initiation to acceleration

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The first imported case of pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 in Germany was confirmed in April 2009. However, the first wave with measurable burden of disease started only in October 2009. The basic epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the pandemic were analysed in order to understand the course of the pandemic in Germany.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The analysis was based on data from the case-based, mandatory German surveillance system for infectious diseases. Cases notified between 27 April and 11 November 2009 and fulfilling the case definition were included in the study.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two time periods with distinct epidemiologic characteristics could be determined: 23,789 cases (44.1%) occurred during the initiation period (IP, week 18 to 41), and 30,179 (55.9%) during the acceleration period (AP, week 42 to 45). During IP, coinciding with school summer holidays, 61.1% of cases were travel-related and one death occurred. Strict containment efforts were performed until week 32. During AP the majority of cases (94.3%) was autochthonous, 12 deaths were reported. The main affected age group shifted from 15 to 19 years in IP to 10 to 14 years in AP (median age 19 versus 15 years; p < 0.001). The proportion of cases with underlying medical conditions increased from 4.7% to 6.9% (p < 0.001). Irrespective of the period, these cases were more likely to be hospitalised (OR = 3.6 [95% CI: 3.1; 4.3]) and to develop pneumonia (OR = 8.1 [95% CI: 6.1; 10.7]). Furthermore, young children (0 to 2 years) (OR = 2.8 [95% CI: 1.5; 5.2]) and persons with influenza-like illness (ILI, OR = 1.4 [95% CI: 1.0; 2.1]) had a higher risk to develop pneumonia compared to other age groups and individuals without ILI.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The epidemiological differences we could show between summer and autumn 2009 might have been influenced by the school summer holidays and containment efforts. The spread of disease did not result in change of risk groups or severity. Our results show that analyses of case-based information can advise future public health measures.</p

Screensaver: an open source lab information management system (LIMS) for high throughput screening facilities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Shared-usage high throughput screening (HTS) facilities are becoming more common in academe as large-scale small molecule and genome-scale RNAi screening strategies are adopted for basic research purposes. These shared facilities require a unique informatics infrastructure that must not only provide access to and analysis of screening data, but must also manage the administrative and technical challenges associated with conducting numerous, interleaved screening efforts run by multiple independent research groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed Screensaver, a free, open source, web-based lab information management system (LIMS), to address the informatics needs of our small molecule and RNAi screening facility. Screensaver supports the storage and comparison of screening data sets, as well as the management of information about screens, screeners, libraries, and laboratory work requests. To our knowledge, Screensaver is one of the first applications to support the storage and analysis of data from both genome-scale RNAi screening projects and small molecule screening projects.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The informatics and administrative needs of an HTS facility may be best managed by a single, integrated, web-accessible application such as Screensaver. Screensaver has proven useful in meeting the requirements of the ICCB-Longwood/NSRB Screening Facility at Harvard Medical School, and has provided similar benefits to other HTS facilities.</p

The Midwest Quarterly; Vol. 5 No. 3

in this issue. . . INITIALLY we had ambitious, even extravagant, plans for this spring number, plans involving a variety of essays from key members of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as well as a carefully selected covey of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Quite obviously, the Congress has been busy of late, although its business is not always as fruitful as many would hope. And that New Hampshire primary on March 10 rather alters calculations regarding the GOP standard-bearer for 1964. In mid-February one of the (then) leading (?) candidates in that primary wrote in response to an editorial request for a statement suitable for publication in these pages: . . . I think it is too early to forecast the campaign issues. I think we will have to wait until after this session of Congress has been concluded and the national conventions have selected their tickets. In retrospect, our instantaneous reaction to this statement as irresponsible and irrelevant seems to have been premature. TREATING topics of current import, we long since concluded, is at best a tricky business, but one subject seems never to receive anything like the attention it deserves in the generality of United States publications, public and private. We were, therefore, immediately enthusiastic when JOHN MANNING of Michigan State University sent down a lengthy but extremely illuminating discussion of current U. S.-Canadian relations. Many of our readers will doubtless recall his excellent analysis of the Columbia River power project which we published two years ago. Associate professor in the department of humanities at East Lansing, Dr. Manning is a Canadian by birth and education whose primary field of interest is, quite understandably, Canadian-American relations. THE WORLD is so full of international problems arising, for the most part, from that complicated phenomenon we call nationalism that for very many years statesmen, poets, and scholars have longed for some international agency, indeed government, which might impose its power and authority over competing nationalisms. Seldom, however, have advocates of world governments bothered to place their desires in historical perspective. This is curious since, prior to the emergence of modem nationalism at the end of the Crusades (and its luxuriant growth in the nineteenth century), the Papacy did serve effectively as an international authority in the temporal as well as the spiritual sphere. Medievalists and political theorists will at once recall the doctorine of the two swords. EDMOND P. ODESCALCHI was born in Hungary and has been a refugee from Communism since 1945. Convinced that the apex of nationalism is past, he became interested in the history of supranational organizations while studying political science in post-war Germany. He holds the master of arts degree from St. Andrews University in Great Britain and is an editor with International Business Machines Corporation in Poughkeepsie, New York. He is the author of numerous articles, mostly of a scientific nature, published in Science Education, School Science and Mathematics, The American Biology Teacher, and other journals in the United States and abroad. KANSAS is frequently referred to as Mid-America, and Topeka enjoys an international reputation as the center for psychiatric study and treatment. Still is it a curious coincidence that in Topeka four years ago two men, one from Germany and the other from England, were brought together by a mutual interest in the Hindu classic, the Bhagavad-Gita. It can even be said that what brought the two together was an article in the first issue of THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY. One of the two was HANS BEERMAN, author of that article, Hermann Hesse and the Bhagavid-Gita. The other was Aldous Huxley, whose death last November 22 was completely eclipsed by the brutal assassination that afternoon of President John F. Kennedy. While it is probably too early to evaluate Huxley\u27s contribution to literature and philosophy, he has already been recognized as one of the world\u27s leading minds and most prolific writers, a man able to give us some insight into ourselves in this confused world. Given the opportunity, our peripatetic Professor Beerman interviewed Aldous Huxley and developed the article here published from shorthand notes. Until contrary evidence is adduced, we present it as the last interview ever granted by that strange, shy, sensitive, wise man. Professor Beerman continues his world travels as one of twenty Fulbright Fellows to participate in a three-month Institute on Indian Civilization this summer at the University of Mysore, India. HARDY PERENNIAL of American literature is the quest for identity, whether the writer be Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, or J. D. Salinger. Last January\u27s issue of Harper\u27s included an article by Rabbi Adler attempting to identify the Jews, and letters appearing in Harper\u27s for March indicate both approval and disapproval of his discussion. Somewhat at variance with the rabbinical point of view is that of ROBERT N. HERTZ whose autobiographical discussion may shed a new kind of light on this much discussed problem. Mr. Hertz did graduate work at Cornell University and teaches American literature and American Civilization at Rutgers. He has published articles, commentaries, and reviews in The New Republic, The American Scholar, The Colorado Quarterly, and The Minnesota Review, among others. The second of his papers on foreign students in the United States appeared in last month\u27s Phylon, The Atlanta Journal of Race and Culture. ANOTHER HARDY PERENNIAL of American literature is Huckleberry Finn, and several generations of American scholars have spent years of time, oceans of ink, and reams of paper analyzing the boy and his creator, Mark Twain of Hannibal, Missouri. Comes now CHARLES R. METZGER, associate professor of English at the University of Southern California, to argue persuasively that Huck is a pícaro. Professor Metzger has written on Emerson Thoreau Whitman, and Stephen Crane; some of our readers will recall his analysis, Realistic Devices in Stephen Crane\u27s \u27The Open Boat in our autumn issue of 1962. NEW POETS, at least new to this journal, provide fifty percent of the twelve poems appearing in these pages. The other five names will be familiar to many of our readers. Somewhat out of our usual run is LEONARD S. BERNSTEIN of Westbury, New York, who manufactures children\u27s wear and has been writing with some consistency for almost a year. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he specializes in political and social satire. His work has appeared in The American Bard, The Green World, Phylon, and The Wall Street Journal. . . . JACK BOBBITT, assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri at Rolla, is a Buckeye graduated from the College of Wooster in 1959 with a master of arts from the University of Missouri in 1951. Currently he is completing doctoral requirements in English there. His publications include three anthologies of short stories from The Press of the Crippled Turtle (Columbia, Missouri), as well as articles in Cairn and The London Times Literary Supplement. In 1955, Houghton Mifflin published Exercises in English: A College Workbook on which he collaborated. Besides working as editor for General Electric\u27s Technical Publications Division, he taught at the University of Missouri and at Eastern Montana College before coming to Rolla in 1962. . . . GORDON GILSDORF has a degree in English from Marquette University and for ten years has been head of the English department at Sacred Heart Seminary, Oneida, Wisconsin. His previous publications include American Weave, Arizona Quarterly, The Carolina Quarterly, Fiddlehead, Four Quarters, and The Western Humanities Review. . . . Only woman among our six new contributors is PATRICIA LAMB of Houston, Texas, where she received the bachelor of arts at the University of St. Thomas. Her poetry has appeared in The Commonweal and The Carolina Quarterly and has been accepted for publication by The Transatlantic Review. Two manuscript books of her verse are now seeking suitable publishers. . . . ALBERT W. VOGEL, assistant professor of English education at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, has published a verse play, short stories, and poetry; articles on teaching English and the indoctrination of English teachers in the USSR; professional articles on English teaching; and critical articles on Salinger, Hesse, and Poe. Anticipated publications include articles on Snow and Durrell as well as additional poetry and fiction. He is also -a photographer whose work has appeared in art quarterlies. . . . JAMES WORLEY, a native of West Virginia, works as a public school teacher in Columbus, Indiana. He has been writing for just over two years, and his poems have been accepted by Prairie Schooner, New Mexico Quarterly, American Weave, Midwest, The Lyric, Quartet, The Western Humanities Review, Hawk and Whippoorwill, and Phylon. Like Miss Lamb, he has a manuscript of poems ready for publication. THE OTHER FIVE whose work we publish here should be fairly well known by now. JOHN CLARKE teaches English at Green Mountain College in Vermont and first appeared in our last (January) issue. . . . Poems by A. D. FREEMAN of Wellesley, Massachusetts, have appeared in THE MIDWEST QUARTERLY in two earlier issues. . . . EMILIE GLEN of New York City is a frequent and favorite contributor to our pages. Chat Noir Press of Chicago has recently published her Laughing Lute and Other Poems, to be reviewed in our next issue. . . . Once again we present two poems by MYRON LEVOY of Rockaway, New Jersey, whose work was included in our issues for July and October last year. . . . FRED MOECKEL of Naugatuck, Connecticut, contributed Lantern Flowers,\u27\u27 to our autumn issue last October

Design and validation of a supragenome array for determination of the genomic content of Haemophilus influenzae isolates

Abstract Background Haemophilus influenzae colonizes the human nasopharynx as a commensal, and is etiologically associated with numerous opportunistic infections of the airway; it is also less commonly associated with invasive disease. Clinical isolates of H. influenzae display extensive genomic diversity and plasticity. The development of strategies to successfully prevent, diagnose and treat H. influenzae infections depends on tools to ascertain the gene content of individual isolates. Results We describe and validate a Haemophilus influenzae supragenome hybridization (SGH) array that can be used to characterize the full genic complement of any strain within the species, as well as strains from several highly related species. The array contains 31,307 probes that collectively cover essentially all alleles of the 2890 gene clusters identified from the whole genome sequencing of 24 clinical H. influenzae strains. The finite supragenome model predicts that these data include greater than 85% of all non-rare genes (where rare genes are defined as those present in less than 10% of sequenced strains). The veracity of the array was tested by comparing the whole genome sequences of eight strains with their hybridization data obtained using the supragenome array. The array predictions were correct and reproducible for ~ 98% of the gene content of all of the sequenced strains. This technology was then applied to an investigation of the gene content of 193 geographically and clinically diverse H. influenzae clinical strains. These strains came from multiple locations from five different continents and Papua New Guinea and include isolates from: the middle ears of persons with otitis media and otorrhea; lung aspirates and sputum samples from pneumonia and COPD patients, blood specimens from patients with sepsis; cerebrospinal fluid from patients with meningitis, as well as from pharyngeal specimens from healthy persons. Conclusions These analyses provided the most comprehensive and detailed genomic/phylogenetic look at this species to date, and identified a subset of highly divergent strains that form a separate lineage within the species. This array provides a cost-effective and high-throughput tool to determine the gene content of any H. influenzae isolate or lineage. Furthermore, the method for probe selection can be applied to any species, given a group of available whole genome sequences.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112375/1/12864_2012_Article_5193.pd

Communicable Diseases Prioritized for Surveillance and Epidemiological Research: Results of a Standardized Prioritization Procedure in Germany, 2011

To establish strategic priorities for the German national public health institute (RKI) and guide the institute's mid-term strategic decisions, we prioritized infectious pathogens in accordance with their importance for national surveillance and epidemiological research.We used the Delphi process with internal (RKI) and external experts and a metric-consensus approach to score pathogens according to ten three-tiered criteria. Additional experts were invited to weight each criterion, leading to the calculation of a median weight by which each score was multiplied. We ranked the pathogens according to the total weighted score and divided them into four priority groups.., Respiratory syncytial virus or Hantavirus) indicate a possible under-recognised importance within the current German public health framework. A process to strengthen respective surveillance systems and research has been started. The prioritization methodology has worked well; its modular structure makes it potentially useful for other settings

Diagnostic Approach for the Differentiation of the Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1)v Virus from Recent Human Influenza Viruses by Real-Time PCR

BACKGROUND: The current spread of pandemic influenza A(H1N1)v virus necessitates an intensified surveillance of influenza virus infections worldwide. So far, in many laboratories routine diagnostics were limited to generic influenza virus detection only. To provide interested laboratories with real-time PCR assays for type and subtype identification, we present a bundle of PCR assays with which any human influenza A and B virus can be easily identified, including assays for the detection of the pandemic A(H1N1)v virus. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The assays show optimal performance characteristics in their validation on plasmids containing the respective assay target sequences. All assays have furthermore been applied to several thousand clinical samples since 2007 (assays for seasonal influenza) and April 2009 (pandemic influenza assays), respectively, and showed excellent results also on clinical material. CONCLUSIONS: We consider the presented assays to be well suited for the detection and subtyping of circulating influenza viruses

A Stakeholder-Informed Approach to the Identification of Criteria for the Prioritization of Zoonoses in Canada

Background: Zoonotic diseases account for over 60 % of all communicable diseases causing illness in humans and 75 % of recently emerging infectious diseases. As limited resources are available for the control and prevention of zoonotic diseases, it is necessary to prioritize diseases in order to direct resources into those with the greatest needs. The selection of criteria for prioritization has traditionally been on the basis of expert opinion; however, details of the methods used to identify criteria from expert opinion often are not published and a full range of criteria may not be captured by expert opinion. Methodology/Principal Findings: This study used six focus groups to identify criteria for the prioritization of zoonotic diseases in Canada. Focus groups included people from the public, animal health professionals and human health professionals. A total of 59 criteria were identified for prioritizing zoonotic diseases. Human-related criteria accounted for the highest proportion of criteria identified (55%), followed by animal-related criteria (26%) then pathogen/disease-related criteria (19%). Similarities and differences were observed in the identification and scoring of criteria for disease prioritization between groups; the public groups were strongly influenced by the individual-level of disease burden, the responsibility of the scientific community in disease prioritization and the experiences of recent events while the professional groups were influenced by the societal- and population-level of disease burden and political and public pressure

Heterogeneous length of stay of hosts’ movements and spatial epidemic spread

Infectious diseases outbreaks are often characterized by a spatial component induced by hosts’ distribution, mobility, and interactions. Spatial models that incorporate hosts’ movements are being used to describe these processes, to investigate the conditions for propagation, and to predict the spatial spread. Several assumptions are being considered to model hosts’ movements, ranging from permanent movements to daily commuting, where the time spent at destination is either infinite or assumes a homogeneous fixed value, respectively. Prompted by empirical evidence, here we introduce a general metapopulation approach to model the disease dynamics in a spatially structured population where the mobility process is characterized by a heterogeneous length of stay. We show that large fluctuations of the length of stay, as observed in reality, can have a significant impact on the threshold conditions for the global epidemic invasion, thus altering model predictions based on simple assumptions, and displaying important public health implications