Comparing properties of natural biogenic with biomass burning particles in Amazonia.

The Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in\ud Amazonia (LBA) is a long-term (20 years) research effort\ud aimed at the understanding of the functioning of the\ud Amazonian ecosystem. The strong biosphere-atmosphere\ud interaction is a key component of the ecosystem functioning.\ud Two aerosol components are the most visible: The natural\ud biogenic emissions of particles and VOCs, and the biomass\ud burning emissions.\ud Two aerosol and trace gases monitoring stations were\ud operated for 4 years in Manaus and Porto Velho, two very\ud distinct sites, with different land use change. Manaus is a very\ud clean and pristine site and Porto Velho is representative of\ud heavy land use change in Amazonia. Aerosol composition,\ud optical properties, size distribution, vertical profiling and\ud optical depth were measured from 2008 to 2012. Aerosol\ud radiative forcing was calculated over large areas. It was\ud observed that the natural biogenic aerosol has significant\ud absorption properties. Organic aerosol dominates the aerosol\ud mass with 80 to 95%. Light scattering and light absorption\ud shows an increase by factor of 10 from Manaus to Porto\ud Velho. Very few new particle formation events were\ud observed. Strong links between aerosols and VOC emissions\ud were observed. Aerosol radiative forcing in Rondonia shows\ud a high -15 watts/m² during the dry season of 2010, showing\ud the large impacts of aerosol loading in the Amazonian\ud ecosystem. The increase in diffuse radiation changes the\ud forest carbon uptake by 20 to 35%, a large increase in this\ud important ecosystem

An integrated framework for modelling respiratory disease transmission and designing surveillance networks using a sentinel index

Defining epidemiologically relevant placements for sentinel units is critical for establishing effective health surveillance systems. We propose a novel methodology to identify optimal sentinel unit locations using network approaches and metapopulation modelling. Disease transmission dynamics were modelled using syndromic data on respiratory diseases, integrated with road mobility data. A generalizable sentinel index is introduced as a metric that evaluates the suitability of a site to host a sentinel unit, based on topological metrics and metapopulation dynamics. A case study using syndromic data from primary health care attendances in Bahia, Brazil, validated the relevance of existing sentinel units while identifying opportunities for local re-designs to improve disease surveillance coverage

Analysis of events with b-jets and a pair of leptons of the same charge in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An analysis is presented of events containing jets including at least one b-tagged jet, sizeable missing transverse momentum, and at least two leptons including a pair of the same electric charge, with the scalar sum of the jet and lepton transverse momenta being large. A data sample with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s=8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used. Standard Model processes rarely produce these final states, but there are several models of physics beyond the Standard Model that predict an enhanced rate of production of such events; the ones considered here are production of vector-like quarks, enhanced four-top-quark production, pair production of chiral b′-quarks, and production of two positively charged top quarks. Eleven signal regions are defined; subsets of these regions are combined when searching for each class of models. In the three signal regions primarily sensitive to positively charged top quark pair production, the data yield is consistent with the background expectation. There are more data events than expected from background in the set of eight signal regions defined for searching for vector-like quarks and chiral b′-quarks, but the significance of the discrepancy is less than two standard deviations. The discrepancy reaches 2.5 standard deviations in the set of five signal regions defined for searching for four-top-quark production. The results are used to set 95% CL limits on various models

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Enhanced Leishmania braziliensis Infection Following Pre-Exposure to Sandfly Saliva

Parasites of the genus Leishmania cause a variety of diseases known as leishmaniasis, that are transmitted by bites of female sand flies that, during blood-feeding, inject humans with parasites and saliva. It was shown that, in mice, immunity to sand-fly saliva is able to protect against the development of leishmaniasis. We have investigated, in the present study, whether this finding extends the sand fly species Lutzomyia intermedia, which is responsible for transmission of Leishmania braziliensis, a parasite species able to cause destructive skin lesions that can be fatal if left untreated. We observed that mice injected with sand fly saliva develop a specific immune response against salivary proteins. Most importantly, however, this immune response was unable to protect mice against a challenge infection with L. braziliensis, indicating that exposure to this sand fly saliva is harmful to the host. Indeed, subjects with cutaneous leishmaniasis have a higher immune response against L. intermedia saliva. These findings indicate that the anti-saliva immune response to sand fly saliva plays an important role in the outcome of leishmaniasis caused by L. braziliensis, in both mice and humans, and emphasize possible hurdles in the development of vaccines based on sand fly saliva