Analysis of long-term light-trap data for Helicoverpa spp. (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae) in Australia: the effect of climate and crop host plants

Regression analyses of a long series of light-trap catches at Narrabri, Australia, were used to describe the seasonal dynamics of Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner). The size of the second generation was significantly related to the size of the first generation, to winter rainfall, which had a positive effect, and to spring rainfall which had a negative effect. These variables accounted for up to 96% of the variation in size of the second generation from year to year. Rainfall and crop hosts were also important for the size of the third generation. The area and tonnage of many potential host crops were significantly correlated with winter rain. When winter rain was omitted from the analysis, the sizes of both the second and third generations could be expressed as a function of the size of the previous generation and of the areas planted to lucerne, sorghum and maize. Lucerne and maize always had positive coefficients and sorghum a negative one. We extended our analysis to catches of H. punctigera (Wallengren), which declines in abundance after the second generation. Winter rain had a positive effect on the sizes of the second and third generations, and rain in spring or early summer had a negative effect. Only the area grown to lucerne had a positive effect on abundance. Forecasts of pest levels from a few months to a few weeks in advance are discussed, along with the improved understanding of the seasonal dynamics of both species and the significance of crops in the management of insecticide resistance for H. armigera.

Effect of coinfection with STDs and of STD treatment on HIV shedding in genital-tract secretions - Systematic review and data synthesis

Objective: To determine whether coinfection with sexually transmitted diseases (STD) increases HIV shedding in genital-tract secretions, and whether STD treatment reduces this shedding. Design: Systematic review and data synthesis of cross-sectional and cohort studies meeting. predefined quality criteria. Main Outcome Measures: Proportion of patients with and without a STD who had detectable HIV in genital secretions, HIV toad in genital secretions, or change following STD treatment. Results: Of 48 identified studies, three cross-sectional and three cohort studies were included. HIV was detected significantly more frequently in participants infected with Neisseria gonorrhoeae (125 of 309 participants, 41%) than in those without N gonorrhoeae infection (311 of 988 participants, 32%; P = 0.004). HIV was not significantly more frequently detected in persons infected with Chlamydia trachomatis (28 of 67 participants, 42%) than in those without C trachomatis infection (375 of 1149 participants, 33%; P = 0.13). Median HIV load reported in only one study was greater in men with urethritis (12.4 x 10(4) versus 1.51 x 10(4) copies/ml; P = 0.04). In the only cohort study in which this could be fully assessed, treatment of women with any STD reduced the proportion of those with detectable HIV from 39% to 29% (P = 0.05), whereas this proportion remained stable among controls (15-17%), A second cohort study reported fully on HIV load; among men with urethritis, viral load fell from 12.4 to 4.12 x 10(4) copies/ml 2 weeks posttreatment, whereas viral load remained stable in those without urethritis. Conclusion: Few high-quality studies were found. HIV is detected moderately more frequently in genital secretions of men and women with a STD, and HIV load is substantially increased among men with urethritis, Successful STD treatment reduces both of these parameters, but not to control levels. More high-quality studies are needed to explore this important relationship further.

Analysis of proximal femur DXA scans in growing children: Comparisons of different protocols for cross-sectional 8-month and 7-year longitudinal data

Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is a widely used method for measuring bone mineral in the growing skeleton. Because scan analysis in children offers a number of challenges, we compared DXA results using six analysis methods at the total proximal femur (PF) and five methods at the femoral neck (FN), In total we assessed 50 scans (25 boys, 25 girls) from two separate studies for cross-sectional differences in bone area, bone mineral content (BMC), and areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and for percentage change over the short term (8 months) and long term (7 years). At the proximal femur for the short-term longitudinal analysis, there was an approximate 3.5% greater change in bone area and BMC when the global region of interest (ROI) was allowed to increase in size between years as compared with when the global ROI was held constant. Trend analysis showed a significant (p < 0.05) difference between scan analysis methods for bone area and BMC across 7 years. At the femoral neck, cross-sectional analysis using a narrower (from default) ROI, without change in location, resulted in a 12.9 and 12.6% smaller bone area and BMC, respectively (both p < 0.001), Changes in FN area and BMC over 8 months were significantly greater (2.3 %, p < 0.05) using a narrower FN rather than the default ROI, Similarly, the 7-year longitudinal data revealed that differences between scan analysis methods were greatest when the narrower FN ROI was maintained across all years (p < 0.001), For aBMD there were no significant differences in group means between analysis methods at either the PF or FN, Our findings show the need to standardize the analysis of proximal femur DXA scans in growing children.

Mortality variation across Australia: descriptive data for States and Territories, and statistical divisions

OBJECTIVE: To describe variation in all cause and selected cause-specific mortality rates across Australia. METHODS: Mortality and population data for 1997 were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. All cause and selected cause-specific mortality rates were calculated and directly standardised to the 1997 Australian population in 5-year age groups. Selected major causes of death included cancer, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, accidents and suicide. Rates are reported by statistical division, and State and Territory. RESULTS: All cause age-standardised mortality was 6.98 per 1000 in 1997 and this varied 2-fold from a low in the statistical division of Pilbara, Western Australia (5.78, 95% confidence interval 5.06-6.56), to a high in Northern Territory-excluding Darwin (11.30, 10.67-11.98). Similar mortality variation (all p<0.0001) exists for cancer (1.01-2.23 per 1000) and coronary artery disease (0.99-2.23 per 1000), the two biggest killers. Larger variation (all p<0.0001) exists for cerebrovascular disease (0.7-11.8 per 10,000), diabetes (0.7-6.9 per 10,000), accidents (1.7-7.2 per 10,000) and suicide (0.6-3.8 per 10,000). Less marked variation was observed when analysed by State and Territory. but Northern Territory consistently has the highest age-standardised mortality rates. CONCLUSIONS: Analysed by statistical division, substantial mortality gradients exist across Australia, suggesting an inequitable distribution of the determinants of health. Further research is required to better understand this heterogeneity.

Monitoring growth in rapidly urbanizing areas using remotely sensed data

Urbanization and the ability to manage for a sustainable future present numerous challenges for geographers and planners in metropolitan regions. Remotely sensed data are inherently suited to provide information on urban land cover characteristics, and their change over time, at various spatial and temporal scales. Data models for establishing the range of urban land cover types and their biophysical composition (vegetation, soil, and impervious surfaces) are integrated to provide a hierarchical approach to classifying land cover within urban environments. These data also provide an essential component for current simulation models of urban growth patterns, as both calibration and validation data. The first stages of the approach have been applied to examine urban growth between 1988 and 1995 for a rapidly developing area in southeast Queensland, Australia. Landsat Thematic Mapper image data provided accurate (83% adjusted overall accuracy) classification of broad land cover types and their change over time. The combination of commonly available remotely sensed data, image processing methods, and emerging urban growth models highlights an important application for current and next generation moderate spatial resolution image data in studies of urban environments.

Estimating HIV incidence rates from age prevalence data in epidemic situations

We present a method of estimating HIV incidence rates in epidemic situations from data on age-specific prevalence and changes in the overall prevalence over time. The method is applied to women attending antenatal clinics in Hlabisa, a rural district of KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa, where transmission of HIV is overwhelmingly through heterosexual contact. A model which gives age-specific prevalence rates in the presence of a progressing epidemic is fitted to prevalence data for 1998 using maximum likelihood methods and used to derive the age-specific incidence. Error estimates are obtained using a Monte Carlo procedure. Although the method is quite general some simplifying assumptions are made concerning the form of the risk function and sensitivity analyses are performed to explore the importance of these assumptions. The analysis shows that in 1998 the annual incidence of infection per susceptible woman increased from 5.4 per cent (3.3-8.5 per cent; here and elsewhere ranges give 95 per cent confidence limits) at age 15 years to 24.5 per cent (20.6-29.1 per cent) at age 22 years and declined to 1.3 per cent (0.5-2.9 per cent) at age 50 years; standardized to a uniform age distribution, the overall incidence per susceptible woman aged 15 to 59 was 11.4 per cent (10.0-13.1 per cent); per women in the population it was 8.4 per cent (7.3-9.5 per cent). Standardized to the age distribution of the female population the average incidence per woman was 9.6 per cent (8.4-11.0 per cent); standardized to the age distribution of women attending antenatal clinics, it was 11.3 per cent (9.8-13.3 per cent). The estimated incidence depends on the values used for the epidemic growth rate and the AIDS related mortality. To ensure that, for this population, errors in these two parameters change the age specific estimates of the annual incidence by less than the standard deviation of the estimates of the age specific incidence, the AIDS related mortality should be known to within +/-50 per cent and the epidemic growth rate to within +/-25 per cent, both of which conditions are met. In the absence of cohort studies to measure the incidence of HIV infection directly, useful estimates of the age-specific incidence can be obtained from cross-sectional, age-specific prevalence data and repeat cross-sectional data on the overall prevalence of HIV infection. Several assumptions were made because of the lack of data but sensitivity analyses show that they are unlikely to affect the overall estimates significantly. These estimates are important in assessing the magnitude of the public health problem, for designing vaccine trials and for evaluating the impact of interventions. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cytokine-related genes identified from the RIKEN full-length mouse cDNA data set

To identify novel cytokine-related genes, we searched the set of 60,770 annotated RIKEN mouse cDNA clones (FANTOM2 clones), using keywords such as cytokine itself or cytokine names (such as interferon, interleukin, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and transforming growth factor). This search produced 108 known cytokines and cytokine-related products such as cytokine receptors, cytokine-associated genes, or their products (enhancers, accessory proteins, cytokine-induced genes). We found 15 clusters of FANTOM2 clones that are candidates for novel cytokine-related genes. These encoded products with strong sequence similarity to guanylate-binding protein (GBP-5), interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 2 (IRAK-2), interleukin 20 receptor alpha isoform 3, a member of the interferon-inducible proteins of the Ifi 200 cluster, four members of the membrane-associated family 1-8 of interferon-inducible proteins, one p27-like protein, and a hypothetical protein containing a Toll/Interleukin receptor domain. All four clones representing novel candidates of gene products from the family contain a novel highly conserved cross-species domain. Clones similar to growth factor-related products included transforming growth factor beta-inducible early growth response protein 2 (TIEG-2), TGFbeta-induced factor 2, integrin beta-like 1, latent TGF-binding protein 4S, and FGF receptor 4B. We performed a detailed sequence analysis of the candidate novel genes to elucidate their likely functional properties.

Image calibration to like-values in mapping shallow water quality from multitemporal data

The applicability of image calibration to like-values in mapping water quality parameters from multitemporal images is explored, Six sets of water samples were collected at satellite overpasses over Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Australia. Analysis of these samples reveals that waters in this shallow bay are mostly TSS-dominated, even though they are occasionally dominated by chlorophyll as well. Three of the images were calibrated to a reference image based on invariant targets. Predictive models constructed from the reference image were applied to estimating total suspended sediment (TSS) and Secchi depth from another image at a discrepancy of around 35 percent. Application of the predictive model for TSS concentration to another image acquired at a time of different water types resulted in a discrepancy of 152 percent. Therefore, image calibration to like-values could be used to reliably map certain water quality parameters from multitemporal TM images so long as the water type under study remains unchanged. This method is limited in that the mapped results could be rather inaccurate if the water type under study has changed considerably. Thus, the approach needs to be refined in shallow water from multitemporal satellite imagery.

Low prenatal vitamin D alters morphology, cell density and gene expression in adult rat brain: Correlations with schizophrenia

Statement of the study: Based on data from ecological and analytic epidemiological studies, we have proposed that low prenatal vitamin D is a candidate risk-modifying factor for schizophrenia. Previously, we demonstrated that low prenatal vitamin D adversely affected brain development in neonatal rats (Eyles et al, 2003). Here we examine the impact of both prenatal and early life hypovitaminosis D on various outcomes in the adult rat brain. Methods: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were made vitamin D deficient via the use of a special diet (Dyets CA) and lighting conditions that excluded UVB radiation. Animals were kept under these conditions for 6 weeks then mated with males kept under normal conditions. Vitamin deplete dams were kept under these conditions during pregnancy. Offspring from two test groups were examined. Offspring were either reared with dams repleted with vitamin D at birth or remained under deplete conditions till weaning. Both test groups were weaned under normal vitamin D conditions and remained so till testing at adulthood. We compared the brains of adult offspring kept under both test conditions with animals from control environments. Summary of results: We found a significant persistent dose-related increase in lateral ventricle volume and alterations in anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortical cell densities (consistent with the known prodifferentiation properties of this steroid). In both test groups we observed a reduced expression of NGF as well as a down-regulation of transcripts coding for GABAA alpha 4 receptor and two neuronal structural elements; MAP2 and Neurofilament L. Conclusion: These findings provide further evidence that vitamin D is involved in brain development. An increase in prefrontal cortical cell density, a reduction neuronal structural elements and persistent ventriculomegaly are all common anatomical findings in the brains of patients with schizophrenia. The specific reduction in transcripts for neuronal structural proteins but not GFAP is also in accordance with the proposal that frontal cortical architecture in schizophrenia reflects a reduction in connectivity rather than a reduction in glial processes(Goldman-Rakic and Selemon, 1997). These findings confirm the biological plausibility of early life hypovitaminosis D as a risk factor for schizophrenia.

Low bone mass in juvenile onset sclerosis systemic: the possible role for 25-hydroxyvitamin D insufficiency

Juvenile onset systemic sclerosis (JoSSc) is a rare disease, and there are no studies focusing in bone mineral density and biochemical bone parameters. Ten consecutive patients with JoSSc and 10 controls gender, age, menarche age, and physical activity matched were selected. Clinical data were obtained at the medical visit and chart review. Laboratorial analysis included autoantibodies, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), intact parathyroid hormone, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and albumin sera levels. Bone mineral density was analyzed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and bone mineral apparent density (BMAD) was calculated. A lower BMAD in femoral neck (0.294 +/- A 0.060 vs. 0.395 +/- A 0.048 g/cm(3), P = 0.001) and total femur (0.134 +/- A 0.021 vs. 0.171 +/- A 0.022 g/cm(3), P = 0.002) was observed in JoSSc compared to controls. Likewise, a trend to lower BMAD in lumbar spine (0.117 +/- A 0.013 vs. 0.119 +/- A 0.012 g/cm(3), P = 0.06) was also found in these patients. Serum levels of 25OHD were significantly lower in JoSSc compared to controls (18.1 +/- A 6.4 vs. 25.1 +/- A 6.6 ng/mL, P = 0.04), and all patients had vitamin D insufficiency (< 20 ng/mL) compared to 40% of controls (P = 0.01). All other biochemical parameters were within normal range and alike in both groups. BMAD in femoral neck and total femur was correlated with 25OHD levels in JoSSc (r = 0.82, P = 0.004; r = 0.707, P = 0.02; respectively). We have identified a remarkable high prevalence of 25OHD insufficiency in JoSSc. Its correlation with hip BMAD suggests a causal effect and reinforces the need to incorporate this hormone evaluation in this disease management.

Primary antiphospholipid syndrome in premenopausal women: low vitamin D, high fat mass and maintained bone mineral mass

The aim of this study was to analyze vitamin D levels and their association with bone mineral density and body composition in primary antiphospholipid syndrome. For this cross-sectional study 23 premenopausal women with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (Sapporo criteria) and 23 age- and race-matched healthy controls were enrolled. Demographic, anthropometric, clinical and laboratorial data were collected using clinical interview and chart review. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, parathormone, calcium and 24-hour urinary calcium were evaluated in all subjects. Bone mineral density and body composition were studied by dual X-ray absorptiometry. The mean age of patients and controls was 33 years. Weight (75.61 [20.73] vs. 63.14 [7.34] kg, p=0.009), body mass index (29.57 [7.17] vs. 25.35 [3.37] kg, p=0.014) and caloric ingestion (2493 [1005.6] vs. 1990 [384.1] kcal/day, p=0.03) were higher in PAPS than controls. All PAPS were under oral anticoagulant with INR within therapeutic range. Interestingly, biochemical bone parameters revealed lower levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [21.64 (11.26) vs. 28.59 (10.67) mg/dl, p=0.039], serum calcium [9.04 (0.46) vs. 9.3 (0.46) mg/dl, p=0.013] and 24-hour urinary calcium [106.55 (83.71) vs. 172.92 (119.05) mg/d, p=0.027] in patients than in controls. Supporting these findings, parathormone levels were higher in primary antiphospholipid syndrome than in controls [64.82 (37.83) vs. 44.53 (19.62) pg/ml, p=0.028]. The analysis of osteoporosis risk factors revealed that the two groups were comparable (p>0.05). Lumbar spine, femoral neck, total femur and whole body bone mineral density were similar in both groups (p>0.05). Higher fat mass [28.51 (12.93) vs. 20.01 (4.68) kg, p=0.005] and higher percentage of fat [36.08 (7.37) vs. 31.23 (4.64)%, p=0.010] were observed in PAPS in comparison with controls; although no difference was seen regarding lean mass. In summary, low vitamin D in primary antiphospholipid syndrome could be secondary to higher weight and fat mass herein observed most likely due to adipocyte sequestration. This weight gain may also justify the maintenance of bone mineral density even with altered biochemical bone parameters. Lupus (2010) 19, 1302-1306.

Expression of vitamin D receptor mRNA in the hippocampal formation of rats submitted to a model of temporal lobe epilepsy induced by pilocarpine

Vitamin D (VD), is a steroid hormone with multiple functions in the central nervous system (CNS), producing numerous physiological effects mediated by its receptor (VDR). Clinical and experimental studies have shown a link between VD dysfunction and epilepsy. Along these lines, the purpose of our work was to analyze the relative expression of VDR mRNA in the hippocampal formation of rats during the three periods of pilocarpine-induced epilepsy. Male Wistar rats were divided into five groups: (1) control group; rats that received saline 0.9%, i.p. and were killed 7 days after its administration (CTRL, n = 8), (2) SE group; rats that received pilocarpine and were killed 4 h after SE (SE, n = 8), (3) Silent group-7 days; rats that received pilocarpine and were killed 7 days after SE (SIL 7d, n = 8), (4) Silent group-14 days; rats that received pilocarpine and were killed 14 days after SE (SIL 14d, n = 8), (5) Chronic group; rats that received pilocarpine and were killed 60 days after the first spontaneous seizure, (chronic, n = 8). The relative expression of VDR mRNA was determined by real-time PCR. Our results showed an increase of the relative expression of VDR mRNA in the SIL 7 days, SIL 14 days and Chronic groups, respectively (0.060 +/- 0.024; 0.052 +/- 0.035; 0.085 +/- 0.055) when compared with the CTRL and SE groups (0.019 +/- 0.017; 0.019 +/- 0.025). These data suggest the VDR as a possible candidate participating in the epileptogenesis process of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dynamics of Hepatitis D (delta) virus genotype 3 in the Amazon region of South America

Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is widely distributed and associated with fulminant hepatitis epidemics in areas with high prevalence of HBV. Several studies performed in the 1980s showed data on HDV infection in South America, but there are no studies on the viral dynamics of this virus. The aim of this study was to conduct an evolutionary analysis of hepatitis delta genotype 3 (HDV/3) prevalent in South America: estimate its nucleotide substitution rate, determine the time of most recent ancestor (TMRCA) and characterize the epidemic history and evolutionary dynamics. Furthermore, we characterized the presence of HBV/HDV infection in seven samples collected from patients who died due to fulminant hepatitis from Amazon region in Colombia and included them in the evolutionary analysis. This is the first study reporting HBV and HDV sequences from the Amazon region of Colombia. Of the seven Colombian patients, five were positive for HBV-DNA and HDV-RNA. Of them, two samples were successfully sequenced for HBV (subgenotypes F3 and Fib) and the five samples HDV positive were classified as HDV/3. By using all HDV/3 available reference sequences with sampling dates (n = 36), we estimated the HDV/3 substitution rate in 1.07 x 10(-3) substitutions per site per year (s/s/y), which resulted in a time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of 85 years. Also, it was determined that HDV/3 spread exponentially from early 1950s to the 1970s in South America. This work discusses for the first time the viral dynamics for the HDV/3 circulating in South America. We suggest that the measures implemented to control HBV transmission resulted in the control of HDV/3 spreading in South America, especially after the important raise in this infection associated with a huge mortality during the 1950s up to the 1970s. The differences found among HDV/3 and the other HDV genotypes concerning its diversity raises the hypothesis of a different origin and/or a different transmission route. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The GHEP-EMPOP collaboration on mtDNA population data-A new resource for forensic casework

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) population data for forensic purposes are still scarce for some populations, which may limit the evaluation of forensic evidence especially when the rarity of a haplotype needs to be determined in a database search. In order to improve the collection of mtDNA lineages from the Iberian and South American subcontinents, we here report the results of a collaborative study involving nine laboratories from the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics (GHEP-ISFG) and EMPOP. The individual laboratories contributed population data that were generated throughout the past 10 years, but in the majority of cases have not been made available to the scientific community. A total of 1019 haplotypes from Iberia (Basque Country, 2 general Spanish populations, 2 North and 1 Central Portugal populations), and Latin America (3 populations from Sao Paulo) were collected, reviewed and harmonized according to defined EMPOP criteria. The majority of data ambiguities that were found during the reviewing process (41 in total) were transcription errors confirming that the documentation process is still the most error-prone stage in reporting mtDNA population data, especially when performed manually. This GHEP-EMPOP collaboration has significantly improved the quality of the individual mtDNA datasets and adds mtDNA population data as valuable resource to the EMPOP database (www.empop.org). (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.