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The Lancet. Planetary Health Jul 2020Agrochemical pollution of surface waters is a growing global environmental challenge, especially in areas where agriculture is rapidly expanding and intensifying.... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Agrochemical pollution of surface waters is a growing global environmental challenge, especially in areas where agriculture is rapidly expanding and intensifying. Agrochemicals might affect schistosomiasis transmission through direct and indirect effects on Schistosoma parasites, their intermediate snail hosts, snail predators, and snail algal resources. We aimed to review and summarise the effects of these agrochemicals on schistosomiasis transmission dynamics.
METHODS
We did a systematic review of agrochemical effects on the lifecycle of Schistosoma spp and fitted dose-response models to data regarding the association between components of the lifecycle and agrochemical concentrations. We incorporated these dose-response functions and environmentally relevant concentrations of agrochemicals into a mathematical model to estimate agrochemical effects on schistosomiasis transmission. Dose-response functions were used to estimate individual agrochemical effects on estimates of the agrochemically influenced basic reproduction number, R, for Schistosoma haematobium. We incorporated time series of environmentally relevant agrochemical concentrations into the model and simulated mass drug administration control efforts in the presence of agrochemicals.
FINDINGS
We derived 120 dose-response functions describing the effects of agrochemicals on schistosome lifecycle components. The median estimate of the basic reproduction number under agrochemical-free conditions, was 1·65 (IQR 1·47-1·79). Agrochemical effects on estimates of R for S haematobium ranged from a median three-times increase (R 5·05, IQR 4·06-5·97) to transmission elimination (R 0). Simulations of transmission dynamics subject to interacting annual mass drug administration and agrochemical pollution yielded a median estimate of 64·82 disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost per 100 000 people per year (IQR 62·52-67·68) attributable to atrazine use. In areas where aquatic arthropod predators of intermediate host snails suppress transmission, the insecticides chlorpyrifos (6·82 DALYs lost per 100 000 people per year, IQR 4·13-8·69) and profenofos (103·06 DALYs lost per 100 000 people per year, IQR 89·63-104·90) might also increase the disability burden through their toxic effects on arthropods.
INTERPRETATION
Expected environmental concentrations of agrochemicals alter schistosomiasis transmission through direct and indirect effects on intermediate host and parasite densities. As industrial agricultural practices expand in areas where schistosomiasis is endemic, strategies to prevent increases in transmission due to agrochemical pollution should be developed and pursued.
FUNDING
National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health.
Topics: Agrochemicals; Animals; Environmental Pollutants; Environmental Pollution; Food Chain; Host-Parasite Interactions; Humans; Schistosoma; Schistosomiasis
PubMed: 32681899
DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30105-4 -
Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy =... Sep 2020Precision medicine is a new therapeutic concept and method emerging in recent years. The rapid development of precision medicine is driven by the development of omics...
Precision medicine is a new therapeutic concept and method emerging in recent years. The rapid development of precision medicine is driven by the development of omics related technology, biological information and big data science. Precision medicine is provided to implement precise and personalized treatment for diseases and specific patients. Precision medicine is commonly used in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases. This review introduces the application of precision medicine in eight systematic diseases of the human body, and systematically presenting the current situation of precision medicine. At the same time, the shortcomings and limitations of precision medicine are pointed out. Finally, we prospect the development of precision medicine.
Topics: Big Data; Computational Biology; Data Mining; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; Diffusion of Innovation; Genomics; Humans; Metabolomics; Precision Medicine; Systems Integration; Therapy, Computer-Assisted
PubMed: 32593132
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110445 -
Global Change Biology May 2020In many regions across the globe, extreme weather events such as storms have increased in frequency, intensity, and duration due to climate change. Ecological theory...
In many regions across the globe, extreme weather events such as storms have increased in frequency, intensity, and duration due to climate change. Ecological theory predicts that such extreme events should have large impacts on ecosystem structure and function. High winds and precipitation associated with storms can affect lakes via short-term runoff events from watersheds and physical mixing of the water column. In addition, lakes connected to rivers and streams will also experience flushing due to high flow rates. Although we have a well-developed understanding of how wind and precipitation events can alter lake physical processes and some aspects of biogeochemical cycling, our mechanistic understanding of the emergent responses of phytoplankton communities is poor. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis that identifies how storms interact with lake and watershed attributes and their antecedent conditions to generate changes in lake physical and chemical environments. Such changes can restructure phytoplankton communities and their dynamics, as well as result in altered ecological function (e.g., carbon, nutrient and energy cycling) in the short- and long-term. We summarize the current understanding of storm-induced phytoplankton dynamics, identify knowledge gaps with a systematic review of the literature, and suggest future research directions across a gradient of lake types and environmental conditions.
Topics: Climate Change; Ecosystem; Lakes; Phytoplankton; Rivers
PubMed: 32133744
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15033 -
Globalization and Health Feb 2020Due to unrestricted entry of wastewater into the environment and the transportation of microbial contaminants to humans and organisms, environmental protection requires...
BACKGROUND
Due to unrestricted entry of wastewater into the environment and the transportation of microbial contaminants to humans and organisms, environmental protection requires the use of appropriate purification systems with high removal efficiency for microbial agents are needed. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of current wastewater treatment systems in removing microbes and their contaminants.
METHODS
A systematic review was conducted for all articles published in 5 Iranian environmental health journals in 11 years. The data were collected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and by searching the relevant keywords in the articles published during the years (2008-2018), with emphasis on the efficacy of wastewater treatment systems in removing microbial agents. Qualitative data were collected using a preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyzes (PRISMA) standard checklist. After confirming the quality of the articles, information such as the name of the first author and the year of publication of the research, the type of study, the number of samples, the type of purification, the type of microbial agents and the rate of removal of microbial agents were entered into the checklist. Also the removal rates of the microbial agents mentioned in the studies were compared with united states environmental protection agency (US-EPA) standards.
RESULTS
In this study, 1468 articles retrieved from 118 issues of 5 environmental health journals were reviewed. After reviewing the quality of the articles in accordance with the research objectives, 14 articles were included in the study that were published between 2010 and 2018. In most studies, two main indicators Total coliforms and Fecal coliforms in wastewater were investigated. Removing fungi and viral contamination from wastewater was not found in any of the 14 studies. Different systems (activated sludge, stabilization ponds, wetlands, and low and medium pressure UV disinfection systems were used to remove microbial agents in these studies. Most articles used active sludge systems to remove Total coliforms and Fecal coliforms, which in some cases were not within the US-EPA standard. The removal of Cysts and Parasitic eggs was only reporte from stabilization pond systems (SPS) where removal efficiency was found in accordance with US-EPA standards.
CONCLUSIONS
Different types of activated sludge systems have higher efficacy to remove microbial agents and are more effective than other mentioned systems in removing the main indicators of sewage contamination including Total coliforms and Fecal coliforms. However, inappropriate operation, maintenance and inadequate handling of activated sludge can also reduce its efficiency and reduce the removal of microbial agents, which was reported in some studies. Therefore, it is recommended to conduct research on how to improve the operation, maintenance, and proper management of activated sludge systems to transfer knowledge to users of sludge systems and prevent further health issues related to microbial agents.
Topics: Conservation of Natural Resources; Humans; Iran; Wastewater; Water Purification
PubMed: 32013988
DOI: 10.1186/s12992-020-0546-y -
PloS One 2020Coral reef ecosystems have suffered an unprecedented loss of habitat-forming hard corals in recent decades. While marine conservation has historically focused on passive... (Review)
Review
Coral reef ecosystems have suffered an unprecedented loss of habitat-forming hard corals in recent decades. While marine conservation has historically focused on passive habitat protection, demand for and interest in active restoration has been growing in recent decades. However, a disconnect between coral restoration practitioners, coral reef managers and scientists has resulted in a disjointed field where it is difficult to gain an overview of existing knowledge. To address this, we aimed to synthesise the available knowledge in a comprehensive global review of coral restoration methods, incorporating data from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with grey literature and through a survey of coral restoration practitioners. We found that coral restoration case studies are dominated by short-term projects, with 60% of all projects reporting less than 18 months of monitoring of the restored sites. Similarly, most projects are relatively small in spatial scale, with a median size of restored area of 100 m2. A diverse range of species are represented in the dataset, with 229 different species from 72 coral genera. Overall, coral restoration projects focused primarily on fast-growing branching corals (59% of studies), and report survival between 60 and 70%. To date, the relatively young field of coral restoration has been plagued by similar 'growing pains' as ecological restoration in other ecosystems. These include 1) a lack of clear and achievable objectives, 2) a lack of appropriate and standardised monitoring and reporting and, 3) poorly designed projects in relation to stated objectives. Mitigating these will be crucial to successfully scale up projects, and to retain public trust in restoration as a tool for resilience based management. Finally, while it is clear that practitioners have developed effective methods to successfully grow corals at small scales, it is critical not to view restoration as a replacement for meaningful action on climate change.
Topics: Animals; Anthozoa; Climate Change; Conservation of Natural Resources; Ecosystem
PubMed: 31999709
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226631 -
BioMed Research International 2019Chemical structures derived from marine foods are highly diverse and pharmacologically promising. In particular, chitooligosaccharides (COS) present a safe...
Chemical structures derived from marine foods are highly diverse and pharmacologically promising. In particular, chitooligosaccharides (COS) present a safe pharmacokinetic profile and a great source of new bioactive polymers. This review describes the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic properties of COS from recent publications. Thus, COS constitute an effective agent against oxidative stress, cellular damage, and inflammatory pathogenesis. The mechanisms of action and targeted therapeutic pathways of COS are summarized and discussed. COS may act as antioxidants their radical scavenging activity and by decreasing oxidative stress markers. The mechanism of COS antidiabetic effect is characterized by an acceleration of pancreatic islets proliferation, an increase in insulin secretion and sensitivity, a reduction of postprandial glucose, and an improvement of glucose uptake. COS upregulate the GLUT2 and inhibit digestive enzyme and glucose transporters. Furthermore, they resulted in reduction of gluconeogenesis and promotion of glucose conversion. On the other hand, the COS decrease inflammatory mediators, suppress the activation of NF-B, increase the phosphorylation of kinase, and stimulate the proliferation of lymphocytes. Overall, this review brings evidence from experimental data about protective effect of COS.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Chitin; Chitosan; Free Radical Scavengers; Gluconeogenesis; Glucose; Glucose Transporter Type 2; Humans; Hypoglycemic Agents; Oligosaccharides
PubMed: 31781615
DOI: 10.1155/2019/4568039 -
Biological Reviews of the Cambridge... Dec 2019The idea that interspecific variation in trophic morphology among closely related species effectively permits resource partitioning has driven research on ecological...
The idea that interspecific variation in trophic morphology among closely related species effectively permits resource partitioning has driven research on ecological radiation since Darwin first described variation in beak morphology among Geospiza. Marine turtles comprise an ecological radiation in which interspecific differences in trophic morphology have similarly been implicated as a pathway to ecopartition the marine realm, in both extant and extinct species. Because marine turtles are charismatic flagship species of conservation concern, their trophic ecology has been studied intensively using stable isotope analyses to gain insights into habitat use and diet, principally to inform conservation management. This legion of studies provides an unparalleled opportunity to examine ecological partitioning across numerous hierarchical levels that heretofore has not been applied to any other ecological radiation. Our contribution aims to provide a quantitative analysis of interspecific variation and a comprehensive review of intraspecific variation in trophic ecology across different hierarchical levels marshalling insights about realised trophic ecology derived from stable isotopes. We reviewed 113 stable isotope studies, mostly involving single species, and conducted a meta-analysis of data from adults to elucidate differences in trophic ecology among species. Our study reveals a more intricate hierarchy of ecopartitioning by marine turtles than previously recognised based on trophic morphology and dietary analyses. We found strong statistical support for interspecific partitioning, as well as a continuum of intraspecific trophic sub-specialisation in most species across several hierarchical levels. This ubiquity of trophic specialisation across many hierarchical levels exposes a far more complex view of trophic ecology and resource-axis exploitation than suggested by species diversity alone. Not only do species segregate along many widely understood axes such as body size, macrohabitat, and trophic morphology but the general pattern revealed by isotopic studies is one of microhabitat segregation and variation in foraging behaviour within species, within populations, and among individuals. These findings are highly relevant to conservation management because they imply ecological non-exchangeability, which introduces a new dimension beyond that of genetic stocks which drives current conservation planning. Perhaps the most remarkable finding from our data synthesis is that four of six marine turtle species forage across several trophic levels. This pattern is unlike that seen in other large marine predators, which forage at a single trophic level according to stable isotopes. This finding affirms suggestions that marine turtles are robust sentinels of ocean health and likely stabilise marine food webs. This insight has broader significance for studies of marine food webs and trophic ecology of large marine predators. Beyond insights concerning marine turtle ecology and conservation, our findings also have broader implications for the study of ecological radiations. Particularly, the unrecognised complexity of ecopartitioning beyond that predicted by trophic morphology suggests that this dominant approach in adaptive radiation research likely underestimates the degree of resource overlap and that interspecific disparities in trophic morphology may often over-predict the degree of realised ecopartitioning. Hence, our findings suggest that stable isotopes can profitably be applied to study other ecological radiations and may reveal trophic variation beyond that reflected by trophic morphology.
Topics: Animals; Aquatic Organisms; Food Chain; Turtles
PubMed: 31338959
DOI: 10.1111/brv.12543 -
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Jun 2019In 2015, Singapore had the first and only reported foodborne outbreak of invasive disease caused by the group B Streptococcus (GBS; Streptococcus agalactiae). Disease,...
One hypervirulent clone, sequence type 283, accounts for a large proportion of invasive Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from humans and diseased tilapia in Southeast Asia.
BACKGROUND
In 2015, Singapore had the first and only reported foodborne outbreak of invasive disease caused by the group B Streptococcus (GBS; Streptococcus agalactiae). Disease, predominantly septic arthritis and meningitis, was associated with sequence type (ST)283, acquired from eating raw farmed freshwater fish. Although GBS sepsis is well-described in neonates and older adults with co-morbidities, this outbreak affected non-pregnant and younger adults with fewer co-morbidities, suggesting greater virulence. Before 2015 ST283 had only been reported from twenty humans in Hong Kong and two in France, and from one fish in Thailand. We hypothesised that ST283 was causing region-wide infection in Southeast Asia.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
We performed a literature review, whole genome sequencing on 145 GBS isolates collected from six Southeast Asian countries, and phylogenetic analysis on 7,468 GBS sequences including 227 variants of ST283 from humans and animals. Although almost absent outside Asia, ST283 was found in all invasive Asian collections analysed, from 1995 to 2017. It accounted for 29/38 (76%) human isolates in Lao PDR, 102/139 (73%) in Thailand, 4/13 (31%) in Vietnam, and 167/739 (23%) in Singapore. ST283 and its variants were found in 62/62 (100%) tilapia from 14 outbreak sites in Malaysia and Vietnam, in seven fish species in Singapore markets, and a diseased frog in China.
CONCLUSIONS
GBS ST283 is widespread in Southeast Asia, where it accounts for a large proportion of bacteraemic GBS, and causes disease and economic loss in aquaculture. If human ST283 is fishborne, as in the Singapore outbreak, then GBS sepsis in Thailand and Lao PDR is predominantly a foodborne disease. However, whether transmission is from aquaculture to humans, or vice versa, or involves an unidentified reservoir remains unknown. Creation of cross-border collaborations in human and animal health are needed to complete the epidemiological picture.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Animals; Asia, Southeastern; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Fish Diseases; Foodborne Diseases; Genotype; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Molecular Epidemiology; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Phylogeny; Pregnancy; Streptococcal Infections; Streptococcus agalactiae; Tilapia; Whole Genome Sequencing; Young Adult
PubMed: 31246981
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007421 -
Biology Letters Jan 2019Soil oxygen availability may influence blue carbon, which is carbon stored in coastal wetlands, by controlling the decomposition of soil organic matter. We are beginning...
Soil oxygen availability may influence blue carbon, which is carbon stored in coastal wetlands, by controlling the decomposition of soil organic matter. We are beginning to quantify soil oxygen availability in wetlands, but we lack a precise understanding of how oxygen controls soil carbon dynamics. In this paper, we synthesize existing data from oxic and anoxic wetland soil incubations to determine how oxygen controls carbon mineralization. We define the oxygen sensitivity of carbon mineralization as the ratio of carbon mineralization rate in oxic soil to this rate in anoxic soil, such that higher values of this ratio indicate greater sensitivity of carbon mineralization to oxygen. The estimates of oxygen sensitivity we derived from existing literature show a wide range of ratios, from 0.8 to 33, across wetlands. We then report oxygen sensitivities from an experimental mesocosm we developed to manipulate soil oxygen status in realistic soils. The variation in oxygen sensitivity we uncover from this systematic review and experiment indicates that Earth system models may misrepresent the oxygen sensitivity of carbon mineralization, and how it varies with context, in wetland soils. We suggest that altered soil oxygen availability could be an important driver of future blue carbon storage in coastal wetlands.
Topics: Carbon; Oxygen; Soil; Wetlands
PubMed: 30958210
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0407 -
Science Advances Jan 2019Demand for models in biodiversity assessments is rising, but which models are adequate for the task? We propose a set of best-practice standards and detailed guidelines...
Demand for models in biodiversity assessments is rising, but which models are adequate for the task? We propose a set of best-practice standards and detailed guidelines enabling scoring of studies based on species distribution models for use in biodiversity assessments. We reviewed and scored 400 modeling studies over the past 20 years using the proposed standards and guidelines. We detected low model adequacy overall, but with a marked tendency of improvement over time in model building and, to a lesser degree, in biological data and model evaluation. We argue that implementation of agreed-upon standards for models in biodiversity assessments would promote transparency and repeatability, eventually leading to higher quality of the models and the inferences used in assessments. We encourage broad community participation toward the expansion and ongoing development of the proposed standards and guidelines.
Topics: Biodiversity; Environmental Monitoring; Guidelines as Topic; Models, Theoretical; Peer Review; Spatio-Temporal Analysis
PubMed: 30746437
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4858