bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ethnic differences in the incidence of clinically diagnosed influenza: an England population-based cohort study 2008-2018
Authors: Davidson Jennifer A. , Banerjee Amitava , Mathur Rohini , Ramsay Mary , Smeeth Liam , Walker Jemma , McDonald Helen , Warren-Gash Charlotte 
Published: January 2021

ABSTRACTWe used primary and linked secondary healthcare data to investigate the incidence of clinically diagnosed influenza/influenza-like-illness (ILI) by ethnicity in England from 2008-2018. We identified higher incidence rate ratios for influenza/ILI among South Asian (1.70, 95% CI 1.66-1.75), Black (1.48, 1.44-1.53) and Mixed (1.22, 1.15-1.30) groups compared to White ethnicity.People from ethnic minority backgrounds are represented disproportionately among patients with severe COVID-19. Recent research has found people of Black and South Asian ethnicity have increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, independent of deprivation, occupation, household size, and underlying health conditions(1,2).The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of seasonal influenza vaccination. By preventing influenza-related hospitalization, vaccination can minimize the risk of hospital-acquired COVID-19 (co-) infection for these individuals and reduce health service pressures, particularly the need for isolation of patients with respiratory symptoms awaiting COVID-19 test results.In the UK, influenza vaccine is routinely recommended for adults aged ≥65 years, or people <65 years with underlying health conditions. These recommendations formed the basis of the original guidance to identify patients at moderate- and high-risk of COVID-19. Influenza vaccine recommendations were expanded for the 2020/21 season to include all adults ≥50 years(3). However, vaccine uptake among clinical risk groups is low, particularly for Black and Mixed Black ethnic groups(4). In addition, people of non-White ethnicity have higher risk of severe outcomes following influenza infection(5,6). It is unclear whether this is driven by the risk of infection or complications, with most research focused on distal outcomes rather than initial infection risk.Here we investigate the incidence of influenza and influenza-like-illness (ILI) by ethnicity from 2008-2018 among people not eligible for routine influenza vaccination, to consider disparities in infection risk.
Putting assemblage to work to explore pedagogical practices in health education in Aotearoa New Zealand
Authors: Dixon Rachael , Abel Gillian , Burrows Lisette 
Published: January 2021

PurposeIn Aotearoa New Zealand, Health Education is socio-critical in orientation and is offered as a subject that can offer credits towards the national secondary school qualification. The purpose of this paper is to explore the learning experiences of people who studied Health Education to the final level of secondary schooling in Aotearoa New Zealand. The authors focus specifically on how the subject is taught; or the pedagogical practices that are “put to work” in the Health Education learning environment.Design/methodology/approachUsing in-depth interviews as the authors’ method of data production, they experiment with a post-qualitative approach to analysis while traversing the theoretical terrain of new materialism. In doing so, they explicate the non-human and human elements that are arranged in a pedagogical assemblage – and explore what these elements can do.FindingsThe authors found that an array of pedagogical practices were put to work in the senior secondary school Health Education classroom: Student-centred approaches, a non-judgemental and energetic tone to teaching, deployment of human and non-human resources, and students connecting with the community. The authors argue that these practices open up possibilities for a critical Health Education.Practical implicationsThis research addresses an empirical gap in the literature by focusing on Health Education in the senior secondary levels of schooling. The findings in this paper may provide readers who are Health Education teachers with ideas that could be of material use to them in their teaching practice. In terms of implications for researchers, the authors demonstrate how putting “new” theory and methodological approaches to work in the area of school-based Health Education can produce novel ways of thinking about the subject and what it can do.Originality/valueThe shifting nature of the pedagogical assemblage can ignite new ways of thinking about teaching practice in the Health Education classroom and the capacities that result for learners. In combination with a post-qualitative approach to analysis, the paper provides a novel approach to exploring Health Education.
Putative resistance and tolerance mechanisms have little impact on disease progression for an emerging salamander pathogen
Authors: Wilber Mark Q. , Carter Edward Davis , Gray Matthew J. , Briggs Cheryl J. 
Published: January 2021

Abstract

Resistance and tolerance are unique host defence strategies that can limit the impacts of a pathogen on a host. However, for most wildlife–pathogen systems, there are still fundamental uncertainties regarding (a) how changes in resistance and tolerance can affect disease outcomes and (b) the mechanisms underlying resistance and tolerance in host populations.

Here, we first compared observed patterns of resistance and tolerance and their effects on disease outcomes among salamander species that are susceptible to infection and mortality from the emerging fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). We then tested whether two putative mechanisms that contribute to host resistance and tolerance, skin sloughing and skin lesion reduction, predicted reduced Bsal growth rate or increased host survival during infection, respectively.

We performed multi‐dose Bsal challenge experiments on four species of Salamandridae found throughout North America. We combined the laboratory experiments with dynamic models and sensitivity analysis to examine how changes in load‐dependent resistance and tolerance functions affected Bsal‐induced mortality risk. Finally, we used our disease model to test whether skin sloughing and lesion reduction predicted variability in infection outcomes not described by Bsal infection intensity.

We found that resistance and tolerance differed significantly among salamander species, with the most susceptible species being both less resistance and less tolerant of Bsal infection. Our dynamic model showed that the relative influence of resistance versus tolerance on host survival was species‐dependent—increasing resistance was only more influential than increasing tolerance for the least tolerant species where changes in pathogen load had a threshold‐like effect on host survival. Testing two candidate mechanisms of resistance and tolerance, skin sloughing and lesion reduction, respectively, we found limited support that either of these processes were strong mechanisms of host defence.

Our study contributes to a broader understanding of resistance and tolerance in host–pathogen systems by showing that differences in host tolerance can significantly affect whether changes in resistance or tolerance have larger effects on disease outcomes, highlighting the need for species and even population‐specific management approaches that target host defence strategies.

A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Species asynchrony stabilises productivity under extreme drought across Northern China grasslands
Authors: Muraina Taofeek O. , Xu Chong , Yu Qiang , Yang Yadong , Jing Minghui , Jia Xiaotong , Jaman Md. Shahariar , Dam Quockhanh , Knapp Alan K. , Collins Scott L. , Luo Yiqi , Luo Wentao , Zuo Xiaoan , Xin Xiaoping , Han Xingguo , Smith Melinda D. 
Published: January 2021

Abstract

Biodiversity can stabilise productivity through different mechanisms, such as asynchronous species responses to environmental variability and species stability. Global changes, like intensified drought, could negatively affect species richness, species asynchrony and species stability, but it is unclear how changes in these mechanisms will affect the stability of above‐ground primary productivity (ANPP) across ecosystems.

We studied the effects of a 4‐year extreme drought on ANPP stability and the underlying mechanisms (species richness, species asynchrony and species stability) across six grasslands in Northern China. We also assessed the relative importance of these mechanisms in determining ANPP stability under extreme drought.

We found that extreme drought decreased ANPP stability, species richness, species asynchrony and species stability across the six grasslands. However, structural equation modelling revealed that species asynchrony, not species richness or species stability, was the most important mechanism promoting stability of ANPP, regardless of drought across the six grasslands.

Synthesis. Our results suggest that species asynchrony, not species richness and species stability, consistently buffers ecosystem stability against extreme drought across and within grasslands spanning a broad precipitation gradient. Thus, species asynchrony may be a more general mechanism for promoting stability of ANPP in grasslands in the face of intensified drought.
Size‐selective exclusion of mammals and invertebrates differently affects grassland plant communities depending on vegetation type
Authors: Wang Xiaowei , Schütz Martin , Risch Anita C. 
Published: January 2021

Abstract

Human‐caused loss of vertebrate and invertebrate animals, defaunation, is increasing, and potentially affects plant community structure of diverse grassland ecosystems world‐wide.

We experimentally simulated defaunation using size‐selective fences to progressively exclude large‐, medium‐ and small‐sized mammals, and invertebrates from two subalpine vegetation types in the Swiss National Park (SNP): intensively grazed short‐grass and moderately grazed tall‐grass vegetation. We assessed plant community properties yearly from 2009 to 2013, and examined treatment effects on plant community structure in the two grassland types.

In the short‐grass vegetation, the exclusion of large mammals increased total plant biomass, while the exclusion of large and medium‐sized mammals increased total, grass and forb biomass compared to when all animals had access. These increases became stronger when invertebrates were also excluded. The exclusion of all mammals and invertebrates increased biomass of grasses by 205%, forbs by 100% and total plant biomass by 118% compared to when all animals had access, hence enhancing relative biomass of grasses from 43.6% to 60%, changing plant species composition and lowering richness of forbs by 16%, the number of plant families by 13% and family‐level Shannon diversity by 23%. In contrast to these significant community‐level responses found in the short‐grass vegetation, there was no evidence that the size‐selective exclusion of animals altered the plant community structure of the tall‐grass vegetation. The contrasting results were due to the difference in plant community composition prior to our experiment, which were related to differences in quantity and quality of forage and in grazing intensities of herbivores between the two grassland types.

Synthesis. Our results showed that different‐sized animals, in particular large mammals and invertebrates, contributed to maintain the plant community structure in the short‐grass vegetation, highlighting the importance of multiple, functionally different animal groups for ecosystem functioning and stability. In contrast to the short‐grass vegetation, we could not detect such a top‐down control by animals in the tall‐grass vegetation. Our results suggest that potential defaunation effects on grassland plant community structure depend on the degree of grazing pressure release and grassland vegetation type.
Bilberry seed production explains spatiotemporal synchronicity in bank vole population fluctuations in Norway
Authors: Selås Vidar , Framstad Erik , Rolstad Jørund , Sonerud Geir A. , Spidsø Tor K. , Wegge Per 
Published: January 2021

AbstractPopulation fluctuations of small rodents are often synchronized over larger areas (>100 km) than what could be explained by dispersal, suggesting that the synchronizing factor is weather‐related and possibly mediated through changes in food quality. Because bank vole (Myodes glareolus) populations usually peak 1 year after peaks in reproduction of the staple winter food plant bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), we tested for a possible link between food and spatial synchrony by comparing the synchrony in bank vole population indices and bilberry seed production indices between three study areas across about 20,000 km2 in South Norway during a four decade period (1979–2019). There were subperiods of spatial synchrony and asynchrony between the study areas in the fluctuations of bank vole numbers and bilberry seed production, with the latter part of the study period displaying more pronounced synchrony than the first and middle part. However, with a few marked exceptions, when vole fluctuations were spatially out of phase across study areas so was bilberry seed production. Thus, we conclude that bilberry seed production to a large extent explained the spatiotemporal synchronicity in bank vole population fluctuations. Although bilberry seed production seems to be a causal driver of vole fluctuations, it remains to be seen to what extent the chemical composition of bilberry plants influences vole performance. Finally, certain weather factors may still influence voles directly, or indirectly by triggering bilberry seed production.
Un‐nudgeable Nudgers: An Experiment on Voluntary Contribution to an Academic Network Working on the CAP. A Note
Authors: Lefebvre Marianne , Barreiro‐Hurlé Jesus , Rommel Jens 
Published: January 2021

AbstractPeer networks can positively affect individual careers and the scientific enterprise as a whole. People’s willingness to contribute to such networks is poorly understood. In an email experiment, we investigated how framing the future research environment affects people’s willingness to contribute to an emerging academic network. In spite of relatively large treatment effects, we do not find statistically significant effects of pessimistic or optimistic messaging on the willingness to contribute. We discuss limitations of the small sample size and the future research potential of network nudges.
RNA interference‐mediated silencing of vATPase subunits A and E affect survival and development of the 28‐spotted ladybeetle, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata
Authors: Guo Wei , Guo Mujuan , Yang Chunxiao , Liu Zhuoqi , Chen Shimin , Lü Jing , Qiu Baoli , Zhang Youjun , Zhou Xuguo , Pan Huipeng 
Published: January 2021

AbstractRNA interference (RNAi) has emerged as a powerful tool for developing novel management strategies for controlling insect pests. The 28‐spotted ladybeetle, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata is one of the most important pests attacking solanaceous plants in Asia. In this study, the potential of dietary RNAi to manage H. vigintioctopunctata was investigated using both in vitro synthesized and bacterially expressed double‐stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) of HvvATPase A and HvvATPase E. The expression levels of HvvATPase A and HvvATPase E were higher in Malpighian tubules than in other tissue types. The silencing of HvvATPase A and HvvATPase E led to significant mortality in H. vigintioctopunctata larvae. In addition, the ingestion of HvvATPase A and HvvATPase E significantly deterred feeding behavior and subsequently arrested the development of H. vigintioctopunctata. Notably, the bacterially expressed dsRNAs consistently caused higher mortality in larvae and adults. Finally, the nontarget effects of the dsRNAs of H. vigintioctopunctata on the predatory ladybeetle Propylaea japonica were evaluated. P. japonica 1st instar larvae were administered vATPase A and vATPase E dsRNAs from H. vigintioctopunctata and P. japonica under the worst‐case scenario, in which dsGFP served as negative control. There were significant effects of dsHvvATPase A on P. japonica at the transcriptional level but not at the organismal level, whereas dsHvvATPase E did not effect P. japonica at either the transcriptional or the organismal level. Collectively, the results of the study suggest that HvvATPase A and HvvATPase E can act as novel molecular targets for the control of H. vigintioctopunctata.
Enzymatic hydrolysis of black cricket (Gryllus assimilis) proteins positively affects their antioxidant properties
Authors: de Matos Francielle Miranda , Novelli Paula Kern , de Castro Ruann Janser Soares 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe development of innovative ingredients through biotechnological routes has established insect proteins as an emerging source of bioactive peptides. The current study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant properties of black cricket (Gryllus assimilis) protein hydrolysates produced using the proteases FlavourzymeTM 500L, AlcalaseTM 2.4L, and NeutraseTM 0.8L, either individually or in binary/ternary combinations. The enzymatic hydrolysis promoted an increase of approximately 160% in total antioxidant capacity and 93% in the ferric reducing antioxidant power. The isolated use of the enzyme FlavourzymeTM 500L showed the most prominent positive effect on the antioxidant properties, presenting an IC50 value of 455 and 71 µg/mL for DPPH and ABTS radicals scavenging activities, respectively. This sample was composed mainly of small peptides (MW < 3 kDa), in which the antioxidant properties increased after fractionation by ultrafiltration. Gel electrophoresis analysis showed protein hydrolysates composed mainly of polypeptide chains with a mass of less than 14 kDa. Finally, the enzymatic treatment proved to be an efficient process to improve the antioxidant properties of black cricket proteins, increasing the possibility of applying these hydrolysates as bioactive ingredients in food or nutraceutical products.Practical ApplicationInsects represent an alternative source of proteins. Their modification through hydrolysis allows for the acquisition of compounds with great potential in industrial applications, such as functional ingredients or for nutraceutical purposes. The use of our experimental design proved to be an adequate tool for defining the best process conditions required for increasing the attainment of biologically active compounds.
A high‐quality genome assembly of the eggplant provides insights into the molecular basis of disease resistance and chlorogenic acid synthesis
Authors: Li Dandan , Qian Jun , Li Weiliu , Yu Ning , Gan Guiyun , Jiang Yaqin , Li Wenjia , Liang Xuyu , Chen Riyuan , Mo Yongcheng , Lian Jinmin , Niu Yongchao , Wang Yikui 
Published: January 2021

AbstractThe eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is one of the most important Solanaceae crops, ranking third for total production and economic value in its genus. Herein, we report a high‐quality, chromosome‐scale eggplant reference genome sequence of 1155.8 Mb, with an N50 of 93.9 Mb, which was assembled by combining PacBio long reads and Hi‐C sequencing data. Repetitive sequences occupied 70.1% of the assembly length, and 35,018 high‐confidence protein‐coding genes were annotated based on multiple sources. Comparative analysis revealed 646 species‐specific families and 364 positive selection genes, conferring distinguishing traits on the eggplant. We performed genome‐wide comparative identification of disease resistance genes and discovered an expanded gene family of bacterial spot resistance in eggplant and pepper, but not in tomato and potato. The genes involved in chlorogenic acid synthesis were comprehensively characterized. Highly similar chromosomal distribution patterns of polyphenol oxidase genes were observed in the eggplant, tomato, and potato genomes. The eggplant reference genome sequence will not only facilitate evolutionary studies of the Solanaceae but also facilitate their breeding and improvement.
Teaching Global Citizenship: The Global Leadership Initiative, its Impact and Challenges
Authors: Dobson Hugo , Bishop Matthew L. , Enns Charis , Horn Philipp , Stiles Gregory 
Published: January 2021

AbstractIn 2015, as part of the University of Sheffield's strategic commitment to innovation in its approaches to internationalization, as well as recognition of both the importance of student employability and growing opportunities in student‐led research, the Faculty of Social Sciences established a unique learning and research initiative in the shape of the Global Leadership Initiative as part of the Global Learning Opportunities in the Social Sciences programme. Its mission reflects both a desire to develop Social Sciences students as global citizens with an international outlook and a belief that staff and students can, and should, collaborate as partners in research. To this end, these initiatives have provided students, who would not normally have the opportunity, with the means to blend an international experience into their studies and understand the Social Sciences in this context. At the same time, they have sought to provide students in the Faculty with a unique Social Sciences research‐based opportunity that will enhance their employability. This article outlines the development of these Global Citizenship Education initiatives before exploring the pedagogical benefits and challenges of the programme from an academic and student perspective based on semi‐structured interviews, surveys and student evaluations.
Mtor inhibition by INK128 extends functions of the ovary reconstituted from germline stem cells in aging and premature aging mice
Authors: Heng Dai , Sheng Xiaoyan , Tian Chenglei , Li Jie , Liu Linlin , Gou Mo , Liu Lin 
Published: January 2021

AbstractStem cell transplantation has been generally considered as promising therapeutics in preserving or recovering functions of lost, damaged, or aging tissues. Transplantation of primordial germ cells (PGCs) or oogonia stem cells (OSCs) can reconstitute ovarian functions that yet sustain for only short period of time, limiting potential application of stem cells in preservation of fertility and endocrine function. Here, we show that mTOR inhibition by INK128 extends the follicular and endocrine functions of the reconstituted ovaries in aging and premature aging mice following transplantation of PGCs/OSCs. Follicular development and endocrine functions of the reconstituted ovaries by transplanting PGCs into kidney capsule of the recipient mice were maintained by INK128 treatment for more than 12 weeks, in contrast to the controls for only about 4 weeks without receiving the mTOR inhibitors. Comparatively, rapamycin also can prolong the ovarian functions but for limited time. Furthermore, our data reveal that INK128 promotes mitochondrial function in addition to its known function in suppression of immune response and inflammation. Taken together, germline stem cell transplantation in combination with mTOR inhibition by INK128 improves and extends the reconstituted ovarian and endocrine functions in reproductive aging and premature aging mice.