Slugs, snails are not alone in causing rat lungworm disease in humans

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

 

IMAGE: PLATYDEMUS MANOKWARI, AN INTRODUCED FLATWORM PRESENT IN HAWAI‘I, WHICH CAN ACT AS A PARATENIC HOST OF THE RAT LUNGWORM PARASITE AND THAT HAS BEEN IMPLICATED IN CAUSING RAT LUNGWORM DISEASE IN OKINAWA. view more 

CREDIT: SHINJI SUGIURA.

A review of decades of research revealed more than a dozen kinds of animals in addition to slugs and snails have caused rat lungworm disease in people around the world.

Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and the University of London (UK) combed through nearly 140 scientific studies published between 1962 and 2022 and found 32 species of freshwater prawns/shrimp, crayfish, crabs, flatworms, fish, sea snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, centipedes, cattle, pigs, and snails can act as carriers of the rat lungworm parasite (Angiostrongylus cantonensis). Of these, at least 13 species of prawns/shrimp, crabs, flatworms, fish, frogs, toads, lizards, and centipedes have been associated with causing rat lungworm disease in humans.

This work was the master’s degree thesis research of the first author, Helena Turck, as part of a graduate program in One Health jointly run by the Royal Veterinary College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, both part of the University of London, UK. Robert Cowie, senior author on the study and faculty member in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), supervised Turck’s research remotely during the pandemic and co-authored the new publication. Professor Mark Fox of the Royal Veterinary College is also a co-author of the study.

Cowie explained that the rat lungworm has a complex life cycle that involves slugs and snails as so-called “intermediate” hosts and rats as “definitive” hosts in which the worms reach maturity and reproduce. Rats become infected when they eat an infected snail or slug. People also become infected when they eat an infected snail or slug, and this can lead to serious illness and occasionally death.

Humans, accidental hosts

“But people can also get infected if they eat so-called paratenic hosts, which are also known as carrier hosts,” said Cowie, who is a research professor in the Pacific Biosciences Research Center at SOEST. “These are animals that become infected by eating infected snails or slugs, but in which the worms cannot develop to maturity as they do in a rat. However, in such hosts the worms become dormant, but still infective. And if one of these hosts, or part of one, is then eaten raw by a person – an accidental host – development can continue, but only up to a point.”

That point is when they are in the person’s brain, where they are moving around, feeding, and growing. But then the worms die. The damage to the brain and the massive inflammation that results when they die is primarily what causes the symptoms of rat lungworm disease.

“It is important to know not only that snails and slugs can transmit rat lungworm parasites to humans but also which other animals – which paratenic hosts – can also do so,” Cowie said. “So the goal of the study, was to pull all the information on paratenic hosts and their role in transmission of rat lungworm disease, previously scattered in diverse publications and obscure reports, together into one place and develop a global understanding of their diversity and role in disease transmission.”

Rat lungworm disease around the globe

Rat lungworm disease is at present confined largely to the tropics and subtropics, notably parts of South and Southeast Asia, where it probably originated, southern China, Taiwan, southern Japan, various Pacific islands and archipelagos, and more recently Brazil, Caribbean islands, and Australia. The parasite has also been reported from the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands of Spain, as well as southeastern parts of the United States, where there have been a handful of cases of rat lungworm disease. Climate change may lead to its further spread into currently more temperate regions.

Hawai‘i is a global center of the incidence of rat lungworm disease, and indeed it was in Hawai‘i where the connection between the parasite and the disease was first discovered, by University of Hawai‘i and US government scientists in the early 1960s.

“Several species capable of acting as carriers (paratenic hosts) are present in Hawai‘i, including flatworms, centipedes, coqui frogs, and cane toads,” said Cowie. “While people in Hawai‘i are unlikely to eat these animals, it is not unknown for people to do so on a dare, and become seriously ill. Elsewhere, certain paratenic hosts are eaten for supposed health reasons – frogs in Taiwan and Japan, or to enhance virility – lizards in Thailand.”

Domestic animals, especially dogs and horses, can also become infected by the rat lungworm parasite, including in Hawai‘i, probably mostly from accidentally or deliberately eating snails or slugs.

Preventing infection

There are several things people can do to prevent infection by rat lungworm.

“Awareness of which species may harbor the parasite is critically important both in Hawai‘i and more widely,” said Cowie. “These animals should not be consumed raw. Additionally, wash all fruits and vegetables well under running water and inspect them for slugs, snails and possible other hosts such as flatworms so as to avoid inadvertently eating them or parts of them.”

CAPTION

Puerto Rican coqui frog

CREDIT

US Department of Agriculture

---

JOURNAL

One Health

DOI

10.1016/j.onehlt.2022.100426 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Paratenic hosts of Angiostrongylus cantonensis and their relation to human neuroangiostrongyliasis globally

Distress leads to higher COVID vaccine rates, less adherence to distancing guidelines

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

People who were more distressed — showing signs of anxiety or depression — during the COVID-19 pandemic were less likely to follow some best practice recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a new study by Washington University in St. Louis researchers. 

They found, however, that those same people were more likely than their non-distressed peers to get vaccinated. The authors refer to this as differential distress: when people act safely in one aspect while disregarding safety in another, both in response to the same psychological distress. This creates a conundrum for those trying to determine how best to communicate risks and best practices to the public.

The research comes from the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences. It was led by professors Leonard Green and Joel Myerson. The team included professors Michael Strube and Sandra Hale and Bridget Bernstein, a research technician. 

Their study of 810 people revealed that distress was less likely to affect older people either way, despite their higher risk for severe outcomes if infected with SARS-CoV-2. The findings, published July 27 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, suggest that fear messaging, which is intended to scare people and can increase their levels of distress, may not be the most effective way to encourage people to change behaviors.

“These findings do not point to a straightforward public health messaging campaign,” Myerson said. “Instead, officials may have to consider more finely tailored messages for different populations in order to achieve best outcomes: more attention to CDC recommendations as well as more people getting vaccinated.”

This is the second study from this team to analyze the ways people changed behaviors during the pandemic. The first study, published in November in the journal PLoS One, looked at social distancing and hygiene behaviors across a range of demographics. The results suggested that distress was closely tied to the way people responded to recommendations about social distancing. People who were more distressed were less likely to observe social distancing recommendations, perhaps as a way to maintain social connections that can ease anxiety and depression.

In the latest work, researchers again asked people about their adherence to the latest CDC recommendations, including newer recommendations outlining when to wear a mask and suggesting that people avoid spending lots of time inside with others. The results showed similar correlations to the previous study among age, distress and behavior changes.

In terms of public health and effective messaging, one of the most pressing issues to arise after publication of the first study was the introduction of vaccines — and the myriad ways people felt about them. Looking at four categories — fully vaccinated; partially vaccinated; unvaccinated but likely to get one; unvaccinated and unlikely to get one — several findings stood out:

• People who had been fully vaccinated were more likely than those who were partially vaccinated to have close interactions with others following their shots.
• Relative to those who said they were unlikely to get vaccinated, those who said they were likely to do so thought their chance of infection was higher.
• Depending on the person’s age, they responded differently to the same level of stress. Overall, for example, the higher level of distress someone had, the less likely they were to social distance, but the more likely they were to get vaccinated. Both of these correlations became weaker, however, as people aged.

Fear messaging that tries to scare people into following guidelines tends to be useful only for a one-time event, Green said. “Ostensibly, getting vaccinated should count as such an event.” But as breakthrough cases increase and boosters add up, vaccinations are no longer one and done; they are instead a series of events, spread out over more than a year. 

Although fear-based messaging may encourage younger people to get vaccinated, it also diminishes their resolve to stick to mitigation behaviors like social distancing. Without doing both, the risk of breakthrough infections could continue to rise.

And, the research shows, messaging becomes less effective as people age — and become more susceptible to severe illness if they’re infected.

“Part of the solution to the problem of differential distress may be to avoid the distress altogether,” Green said, by forgoing the fear campaign. Instead, a gentler approach may be warranted. “Our previous work suggests that what really motivates many people to change behaviors for the better is considering how their actions can benefit, or harm, other people.”

---

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Psychology

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2022.923056 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Differential effects of psychological distress on mitigation and vaccination: A public health conundrum

Current warming is recorded as the strongest of the last 7,000 years

This observation emerges from the analysis of annual growth rings from Yamal’s subfossil trees

Peer-Reviewed Publication

URAL FEDERAL UNIVERSIT

VIDEO: EXPEDITION TO THE YAMAL PENINSULA FOR SAMPLES OF SUBFOSSIL TREES view more 

CREDIT: VLADIMIR KUKARSKIH / URAS

The north of Western Siberia is recording the warmest summers of the last 7,000 years. While for several millennia the temperature of the region was following a general cooling, in the 19th century there has been an abrupt change with rapidly rising temperature that has reached its highest value in the recent decades. These findings were published today in Nature Communications.

Thanks to multiple field expeditions aimed at collecting subfossil wood performed over the last 40 years, dendrochronologists of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and the Ural Federal University (UrFU), have eventually been able to create a unique and extraordinary-long tree-ring width chronology from the Yamal region allowing to track the course of summer temperature over the past 7,638 years. With support from colleagues of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, and of the University of Geneva, they have been able to perform analyses to confidently reconstruct and characterize the temperatures over the full period and with annual resolution.

CAPTION

Over 40 years, dendrochronologists have collected more than 5,000 samples of subfossil trees in Yamal

CREDIT

Vladimir Kukarskih

“Due to changes in the Earth's orbit we would have expected a continuous, slow and gradual decrease of incoming summer solar energy and thus temperature at the subpolar latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere during last 8-9 millennia. However, how recorded by the trees growing in Yamal, this cooling trend has been interrupted in the middle of the 19th century, when temperature began to rise very quickly and reached the highest values in recent decades,” says Rashit Hantemirov, Leading Researcher of the Laboratories of Dendrochronology of the Ural Branch of the RAS and Natural Science Methods in the Humanities of UrFU.

Independently of the period length considered (from 30 to 170 years), the most recent period was the warmest. Not only the temperature has reached unprecedented warm levels, but also the rate of temperature increase (i.e. since the last 160-170) hasn’t been as fast as after the middle of the 19th century.

“The exceptionality of the modern warming is corroborated by observations that the last century was characterized by a total lack of cold extremes contrasted by the occurrence of 27 extreme warm years, 19 of which have fallen in the last 40 years,” specifies Rashit Hantemirov.

The authors of this research are confident that the human activities not only is influence climate change, but has become its major determinant, at least for the north of Western Siberia.

Research on tree-ring based climate reconstruction will continue. There is realistic possibility to extend the tree-ring chronology into the past for another 2,000 years.

“Thank to international cooperation it will also be possible to use other tree-rings parameters to further precise the climate reconstructions. With colleagues from Switzerland, we are working on the analysis of the tree rings cellular structures, and together with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we intend to perform a climate reconstruction based on the analysis of the oxygen-18 isotope in the annual rings”, adds Rashit Hantemirov.

Reference

Stepan Shiyatov, a pioneer of dendrochronology in Russia, was the first who recognized the value of the ancient trees found on the Yamal Peninsula. Together with colleagues from the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he began 40 years ago with the systematic collections of the subfossil wood. Since then, more than two dozen expeditions have been carried out; with a current collection of more than 5,000 samples, which tree-ring widths have been measured, and which samples are currently archived at the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology.

Approximately 2,000 samples of larch and spruce subfossils have also been dated (with the cross-dating method).  This allowed to assign with absolute accuracy the year of formation of each annual ring over the last 8,800 years, being now the longest tree-ring chronology of the polar regions.

Tree rings are one of the best natural archives of past growing conditions (including air temperature). Trees growing in subpolar regions and at high elevation are usually the most sensitive to temperature changes. Remains of such trees that lived thousands of years ago, as in the Yamal Peninsula, provide the access to understand the past, which is the best foundation to assess the future.

CAPTION

The researchers set slices of the tree trunks up to dry

CREDIT

Vladimir Kukarskih

---

JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-32629-x 

ARTICLE TITLE

Current Siberian heating is unprecedented during the past seven millennia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2022

Feeling anxious or blue? Ultra-processed foods may be to blame

Researchers find U.S. adults who consume more ultra-processed food report more adverse mental symptoms

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF PACKAGED FOODS IN THE U.S. ARE CLASSIFIED AS ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD AND REPRESENT ABOUT 60 PERCENT OF ALL CALORIES CONSUMED BY AMERICANS. view more 

CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

Do you love those sugary-sweet beverages, reconstituted meat products and packaged snacks? You may want to reconsider based on a new study that explored whether individuals who consume higher amounts of ultra-processed food have more adverse mental health symptoms. 

Although ultra-processed foods are convenient, low cost, quick to prepare or ready-to-eat, these industrial formulations of processed food substances (oils, fats, sugars, starch, protein isolates) contain little or no whole food. They result from extensive ‘physical, biological, and chemical processes’ that create food products that are deficient in original and natural food. Ultra-processed foods typically include flavorings, colorings, emulsifiers and other cosmetic additives.

While there is some evidence regarding ultra-processed food consumption and depression, data are sparse regarding other adverse mental health symptoms including anxiety and mentally unhealthy days.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators explored a nationally representative sample of the United States population to determine if individuals who consume high amounts of ultra-processed foods report significantly more adverse mental health symptoms including depression, anxiety and mentally unhealthy days.   

They measured mild depression, number of mental unhealthy days and number of anxious days in 10,359 adults 18 and older from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Results of the study, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, showed that individuals who consumed the most ultra-processed foods as compared with those who consumed the least amount had statistically significant increases in the adverse mental health symptoms of mild depression, “mentally unhealthy days” and “anxious days.” They also had significantly lower rates of reporting zero “mentally unhealthy days” and zero “anxious days.” Findings from this study are generalizable to the entire U.S. as well as other Western countries with similar ultra-processed food intakes.

“The ultra-processing of food depletes its nutritional value and also increases the number of calories, as ultra-processed foods tend to be high in added sugar, saturated fat and salt, while low in protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals,” said Eric Hecht, M.D., Ph.D., corresponding author and an affiliate associate professor in FAU’s Schmidt College of Medicine. “More than 70 percent of packaged foods in the U.S. are classified as ultra-processed food and represent about 60 percent of all calories consumed by Americans. Given the magnitude of exposure to and effects of ultra-processed food consumption, our study has significant clinical and public health implications.”

Researchers used the NOVA food classification for the study, which is a widely used system recently adopted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. NOVA considers the nature, extent and purpose of food processing in order to categorize foods and beverages into four groups: unprocessed or minimally processed foods, processed culinary ingredients, processed foods and ultra-processed foods.

“Data from this study add important and relevant information to a growing body of evidence concerning the adverse effects of ultra-processed consumption on mental health symptoms,” said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, co-author, the first Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine, and senior academic advisor, FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. “Analytic epidemiologic research is needed to test the many hypotheses formulated from these descriptive data.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 1 in 5 adults live with a mental illness. Mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety, are leading causes of morbidity, disability and mortality.

Co-authors of this original research are Anna Rabil, Institute of Etiological Research; Euridice Martinez Steele, Ph.D., University of Sao Paolo; Gary A. Abrams, M.D., University of South Carolina School of Medicine; Deanna Ware, M.P.H., Georgetown University Medical Center and Institute of Etiological Research; and David C. Landy, M.D., Ph.D., University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

This research was funded in part by the Bertarelli Foundation.

- FAU -

About the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine:

FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is one of approximately 155 accredited medical schools in the U.S. The college was launched in 2010, when the Florida Board of Governors made a landmark decision authorizing FAU to award the M.D. degree. After receiving approval from the Florida legislature and the governor, it became the 134th allopathic medical school in North America. With more than 70 full and part-time faculty and more than 1,300 affiliate faculty, the college matriculates 64 medical students each year and has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum. To further FAU’s commitment to increase much needed medical residency positions in Palm Beach County and to ensure that the region will continue to have an adequate and well-trained physician workforce, the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Consortium for Graduate Medical Education (GME) was formed in fall 2011 with five leading hospitals in Palm Beach County. The Consortium currently has five Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited residencies including internal medicine, surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry, and neurology. The college’s vibrant research focus areas include healthy aging, neuroscience, chronic pain management, precision medicine and machine learning. With community at the forefront, the college offers the local population a variety of evidence-based, clinical services that treat the whole person. Jointly, FAU Medicine’s Primary Care practice and the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health have been designed to provide complete health and wellness under one roof.

 

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

 

---

JOURNAL

Public Health Nutrition

DOI

10.1017/S1368980022001586 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cross-sectional examination of ultra-processed food consumption and adverse mental health symptoms

Making bike-sharing work

Solving the "first-mile/last-mile" problem with a new optimization model

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: THERE'S PLENTY OF BIKES HERE FOR RIDERS, AND EVEN PLACES FOR PEOPLE TO RETURN BIKES. BUT WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO JUGGLE THE BALANCE BETWEEN AVAILABLE BIKES AND AVAILABLE PARKING PLACES OVER THE COURSE OF A BUSY DAY? JENS GUNNAR H. ELLINGSEN, WHO WORKS FOR TRONDHEIM BYSYKKEL/UIP DRIFT, HAS TO THINK ABOUT THIS PROBLEM EVERY DAY AS HE SHIFTS BICYCLES AROUND THE CITY view more 

CREDIT: NANCY BAZILCHUK/NTNU

They’re everywhere, from Berlin to Beijing, brightly coloured bicycles you can borrow to move around the city without a car. These systems, along with e-scooters, offer people a quick and convenient way to travel around urban areas. And at a time when cities are scrambling to find ways to meet their climate goals, they’re a welcome tool for urban planners.

People want the bikes to be there when they want to use them, and they will only want to use the system if it’s a good service.

Making sure the bikes and e-scooters are on hand can be something of a challenge — but it’s also key to the success of the offer, says Steffen Bakker, a researcher at NTNU’s Department of Industrial Economic and Technology Management who studies ways to make transport greener and more efficient.

“If a system like this is going to be successful, then we need to have user satisfaction,” Bakker said. “People want the bikes to be there when they want to use them, and they will only want to use the system if it’s a good service.”

Bakker was a co-author on a recent paper that describes an optimization model to help cities and companies do a better job keeping their bike-sharing customers happy.

Like shooting a moving target

Consider the challenges of providing bikes or scooters where and when people will want them.

You don’t know when the customers will pick up the bikes and where they will put them.

Researchers describe the problem as being dynamic, because it is always changing, and stochastic, because it changes in random and often difficult-to-predict ways, Bakker said.

“Bike-sharing system users pick up bikes in one place, and they move it somewhere else. And then the state of the system changes because all of a sudden, the bikes are not where they started, which is the dynamic part,” he said. “But then on top of that, you don’t know when the customers will pick up the bikes and where they will put them.  That’s the stochastic part. So if you want to plan at the start of the day, you don’t know what is going to happen.”

Bakker and his colleagues can use the huge treasure trove of data collected by bikes and e-scooters when they are in use to make predictions. But there’s no guarantee that the way bikes were used last Tuesday, for example, will be the same the following Tuesday, he said.

“You have to adjust for things that occur during the day,” he said. “Maybe all of a sudden, there’s an event happening or the weather changes, and then people don’t use the service and the demand pattern changes, which impacts the planning.”

Putting the pieces together

What Bakker and his colleagues have developed is an optimization model that can give recommendations about what the service operators should do.

This includes what service vehicles should do at the station they’re currently at — whether they should drop off or pick up bikes, or swap out batteries for e-bikes and scooters — and where to go next. The underlying calculations are based on what has happened so far during the day, and what is expected to happen in the near future.

It’s very complex, because it’s a big system.

The group’s research is funded a part of a NOK 10 million project financed by the Research Council of Norway called the Future of Micro mobility (FOMO), with the company Urban Sharing AS as the lead business on the grant.

“Through Pilot-T, we plan to use existing city bike systems as test bases, and by developing new decision support tools, the aim is to increase the efficiency of the rebalancing teams by 30% and the lifetime of the bikes by 20%,” said Jasmina Vele, project manager at Urban Sharing. “This can be realized through better decisions related to rebalancing and preventive maintenance, and this will correspond to a large cost reduction in existing city bicycle systems.”

Moving bikes in the most efficient way

The process of collecting and moving bikes from one bike parking station to another is called “rebalancing.” Using the optimization model, which is still in its development phase, allows the drivers to be sent a new plan every time they arrive at a bicycle station.

“You don’t make just one plan at the start of the day, but what we do is we make a new plan every time a vehicle arrives at a bicycle station,” he said.  “And when the car arrives at the station we’ll tell them, ‘Okay, pick up this many bikes or drop off this many bikes’.”

But here’s where the tricky part comes in. It’s important not to be too myopic by just focusing on the current state of the system, Bakker says, especially if it’s expected that certain stations will have more demand within the next hour or so.

“It’s very complex, because it’s a big system,” he said.  “Maybe there’s going to be a lot of demand at the station in one hour. So you already want to bring some bicycles there. But at the same time, there may be stations now that are almost empty, and they need some bicycles. So you need to figure out this trade off.”

It’s also important to coordinate pickups and drop-offs between the different vehicles that are servicing the bike-sharing network, he said.

Digital twins and computational time

Bakker and his colleagues are working with NTNU’s Department of Computer Science to create a “digital twin”, or a computer simulation, of the systems they are modelling, so they can try out different approaches without actually having to test them in the real world.

Initial tests showed that the model the group generated can reduce the number of problems (meaning either not enough bikes where the user wants one, or too many bikes so the user can’t park the bike)  by 41 per cent compared to not doing any rebalancing at all.

Compared to the current rebalancing practices of Oslo City Bikes, which is also a collaborator in the NFR grant, the number of problems was reduced by 24 per cent.  Bakker says newer versions of the model show even more potential.

Simpler approaches possible too

Not surprisingly, the kinds of calculations needed to make the model work are complex,  and researchers need to fine-tune the different parameters affecting the performance of the model.

Bakker and his colleagues have also worked on one component of the optimization model called criticality scores, which is a little simpler and can be used independently of the larger optimization model.

A criticality score is basically a score given to different bike sharing parking areas based on the number of bikes it currently contains or needs. These scores are relatively simple to calculate and can be provided to drivers as they travel around the city to rebalance the number of bikes at each station.

“It’s a score that tells the driver which station is most critical to visit,” Bakker said. “If you can present that to the person driving the car and say these are the stations with the highest criticality score, we can provide something that is not the best, but it’s probably good, and much better than what bike-sharing companies do now.”

Urban Sharing’s Vele says using these kinds of optimization models can help make bike-sharing an important component in urban transport.

“Urban Sharing’s vision for future mobility is a transport system that is responsive and adaptive. By using data and machine learning/optimization algorithms, we can combine the best of both traditional and modern transport systems, and create a resource-efficient system that responds to demand and adapts to users’ individual needs,” she said.

Reference:
Marte D. Gleditsch, Kristine Hagen, Henrik Andersson, Steffen J. Bakker, Kjetil Fagerholt. A column generation heuristic for the dynamic bicycle rebalancing problem. European Journal of Operational Research. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.07.004.

---

JOURNAL

European Journal of Operational Research

DOI

10.1016/j.ejor.2022.07.004 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

A column generation heuristic for the dynamic bicycle rebalancing problem

New report highlights opportunities for conservation of ladybirds globally

Experts reveal threats that these important insects face and make recommendations for their recovery

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY

 

IMAGE: A 7-SPOT LADYBIRD TAKES SHELTER IN A GARDEN. view more 

CREDIT: DENISE PALLETT

A report into the global status of ladybirds reveals the threats they face and lays out a roadmap for conservation. These vital pest controllers for farmers and gardeners are considered to be in decline globally due to human activities, and species are poorly understood.  

The survey’s authors call for greater citizen science efforts to encourage more people to record ladybirds around the world. They also urge conservation efforts to protect habitats, in particular the sites that ladybirds rely on to survive the adverse conditions of winters.  

The research was compiled by an international group of experts, including ecologists at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the University of the Azores and Ghent University, as well as all members of the IUCN SSC Ladybird Specialist Group. It identifies gaps in knowledge about how ladybirds are responding to environmental changes affecting global biodiversity while suggesting actions to protect ladybirds and other insects.

The ladybird family – Coccinellidae – includes more than 6,000 species globally with 47 found in the UK. Many species of ladybird play an important role in protecting plants – including crops – from the ravages of pest insects including aphids. There is considerable concern that insects, including ladybirds, globally may be in decline, but information is lacking to assess the magnitude of the problems caused by threats such as changes in climate, land use and pollution, and invasive non-native species.

Dr António Onofre Soares, a lead author and a researcher at University of the Azores says: “This paper brings together a global community to consider the status of ladybirds and how they fit into the bigger insect picture around the world. We hope the result will be that ladybirds become a larger part of the conservation agenda by highlighting areas where there is a need for data and what can be done in terms of tangible actions.”

Dr Danny Haelewaters, a lead author and a researcher at Ghent University says: "Ladybirds have many functions within our ecosystems but at present suffer from a lack of global collaborative research. Alongside ecologists, the ladybird conservation community is still awaiting the first Red List assessments to help inform conservation strategies. I hope we can enthuse more researchers to become involved in studying ladybirds and assessing the ecological threats that impact their diversity and abundance.”

In recent years people have taken actions to manage their gardens to provide habitats for bees through bee homes and campaigns such as “no mow May” to increase the abundance of flowering plants which provide an important resource for pollinators. These benefit other insects such as ladybirds, but there are simple measures that people can also implement to further increase the value of their gardens for a diverse range of insects. Actions include ensuring there are flowers to provide nectar throughout insects’ active period, in spring and summer, and leaving pest species on roses and vegetables as a food source for predatory ladybirds. Leaves left on the ground in autumn provide overwintering habitat.

Professor Helen Roy, an ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and one of the paper’s authors, says: “Over the last few decades we have seen more and more people getting involved with ladybird surveys contributing their sightings of ladybirds through citizen science initiatives around the world. In this exciting new paper we explore ways that everyone can make a difference and contribute to the conservation of ladybirds and other insects.”

As well as public involvement, the research highlights how environmental change is impacting ladybirds and focuses on addressing ways to counter the ongoing threats faced by ladybirds.

In the paper, published in Conservation Biology, the team has laid out a roadmap with short-, medium- and long-term actions that are needed for ladybird conservation and recovery. These actions include:

• Recruiting citizen scientists for data collection and observations, education programmes and conservation efforts
• Enhancing agricultural landscapes by creating insect-friendly habitats
• Education programmes to target different audiences
• Introducing machine learning to support long-term monitoring, for example using cameras coupled with deep learning software to monitor insects
• Bringing together national monitoring systems globally

Professor Roy adds: “Ladybirds are well-loved, charismatic insects but we know so little about them. This paper brings together a global team and sets out ways that we can safeguard the future of these amazing beetles. It is critical that we consider the multiple drivers of environmental change together and increase our understanding of the ways in which climate change, land-use change and biological invasions interact with one another. We need to act fast and act together.”

–ENDS–

 

Notes to editors

 

A roadmap for ladybird conservation and recovery is published in Conservation Biology. Open access. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13965

The authors’ institutions are listed below:

• Center for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group (cE3c–ABG) / CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, University of the Azores, Portugal
• IUCN SSC Ladybird Specialist Group
• Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
• University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
• Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
• University of Aveiro, Portugal
• Anglia Ruskin University, UK
• Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Belgium
• Utah State University, USA
• Universidad de Chile, Chile
• Trier University, Germany
• IUCN SSC Invertebrate Conservation Committee
• Comenius University, Slovak Republic
• Crop Research Institute, Czech Republic
• Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovak Republic
• Kansas State University, USA
• University of Lucknow, India
• UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK
• National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) & Aix-Marseille University, France
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
• Cornell University, USA

Media enquiries
Photos are available on request. For interviews and further information, please contact Simon Williams, Media Relations Officer at UKCEH, via simwil@ceh.ac.uk or +44 (0)7920 295384.

About the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)
The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a centre for excellence in environmental science across water, land and air. Our 500-plus scientists work to understand the environment, how it sustains life and the human impact on it – so that together, people and nature can prosper.
We have a long history of investigating, monitoring and modelling environmental change, and our science makes a positive difference in the world.
The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a strategic delivery partner for the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.
www.ceh.ac.uk / @UK_CEH / LinkedIn: UK Centre For Ecology & Hydrology

About the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
IUCN is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Its Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. IUCN provides information about range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and/or trade, threats, and conservation actions that will help inform necessary conservation decisions.
www.iucn.org / @IUCN

---

JOURNAL

Conservation Biology

DOI

10.1111/cobi.13965 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A roadmap for ladybird conservation and recovery

Simple rubber band fix improves surgical mask seal to N-95 levels, study shows

This easy, cheap fix could help people when and where N95 respirators are in short supply

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and when maximum protection is needed against air-born infections, the N95 respirator has remained the gold standard of personal protective equipment. However, it is also much more difficult to produce and obtain than a standard surgical mask.

But a recent study published in PLOS ONE demonstrates that a simple modification to a surgical mask using rubber bands can improve its protective seal against particle exposure to the level of an N95 respirator.

To achieve N95-level protection, the respirators should demonstrate a minimum score of 100 on a standardized battery of tests – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s passing threshold – against the passage of particles that would potentially expose an individual to disease. Standard surgical masks are not as protective because they don’t seal around the wearer’s face, allowing particles to bypass the filter peripherally.

A research team led by a Michigan Medicine surgeon worked with 40 health care workers to test standard surgical masks modified with two 8-inch rubber bands over the crown of the subject’s head, bridge of the nose, around the cheeks and under the chin within the boundaries of the mask.

Thirty-one of the subjects, or 78%, had modified masks that passed a fit test with a score of greater than 100. The passing masks scored an average of 151, a significantly better fit than an unmodified surgical mask score of 3.8 but lower than a properly fitted N95 mask’s score of 199.  By the last day of investigation, all of the modified masks passed the N95 threshold, suggesting that greater experience with the banding improved fit and performance.

This easy modification could address N95 respirator shortages worldwide and provide health care workers and individuals in under-resourced regions – or even in a resourced area like the U.S. when production demands can’t properly meet needs in a pandemic – a practical means for increased personal protection, said Jaimo Ahn, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, senior author of the paper and professor of orthopaedic surgery at University of Michigan Medical School.

“While not a vaccine, this approach emphasizes prevention rather than treatment,” Ahn said. “While not sophisticated, it has the potential to save lives and preserve wellness. Its effect will last as long as there are respiratory diseases and PPE demand exceeds supply. It is immediately impactful and sustainable, yet simple and cheap.”

Additional authors include Agnes Z. Dardas, M.D., Viviana M. Serra Lopez, M.D., Lauren M. Boden, M.D., Taras Grosh, M.D., Daniel J. Gittings, M.D., Kevin Heym, and Emily Koerber, all of the University of Pennsylvania at the time the study was performed.

Paper cited: “A simple surgical mask modification to pass N95 respirator-equivalent fit testing standards during the COVID-19 pandemic,” PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272834

---

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0272834 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

A simple surgical mask modification to pass N95 respirator-equivalent fit testing standards during the COVID-19 pandemic

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Aug-2022