对虾传染性皮下及造血组织坏死病毒编码蛋白的相互作用研究

采用Matchmaker酵母双杂交系统,将对虾传染性皮下及造血组织坏死病毒(Infection hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus,IHHNV)编码蛋白NS1、NS2和CP序列分别构建到酵母猎物载体p GADT7和诱饵载体p GBKT7上,分别转化至酵母AH109以检测重组猎物载体和诱饵载体的自激活作用及对宿主的毒性作用,发现无自激活作用和毒性作用,随后将重组猎物载体和诱饵载体两两共转至酵母AH109中,涂布于SD/-Leu/-Trp固体培养基上,再点种至SD/-Ade/-His/-Leu/-Trp/X-α-gal固体培养基以鉴定编码蛋白间的相互作用。表型鉴定结果显示,只有共转化有p GADT7-CP/p GBKT7-CP的酵母重组子能够在SD/-Ade/-His/-Leu/-Trp/X-α-gal上生长并显蓝,而其它重组子均不能在其上生长,表明病毒的CP能够自身互作,而其他编码蛋白间无相互作用。为了进一步研究病毒CP自身互作的作用位点,分别从CP的N端和C端截短若干个氨基酸序列,结果发现CP的自身互作是高度敏感的,任何较少氨基酸序列的缺失都将导致其自身互作的丧失。本研究为深入探讨病毒的组装机制和致病机理奠定了理论基础。     

Social cohesion and passive adaptation in relation to climate change and disease

Climate change affects biophysical processes related to the transmission of many infectious diseases, with potentially adverse consequences for the health of communities. While our knowledge of biophysical associations between meteorological factors and disease is steadily improving, our understanding of the social processes that shape adaptation to environmental perturbations lags behind. Using computational modeling methods, we explore the ways in which social cohesion can affect adaptation of disease prevention strategies when communities are exposed to different environmental scenarios that influence transmission pathways for diseases such as diarrhea. We developed an agent-based model in which household agents can choose between two behavioral strategies that offer different levels of protection against environmentally mediated disease transmission. One behavioral strategy is initially set as more protective, leading households to adopt it widely, but its efficacy is sensitive to variable weather conditions and stressors such as floods or droughts that modify the disease transmission system. The efficacy of the second strategy is initially moderate relative to the first and is insensitive to environmental changes. We examined how social cohesion (defined as average number of household social network connections) influences health outcomes when households attempt to identify an optimal strategy by copying the behaviors of socially connected neighbors who seem to have adapted successfully in the past. Our simulation experiments suggest that high-cohesion communities are able to rapidly disseminate the initially optimal behavioral strategy compared to low-cohesion communities. This rapid and pervasive change, however, decreases behavioral diversity; i.e., once a high cohesion community settles on a strategy, most or all households adopt that behavior. Following environmental changes that reduce the efficacy of the initially optimal strategy, rendering it suboptimal relative to the alternative strategy, high-cohesion communities can fail to adapt. As a result, despite faring better early in the course of computational experiments, high-cohesion communities may ultimately experience worse outcomes. In the face of uncertainty in predicting future environmental stressors due to climate change, strategies to improve effective adaptation to optimal disease prevention strategies should balance between intervention efforts that promote protective behaviors based on current scientific understanding and the need to guard against the crystallization of inflexible norms. Developing generalizable models allows us to integrate a wide range of theories and multiple datasets pertaining to the relationship between social mechanisms and adaptation, which can provide further understanding of future climate change impacts. Models such as the one we present can generate hypotheses about the mechanisms that underlie the dynamics of adaptation events and suggest specific points of measurement to assess the impact of these mechanisms. They can be incorporated as modules within predictive simulations for specific socio-ecological contexts.     

广东省粤西地区凡纳滨对虾3种主要病毒的PCR与LAMP检测及流行病学特点分析

应用聚合酶链式反应(Polymerase Chain Reaction,PCR)和环介导等温扩增(Loop-Mediated Isothermal Ampli-cation,LAMP)两种检测技术分别对2009年广东省粤西地区养殖体系中凡纳滨对虾Litopenaeus vannamei白斑综合症病毒(White Spot Syndrome,WSSV)、桃拉病毒(Taura Syndrome Virus,TSV)和传染性皮下及造血组织坏死病毒(Infectious Hypodermal and Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus,IHHNV)的携带情况进行了调查。结果显示,WSSV和TSV的携带率较高,是该地区凡纳滨对虾的主要流行病毒种类;LAMP检测方法与PCR方法具有相当的灵敏度和特异性,但LAMP检测方法更加简单方便、快速且成本低。     

Industrial aquaculture and the politics of resignation

While neoliberalism is often framed as a withdrawal of the state, many scholars have noted that what is occurring is not so much a withdrawal, as a repositioning. Although many social services and regulatory functions once provided by government agencies have indeed been eroded, there has been a simultaneous channeling of new resources into other arenas, in an effort to create conditions in which private corporations can operate more profitably. This, however, often places the state in a contradictory position, simultaneously serving as regulator, investor, and development advocate for the private sector. This can become especially problematic in moments of ecological crisis when decisive and unbiased responses are needed. This paper explores these dynamics through an examination of the cycles of growth and crisis that have characterized the aquaculture industry on the south coast of Newfoundland since the late 1970s as well as the ongoing attempts by aquaculture advocates to characterize industrial-scale fish farming as a sustainable industry, despite evidence to the contrary.     

Diseases leading to accelerated decline of reef corals in the largest South Atlantic reef complex (Abrolhos Bank, eastern Brazil)

Although reef corals worldwide have sustained epizootics in recent years, no coral diseases have been observed in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean until now. Here we present an overview of the main types of diseases and their incidence in the largest and richest coral reefs in the South Atlantic (Abrolhos Bank, eastern Brazil). Qualitative observations since the 1980s and regular monitoring since 2001 indicate that coral diseases intensified only recently (2005–2007). Based on estimates of disease prevalence and progression rate, as well as on the growth rate of a major reef-building coral species (the Brazilian-endemic Mussismilia braziliensis), we predict that eastern Brazilian reefs will suffer a massive coral cover decline in the next 50 years, and that M. braziliensis will be nearly extinct in less than a century if the current rate of mortality due to disease is not reversed.     

An incremental Knox test for the determination of the serial interval between successive cases of an infectious disease

An estimate of the interval between successive infections is essential for surveillance, control, and modeling of infectious diseases. This paper proposes a method for determining the serial interval when the location and time of onset of illness are known. The theoretical underpinning of this method is the intrinsically spatial nature of disease transmission. Successive infections tend to be closer than unrelated cases of disease and, therefore, exhibit spatial clustering. An incremental Knox type analysis of cases is introduced. Cases occurring at a range of time intervals are examined to determine the serial interval. The significance of clustering is determined using a permutation approach under the null hypothesis of space-time independence. The power of this method is evaluated using an individual level, spatially explicit epidemic simulation. The time increment Knox test is robust to multiple introductions and incomplete sampling. Finally, the increment Knox statistic is used to analyze an outbreak of dengue fever in the city of Florida, Puerto Rico during 1991. Results indicate that the likely interval between successive cases during this outbreak is at least 18–19 days.     

Contamination status and accumulation profiles of organotins in sea otters (Enhydra lutris) found dead along the coasts of California, Washington, Alaska (USA), and Kamchatka (Russia)

Organotin compounds (OTs) including mono- to tri-butyltins, -phenyltins, and -octyltins were determined in the liver of adult sea otters (Enhydra lutris) found dead along the coasts of California, Washington, and Alaska in the USA and Kamchatka, Russia. Total concentrations of OTs in sea otters from California ranged from 34 to 4100ng/g on a wet weight basis. The order of concentrations of OTs in sea otters was total butyltins>total octyltins> or = total phenyltins. Elevated concentrations of butyltins (BTs) were found in some otters classified under 'infectious-disease' mortality category. Concentrations of BTs in few of these otters were close to or above the threshold levels for adverse health effects. Total butyltin concentrations decreased significantly in the livers of California sea otters since the 1990s. Based on the concentrations of organotins in sea otters collected from 1992 to 2002, the half-lives of tributyltin and total butyltins in sea otters were estimated to be approximately three years.     

上海市公共卫生中心防止二次污染设计浅谈

主要通过工程实例结合传染病医院特别是烈性传染病医院的设计特点,探讨给水输送的防回流污染、排水输送的防渗漏污染、排水通气管的防大气污染等问题以及解决问题所采取的相应措施,强调重视给水排水专业防止二次污染设计是确保传染病医院设计的重要性。