Emergency presentations for farm-related injuries in older adults residing in south-western Victoria, Australia.

INTRODUCTION: Farm workers are at high risk for injuries, and epidemiological data are needed to plan resource allocation. OBJECTIVE: This study identified regions with high farm-related injury rates in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, for residents aged ≥50 yr. DESIGN: Retrospective synthesis using electronic medical records of emergency presentations occurring during 2017-2019 inclusive for Local Government Areas (LGA) in the study region. For each LGA, age-standardised incidence rates (per 1000 population/year) were calculated. FINDINGS: For men and women combined, there were 31 218 emergency presentations for any injury, and 1150 (3.68%) of these were farm-related. The overall age-standardised rate for farm-related injury presentations was 2.6 (95% CI 2.4-2.7); men had a higher rate than women (4.1, 95% CI 3.9-4.4 versus 1.2, 95% CI 1.0-1.3, respectively). For individual LGAs, the highest rates of farm-related emergency presentations occurred in Moyne and Southern Grampians, both rural LGAs. Approximately two-thirds of farm-related injuries occurred during work activities (65.0%), and most individuals arrived at the hospital by transport classified as "other" (including private car, 83.3%). There were also several common injury causes identified: "other animal related injury" (20.2%), "cutting, piercing object" (19.5%), "fall ⟨1 m" (13.1%), and "struck by or collision with object" (12.5%). Few injuries were caused by machinery (1.7%) and these occurred mainly in the LGA of Moyne (65%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study provides data to inform future research and resource allocation for the prevention of farm-related injuries.

Advancing botanical safety: A strategy for selecting, sourcing, and characterizing botanicals for developing toxicological tools.

Increases in botanical use, encompassing herbal medicines and dietary supplements, have underlined a critical need for an advancement in safety assessment methodologies. However, botanicals present unique challenges for safety assessment due to their complex and variable composition arising from diverse growing conditions, processing methods, and plant varieties. Historically, botanicals have been largely evaluated based on their history of use information, based primarily on traditional use or dietary history. However, this presumption lacks comprehensive toxicological evaluation, demanding innovative and consistent assessment strategies. To address these challenges, the Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) was formed as an international, cross-sector forum of experts to identify fit-for purpose assays that can be used to evaluate botanical safety. This global effort aims to assess botanical safety assessment methodologies, merging traditional knowledge with modern in vitro and in silico assays. The ultimate goal is to champion the development of toxicity tools for botanicals. This manuscript highlights: 1) BSC's strategy for botanical selection, sourcing, and preparation of extracts to be used in in vitro assays, and 2) the approach utilized to characterize botanical extracts, using green tea and Asian ginseng as examples, to build confidence for use in biological assays.

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities.

Trees structure the Earth's most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1-6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth's 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world's most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.

Understanding different dominance patterns in western Amazonian forests.

Dominance of neotropical tree communities by a few species is widely documented, but dominant trees show a variety of distributional patterns still poorly understood. Here, we used 503 forest inventory plots (93,719 individuals ≥2.5 cm diameter, 2609 species) to explore the relationships between local abundance, regional frequency and spatial aggregation of dominant species in four main habitat types in western Amazonia. Although the abundance-occupancy relationship is positive for the full dataset, we found that among dominant Amazonian tree species, there is a strong negative relationship between local abundance and regional frequency and/or spatial aggregation across habitat types. Our findings suggest an ecological trade-off whereby dominant species can be locally abundant (local dominants) or regionally widespread (widespread dominants), but rarely both (oligarchs). Given the importance of dominant species as drivers of diversity and ecosystem functioning, unravelling different dominance patterns is a research priority to direct conservation efforts in Amazonian forests.

Occurrence and characterization of insect galls in two reserves of the Peruvian Amazon / Ocorrência e caracterização de galhas de insetos em duas reservas da Amazônia peruana

Abstract An insect gall inventory was carried out in two reserves of the Peruvian Amazon, Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve and Quistococha Regional Reserve, both situated in Iquitos, northeastern Peru. Four vegetation types were surveyed between December, 2021 and December, 2022: terra firme forest, white-sand wet forest, and white-sand dry forest in Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve, and palm swamp forest in Quistococha Regional Reserve. Overall, we found 262 gall morphotypes, distributed across 75 host species representing 66 plant genera and 30 families. Fabaceae was the plant family with the greatest number of gall morphotypes (n = 48), followed by Calophyllaceae (n = 21) and Euphorbiaceae (n = 20). The plant genera that supported the highest diversity of galls were Caraipa (n = 17), Eschweilera (n = 16), Tapirira (n = 16), Micrandra (n = 14), and Iryanthera (n = 10). The plant species Tapirira guianensis (n = 16), Caraipa utilis (n = 14), Micrandra elata (n = 14), Eschweilera coriacea (n = 11), and Sloanea parvifructa (n = 10) exhibited the highest richness of galls. Among the host plants, C. utilis stands alone as the only species noted as both endemic to the Amazonian region and bearing a Vulnerable (VU) conservation status. The leaves were the most attacked organs (90% of all galls). Most morphotypes are glabrous (89%), green (67%), globoid (53%), and one-chambered (91%). We found galling insects belonging to the orders Diptera, Thysanoptera, Lepidoptera, and Hemiptera. The galling insects of Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) were the most common, inducing 22% of the gall morphotypes. In addition to the gallers, we also observed the presence of successors, cecidophages, and parasitoids. Among the sampled vegetation types, the terra firme forest presented the highest richness of gall morphotypes and host plant species. This is the first systematic inventory of insect galls in this part of the Peruvian Amazon.

Resumo Um inventário de galhas de insetos foi realizado em duas reservas da Amazônia peruana, Reserva Nacional Allpahuayo-Mishana e Reserva Regional Quistococha, ambas situadas em Iquitos, nordeste do Peru. Quatro tipos de vegetação foram pesquisados entre dezembro de 2021 e dezembro de 2022: floresta de terra firme, floresta úmida de areia branca e floresta seca de areia branca na Reserva Nacional Allpahuayo-Mishana, e floresta de pântano de palmeiras na Reserva Regional Quistococha. No total, encontramos 262 morfotipos de galhas, distribuídos em 75 espécies hospedeiras representando 66 gêneros de plantas e 30 famílias. Fabaceae foi a família de plantas com o maior número de morfotipos de galhas (n = 48), seguida por Calophyllaceae (n = 21) e Euphorbiaceae (n = 20). Os gêneros de plantas que apresentaram a maior diversidade de galhas foram Caraipa (n = 17), Eschweilera (n = 16), Tapirira (n = 16), Micrandra (n = 14) e Iryanthera (n = 10). As espécies de plantas Tapirira guianensis (n = 16), Caraipa utilis (n = 14), Micrandra elata (n = 14), Eschweilera coriacea (n = 11) e Sloanea parvifructa (n = 10) apresentaram a maior riqueza de galhas. Dentre as plantas hospedeiras, C. utilis destaca-se como a única espécie listada como endêmica da região amazônica e com um status de conservação Vulnerável (VU). As folhas foram os órgãos mais atacados (90% de todas as galhas). A maioria dos morfotipos é glabra (89%), verde (67%), globoide (53%) e possui apenas uma câmara interna (91%). Encontramos insetos galhadores pertencentes às ordens Diptera, Thysanoptera, Lepidoptera e Hemiptera. Os insetos galhadores da família Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) foram os mais comuns, induzindo 22% dos morfotipos de galhas. Além dos galhadores, também observamos a presença de sucessores, cecidófagos e parasitoides. Entre os tipos de vegetação amostrados, a floresta de terra firme apresentou a maior riqueza de morfotipos de galhas e espécies de plantas hospedeiras. Este é o primeiro inventário sistemático de galhas de insetos nesta região da Amazônia peruana.