Chlamydiaceae in North Atlantic Seabirds Admitted to a Wildlife Rescue Center in Western France.

Birds are the primary hosts of Chlamydia psittaci, a bacterium that can cause avian chlamydiosis in birds and psittacosis in humans. Wild seabirds are frequently admitted to wildlife rescue centers (WRC) at European Atlantic coasts, for example, in connection with oil spills. To investigate the extent of chlamydial shedding by these birds and the resulting risk for animals in care and the medical staff, seabirds from a French WRC were sampled from May 2011 to January 2014. By use of a quantitative PCR (qPCR), 195 seabirds belonging to 4 orders, 5 families and 13 species were examined, of which 18.5% proved to be Chlamydiaceae positive. The highest prevalence of shedders was found in northern gannets (Morus bassanus) (41%), followed by European herring gulls (Larus argentatus) (14%) and common murres (Uria aalge) (7%). Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of qPCR-positive northern gannet samples revealed two variants of a strain closely related to C. psittaci. In European herring gulls and in one common murre, strains showing high sequence similarity to the atypical Chlamydiaceae-like C122 previously found in gulls were detected. Our study shows that seabirds from the northeastern Atlantic Ocean carry several chlamydial organisms, including C. psittaci-related strains. The staff in WRCs should take protective measures, particularly in the case of mass admissions of seabirds.

Four perspectives of women's health. Workshop participants talk about women's health issues in four countries. [Australia].

PIP: The director of Education and Training for the Family Planning Association of Victoria in Australia granted an interview to JOICFP News during JOICFP's IEC Workshop for the Production of Video Script for Women's Health in Tokyo, Japan. Before attending the workshop, he was concerned about what he could contribute to and get from it. He said that he learned a great deal from the other participants. He reflected on how important it is for professionals involved in family planning education to support each other. All the groups attending the workshop emphasized the need to encourage men to become responsible within relationships and to examine those relationships, the power dynamics, and the women's ability to negotiate safe sex. Men's responsibility goes beyond skill and awareness, however. It also includes social and economic justice and women's health and reproductive choices in a context generally male-centered. A big challenge for women's health advocates is examining shared responsibility.^ieng

Coherent kaleidoscope I. Interference effects in a rectangular waveguide with point-source input.

Computer calculations of the radiation field in a rectangular waveguide are given for the situation in which the radiation is introduced to the guide as an effective point source. Applications to fiber-optic devices, in particular power splitters and combiners, are suggested.

Coherent kaleidoscope II. Experimental observations of sibling-spot formation in hollow and solid, square and rectangular waveguides.

Experimental observations of the output field of the coherent kaleidoscope, a strongly overmoded rectangular optical waveguide, are presented. The detailed study, over a wide range of guide and input beam conditions, shows that the numerical results presented previously, which predicted highly ordered arrays of bright spots for certain conditions, are well confirmed in reality. While most experiments were done with longer-wavelength infrared radiation, a possible application to an optical-fiber coupler has been examined with visible light.

Geometrical optics treatment of rectangular lightguides.

A geometrical optics theory is presented for the transmission of radiation in hollow overmoded rectangular lightguides with arbitrary wall materials, when the incident beam is injected into the waveguide by focusing to a waist in the guide entrance. Expressions are given for transmission coefficients, both of the total radiation and of that component of the surviving radiation which is plane polarized in a chosen direction.

Geometrical optics treatment of circular lightguides: general wall material.

A previously developed theory for the transmission of radiation in over moded hollow circular waveguides is extended to cover walls of arbitrary material. The extension relies on approximations to the Fresnel reflection coefficients near grazing angles of incidence for a material characterized by its complex refractive index.