Mosquitoes provide a transmission route between possums and humans for Buruli ulcer in southeastern Australia.

Buruli ulcer, a chronic subcutaneous infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is increasing in prevalence in southeastern Australia. Possums are a local wildlife reservoir for M. ulcerans and, although mosquitoes have been implicated in transmission, it remains unclear how humans acquire infection. We conducted extensive field survey analyses of M. ulcerans prevalence among mosquitoes in the Mornington Peninsula region of southeastern Australia. PCR screening of trapped mosquitoes revealed a significant association between M. ulcerans and Aedes notoscriptus. Spatial scanning statistics revealed overlap between clusters of M. ulcerans-positive Ae. notoscriptus, M. ulcerans-positive possum excreta and Buruli ulcer cases, and metabarcoding analyses showed individual mosquitoes had fed on humans and possums. Bacterial genomic analysis confirmed shared single-nucleotide-polymorphism profiles for M. ulcerans detected in mosquitoes, possum excreta and humans. These findings indicate Ae. notoscriptus probably transmit M. ulcerans in southeastern Australia and highlight mosquito control as a Buruli ulcer prevention measure.

Assembly and coherent control of a register of nuclear spin qubits.

The generation of a register of highly coherent, but independent, qubits is a prerequisite to performing universal quantum computation. Here we introduce a qubit encoded in two nuclear spin states of a single 87Sr atom and demonstrate coherence approaching the minute-scale within an assembled register of individually-controlled qubits. While other systems have shown impressive coherence times through some combination of shielding, careful trapping, global operations, and dynamical decoupling, we achieve comparable coherence times while individually driving multiple qubits in parallel. We highlight that even with simultaneous manipulation of multiple qubits within the register, we observe coherence in excess of 105 times the current length of the operations, with [Formula: see text] seconds. We anticipate that nuclear spin qubits will combine readily with the technical advances that have led to larger arrays of individually trapped neutral atoms and high-fidelity entangling operations, thus accelerating the realization of intermediate-scale quantum information processors.

Reducing mosquito-borne disease transmission to humans: A systematic review of cluster randomised controlled studies that assess interventions other than non-targeted insecticide.

BACKGROUND: Mosquito control interventions are widely used to reduce mosquito-borne diseases. It is unclear what combination of interventions are most effective in reducing human disease. A novel intervention study for Buruli ulcer targeting mosquito vectors was proposed for a Buruli ulcer-endemic area of Victoria, Australia. The local community expressed a preference for avoiding widespread residual spraying of pyrethroids. To inform the design of a future cluster randomised control study (cRCT) for Buruli ulcer prevention in Victoria, we conducted a systematic literature review. AIMS: The aim was to describe cRCT designs which investigated interventions other than non-targeted insecticide for reducing mosquito-borne disease transmission, and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of these study designs. METHODS: Five medical research databases were searched for eligible literature from the earliest available sources up to 5 July 2019 (Medline, Embase, Web of Science, EBM Reviews, CAB Direct). Reference lists of identified studies were hand searched. Eligible studies were cRCTs using targeted chemical or biological mosquito control interventions, or mosquito breeding source reduction, with the occurrence of mosquito-borne disease as an outcome. RESULTS: Eight eligible cRCTs, conducted between 1994-2013 were identified in a variety of settings in the Americas and Asia. Interventions to reduce dengue transmission were mass adult trapping and source reduction. Interventions to reduce malaria transmission were largescale larvicide administration and (topical and spatial) repellent use. Three studies showed the intervention was associated with statistically significant reductions in the disease of interest and entomological indicators. High community engagement with the intervention were common to all three. In two studies, large buffer zones reduced contamination between study arms. Heterogeneity was reduced through increasing study cluster numbers, cluster matching and randomisation. CONCLUSION: High community engagement is vital for a cRCT reducing mosquito-borne disease with a mosquito control intervention. These findings support a mosquito breeding source reduction intervention for Aedes control in a future study of Buruli ulcer prevention if local communities are supportive and very engaged. Regular administration of larvicide to sites unsuited to source reduction may supplement the intervention.

Ecotrons: Powerful and versatile ecosystem analysers for ecology, agronomy and environmental science.

Ecosystems integrity and services are threatened by anthropogenic global changes. Mitigating and adapting to these changes require knowledge of ecosystem functioning in the expected novel environments, informed in large part through experimentation and modelling. This paper describes 13 advanced controlled environment facilities for experimental ecosystem studies, herein termed ecotrons, open to the international community. Ecotrons enable simulation of a wide range of natural environmental conditions in replicated and independent experimental units while measuring various ecosystem processes. This capacity to realistically control ecosystem environments is used to emulate a variety of climatic scenarios and soil conditions, in natural sunlight or through broad-spectrum lighting. The use of large ecosystem samples, intact or reconstructed, minimizes border effects and increases biological and physical complexity. Measurements of concentrations of greenhouse trace gases as well as their net exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere are performed in most ecotrons, often quasi continuously. The flow of matter is often tracked with the use of stable isotope tracers of carbon and other elements. Equipment is available for measurements of soil water status as well as root and canopy growth. The experiments ran so far emphasize the diversity of the hosted research. Half of them concern global changes, often with a manipulation of more than one driver. About a quarter deal with the impact of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning and one quarter with ecosystem or plant physiology. We discuss how the methodology for environmental simulation and process measurements, especially in soil, can be improved and stress the need to establish stronger links with modelling in future projects. These developments will enable further improvements in mechanistic understanding and predictive capacity of ecotron research which will play, in complementarity with field experimentation and monitoring, a crucial role in exploring the ecosystem consequences of environmental changes.