Chronic hepatitis C elimination prison initiative: HCV-intensive test and treat, a whole prisoner population HCV test-and-treat program in England.

Background and Aim: Prison residents are at high risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCV test-and-treat initiatives within prisons provide an opportunity to engage with prison residents and achieve HCV micro-elimination. The aim of the prison HCV-intensive test and treat initiative was to screen over 95% of all prison residents for HCV infection within a defined number of days determined by the size of the prison population and to initiate treatment within 7-14 days of a positive HCV RNA diagnosis. Methods: An HCV-intensive test and treat toolkit was developed based on learnings from pilot HCV-intensive test and treat events. From January 2020 to September 2021, 13 HCV-intensive test and treat events took place at prisons in England selected based on high levels of reception blood-borne virus testing and good access to peers from The Hepatitis C Trust. Results: Among a total of 8487 residents, 8139 (95.9%) underwent testing for HCV. Across the 13 prisons included, HCV antibody and RNA prevalence was 8.2% and 1.5%, respectively. The treatment initiation rate among HCV RNA-positive individuals (n = 124) was 79.0%. Conclusion: The HCV-intensive test and treat initiative presented here provides a feasible and rapid test-and-treat process to achieve HCV elimination within individual prisons. The HCV-intensive test and treat toolkit can be adapted for rapid HCV testing and treatment events at other prisons in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

Chinook salmon diversity contributes to fishery stability and trade-offs with mixed-stock harvest.

Variation among populations in life history and intrinsic population characteristics (i.e., population diversity) helps maintain resilience to environmental change and dampen interannual variability in ecosystem services. As a result, ecological variation, and the processes that generate it, is considered central to strategies for managing risks to ecosystems in an increasingly variable and uncertain world. However, characterizing population diversity is difficult, particularly in large and remote regions, which often prevents its formal consideration in management advice. We combined genetic stock identification of archived scale and tissue samples with state-space run-reconstruction models to estimate migration timing and annual return abundance for eight geographically and genetically distinct Chinook salmon populations within the Canadian portion of the Yukon River. We found that among-population variation in migration timing and return abundances resulted in aggregate return migrations that were 2.1 times longer and 1.4 times more stable than if they had composed a single homogeneous population. We then fit state-space spawner-recruitment models to the annual return abundances to characterize among-population diversity in intrinsic productivity and population size and their consequences for the fisheries they support. Productivity and carrying capacity varied among populations by approximately 2.4-fold (2.9 to 6.9 recruits per spawner) and three-fold (8800 to 27,000 spawners), respectively. This diversity implies an equilibrium trade-off between harvesting of the population aggregate and the conservation of individual populations whereby the harvest rate predicted to maximize aggregate harvests comes at the cost of overfishing ~40% of the populations but with a relatively low risk of extirpating the weakest ones. Our findings illustrate how population diversity in one of the largest salmon-producing river basins in the world contributes to fishery stability and food security in a region where salmon have high cultural and subsistence value. More generally, our work demonstrates the utility of molecular analyses of archived biological material for characterizing diversity in biological systems and its benefits and consequences for trade-offs in decision-making.

Forcing axioms and the complexity of non-stationary ideals.

We study the influence of strong forcing axioms on the complexity of the non-stationary ideal on ω 2 and its restrictions to certain cofinalities. Our main result shows that the strengthening MM + + of Martin's Maximum does not decide whether the restriction of the non-stationary ideal on ω 2 to sets of ordinals of countable cofinality is Δ 1 -definable by formulas with parameters in H ( ω 3 ) . The techniques developed in the proof of this result also allow us to prove analogous results for the full non-stationary ideal on ω 2 and strong forcing axioms that are compatible with CH . Finally, we answer a question of S. Friedman, Wu and Zdomskyy by showing that the Δ 1 -definability of the non-stationary ideal on ω 2 is compatible with arbitrary large values of the continuum function at ω 2 .

Genetic structure in the Sherpa and neighboring Nepalese populations.

BACKGROUND: We set out to describe the fine-scale population structure across the Eastern region of Nepal. To date there is relatively little known about the genetic structure of the Sherpa residing in Nepal and their genetic relationship with the Nepalese. We assembled dense genotype data from a total of 1245 individuals representing Nepal and a variety of different populations resident across the greater Himalayan region including Tibet, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirghizstan. We performed analysis of principal components, admixture and homozygosity. RESULTS: We identified clear substructure across populations resident in the Himalayan arc, with genetic structure broadly mirroring geographical features of the region. Ethnic subgroups within Nepal show distinct genetic structure, on both admixture and principal component analysis. We detected differential proportions of ancestry from northern Himalayan populations across Nepalese subgroups, with the Nepalese Rai, Magar and Tamang carrying the greatest proportions of Tibetan ancestry. CONCLUSIONS: We show that populations dwelling on the Himalayan plateau have had a clear impact on the Northern Indian gene pool. We illustrate how the Sherpa are a remarkably isolated population, with little gene flow from surrounding Nepalese populations.

Comment on "Slow adaptation in the face of rapid warming leads to collapse of the Gulf of Maine cod fishery".

Pershing et al (Science, 13 November 2015, p. 809) concluded that recent warming in the Gulf of Maine contributed to the collapse of Gulf of Maine cod. We argue that this conclusion is based on a flawed analysis of the population dynamics of this cod stock. We believe that understanding the potential role of climate change in the collapse of this stock requires more defensible analyses.

Regional-Scale Declines in Productivity of Pink and Chum Salmon Stocks in Western North America.

Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) stocks throughout the southern part of their North American range have experienced declines in productivity over the past two decades. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that pink (O. gorbuscha) and chum (O. keta) salmon stocks have also experienced recent declines in productivity by investigating temporal and spatial trends in productivity of 99 wild North American pink and chum salmon stocks. We used a combination of population dynamics and time series models to quantify individual stock trends as well as common temporal trends in pink and chum salmon productivity across local, regional, and continental spatial scales. Our results indicated widespread declines in productivity of wild chum salmon stocks throughout Washington (WA) and British Columbia (BC) with 81% of stocks showing recent declines in productivity, although the exact form of the trends varied among regions. For pink salmon, the majority of stocks in WA and BC (65%) did not have strong temporal trends in productivity; however, all stocks that did have trends in productivity showed declining productivity since at least brood year 1996. We found weaker evidence of widespread declines in productivity for Alaska pink and chum salmon, with some regions and stocks showing declines in productivity (e.g., Kodiak chum salmon stocks) and others showing increases (e.g., Alaska Peninsula pink salmon stocks). We also found strong positive covariation between stock productivity series at the regional spatial scale for both pink and chum salmon, along with evidence that this regional-scale positive covariation has become stronger since the early 1990s in WA and BC. In general, our results suggest that common processes operating at the regional or multi-regional spatial scales drive productivity of pink and chum salmon stocks in western North America and that the effects of these process on productivity may change over time.

Managing Baltic Sea fisheries under contrasting production and predation regimes: ecosystem model analyses.

Based on an earlier published ecosystem model, we have explored possible effects of different management scenarios for the Baltic Sea. The scenarios include an oligotrophication of the system, a drastic increase in the number of seals, and changes in the fishery management. From these simulations we conclude that fisheries, seals, and eutrophication all have strong and interacting impacts on the ecosystem. These interactions call for integrated management. The modeling highlights the potential for conflicts among management mandates such as flourishing fisheries, rebuilt seal populations, and substantially reduced eutrophication. The results also suggest that fisheries management reference points have to be adjusted in response to changes in the presence of natural predators or ecosystem productivity.

Antioxidant activity in Australian native sarsaparilla (Smilax glyciphylla).

A hot water extract of the Australian native sarsaparilla Smilax glyciphylla Sm. (Smilaceae) inhibited peroxidation of phosphatidylcholine liposomes initiated by Fe(2+)/ascorbate (IC50, 10 microg/mL) and AAPH (IC50, 33 microg/mL) in vitro. It also inhibited deoxyribose degradation and quenched chemically generated superoxide anion (IC50, 50 microg/mL). Reactivity towards ABTS (2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline 6-sulphonate) radical cation was equivalent to 48.4 mM TROLOX, the water soluble alpha-tocopherol analogue. Smilax glyciphylla is a rich source of the dihydrochalcone glycyphyllin. Given the reported level of activity it is unlikely that glycyphyllin would provide direct antioxidant protection in tissues affected by oxidative stress. However, consuming Smilax glyciphylla as a tea may be sufficient to reduce oxidative damage in the gastrointestinal tract. It is also possible that glycyphyllin is metabolised and adsorbed as phloretin, a compound with known anticancer properties. These findings indicate that further studies of the chemopreventative properties of Smilax glyciphylla is warranted.

A prototypical earthquake drill : A critical skills exercise

Earth science students at Salem High School have participated in an environment of critical skills. Events are student centered, learning stresses both process and curriculum content, and the foundation for activity is problem solving projects. This particular project had students designing and rehearsing part of an emergency management plan (a hazard plan) responding to an earthquake affecting Salem, N.H. Students assumed roles of town officials in a three hour drill held in Salem's Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The drill was sponsored by the Town of Salem and the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management. Project origin, planning, perfomance, and follow-up are detailed in this paper.(AU)