Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production.

Infectious diseases are emerging globally at an unprecedented rate while global food demand is projected to increase sharply by 2100. Here, we synthesize the pathways by which projected agricultural expansion and intensification will influence human infectious diseases and how human infectious diseases might likewise affect food production and distribution. Feeding 11 billion people will require substantial increases in crop and animal production that will expand agricultural use of antibiotics, water, pesticides and fertilizer, and contact rates between humans and both wild and domestic animals, all with consequences for the emergence and spread of infectious agents.

Rapid prediction of stem cell mobilization using volume and conductivity data from automated hematology analyzers.

Background: Rapid analytics to predict circulating hematopoietic stem cells are valuable for optimal management of mobilization, particularly for the use of newer and costly mobilization agents such as plerixafor.

Study Design And Methods: We used stepwise, linear multiple regression modeling applied to cell population data collected by routine hematology analyzers (Beckman Coulter DxH 800) on patients undergoing autologous stem cell collection (n = 131). Beta coefficients were used to derive a formula for a stem cell index (SCI).

ECOLOGICAL THEORY. A general consumer-resource population model.

Food-web dynamics arise from predator-prey, parasite-host, and herbivore-plant interactions. Models for such interactions include up to three consumer activity states (questing, attacking, consuming) and up to four resource response states (susceptible, exposed, ingested, resistant). Articulating these states into a general model allows for dissecting, comparing, and deriving consumer-resource models.

Does biodiversity protect humans against infectious disease?

Control of human infectious disease has been promoted as a valuable ecosystem service arising from the conservation of biodiversity. There are two commonly discussed mechanisms by which biodiversity loss could increase rates of infectious disease in a landscape. First, loss of competitors or predators could facilitate an increase in the abundance of competent reservoir hosts.