The unseen casualties of the First World War: insights from a randomly selected military sample.

Aims: Studies of the morbidity burden of military personnel participating in the First World War (WWI) have tended to focus on specific outcomes (e.g., injuries).

Health impacts for New Zealand military personnel from the South African War of 1899-1902.

Aim: We aimed to update and provide more complete epidemiological information on the health impacts of the South African War on New Zealand military personnel.

Methods: Mortality datasets were identified and analysed. Systematic searches were conducted to identify additional war-attributable deaths in the post-war period.

New Zealand's peak year for wartime mortality burden: the important role of the Battles of Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) in 1917.

At a total of 5,547 deaths among New Zealand's military personnel, the year 1917 was the worst year from a mortality perspective in the country's military history. This year had a third of the deaths in the whole of the First World War for this military population. Major drivers of this mortality burden were the Battles of Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) in June and October 1917 respectively.

Mortality of first world war military personnel: comparison of two military cohorts.

Objective: To identify the impact of the first world war on the lifespan of participating military personnel (including in veterans who survived the war).

Design: Comparison of two cohorts of military personnel, followed to death.

Setting: Military personnel leaving New Zealand to participate in the first world war.

Fatal injury epidemiology among the New Zealand military forces in the First World War.

Background: Despite the large mortality burden of First World War (WW1) on New Zealand (NZ) military forces, no analysis using modern epidemiological methods has ever been conducted. We therefore aimed to study injury-related mortality amongst NZ military forces in WW1.

Methods: An electronic version of the Roll-of-Honour for NZ Expeditionary Force (NZEF) personnel was supplemented with further coding and analysed statistically.

A nutritional analysis of New Zealand military food rations at Gallipoli in 1915: likely contribution to scurvy and other nutrient deficiency disorders.

Background: Amongst New Zealand soldiers in Gallipoli in 1915 there were reports of poor food quality and cases of scurvy. But no modern analysis of the military food rations has ever been conducted to better understand potential nutritional problems in this group.

Methods: We analysed the foods in the military rations for 1915 using food composition data on the closest equivalents for modern foods.

Genetic variants of Banana streak virus in Mauritius.

Genetic variations among isolates of Banana streak virus (BSV) were assessed using two sets of primers. The virus, found in banana accessions in Mauritius, was compared to a Nigerian isolate from cultivar Obino l'Ewai (BSOEV). On the basis of the observed size of amplicons, some Mauritius strains were different from l'Ewai BSOEV.

Banana contains a diverse array of endogenous badnaviruses.

Banana streak disease is caused by several distinct badnavirus species, one of which is Banana streak Obino l'Ewai virus. Banana streak Obino l'Ewai virus has severely hindered international banana (Musa spp.) breeding programmes, as new hybrids are frequently infected with this virus, curtailing any further exploitation.

Banana streak virus is very diverse in Uganda.

Banana streak virus (BSV) is a badnavirus that causes a viral leaf streak disease of banana and plantain (Musa spp.). Identified in essentially all Musa growing areas of the world, it has a deleterious effect on the productivity of infected plants as well as being a major constraint to Musa breeding programmes and germplasm dissemination.

Induction of infectious petunia vein clearing (pararetro) virus from endogenous provirus in petunia.

Infection by an endogenous pararetrovirus using forms of both episomal and chromosomal origin has been demonstrated and characterized, together with evidence that petunia vein clearing virus (PVCV) is a constituent of the Petunia hybrida genome. Our findings allow comparative and direct analysis of horizontally and vertically transmitted virus forms and demonstrate their infectivity using biolistic transformation of a provirus-free petunia species. Some integrants within the genome of P.

Detection of petunia vein-clearing virus: model for the detection of DNA viruses in plants with homologous endogenous pararetrovirus sequences.

A number of cases of plant virus sequence integration into host plant genome have been reported. In at least two cases, endogenous pararetrovirus sequences are correlated strongly with subsequent episomal virus infection and there is circumstantial evidence that this also occurs for Petunia vein-clearing virus (PVCV). The detection of viruses is a critical component of plant health and therefore, it is important to have diagnostic procedures that differentiate between the detection of encapsidated viral DNA and homologous sequences in the host genome.

Viral sequences integrated into plant genomes.

Sequences of various DNA plant viruses have been found integrated into the host genome. There are two forms of integrant, those that can form episomal viral infections and those that cannot. Integrants of three pararetroviruses, Banana streak virus (BSV), Tobacco vein clearing virus (TVCV), and Petunia vein clearing virus (PVCV), can generate episomal infections in certain hybrid plant hosts in response to stress.