Detection and Molecular Characterization of from Wastewater Environments in Two University Campuses in Nigeria.

Background: () is the most prominent bacterial pathogen that causes urinary tract infections (UTIs), and the rate of resistance to most used antibiotics is alarmingly increasing.

Methods: This study assessed the hostel gutters of two Nigerian universities, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and Kogi State University, Anyigba (KSU), for and its antimicrobial resistance genes (). Oxoid Chromogenic UTI agar was used to isolate uropathogenic (UPEC), identified using standard biochemical tests.

Noroviruses: Evolutionary Dynamics, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, and Vaccine Advances-A Comprehensive Review.

Noroviruses constitute a significant aetiology of sporadic and epidemic gastroenteritis in human hosts worldwide, especially among young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised patients. The low infectious dose of the virus, protracted shedding in faeces, and the ability to persist in the environment promote viral transmission in different socioeconomic settings. Considering the substantial disease burden across healthcare and community settings and the difficulty in controlling the disease, we review aspects related to current knowledge about norovirus biology, mechanisms driving the evolutionary trends, epidemiology and molecular diversity, pathogenic mechanism, and immunity to viral infection.

Grazing herbivores reduce herbaceous biomass and fire activity across African savannas.

Fire and herbivory interact to alter ecosystems and carbon cycling. In savannas, herbivores can reduce fire activity by removing grass biomass, but the size of these effects and what regulates them remain uncertain. To examine grazing effects on fuels and fire regimes across African savannas, we combined data from herbivore exclosure experiments with remotely sensed data on fire activity and herbivore density.

Environmental context shapes the relationship between grass consumption and body size in African herbivore communities.

Though herbivore grass dependence has been shown to increase with body size across herbivore species, it is unclear whether this relationship holds at the community level. Here we evaluate whether grass consumption scales positively with body size within African large mammalian herbivore communities and how this relationship varies with environmental context. We used stable carbon isotope and community occurrence data to investigate how grass dependence scales with body size within 23 savanna herbivore communities throughout eastern and central Africa.

Impacts of large herbivores on terrestrial ecosystems.

Large herbivores play unique ecological roles and are disproportionately imperiled by human activity. As many wild populations dwindle towards extinction, and as interest grows in restoring lost biodiversity, research on large herbivores and their ecological impacts has intensified. Yet, results are often conflicting or contingent on local conditions, and new findings have challenged conventional wisdom, making it hard to discern general principles.

Evolutionary causes and consequences of ungulate migration.

Ungulate migrations are crucial for maintaining abundant populations and functional ecosystems. However, little is known about how or why migratory behaviour evolved in ungulates. To investigate the evolutionary origins of ungulate migration, we employed phylogenetic path analysis using a comprehensive species-level phylogeny of mammals.

Nephrotoxic Effects of Chemotherapeutic Agents.

Nephrotoxicity can be a severe complication of oncology treatment. The most common presentations of chemotherapy-related renal disorders include acute kidney injury, electrolyte abnormalities, acid base disturbances, hemolytic anemia, and hypertension. Oncology nurses should be aware of the potential renal complications of oncology therapeutics and advocate for appropriate monitoring and treatment of patients.

Seasonal strategies differ between tropical and extratropical herbivores.

Seasonal diet shifts and migration are key components of large herbivore population dynamics, but we lack a systematic understanding of how these behaviours are distributed on a macroecological scale. The prevalence of seasonal strategies is likely related to herbivore body size and feeding guild, and may also be influenced by properties of the environment, such as soil nutrient availability and climate seasonality. We evaluated the distribution of seasonal dietary shifts and migration across large-bodied mammalian herbivores and determined how these behaviours related to diet, body size and environment.

Elevated wildlife-vehicle collision rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wildlife-vehicle collisions threaten both humans and wildlife, but we still lack information about the relationship between traffic volume and wildlife-vehicle collisions. The COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to investigate the effects of traffic volume on wildlife-vehicle collisions in the United States. We observed decreased traffic nationwide, particularly in densely populated states with low or high disease burdens.

Heterogeneity in African savanna elephant distributions and their impacts on trees in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Though elephants are a major cause of savanna tree mortality and threaten vulnerable tree species, managing their impact remains difficult, in part because relatively little is known about how elephant impacts are distributed throughout space.This is exacerbated by uncertainty about what determines the distribution of elephants themselves, as well as whether the distribution of elephants is even informative for understanding the distribution of their impacts.To better understand the factors that underlie elephant impacts, we modeled elephant distributions and their damage to trees with respect to soil properties, water availability, and vegetation in Kruger National Park, South Africa, using structural equation modeling.

Public parks and the pandemic: How park usage has been affected by COVID-19 policies.

Public parks serve an important societal function as recreational spaces for diverse communities of people, with well documented physical and mental health benefits. As such, parks may be crucial for how people have handled effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the increasingly limited recreational opportunities, widespread financial uncertainty, and consequent heightened anxiety. Despite the documented benefits of parks, however, many states have instituted park shutdown orders due to fears that public parks could facilitate SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Utility of Biomarkers in Cardiac Amyloidosis.

Cardiac amyloidosis is a growing field, with advancements in diagnosis and management. Cardiac biomarkers are used to predict survival and to develop severity staging systems. Cardiac biomarkers are also used in clinical practice to stratify patients for treatment and to evaluate response to therapies.

Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Management in Prerenal Transplantation Candidates.

Cardiovascular (CV) assessment in prerenal transplant patients varies by center. Current guidelines recommend stress testing for candidates if ≥ 3 CV risk factors exist. We evaluated the CV assessment and management in 685 patients referred for kidney transplant over a 7-year period.