Ecologists can enable communities to implement malaria vector control in Africa.

Background: Integrated vector management (IVM) for malaria control requires ecological skills that are very scarce and rarely applied in Africa today. Partnerships between communities and academic ecologists can address this capacity deficit, modernize the evidence base for such approaches and enable future scale up.

Methods: Community-based IVM programmes were initiated in two contrasting settings.

Human alveolar macrophages infected by virulent bacteria expressing SipB are a major source of active interleukin-18.

Recent publications have demonstrated that the protease caspase-1 is responsible for the processing of pro-interleukin 18 (IL-18) into the active form. Studies on cell lines and murine macrophages have shown that the bacterial invasion factor SipB activates caspase-1, triggering cell death. Thus, we investigated the role of SipB in the activation and release of IL-18 in human alveolar macrophages (AM), which are the first line of defense against inhaled pathogens.

Perception of illusory occlusion in apparent motion.

We began with a random matrix of 8 dots displayed briefly on the CRT screen. The pattern was switched off and replaced by an identical array shifted horizontally and the procedure was repeated in a continuous cycle. One of the dots in the second frame was then masked off by an opaque white piece of cardboard.