The Role of Essential Oils in Homemade Cosmetics: A Study of 140 Recipes.

Two recent trends that have developed simultaneously are a mistrust of health products by some of the population and the growing popularity of essential oils. The objective of this study was to analyze recipes with essential oils found on the internet and to assess their level of photoprotective efficacy. Therefore, we conducted a study of 140 recipes for personal care and hygiene products that incorporate one or more essential oils.

Pregnancy Apps for Self-Monitoring: Scoping Review of the Most Popular Global Apps Available in Australia.

Digital health tools, such as apps, have the potential to promote healthy behaviours, especially self-monitoring, which can facilitate pregnancy management and reduce the risk of associated pregnancy health conditions. While pregnancy apps are popular amongst pregnant women, there is limited information about the overall quality of their content or self-monitoring tools and the number of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) that they include. The aim of this study was thus to assess the quality of pregnancy apps for self-monitoring, and their usage of BCTs.

Percutaneous, implantless basal closing wedge osteotomy for hallux valgus: Surgical technique and preliminary results in 114 patients.

Background: Percutaneous, implantless basal closing wedge osteotomy (PIBCO) is a new technique for hallux valgus (HV) deformity correction that does not need internal fixation. We present this technique and its short-term clinical outcomes for moderate-to-severe HV deformities.

Methods: A retrospective review of 162 feet in 114 patients who underwent PIBCO of the first metatarsal (MT1) was conducted.

Study of the influence of alcohol on the photostability of four UV filters.

Objective: Spray formulations are currently under development in the field of topical photoprotection. Such forms are characterized by their high fluidity, a property that is obtained by the presence of alcohol in the formula. The purpose of this work was to study the influence of ethanol in sunscreens on the photoprotective efficacy as well as the photostability of UV filters.

Importance of human capital, field knowledge and experience to improve pest locust management.

Background: A poorly organised risk management system may dysfunction when used. The consequences can be dramatic for those supposed to be protected. Since the 1960s, preventive control strategies, with field officers as living memory, have been developed to monitor locusts.

On the relative role of climate change and management in the current desert locust outbreak in East Africa.

While large-scale monitoring, early detection and control can greatly reduce desert locust invasions, global change is most likely to affect conditions that promote the transition from solitary to gregarious populations. Although climate change scenarios point to an increase in aridity and further desertification in vast areas of Africa, some regions that have been at the origin of past outbreaks are likely to see a reversed trend (i.e.

Chasing a ghost: notes on the present distribution and conservation of the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys) in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

The West-African sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys) is threatened by habitat loss, hunting for meat consumption, and mortality during crop-foraging events. The species' overall demographic trend is unknown. Presence and distribution in Guinea-Bissau, a country neighbored by Senegal and Republic of Guinea, was confirmed in 1946 but the species was declared extinct in 1989 and not observed in subsequent countrywide expeditions.

The limitations of locust preventive management faced with spatial uncertainty: exploration with a multi-agent model.

Background: The spatial structure of locust outbreaks is a major aspect of preventive management that relies on where survey teams have to be sent if they are to react in time to any upsurge. The concentration of areas propitious to outbreaks has been documented for many species. Areas where preventive management fails to collect information because of insecurity or remoteness constitute other limits.

Locust and Grasshopper Management.

Locusts and grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) are among the most dangerous agricultural pests. Their control is critical to food security worldwide and often requires governmental or international involvement. Although locust and grasshopper outbreaks are now better controlled and often shorter in duration and reduced in extent, large outbreaks, often promoted by climate change, continue to occur in many parts of the world.

Not in wilderness: African vulture strongholds remain in areas with high human density.

Vultures constitute an important functional group in many ecosystems, providing crucial ecosystem services both in natural and humanized environments. These scavengers are facing massive declines worldwide, but in several African countries virtually nothing is known on populations' status and threats, hampering the development of adequate conservation strategies. In Guinea-Bissau, globally important populations of Hooded Necrosyrtes monachus and African white-backed vultures Gyps africanus were recently reported.

Improving preventive locust management: insights from a multi-agent model.

Background: Preventive management of locust plagues works in some cases but still fails frequently. The role of funding institution awareness was suggested as a potential facilitating factor for cyclic locust plagues. We designed a multi-agent system to represent the events of locust plague development and a management system with three levels: funding institution, national control unit and field teams.

Climate-driven geographic distribution of the desert locust during recession periods: Subspecies' niche differentiation and relative risks under scenarios of climate change.

The desert locust is an agricultural pest that is able to switch from a harmless solitarious stage, during recession periods, to swarms of gregarious individuals that disperse long distances and affect areas from western Africa to India during outbreak periods. Large outbreaks have been recorded through centuries, and the Food and Agriculture Organization keeps a long-term, large-scale monitoring survey database in the area. However, there is also a much less known subspecies that occupies a limited area in Southern Africa.

Evaluating green infrastructure in urban environments using a multi-taxa and functional diversity approach.

Forested areas within cities host a large number of species, responsible for many ecosystem services in urban areas. The biodiversity in these areas is influenced by human disturbances such as atmospheric pollution and urban heat island effect. To ameliorate the effects of these factors, an increase in urban green areas is often considered sufficient.

Demographic processes shaping genetic variation of the solitarious phase of the desert locust.

Between plagues, the solitarious desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is generally thought to exist as small populations, which are particularly prone to extinction events in arid regions of Africa and Asia. Given the high genetic structuring observed in one geographical area (the Eritrean coast) by former authors, a metapopulation dynamics model involving repeated extinction and colonization events was favoured. In this study, we assessed the validity of a demographic scenario involving temporary populations of the solitarious phase of the desert locust by analysing large-scale population genetic data.

Can human-made saltpans represent an alternative habitat for shorebirds? Implications for a predictable loss of estuarine sediment flats.

Estuarine areas worldwide are under intense pressure due to human activities such as upstream dam building. Shorebirds strongly depend on estuarine intertidal flats during migration and wintering periods and so are particularly vulnerable to such impacts, whose magnitude will depend on the availability of alternative feeding habitats. In this study we analyze if man-made saltpans can represent an alternative habitat for wintering and migrating shorebirds in the Guadiana estuary, a wetland that is already experiencing environmental changes due to the building of the Alqueva reservoir, the largest in Western Europe.

CT scan does not improve the reproducibility of trochanteric fracture classification: a prospective observational study of 53 cases.

Introduction: The reproducibility of various classification systems for trochanteric fractures is poor. This problem could be related to a lack of readability when using conventional X-rays.

Hypothesis: Computed tomography scanning (CT scan) will improve the interobserver reproducibility of the AO classification for trochanteric fractures.

Mosaic-level inference of the impact of land cover changes in agricultural landscapes on biodiversity: a case-study with a threatened grassland bird.

Changes in land use/land cover are a major driver of biodiversity change in the Mediterranean region. Understanding how animal populations respond to these landscape changes often requires using landscape mosaics as the unit of investigation, but few previous studies have measured both response and explanatory variables at the land mosaic level. Here, we used a "whole-landscape" approach to assess the influence of regional variation in the land cover composition of 81 farmland mosaics (mean area of 2900 ha) on the population density of a threatened bird, the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax), in southern Portugal.

Isolation of microsatellite markers in the Calliptamus genus (Orthoptera, Acrididae).

The Calliptamus genus (Orthoptera: Acrididae) includes locust and grasshopper species, some of which have a high economic impact. Using an enriched methodology, 10 microsatellite markers have been developed from two species, Calliptamus italicus and Calliptamus barbarus. These polymorphic markers were tested on different populations of three Calliptamus species: C.

Multiplex PCR assay to discriminate four neighbouring species of the Calliptamus genus (Orthoptera: Acrididae) from France.

Definition of the genus Calliptamus (Orthoptera: Acrididae) has generated many taxonomic debates. Even now, the existence of different geographical morphs hinders species determination, particularly as concerns females and larvae. Some of these species are observed in southern France and are recognized as potential pests.

Phase polyphenism and preventative locust management.

The ecology of phase polyphenism plays a major role in locust swarm formation. We describe how recent advances in the understanding of phase polyphenism can be combined with existing management approaches as part of a preventative Desert locust management strategy. We start with a brief overview of phase polyphenism with particular emphasis on the role that resource distribution patterns play in the process of locust phase change.

Outcomes after chemotherapy with WHO category II regimen in a population with high prevalence of drug resistant tuberculosis.

Standard short course chemotherapy is recommended by the World Health Organization to control tuberculosis worldwide. However, in settings with high drug resistance, first line standard regimens are linked with high treatment failure. We evaluated treatment outcomes after standardized chemotherapy with the WHO recommended category II retreatment regimen in a prison with a high prevalence of drug resistant tuberculosis (TB).