Determination of Elemental Composition in Soft Biological Tissue Using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: Method Validation.

Determination of elemental concentrations in biological tissue is fundamental to many environmental studies. Analytical methods typically used to quantify concentrations in such studies have minimum sample volumes that necessitate lethal or impactful collection of tissues. Laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has small sample volume requirements and offers environmental practitioners an opportunity to employ low-impact sample collection methods.

The Automatic Substitution of Biosimilars: Definitions of Interchangeability are not Interchangeable.

In the USA, an interchangeability designation provides biosimilar sponsors with a pathway for achieving what is standard for small-molecule generics: pharmacy-level auto-substitution for an innovator. No other major health authority links interchangeability to automatic substitution, as all require the involvement of the prescriber or patient in a medication change. This editorial considers the clinical impact and practicality of auto-substitution.

Protective Immunity and New Vaccines for Lyme Disease.

Lyme disease, caused by some Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, is the most common tick-borne illness in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of cases, and geographic spread, continue to grow. Previously identified B. burgdorferi proteins, lipid immunogens, and live mutants lead the design of canonical vaccines aimed at disrupting infection in the host.

Blood Smears Have Poor Sensitivity for Confirming Borrelia miyamotoi Disease.

disease (BMD) is a newly recognized borreliosis that is cotransmitted by ticks wherever Lyme disease is zoonotic. Unlike , the agent of Lyme disease, is closely related to relapsing fever spirochetes, such as Some authors have suggested that the disease caused by should be considered a hard-tick-transmitted relapsing fever, and thus, the main mode of confirming a diagnosis for that infection, microscopy to analyze a blood smear, may have clinical utility. To determine whether blood smears may detect in the blood of acute BMD patients, we made standard malariological thick smears from anticoagulated blood samples that were previously determined to contain this agent (by PCR) and analyzed them for morphological evidence of spirochetes.

Zoonotic Babesia microti in the northeastern U.S.: Evidence for the expansion of a specific parasite lineage.

The recent range expansion of human babesiosis in the northeastern United States, once found only in restricted coastal sites, is not well understood. This study sought to utilize a large number of samples to examine the population structure of the parasites on a fine scale to provide insights into the mode of emergence across the region. 228 B.

Spatial variation in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure in Barrow's goldeneye (Bucephala islandica) in coastal British Columbia.

Barrow's goldeneyes are sea ducks that winter throughout coastal British Columbia (BC). Their diet consists primarily of intertidal blue mussels, which can accumulate PAHs; accordingly, goldeneyes may be susceptible to exposure through contaminated prey. In 2014/15, we examined total PAH concentrations in mussels from undeveloped and developed coastal areas of BC.

Borrelia miyamotoi Disease: Neither Lyme Disease Nor Relapsing Fever.

Borrelia miyamotoi disease (BMD) is a newly recognized borreliosis globally transmitted by ticks of the Ixodes persulcatus species complex. Once considered to be a tick symbiont with no public health implications, B miyamotoi is increasingly recognized as the agent of a nonspecific febrile illness often misdiagnosed as acute Lyme disease without rash, or as ehrlichiosis. The frequency of its diagnosis in the northeastern United States is similar to that of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

Borrelia miyamotoi Disease in the Northeastern United States: A Case Series.

Background: The first recognized cases of Borrelia miyamotoi disease (BMD) in North America were reported in the northeastern United States in 2013.

Objective: To further describe the clinical spectrum and laboratory findings for BMD.

Design: Case series.

Investigational screening for Babesia microti in a large repository of blood donor samples from nonendemic and endemic areas of the United States.

Background: Babesia microti, a transfusion-transmissible intraerythrocytic parasite, is increasing in frequency in the United States with no available FDA-licensed donor screening assay. We utilized investigational arrayed fluorescence immunoassay (AFIA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect B. microti antibodies and DNA in blood donors.

Borrelia miyamotoi infection presenting as human granulocytic anaplasmosis: a case report.

Background: The diverse tickborne infections of the northeastern United States can present as undifferentiated flu-like illnesses. In areas endemic for Lyme and other tickborne diseases, patients presenting with acute febrile illness with myalgia, headache, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and elevated hepatic aminotransferase levels are presumptively diagnosed as having human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA).

Objective: To assign a cause for illness experienced by 2 case patients who were initially diagnosed with HGA but did not rapidly defervesce with doxycycline treatment and had no laboratory evidence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection.

Recent region-wide declines in Caribbean reef fish abundance.

Profound ecological changes are occurring on coral reefs throughout the tropics, with marked coral cover losses and concomitant algal increases, particularly in the Caribbean region. Historical declines in the abundance of large Caribbean reef fishes likely reflect centuries of overexploitation. However, effects of drastic recent degradation of reef habitats on reef fish assemblages have yet to be established.

Sperm competition and sex change: a comparative analysis across fishes.

Current theory to explain the adaptive significance of sex change over gonochorism predicts that female-first sex change could be adaptive when relative reproductive success increases at a faster rate with body size for males than for females. A faster rate of reproductive gain with body size can occur if larger males are more effective in controlling females and excluding competitors from fertilizations. The most simple consequence of this theoretical scenario, based on sexual allocation theory, is that natural breeding sex ratios are expected to be female biased in female-first sex changers, because average male fecundity will exceed that of females.

Evolution: vertebrate reproductive strategies get mixed up.

The mangrove killifish is the only vertebrate known to have a mixed-mating strategy, where hermaphrodites reproduce by either self-fertilisation or cross-breeding. New molecular evidence from this species reveals that occasional cross-breeding between common hermaphroditic individuals and rare pure males results in an injection of genetic variation into otherwise highly homozygous 'clonal' lineages.