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Faculty of 1 |
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The Faculty of 1000 Biology is a an online service produced by a panel of well-established biologists who regularly identify and evaluate the research articles that they have found most interesting in the recently published literature. I’m not part of the faculty of 1000, but here are the papers, books and websites that I’ve seen lately that have really made me think… 12 June 08 Riley, S. et al. 2008. Multi-host transmission dynamics of Schistosoma japonicum in Samar Province, the Phillipines. PLoS Medicine 5(1):e18. This is a great modeling study built on the collection of an amazing amount of mammalian infection data from a broad geographical region. The conclusion is that transmission from snails to humans is more important in determining infection prevalence than transmission from humans to snails. The applied potential of this research is great, and I definitely applaud anyone willing to collect fecal samples from water buffaloes. 1 June 08 The great sunflower project. This is a really neat citizen science project. 28 Dec 07 Hotez, P.J. 2007. Neglected diseases and poverty in “The Other America”: the greatest health disparity in the United States. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 1(3): e149 It never occurred to me that helminth parasites were an issue in the human population of the US, but the author states… “There is a high probability that ascariasis, trichuriasis, and strongyloidiasis are still important parasitic diseases in the US, but because they only occur among impoverished people and mostly underrepresented minorities, I believe that there has been a lack of political will to study the problem, so that these diseases of poverty have been allowed to simply remain neglected.” 15 Dec 07 Schotthoefer, Labak and Beasley. 2007. Ribeiroia ondatrae cercariae are consumed by aquatic invertebrate predators. Journal of Parasitology 93(5): 1240-1243. A great example of how non-host species can influence host-parasite dynamics.
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