Explaining altruistic cooperation is one of the greatest challenges faced by sociologists, economists, and evolutionary biologists. The problem is determining why an individual would carry out a costly behavior that benefits another. Possible solutions to this problem include kinship, repeated interactions, and policing. Another solution that has recently received much attention is the threat o...

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Biliary infections are an important cause of morbidity in the Western world. With regard to epidemiology, etiology, microbiological spectrum, prevalence, location and composition of gallstones, pathogenesis, clinical sign and therapy, there are large differences between the spectrum of biliary infections in the East and in the West (Table 1). In Western countries, gallstones are found in 10 to ...

BACKGROUND In the summer of 2010, Europe experienced outbreaks of West Nile Fever (WNF) in humans, which was preceded by hot spells. The objective of this study was to identify potential drivers of these outbreaks, such as spring and summer temperatures, relative humidity (RH), and precipitation. METHODS Pearson and lag correlations, binary and multinomial logistic regressions were used to as...

BACKGROUND: The Barataria Basin, a bar-built estuarine system located directly west of the Mississippi Delta, has been experiencing a significant land loss, especially since the leveeing of the Mississippi River for flood control purposes in early 20

BACKGROUND Avian influenza viruses (AIV) have been detected in wild birds in West Africa during the northern winter, but no information is available on a potential year-round circulation of AIV in West Africa. Such year-round circulation would allow reassortment opportunities between strains circulating in Afro-tropical birds and strains imported by migratory birds wintering in West Africa. O...

A secondary in vitro murine cytotoxic response to the flavivirus, West Nile (WNV) is described. Cytotoxic activity was obtained from spleen cells of mice primed 7 days previously with 10(6) p.f.u. WNV and boosted in vitro for a further 5 days with WNV-infected stimulator spleen cells. The cells responsible for lysis of WNV-infected target cells were restricted by class 1 H-2 antigens. The K reg...

In the decade of the 1 840s the British Army Medical Department (AMD) commissioned 419 assistant surgeons to care for the health of its soldiers. Of this total 75 saw service in the West Indies or West Africa or both, some 18 per cent of those commissioned. For 67 of these officers the dates of their deaths are known. Seven died within less than one year of their commission date and another sev...

We report the generation of West Nile virus (WNV) infectious clones for the pathogenic lineage 1 Texas-HC2002 and nonpathogenic lineage 2 Madagascar-AnMg798 strains. The infectious clones exhibited biological properties similar to those of the parental virus isolates. We generated chimeric viruses and found that viral factors within the structural and nonstructural regions of WNV-TX contribute ...