Our article (1) provided a rationale for the vast volume of biological data (20 species of birds, bats, and insects) on optimal nectar concentrations measured in a laboratory setting. The comment of Rico-Guevara and Rubega (2) bears on our footnote, where the relative importance of nectar transport via trapping and capillary rise in the specific case of hummingbird feeding is briefly touched on...

Several excellent reviews document the formal history of hantavirus disease and virology in Asia, Scandinavia, southern Europe, and the Americas [1–5]. I will not rehash or expand on this body of information; rather, I wish to relate personal experiences that played a largely unplanned role in the recovery of the prototype Hantaan virus from nature. I began my career in virology at the laborato...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) prevalence and its determinants between empty-nest and non-empty-nest elderly households. SETTING Shandong province of China. PARTICIPANTS A total of 2761 elderly households are included in the analysis. RESULTS CHE incidence among elderly households was 44.9%. The CHE incidence of empty-nest singles ...

Anti-cholinesterase insecticides constitute a major portion of modern synthetic pesticides and the assessment of cholinesterase (ChE) inhibition is widely used as a specific biomarker for evaluating the exposure of non-target organisms to these pollutants. However, most studies on this biomarker were developed on vertebrates and among invertebrates, gastropod mollusks are rarely used. Gastropod...

BACKGROUND Polarised trafficking of proteins is critical for normal expression of the epithelial phenotype, but its genetic control is not understood. The regulatory gene lin-26 is essential for normal epithelial differentiation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. To identify potential effectors of lin-26, we characterised mutations that result in lin-26-like phenotypes. Here, we report the...

Jennifer Guevara, Marcelo O. Gonzaga, João Vasconcellos-Neto, and Leticia Avilés Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Biological Sciences Building, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 Canada, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, 38400902, Uberlandia, MG, Brazil, and Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto d...

BACKGROUND China has been undergoing tremendous demographic and epidemiological transitions during the past three decades and increasing burden from non-communicable diseases and an ageing population have presented great health-care challenges for the country. Numerous studies examine catastrophic healthcare expenditures (CHE) worldwide on whole populations rather than specific vulnerable group...