Toxoplasmosis is caused by intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). Cats and other felids are the definitive hosts. It could be transmitted to man and animals by consumption of infected undercooked meat and contaminated food items including drinking water. Results of toxoplasmosis epidemiological surveys in animals and humans in South-West, North-West, No...

During the winters of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, anomalously warm temperatures in western North America and anomalously cool temperatures in eastern North America resulted in substantial human and environmental impacts. Motivated by the impacts of these concurrent temperature extremes and the intrinsic atmospheric linkage between weather conditions in the western and eastern United States, we inv...

A short-wave train emanating from the Southeast Asian tropics which links interannual variations of the winter climate systems in both East Asia and North America was identified recently. This shortwave train may affect the activity of cold-surge disturbances over the eastern seaboard of East Asia, and the northwestern Pacific. The interaction between cold surges and the planetary-scale winter ...

Cancer is a major cause of mortality and morbidity throughout the world, including the countries of North-East and South-East Asia. Assessment of burden through cancer registration, determination of risk and protective factors, early detection and screening, clinical practice, interventions for example in vaccination, tobacco cessation efforts and palliative care all should be included in compr...

Diversity in lifestyles and socioeconomic status among European populations, and recent socio-political and economic changes in transitional countries, may affect changes in adiposity. We aimed to determine whether change in the prevalence of obesity varies between the socio-politically transitional North-East European (Łódź, Poland; Szeged, Hungary; Tartu, Estonia), and the non-transitional Me...

Zahra Jehan Iqbal, MD, Long Cao, MD, Karl Chiang, MD, Sundeep Adusumalli, MD, Farah Khalid, BA, Rajasekhar Nekkanti, MD From the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Heath Sciences and Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, Department of Cardiology, Division of Heath Sciences and Brody School of Medicine East Carolina University, Greenville, Nort...

OBJECTIVES This paper compares patterns of smoking and high-risk alcohol use across regions in England, and assesses the impact on these of adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. DESIGN Population survey of 53 922 adults in England aged 16+ taking part in the Alcohol and Smoking Toolkit Studies. MEASURES Participants answered questions regarding their socioeconomic status (SES), ge...

Jitka A. I. Virag,* Ethan J. Anderson,* Susan D. Kent, Harrison D. Blanton, Tracy L. Johnson, Fatiha Moukdar, Jonathan H. DeAntonio, Kathleen Thayne, Jian M. Ding, and Robert M. Lust Department of Physiology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina; and Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University, Greenvill...

The distribution of bluetongue viruses (BTV) in Australia is represented by two distinct and interconnected epidemiological systems (episystems)-one distributed primarily in the north and one in the east. The northern episystem is characterised by substantially greater antigenic diversity than the eastern episystem; yet the forces that act to limit the diversity present in the east remain uncle...