BACKGROUND Schistosomiasis and STH are among the list of neglected tropical diseases considered for control by the WHO. Although both diseases are endemic in Zimbabwe, no nationwide control interventions have been implemented. For this reason in 2009 the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care included the two diseases in the 2009-2013 National Health Strategy highlighting the importance of ...

Records of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (P(CO(2))) and Antarctic temperature have revealed an intriguing change in the magnitude of interglacial warmth and P(CO(2)) at around 430,000 years ago (430 ka), but the global climate repercussions of this change remain elusive. Here, we present a stalagmite-based reconstruction of tropical West Pacific hydroclimate from 570 to 210 ka. The r...

We use the Chowdhury ecosystem model, one of the most complex agent-based ecological models, to test the latitude-niche breadth hypothesis, with regard to habitat width, i.e., whether tropical species generally have narrower habitats than high latitude ones. Application of the model has given realistic results in previous studies on latitudinal gradients in species diversity and Rapoport's rule...

The spatial distribution of tropospheric and stratospheric temperature trends for 1979 to 2005 was examined, based on radiances from satellite-borne microwave sounding units that were processed with state-of-the-art retrieval algorithms. We found that relative to the global-mean trends of the respective layers, both hemispheres have experienced enhanced tropospheric warming and stratospheric co...

A fundamental feature of the Earth’s climate is the distinction between the tropical and extratropical regimes. However, the boundaries of the tropics are not uniquely defined and vary among scientific disciplines. In astronomy and cartography, the edges of the tropical belt are the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, at latitudes of ~23.5 degrees north and south, where the sun is directly overhea...

We present the first high-resolution (sub-annual) dust particle data set from West Antarctica, developed from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide deep ice core (79.468 S, 112.086 W), and use it to reconstruct changes in atmospheric circulation over the past 2400 years. We find a background dust flux of ∼ 4 mg m−2 year−1 and a mode particle size of 5–8 μm diameter. Through comparing the W...

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are still considered to be the most prevalent infections of humankind. STH, traditionally endemic in rural areas, are increasingly becoming a public health concern in urban slums of cities in tropical and subtropical developing countries in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South America. These helminths, Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm...

BACKGROUND Since 2001, Haiti's National Program for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis (NPELF) has worked to reduce the transmission of lymphatic filariasis (LF) through annual mass drug administration (MDA) with diethylcarbamazine and albendazole. The NPELF reached full national coverage with MDA for LF in 2012, and by 2014, a total of 14 evaluation units (48 communes) had met WHO eligibi...

Our report, which describes success in preventing soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections in Chinese schoolchildren through the use of a health education package that includes a 12-minute cartoon, ‘‘The Magic Glasses,’’ may thus prove timely. The results from the cluster randomized intervention trial, conducted in 38 rural Chinese schools and involving 1,718 children, showed that the videoba...