BACKGROUND We assessed the prognostic value of protein-energy wasting (PEW) on mortality in Afro-Caribbean MHD patients and analysed how diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and inflammation modified the predictive power of a severe wasting state. METHOD A 3-year prospective study was conducted in 216 patients from December 2011. We used four criteria from the nomenclature for PEW proposed ...

BACKGROUND Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious, fatal prion disease affecting cervids in a growing number of regions across North America. Projected deer population declines and concern about potential spread of CWD to other species warrant strategies to manage this disease. Control efforts to date have been largely unsuccessful, resulting in continuing spread and increasing prevalenc...

Predicting the spread of wildlife disease is critical for identifying populations at risk, targeting surveillance and designing proactive management programmes. We used a landscape genetics approach to identify landscape features that influenced gene flow and the distribution of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Wisconsin white-tailed deer. CWD prevalence was negatively correlated with genetic d...

Pathogen transmission can involve direct and/or indirect pathways. Using theoretical models, in this study we ask, "do directly and indirectly transmitted pathogens yield different population-level epidemiological dynamics?" and "can the transmission pathway be inferred from population-level epidemiological data?" Our approach involves comparing the continuous-time dynamics of a class of compar...

The United States' waste stream is the most visible example of popular society's disregard for the earth. The environmental movement focused on curbing the array of crises we now face has been steadily growing since the 70's, however; the extent of its progress in many areas is questionable. Specific to mitigating the amount of garbage that plagues our communities and landfills, recycling progr...