A contemporary baseline record of the world's coral reefs.

Addressing the global decline of coral reefs requires effective actions from managers, policymakers and society as a whole. Coral reef scientists are therefore challenged with the task of providing prompt and relevant inputs for science-based decision-making. Here, we provide a baseline dataset, covering 1300 km of tropical coral reef habitats globally, and comprised of over one million geo-referenced, high-resolution photo-quadrats analysed using artificial intelligence to automatically estimate the proportional cover of benthic components. The dataset contains information on five major reef regions, and spans 2012-2018, including surveys before and after the 2016 global bleaching event. The taxonomic resolution attained by image analysis, as well as the spatially explicit nature of the images, allow for multi-scale spatial analyses, temporal assessments (decline and recovery), and serve for supporting image recognition developments. This standardised dataset across broad geographies offers a significant contribution towards a sound baseline for advancing our understanding of coral reef ecology and thereby taking collective and informed actions to mitigate catastrophic losses in coral reefs worldwide.

Trends in funding for research on pain: a report on the National Institutes Of Health grant awards over the years 2003 to 2007.

UNLABELLED: In recent years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has experienced unprecedented reductions in its customary annual budget increases. Consequently, researchers, health care policy planners and others have a pressing need for accurate information on NIH funding patterns. We created a unique and objective system for compiling, classifying, and analyzing data on NIH grant awards and funding for research on pain, nausea, and dyspnea using naïve observers, cross-validation by multiple raters, and face validation by experts. We present results of our method and analyses for the period from 2003 to 2007. Following a 12% increase from 2003 to 2004, funding for pain research fell by 9.4% per year on average over the next 3 years. The percent of the total NIH budget going to support pain research increased to 0.78% in 2004 but fell to 0.61% in 2007. A piecewise regression model confirmed the declining trend represented a significant fit to the data (R(2)=0.98, p=0.024). Separate breakdowns by Institutes showed similar patterns. Analyses of nausea and dyspnea research support revealed small but steady increases over the same period. Declining support for pain research disproportionate to decreases in the NIH budget signals a need for measures to promote funding for meritorious applications. PERSPECTIVE: Results of 5 year trends in numbers of grants and funding for research in pain, nausea, and dyspnea by the NIH show overall declines for pain but slight increases for nausea and dyspnea. Declining support for pain research that exceeds the reductions in the total NIH budget signals a need for measures to increase pain research funding.

A socioeconomic approach to the control of Schistosoma mansoni in St. Lucia

Systematic observations of man/water contact in a valley endemic for S. mansoni in St. Lucia were carried out prior to the introduction of a household water supply. The observations indicated that exposure of the population to cercaria-infested rivers and streams could be broken down into different types related to distinct and measurable domestic and economic activities. The number and duration of daily contacts with water played an important role in determining the relative risk of infection and correlated significantly with the number of infected persons by age in a survey conducted immediately following the observations. Consideration should be given to measuring and assessing the relative importance of different activities involving contact with water in relation to transmission and the formulation of control strategies.(AU)

The social ecology of a disease: the study of an S. Mansoni control programme in the West Indies (St. Lucia)

This thesis is concerned with a sociological-anthropological assessment of an S. mansoni control programme in an endemic area in the West Indies (St. Lucia) in which an experiment has been carried out to compare different methods of control-mollusciciding, engineering, and chemotherapy. The theoretical basis of the experiment is a model developed by G. Macdonald in which the S. mansoni transmission cycle is sustained by the interaction of the human and biological population. For the human population there is a threshold level of exposure (called by Macdonald the 'break-point') below which transmission will discontinue, and above which the host and parasitic population are in equilibrium. Similarly there is a population density both of worm pairs within the human host, and of the snail intermediate host, below which the transmission will also stop. The objective of the control programme has been to reduce transmission below this threshold by, (a) destroying snail populations (mollusciciding), (b) killing worm pairs in the host (chemotherapy), and (c) reducing human exposure (engineering-the installation of household water to prevent contact with contaminated water-bodies). Because of rapidly changing socio-economic conditions in St. Lucia disturbing any equilibrium between host and parasite, the model is not relevant. The results of the experiment to date indicate that the technological bias inherent in this model has not enabled the experimenters to control the disease effectively by means of mollusciciding or chemotherapy. In the attempt to reduce human exposure, however, there has been significant reduction in incidence as a result of the introduction of household water, but only when supplemented by a water-contact study and a health education programme, suggesting that social and cultural systems play a dominant role in the cycle in this area. It is concluded that, (a) it is possible to assess, measure and control the exposure of human population to contaminated water bodies in an S. mansoni endemic area, (b) it is the daily, weekly and seasonal cycles of human activity that are dominant within the transmission cycle, and can explain variations in the incidence and prevalence of the disease, (c) there appear to be upper limits to the intensity of an S. mansoni infection, though there is no clear indication that this has lasting effects, (d) for a control programme to be ensured of success there should be preliminary sociological-anthropological investigations to discern the social and cultural factors influencing the transmission cycle, and account should be taken of the socio-economic context in which any control programme is taking place(AU)

Reduced contact with natural water bodies through provision of water supplies in an S. Manson endemic area - abstract

Water supplies are being installed in an area where there is a high prevalence of S. mansoni in an endeavour to determine the efficacy of this method of schistosomiasis control. The rural water system incorporates the supply of water to each household, laundry and shower units, and a simple swimming pool. In the first settlement in which water has been made available, post-control water contact studies show that compared with pre-control data, contact with natural water bodies has been reduced by approximately 80 percent. Further studies are being made to obtain parasitological evidence that this is reducing the incidence and prevalence of S. mansoni (AU)