Early-phase transmission (EPT) of Yersinia pestis by unblocked fleas is a well-documented, replicable phenomenon with poorly defined mechanisms. We review evidence demonstrating EPT and current knowledge on its biological and biomechanical processes. We discuss the importance of EPT in the epizootic spread of Y. pestis and its role in the maintenance of plague bacteria in nature. We further add...

In 1988, the World Health Assembly launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Among the three wild poliovirus serotypes, only wild poliovirus (WPV) type 1 (WPV1) has been detected since 2012. Since 2014, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria remain the only countries with continuing endemic WPV1 transmission. This report describes activities conducted and progress made toward the eradicatio...

Modifications to established protocols for preparing Acari for transmission electron microscopy are described. These modifications were found to improve the results obtained in a study of the ultrastructure of lightly sclerotized eupodoid mites.

We assess the imaging performance of a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) system operated at a relatively low acceleration voltage using the three-dimensional (3D) Fourier transform of through-focus images. Although a single diffractogram and the Thon diagram cannot distinguish between the linear and non-linear TEM imaging terms, the 3D Fourier transform allows us to evaluate linear imaging...

During the last twenty years, the research in nanoscience and nanotechnology has dramatically increased and, in the last decade, the interest has progressively been oriented towards biomedical applications, giving rise to a new field termed nanomedicine. Transmis - sion electron microscopy is a valuable technique not only for the thorough physico-chemical characterization of newly synthesized n...

Recent advances in ecology have improved our understanding of the role of parasites in the dynamics of wildlife populations. However, conditions that prevail in many wildlife systems, such as host movement, contact with livestock, and heterogeneity in the environment of the parasite outside of the host, have largely been ignored in existing models of macroparasite transmission. We need to refin...