The incidence of Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis, has been increasing in UK cattle herds resulting in substantial economic losses. The European badger (Meles meles) is implicated as a wildlife reservoir of infection. One likely route of transmission to cattle is through exposure to infected badger urine and faeces. The relative importance of the environment in tr...

There is growing evidence that in a variety of organisms the majority of meiotic recombination events occur at a relatively small fraction of loci, known as recombination hotspots. If hotspot activity results from the DNA sequence at or near the hotspot itself (in cis), these hotspots are expected to be rapidly lost due to biased gene conversion, unless there is strong selection in favor of the...

Understanding recombination rate variation is very important for studying genome diversity and evolution, and for investigation of phenotypic association and genetic diseases. Recombination hotspots have been observed in many species and are well studied in yeast. Recent study demonstrated that recombination hotspots are also a ubiquitous feature of the human genome. But the nature of human hot...

Complex biophysical, social, and human behavioral factors influence population vulnerability to vector-borne diseases. Spatially and temporally dynamic environmental and anthropogenic patterns require sophisticated mapping and modeling techniques. While many studies use environmental variables to predict risk, human population vulnerability has been a challenge to incorporate into spatial risk ...

This paper presents systematic analysis of value creation chains and their economic environmental hotspots within a multi-product biorefinery with the primary goal to promote sustainable biorefining. Lignocellulosic producing ethanol, crude lignin oil (CLO) electricity was analysed. The methodology involves transformation technological model into an input-output one use matrix notation for attr...

xanthomonas campestris pv.musacrearum causes banana wilt disease (bxw disease) which occurs at different epidemic phases in east and central africa (eca). in the endemic areas, there are many banana fields with over 80% bxw disease incidence. this study aimed at rehabilitating banana fields heavily infected with bxw disease in uganda, kenya and dr. congo. farmer managed trials were established ...

Identifying hotspots of species threat has been a successful approach for setting conservation priorities. One important challenge in conservation is that, in many hotspots, export industries continue to drive overexploitation. Conservation measures must consider not just the point f impact, but also the consumer demand that ultimately drives resource use. To understand which species threat hot...

The occurrence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a public health problem globally, and aquatic environments are recognized as reservoir for antibiotic-resistant bacteria associated with antibiotic resistance genes. Antibiotic resistance hotspots are found not only in medical settings but also in environmental compartments that are subjected to anthropogenic pressure, such as munici...

Abstract Renewable energy generation has great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, however, it may exacerbate other environmental impacts, such as water scarcity, elsewhere in the supply chain. Here, we reveal a wide range of global impacts concentrated solar power, run-of-river hydropower, and biomass burning compared classical coal-fired power: Spatially explicit life cycle impact a...

There is strong evidence that hotspots of meiotic recombination in humans are transient features of the genome. For example, hotspot locations are not shared between human and chimpanzee. Biased gene conversion in favor of alleles that locally disrupt hotspots is a possible explanation of the short lifespan of hotspots. We investigate the implications of such a bias on human hotspots and their ...