Greater Burdens Research Articles

Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) 3 and 6 Months After Pulmonary Rehabilitation Following COVID-19

If COVID-19 disease sequelae also (co-)affect the respiratory organs, national and international guidelines recommend pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). So far, however, no studies are available from Germany on the course after PR, nor on possible course differences between the two Long COVID subgroups "Ongoing symptomatic COVID-19" and "Post-COVID-19 syndrome" (PCS). In a prospective observational study, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) regarding exertional dyspnea, quality of life, pain, fatigue, depression, and anxiety were assessed at the beginning of PR (T1), end of PR (T2), and after 3 (T3) and 6 months (T4). Statistical analyses were performed using latent difference models. There were 224 rehabilitation patients (MAge=54.4; SDAge=10.4; 42.0% female) included in the study. During PR, all PROs improved significantly. After PR, improvements either persisted with large pre-post effect sizes (exertional dyspnea, quality of life), decreased slightly to small pre-post effect sizes (depression, fatigue), or decreased to baseline levels (anxiety, pain). PCS patients had greater burdens in depression, fatigue, and pain at baseline, but did not differ in trajectories. Indicators of the severity of the preceding acute phase (oxygen therapy, ICU treatment, ventilation) were associated with higher burdens at T0 in depression, fatigue, and pain, but not with the courses during and after PR. In contrast, female patients showed higher burdens in both depression and fatigue at T1 and higher pre-post effects than male patients. The fact that improvements in PROs occurred in both subgroups only during PR, but not during the follow-up period suggests that the changes are not due to the natural healing process but at least partly due to PR. Moreover, the results suggest that both patient groups may benefit from PR. Persisting improvements in exertional dyspnea and quality of life and, to a reduced extent, in depression and fatigue until 6 months after PR, but not in pain and anxiety warrant study of additional multimodal interventions that may be needed to maintain these effects.

Some demographic characteristics of long-term commuting in Hungary

The study aims to show the most important demographic characteristics of long-termcommuting workers and the emerging territorial disparities using the latest available statistics.The main motivation for commuting, including long commuting, is still to get the job they deemappropriate, but about a quarter of a million people take on much greater burdens than averageand only travel home weekly or less frequently in Hungary. Most of them make this decision byforce, as there are no job opportunities in their place of residence, but the income they provide isvery important for their families. Long-term commuters mostly do seasonal work (construction,catering, etc.) and work in physical jobs. Unsurprisingly, men are more likely to take on the lifeform with increased physical and psychological strain, but not only the heads of the family intheir forties, but also young people in their 20s who are not yet independent of their familiesare represented in large numbers. Long commuting is characterised by marked territorialinequalities, and those affected mainly start from villages, despite the fact that the high level of public employment in the most disadvantaged areas is affecting the direction of the stay of theworkforce.

Gender Disparity and Climate Change – Addressing the Disproportionate Effects of Climate Change on Women

There is increasing awareness of gender disparity in relation to the negative effects of climate change. With that increasing awareness comes greater focus on how national and international policy frameworks are not sufficiently gender-responsive and do not sufficiently consider the disparity between genders. Climate change has a greater impact on those sections of the population that are most reliant on natural resources for their livelihoods, and these sections are often from poorer groups. At the same time, those same sections of the global population usually have the least capacity to respond to natural hazards, such as droughts, landslides, floods and hurricanes. The majority of the world's poor are women and consequently, those women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change. Where women are denied equal participation in decision-making processes and labour markets, these inequalities often prevent women from contributing meaningfully to climate-related planning, policy-making and implementation. Governments and international organisations need to develop new frameworks, policies and legislation, particularly in relation to the provision of cleaner energies which involve cooperation with women to ensure that realistic solutions are introduced and implemented.

Doubly marginalised

Climate change is destroying our lives through rise in sea level, climate related deaths, malnutrition, floods, cyclone, droughts, heat waves etc. The problem further worsens when we fail to understand that though climate change affects everyone but it affects more who are at vulnerable position, especially women. They suffer greater safety and health risks because they are the last to be rescued, their sanitation is being compromised. Women also do not fully participate in climate related planning and policy due to unequal participation in decision making process. Women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change in situations of poverty and due to existing roles, responsibilities and cultural norms. This paper suggests that the women are first responders in crises, entrepreneurs of green energy and decision-makers at home, women offer valuable insights and solutions into better managing the climate and its risks. Hence, women can play a critical role in response to climate change due to their local knowledge of and leadership in sustainable resource management and/or leading sustainable practices at the household and community level.

Influence through Absence in U.S. Counterinsurgency Interventions? Coercing Local Allies through Threats to Withdraw

ABSTRACT In counterinsurgency, U.S. officials often feel trapped by a localally who appears unable to survive the departure of U.S. forces. Advocates for withdrawal argue that only a deadline to depart will induce local governments to accept greater burdens, while critics of this position argue that plans to withdraw embolden insurgents. We argue instead that American leaders gain leverage from U.S. public opinion favouring withdrawal. Analysis of 200+ U.S. demands of local allied governments in Vietnam and Iraq suggests that public pressure for withdrawal is associated with greater local compliance, but that formal U.S. withdrawal plans does not motivate compliance.

Paying For Disasters

In June and July, 2019, record flooding inundated towns and agricultural land throughout the Mississippi basin, surpassing the Great Flood of 1927, one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. In November, 2018, the Camp Fire in Northern California decimated the town of Paradise and became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. As climate change increases the severity of droughts, wildfires, flooding, hurricanes and other extreme weather, property damages will escalate and individuals, companies, and governments will seek cost reimbursement from others. Ultimately, we must all pay the economic costs of climate change that we cannot avoid through prevention, disaster response, and retreat. All of us contribute to climate change but the costs of climate-related harms are not fairly distributed across our communities. This Article examines the ways we are currently paying for disasters. Those seeking recovery for property damage from disasters have increasingly turned to state inverse condemnation and damagings claims. These claims offer an alternative to tort liability and align government incentives to act for the public benefit while taking into account those individuals and entities who suffer greater burdens. The author proposes that inverse condemnation and damagings claims in all states and the federal government should apply a strict liability standard, which would compensate those people damaged by activities designed to benefit the public as a whole. Approaching takings claims as a mechanism for risk spreading would also allow takings claims for government inaction when there is a duty to act for the public benefit. Tort doctrines such as negligence, nuisance, reasonableness, and intent should not be applicable to the takings analysis, which focuses on equitably spreading the benefits and burdens of acts taken for a public benefit. Insurance is also a mechanism for spreading the risk, but insurers must price their policies to incentivize property owners in disaster-prone areas to explore development alternatives, take special precautions in building, and think hard about rebuilding after a disaster. In certain situations, the government may assist landowners to voluntarily relocate by using eminent domain to buy-out risky properties. Finally, public or private entities held strictly liable for disaster damages from flooding or wildfire should be able to pass these costs on to those who have received the benefit of their actions. That is, unless the entities have been negligent in fulfilling their duties to the public. Ratepayers and taxpayers will need to bear much of the cost for receiving public benefits and utility rates and taxes should reflect the increased risk of living in disaster-prone areas. Paying for disasters in the future will not be easy, but we must face these challenges together and ensure that we are distributing the benefits and burdens of our public needs as equitably as possible.

Sense of Filial Obligation and Caregiving Burdens Among Chinese Immigrants in the United States.

Focusing on Chinese immigrants, this study examined (1) whether filial obligation, the core social norm in the Chinese culture, is related to caregiving burdens; and (2) whether level of acculturation of the caregivers moderates the above relationships. Cross-sectional. Chicago, Illinois. A purposive sample of 393 Chinese adult immigrants who were primary caregivers of parents aged 60 years or older. Sense of filial obligation was captured by felt responsibility toward parents in six domains (respect, make happy, care, greet, obey, and provide financial support). Caregiving burdens were measured by the Caregiver Burden Inventory. Acculturation was measured by 12 questions about respondents' language preference in different settings and ethnicity of individuals they interact with. A stronger sense of filial obligation was significantly associated with lower levels of developmental (β = -.15), emotional (β = -.18), social (β = -.20), and physical (β = -.10) burdens. For subjective burdens (developmental, social burdens), such a protective effect of filial obligation was stronger among caregivers with lower acculturation levels. For more objective burdens (time-dependent, physical burdens), stronger filial obligation was actually associated with greater burdens among caregivers with higher acculturation levels. Programs focusing on celebrating the cultural heritage of immigrants and improving the relationship between the parents and children may be helpful to reduce caregiving burdens. Intervention programs that help Chinese immigrant caregivers to find the most appropriate way to balance traditional and new social norms are important to provide successful care to aging Chinese immigrants. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:S564-S570, 2019.

Environmental Racism and Privileged Consumerism

Environmental racism concerns the ways in which environmental protections are unfairly distributed along racial lines. One outcome of environmental racism is that environmental degradation does not harm us all equally, with oppressed racial groups facing greater burdens. Consequently, members of privileged groups can more comfortably engage in environmentally destructive consumerism because they will neither initially nor primarily face the worst impact from environmental destruction. I will argue that the ability to feel comfortable while engaging in environmentally destructive consumerism is a form of racism, and that this racism strengthens the blameworthiness of such privileged consumerism.

Cities and the city: spatio-temporal imaginaries of class and gender in Barranquilla and Cali, Colombia

This paper analyzes the spatio-temporal imaginations of women in the upper, middle, and lower classes of Barranquilla and Cali. These two intermediate Colombian cities are becoming increasingly important in terms of Colombia's urbanization and modernization plans. The text explores the ‘mobility tragedy’ as one of the main urban issues of Colombian cities, and the homogeneous and linear way in which this ‘tragedy’ supposedly affects women. Using focus groups, the authors show that mobility has differential effects according to the gender and class of the urban inhabitants of the two cities, who, from their differential experiences, build different spatio-temporal imaginaries and representations of urban spaces that are never pre-established elements. Based on the findings of the fieldwork carried out during 2016 and 2017, the authors propose a conceptualization of urban spaces, associated with the life experiences of their inhabitants. This approach emphasizes the distributive effects of mobility on men and women. This is a call to see ‘cities’ within the city, shedding light on the fact that some women take on greater burdens within the city than their male counterparts, destroying the longing for urban spaces as neutral constructions and showing how space and the ways in which different urban systems attempt to manage it through mobility mechanisms, operate as governmentality: they grant meaning to people's lives without them recognizing such mechanisms as influential.

Vietnam’s ‘socialization’ policy and the moral subject in a privatizing economy

The Vietnamese term for socialization, xã hội hóa, is grounded in its history of socialist construction, originally referring to the collectivization of property and resources. Since the country shifted to a market economy, yet remaining under the leadership of the Communist Party, the term has come to imply the individualization of responsibilities and the privatization of public goods. As a policy, however, it continues to evoke the idioms of ‘the whole society’ or ‘all the people’ as the basis of wellbeing and development. This paper examines the practices of socialization as part of broader shifts in welfare provision and local dynamics of exemplarity. I show that socialization concerns not only the mobilization of resources, but also the production of a moral subject that is self-optimized and yet sensitized to helping others, self-governed and yet governable by the party state. In a socialist country that is rapidly marketising, this moral subject plays into governing rationalities that blends new-prudentialist logics with socialist genealogies, privatization with a notion of society within which individual actions can be made morally meaningful. While the tension and contestation induced by people’s greater burdens are immanent, the continued reference to collective idioms appeals to people’s moral sensibilities, and thus makes socialization meaningful to some extent, even as they resent the turn away from broad-based structures of wellbeing.

Detrimental Effects of Climate Change on Women

Earth is undergoing inevitable changes in its climate as a result of both natural and man-made activities, e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, rapid urbanization, population growth, agricultural intensification, etc. Women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change as they are more likely to be economically dependent than men and have less access to education and information that would allow them to manage climate-related risks to agriculture and livestock. Women make up the majority of the world’s poor population. They tend to suffer more from the impacts of climate-related disasters and severe weather events due to regional cultural norms and unfair distribution of roles, resources, and power, especially in developing countries. Their role in combating climate change is seldom appreciated even though they give priority to their families even in the times of droughts and scarcity of food and water resources. This paper sheds light on climate change and its relation to women in different scenarios of the changing climate. These include agriculture, biodiversity, water, natural disasters, wars, migration, pollution, health and sanitation, education, disempowerment, security, social and psychological and human rights. Lastly, to mitigate the effects of climate change on women, recommendations to involve international funding organizations are also discussed.

Environmental life cycle assessment on the separation of rare earth oxides through solvent extraction

Over the past decade, Rare Earth Elements (REEs) have gained special interests due to their significance in many industrial applications, especially those related to clean energy. While REEs production is known to cause damage to the ecosystem, only a handful of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) investigations have been conducted in recent years, mainly due to lack of data and information. This is especially true for the solvent extraction separation of REEs from aqueous solution which is a challenging step in the REEs production route. In the current investigation, an LCA is carried out on a typical REE solvent extraction process using P204/kerosene and the energy/material flows and emissions data were collected from two different solvent extraction facilities in Inner Mongolia and Fujian provinces in China. In order to develop life cycle inventories, Ecoinvent 3 and SimaPro 8 software together with energy/mass stoichiometry and balance were utilized. TRACI and ILCD were applied as impact assessment tools and LCA outcomes were employed to examine and determine ecological burdens of the REEs solvent extraction operation. Based on the results, in comparison with the production of generic organic solvent in the Ecoinvent dataset, P204 production has greater burdens on all TRACI impact categories. However, due to the small amount of consumption, the contribution of P204 remains minimal. Additionally, sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid are the two impactful chemicals on most environmental categories used in the solvent extraction operation. On average, the solvent extraction step accounts for 30% of the total environmental impacts associated with individual REOs. Finally, opportunities and challenges for an enhanced environmental performance of the REEs solvent extraction operation were investigated.

Philosophy Comes to Dinner: Arguments about the Ethics of Eating

<i>Philosophy Comes to Dinner: Arguments about the Ethics of Eating</i>

Relationship of the Duration of Ventilator Support to Successful Weaning and Other Clinical Outcomes in 437 Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation Patients.

To investigate the relationships between durations of ventilator support and weaning outcomes of prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) patients. Cohort study of 957 PMV patients sequentially admitted to a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH). The study population was 437 PMV patients who underwent weaning, having achieved ≥4 hours of sustained spontaneous breathing. They were divided into tertiles of mechanical ventilation (MV) durations and compared for differences (tertile A: 21-58 days, n = 146; tertile B: 59-103 days, n = 147; and tertile C: ≥104 days, n = 144). Tertiles showed comparable weaning success rates and survival. As MV durations increased, LTACH postweaning days became progressively greater, whereas decannulations and discharge physical function diminished, and home discharges decreased while nursing facility discharges increased (all P < .001). Patients with lower physical function before critical illness or greater burdens of comorbidities were least likely to be weaned (all P < .001). Younger ages, lower comorbidity burdens, neurological diagnoses, higher admission prealbumin levels, and successful weaning, each independently reduced the risk of death (all P < .01). Durations of MV did not affect weaning success or survival, although deleterious effects were found in discharges, decannulations, LTACH postweaning days, and discharge physical function. Durations of MV alone should not guide transfer decisions for subsequent continuing care.

I-C-SEA Change: A participatory tool for rapid assessment of vulnerability of tropical coastal communities to climate change impacts.

We present a synoptic, participatory vulnerability assessment tool to help identify the likely impacts of climate change and human activity in coastal areas and begin discussions among stakeholders on the coping and adaptation measures necessary to minimize these impacts. Vulnerability assessment tools are most needed in the tropical Indo-Pacific, where burgeoning populations and inequitable economic growth place even greater burdens on natural resources and support ecosystems. The Integrated Coastal Sensitivity, Exposure, and Adaptive Capacity for Climate Change (I-C-SEA Change) tool is built around a series of scoring rubrics to guide non-specialists in assigning scores to the sensitivity and adaptive capacity components of vulnerability, particularly for coral reef, seagrass, and mangrove habitats, along with fisheries and coastal integrity. These scores are then weighed against threat or exposure to climate-related impacts such as marine flooding and erosion. The tool provides opportunities for learning by engaging more stakeholders in participatory planning and group decision-making. It also allows for information to be collated and processed during a "town-hall" meeting, facilitating further discussion, data validation, and even interactive scenario building.

Economic Superpower in an Age of Limits

This paper examines macroeconomic policy coordination between Japan and the United States under the locomotive strategy from 1977 to 1979. Previous studies have described the strategy as a fiasco because of its negative economic impact. In fact, the Japanese government, after two years of stimulus packages, quit trying to be a locomotive bringing other developed countries out of their economic difficulties and the u.s. government admitted it in 1979. On the other hand, as this article shows, bilateral cooperation with the United States under this strategy expanded the roles and burdens of Japan, an emerging economic superpower, in international economic policy coordination. Japan’s efforts to implement the strategy made the u.s. government believe that Tokyo would continue to respond to its request to bear larger international responsibilities, while it also increased awareness of Japan’s global role in Tokyo. These bilateral perceptual changes paved the way for subsequent policy coordination and Japan’s assumption of greater burdens, notably the adoption of large-scale stimulus packages under belt-tightening budgets.

Candida glabrata intra-abdominal candidiasis is characterized by persistence within the peritoneal cavity and abscesses.

The pathogenesis of Candida glabrata infections is poorly understood. We studied the pathogenesis of intra-abdominal candidiasis (IAC) in mice that were infected intraperitoneally with C. glabrata and sterile feces. C. glabrata BG2 (5 × 10(8) CFU) caused a 100% mortality rate. Sublethal inocula of BG2 (1 × 10(8) or 1 × 10(7) CFU) caused peritonitis that progressed to abscesses. Three clinical C. glabrata strains (5 × 10(8) CFU) caused 80 to 100% mortality rates, while a fourth (strain 346) caused a 29% mortality rate. Following sublethal inocula (1 × 10(7) CFU), the intra-abscess burdens of virulent strain 356 were ∼1 log greater than those of strain 346. A C. glabrata Δplb1-2 mutant (phospholipase B genes disrupted) killed mice as well as BG2 did. When sublethal inocula were used, however, the Δplb1-2 mutant was associated with more rapid abscess resolution and lower intra-abscess burdens; these findings were reversed by PLB1 and PLB2 reinsertion. The Δplb1-2 mutant was also more susceptible than BG2 to killing by human neutrophils in vitro. BG2 and the Δplb1-2 mutant were indistinguishable during hematogenously disseminated candidiasis. C. albicans SC5314 was more virulent than C. glabrata BG2 during IAC, causing a 100% mortality rate following a challenge with 5 × 10(7) CFU. In contrast, a sublethal inoculum (1 × 10(7) CFU) of BG2 caused less neutrophil infiltration and greater burdens in peritoneal fluid than SC5314 did and abscesses that persisted longer and contained greater burdens. In conclusion, a mouse model of C. glabrata IAC mimics disease in humans and distinguishes the relative virulence of clinical and gene disruption strains. C. glabrata differed from C. albicans during IAC by being less lethal and eliciting dampened neutrophil responses but resulting in more persistent peritonitis and abscesses.

Abstract 59: Patients With Ischemic Stroke Have More Than Three-Fold Higher Rates of In-Hospital Mortality If Their Troponin is Elevated

INTRODUCTION Stroke and heart disease have similar risk factors. Some patients admitted with acute stroke have elevated serum troponin levels concerning for simultaneous myocardial infarction (MI). However, the relationship between troponin elevation and stroke outcomes has not been described. METHODS We identified patients with ischemic stroke treated at a stroke network referral hospital whose data were available in the prospectively-collected “Get With The Guidelines” registry. Additional clinical data were obtained from the hospital laboratory, pharmacy, and billing departments. Characteristics of patients with and without abnormal troponin levels were compared, and logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between troponin elevation and mortality after accounting for clinical factors with nominal statistical significance (p&lt;0.1 level) in the bivariate comparisons. RESULTS Of 1145 patients treated for ischemic stroke from 2008-2012, troponin was elevated in 199 patients (17.3%). Troponin-positive patients had more cardiovascular risk factors, cardiology consultations, and referral for coronary angiography and intervention (Table). Medical therapy was similar between groups, although patients with troponin elevation were more likely to be treated with intravenous heparin drip early during the hospitalization. Most notably, these individuals had markedly worse in-hospital mortality than those without troponin elevation (27% vs. 8%, p&lt;0.001). This relationship persisted after adjustment for 14 clinical characteristics (odds ratio 4.28 [2.40-7.63]). Conclusions: Patients with ischemic stroke and simultaneous troponin elevation have greater burdens of medical comorbidities, higher use of cardiology services, and more than three-fold higher in-hospital mortality than patients without troponin elevation. Further study of these patients is needed to identify potential etiologies behind this high mortality rate.

Nanomaterials and Nanodevices for Energy Applications

Energy generation and storage are perhaps two of the most imperative, ongoing, and challenging issues facing the world to date. The rapidly growing global energy demand is placing increasingly greater burdens on the incumbent fossilfuel based infrastructure necessitating the development and mobilization of alternative technologies, particularly those focused on exploiting or scavenging new and clean energy sources alongside the development of highly efficient energy storage devices. Though advanced energy storage concepts and regenerative energy systems have been the focus of considerable attention over the past decade, the advent of the nanoage added traction to field by promising the potential to fabricate, for the first time, a wide range of truly novel devices that will enable this paradigm shift in energy applications. However, breakthroughs are needed to synthesize, engineer, and manufacture, en masse, nanomaterials and microand macrostructures based thereon. Central to this is a new understanding of the atomistic assembly of such materials in order to study energy transduction at nanoscale and to elucidate the underlying chemical and physical mechanism involved in high efficient energy conversion and storage. This special issue—which focuses on the science and engineering of nanomaterials and nanodevices used in all forms of energy harvesting, conversion, storage, and utilization—consists of 13 papers spanning topics detailing the empirical exploitation of nanowires for enhanced supercapacitors to thermoelectric generators, photocatalytic nanoparticles, and small molecule based organic solar cells. L. Chen et al. discuss the use of scanning force microscopy to investigate frictional images of newly cleaved surface domains of single crystal BaTiO 3 under ambipolar biases, providing a new method to determine domain polarization direction, whereas H.-S. Tsai et al. synthesized novel onedimensional SiO 2 /Ta 2 O 5 core-shell nanostructures, proposing a Ta-O diffusion-controlled growth process. P. Hiralal et al. report on the tailored growth of carbon nanostructures for application in high-frequency supercapacitors formed from engineered vertically aligned nanocarbon electrodes which are shown to enhance the porosity and electrolyte permeability within the device, resulting in a novel fabrication route to realise a functionally advanced compact energy storage platform. In a similar approach, H. Xu et al. summarise their work towards the preparation of Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles which facilitate long-lifetime and electrochemically superior supercapacitors by undertaking detailed studies of the electrode metrology. Z. Ma et al. report on energy recovery of coolant heat for internal combustion engines using thermoelectric generation technology. They showed that cooling improved with increased fan speeds and that the Seebeck coefficient was reduced with an increase in temperature difference between the two ends of thermoelectric generator.

Ectoparasite Burdens of the Common Mole-Rat (Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus) From the Cape Provinces of South Africa

The members of the African mole-rat family Bathyergidae are widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their well-studied biology and reproductive physiology, the current knowledge of their ectoparasite fauna is limited and ambiguous due to recent revisions of the bathyergid taxonomy. The common mole-rat (Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus) is 1 of the most widely distributed species of these subterranean rodents. Ectoparasites were collected from 268 common mole-rats at 2 localities (Western and Northern Cape provinces) in South Africa over the course of 18 mo with the aim to document species richness, prevalence, and abundance of these ectoparasites. The aggregation of parasite species, sex bias within a species, and seasonal variation in ectoparasite burdens were investigated. A total of 4,830 individual parasites from 4 mite species (Androlaelaps scapularis, Androlaelaps capensis, Radfordia ensifera, and 1 undetermined chigger [family Trombiculidae]), 1 flea species (Cryptopsylla ingrami), and 1 louse species (Eulinognathus hilli) were collected. With the exception of R. ensifera and the chigger, all of these ectoparasites appear to be host specific either for the host species or the Bathyergidae. Aggregation indices indicated that with the exception of E. hilli, the distribution of all parasite species was highly aggregated among hosts and sex biased. Seasonal variation in prevalence, abundance, and species richness was apparent, with greater burdens in the rainy winter season. This is likely related to seasonal variation in abiotic factors but may also be affected by the timing of host reproduction and dispersal behavior.