Potential Disease Risk Research Articles

Diversity and pathogenicity of Alternaria species associated with the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora and local plants.

Pathogen accumulation after introduction is unavoidable for exotic plants over a long period of time. Therefore, it is important to understand whether plant invasion promotes novel pathogen emergence and increases the risk of pathogen movement among agricultural, horticultural, and wild native plants. In this study, we used multiple gene analysis to characterize the species composition of 104 isolates of Alternaria obtained from the invasive plant Ageratina adenophora and native plants from Yunnan, Hubei, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Guangxi in China. Phylogenetically, these strains were from A. alternata (88.5%), A. gossypina (10.6%) and A. steviae (0.9%). There was a high amount of sharing between strains associated with A. adenophora and with local plants. Pathogenicity tests indicated that most of these Alternaria strains are generalists; the isolates with a wider host range were more virulent to the plant. Woody plants were more resistant to these strains than herbaceous plants and vines. However, the invasive plant A. adenophora was highly sensitive to these strains. Our data are valuable for understanding how A. adenophora invasion impacts the Alternaria species composition of the native plant and whether A. adenophora invasion causes potential disease risks in invaded ecosystems.

Impacts of continuous and rotational cropping practices on soil chemical properties and microbial communities during peanut cultivation

Long-term monocultures have severely inhibited the cultivation of Chinese peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.). In this study, the effects of continuous cropping on soil chemical properties and microbial communities were investigated in peanut fields that had been in crop rotation for 10 years and in monoculture for 10 years. The results found that long-term monoculture increased the activities of available potassium, available phosphorus, available nitrogen, soil organic matter, urease, acid phosphatase and catalase; while decreasing the activity of catalase. The diversity and abundance of soil bacteria and fungi is higher under continuous peanut cultivation. At the genus level, the relative abundance of potentially beneficial microflora genera was higher in the rhizosphere soil of rotational cropping than in continuous cropping, while the opposite was true for the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic fungal genera. Principal coordinates and cluster analysis indicated that continuous cropping altered the structure of the microbial community. The results of the functional predictions showed significant differences in the functioning of the rhizosphere microbial community between continuous and rotational cropping. In conclusion, long-term continuous cropping changed the chemical properties of the soil, altered the structure and function of the soil bacterial and fungal communities in peanut rhizosphere, which to some extent reduced the relative abundance of potentially beneficial microbial genera and increased the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic fungal genera, thus increasing the potential risk of soil-borne diseases and reducing the yield and quality of peanut. Therefore, in the actual production process, attention should be paid not only to the application of chemical fertilizers, but also to crop rotation and the application of microbial fertilizers.

Sex-Dependent Environmental Health Risk Analysis of Flupyradifurone.

Pesticides are used in agricultural production worldwide, resulting in widespread environmental pollution. Many diseases are closely related to exposure to pesticide residues. In this study, the association between exposure to the pesticide flupyradifurone (FPF), a substitute for neonicotinoids, and sex-dependent thyroid dysfunction was explored for the first time. Exposure using rat models revealed that the FPF metabolism is sex-dependent, with males preferring N-dealkylation and hydrolytic metabolism and females preferring hydroxylation. In particular, novel chloropyridine-site hydroxylation I and II metabolic pathways of FPF were discovered. More importantly, differential metabolic pathways of FPF induced sex-based dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis, in which females exhibited subclinical hyperthyroidism, while males displayed abnormal hypothyroidism. This may be attributed to the potential agonistic or antagonistic effect of FPF sex-dependent metabolites on liver thyroid hormone receptors. Furthermore, FPF exposure further mediated sex-specific dysregulation of cellular lipid homeostasis, with abnormal fatty acid β-oxidation and excessive energy expenditure in females and the risk of excessive accumulation of triglycerides in males. These results illustrate the potential risk of sex-related thyroid metabolic diseases caused by FPF and provide an important basis and support for further studies of FPF on human health and as an environmental pollutant.

Novel putative pathogenic viruses identified in pangolins by mining metagenomic data.

The pangolin is the only scaly mammal in the worldand also an important reservoir of pathogenic viruses. Habitat loss and poaching have been shrinking the survival range of pangolins. More information on pangolin virus populations is needed to better understand and assess potential disease risks. In this study, viral metagenomic datawere used to reinvestigate the virome in pangolin lung tissue. Complete genome sequences of two novel anelloviruses were acquired and clustered with the referenced feline strains belonging to genus Tettorquevirus and genus Etatorquevirus, respectively. Two genomes belonging to the genus Gemykibivirus, and species Bat-associated cyclovirus 9 were detected, respectively. One genome with a large contig belonging to the genus Senecavirus were also characterized, according to phylogenetic analysis, which can be presumed to be a novel species. In addition, a full genome of endogenous retroviruse (ERV)was assembled from the lungs of pangolin, and this virus may have the possibility of cross-species transmission during the evolution. This virological investigation has increased our understanding of the virome carried by pangolins and provided a reference baseline for possible zoonotic infectious diseases in the future.

Research on Chest Disease Recognition Based on Deep Hierarchical Learning Algorithm.

Chest X-ray has become one of the most common ways in diagnostic radiology exams, and this technology assists expert radiologists with finding the patients at potential risk of cardiopathy and lung diseases. However, it is still a challenge for expert radiologists to assess thousands of cases in a short period so that deep learning methods are introduced to tackle this problem. Since the diseases have correlations with each other and have hierarchical features, the traditional classification scheme could not achieve a good performance. In order to extract the correlation features among the diseases, some GCN-based models are introduced to combine the features extracted from the images to make prediction. This scheme can work well with the high quality of image features, so backbone with high computation cost plays a vital role in this scheme. However, a fast prediction in diagnostic radiology is also needed especially in case of emergency or region with low computation facilities, so we proposed an efficient convolutional neural network with GCN, which is named SGGCN, to meet the need of efficient computation and considerable accuracy. SGGCN used SGNet-101 as backbone, which is built by ShuffleGhost Block (Huang et al., 2021) to extract features with a low computation cost. In order to make sufficient usage of the information in GCN, a new GCN architecture is designed to combine information from different layers together in GCNM module so that we can utilize various hierarchical features and meanwhile make the GCN scheme faster. The experiment on CheXPert datasets illustrated that SGGCN achieves a considerable performance. Compared with GCN and ResNet-101 (He et al., 2015) backbone (test AUC 0.8080, parameters 4.7M and FLOPs 16.0B), the SGGCN achieves 0.7831 (−3.08%) test AUC with parameters 1.2M (−73.73%) and FLOPs 3.1B (−80.82%), where GCN with MobileNet (Sandler and Howard, 2018) backbone achieves 0.7531 (−6.79%) test AUC with parameters 0.5M (−88.46%) and FLOPs 0.66B (−95.88%).

Evaluation of Lipid Profile and Inflammatory Marker in Patients with Gastric Helicobacter pylori Infection, Ethiopia.

IntroductionH. pylori are gram-negative, microaerophilic helical-shaped bacteria with multiple flagella and commonly exist in the stomach. This infection may cause significant mucosal inflammation and damage, leading to ulcers in the stomach. It can also affect organ systems external to the gastrointestinal tract. To assess cardiovascular risk factors and to predict cardiovascular disorders, we are evaluating and comparing lipid profile and inflammatory marker between H. pylori-positive and negative patients.ObjectiveTo evaluate and compare lipid profile (TC; TG; LDL; HDL) and inflammatory marker (hs-CRP) in dyspeptic patients with and without H. pylori infection.MethodsComparative cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2020 to January 2021 at Debre Markos Referral Hospital, Debre Markos Health Center, and Hidassie Health Center, Ethiopia. Each of 50 H. pylori-positive and negative dyspeptic patients were studied. The data were checked for completeness and analyzed by SPSS version 25.0 Software. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsSerum mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) values were 37.54 ± 7.98 mg/dL and 43.12 ± 7.86 mg/dL (p < 0.05) for H. pylori-positive and negative dyspeptic patients, respectively, and median serum high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels were 6.29 mg/L (1.66–41.34) and 3.35 mg/L (0.39–10.01) (p < 0.05) for H. pylori-positive and negative dyspeptic patients, respectively.ConclusionH. pylori infection significantly alters serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and high sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels in dyspeptic patients, as a result, increase the potential risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Agreement of anthropometric and body composition measures predicted from 2D smartphone images and body impedance scales with criterion methods

Background/objectivesBody composition and anthropometry assessment from two-dimensional smartphone images is possible through advancement of computational hardware and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. This study established agreement of a novel smartphone assessment, compared with traditional bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and criterion measures. Subjects/methodsBody composition of 929 adults was measured using DXA (GE lunar iDXA), a foot-to-foot BIA machine (TANITA BC-313), and predictions from two-dimensional smartphone images. Anthropometry measures were also collected. Body composition and anthropometry estimates were compared via concordance coefficient correlation (CCC), equivalence testing, Bland–Altman analysis, and root mean square error (RMSE). Results2D smartphone image predictions for percent body fat (%BF) (males: CCC = 0.90 and RMSE = 2.9, and females: CCC = 0.90 and RMSE = 2.8) reported greater agreement with DXA measures than the BIA measures (males: CCC = 0.66 and RMSE = 5.6, and females: CCC = 0.79 and RMSE = 4.6). All anthropometry 2D smartphone image predictions had a strong agreement with criterion measurements (CCC ≥ 0.84 and RMSE ≤ 3.3). Body composition and anthropometry measures predicted by the 2D smartphone images were clinically equivalent at ±2.5 and ±5.0% thresholds. BIA %BF was not equivalent at either threshold; with only female BIA fat-free mass equivalent at the ±5% threshold. ConclusionBody composition predictions from 2D smartphone application images provide a promising alternative to BIA scales for in-home body composition assessment. Future research should assess the validity of this method for longitudinally tracking body composition and indicating an individual’s potential risk of chronic diseases.

Effect of aerobic exercise with diet on sex hormones and selected coagulation biomarkers in obese postmenopausal women: a randomized clinical trial.

The current study determined the effect of aerobic training and diet program versus diet only on sex hormones and selected coagulation biomarkers in obese postmenopausal women. Further, the correlation between the measured variables after the intervention was identified. Eligible 40 women were distributed into two equal groups: the experimental group that received aerobic training three times per week for 12 weeks along with a balanced diet, and the control group that received a balanced diet only. Changes in weight, body mass index, sex hormones, and coagulation biomarkers were assessed pre-and post-intervention. The correlation between evaluated variables was assessed. Both groups demonstrated a significant difference in sex hormones (i.e., a substantial decrease in estradiol, total testosterone, free testosterone, and a substantial increase in sex hormone-binding globulin) and coagulation biomarkers (a considerable reduction in plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 activity, fibrinogen, and a significant increase in tissue plasminogen activator, prothrombin time, and cephalin-kaolin coagulation time). This discrepancy was highly significant in the experimental group (p < 0.01) relative to the control group (p < 0.05), and there was a strong link between sex hormones and coagulation biomarkers (p ≤ 0.05). Conversely, no correlation between variables was noticed in the control group (p > 0.05). Aerobic exercise along with a balanced diet modulates sex hormones level, improves homeostasis balance in postmenopausal women, and reduces the potential risk of cardiovascular disease.

Study on Plant Radiation Signal Transduction for Human Self-Healing

We selected 450 patients with chronic and difficult diseases as receptors, and selected edible and medicinal plant combinations as biological signal donors, and randomly participated in a new experiment. After adjusting the patient’s biological field, the compensating bio information energy (CBE) high-tech is applied to transmit the signal of plant radiation to the patient’s body. The physical therapy of this health care mode has the characteristics of no contact, no drugs, no intervention, no toxic side effects, no pain, and no electromagnetic radiation and so on. Before and after the experiment, the main function test, cell function, cell biochemistry and body temperature of each patient were used for the same body control and data statistical analysis, and then the comprehensive integration method was used to evaluate the effect. We found that after 1 - 4 courses of treatment (7 - 28 dx 2h), the potential disease risk of patients was significantly reduced, the relevant medical indicators improved rapidly, and the cell function and symptoms improved simultaneously. The effective rate was up to 90%, the significant efficiency was up to 57%. This experiment shows that this new physical therapy can treat both symptoms and root causes, make chronic and difficult diseases self-healing and rehabilitation, and has no ethical problems. It also shows that information on plant health can play an important role in reversing cell aging and restoring cell function. Therefore, it opens up a new field of natural therapy, which can be called cell information therapy.

IMPACT OF SODIUM NITRITE AND PONСEAU 4R ON RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: THEORETICAL GROUNDING AND SIGNIFICANCE

Nowadays, food industry is growing quite rapidly. Today food industry uses hundreds of food additives in order to obtain new products and achieve certain technological goals. In most European countries, food industry applies more than 540 known food additives; in the United States their number, including the corresponding mixtures, exceeds 1.500, in Russia – 450 positions, in Ukraine until 2019, 300 food additives were allowed to be applied. At present, a large number of complex food additives are getting more and more in use. They are the mixtures of additives for a single peculiar or different technological purpose. The main requirement for food additives is their safety, non-toxicity, non-carcinogenicity, non-mutagenicity, no teratogenic effects (on the foetus) and no allergic effects. The safety of a food supplement depends on its dose, i.e., the amount of food additive substance that enters the body per day. Dangerous dietary supplements that should be avoided include sodium nitrite, monosodium glutamate, and ponceau 4 R. These supplements are strictly prohibited in many countries because of their potential risks and fatal outcomes for the human health. In recent years, the consumption of food supplements has increased significantly, therefore the study of the effects of sodium nitrite and ponсeau 4R on the respiratory system is one of an urgent clinical and dietary problem. The aim of this study is to highlight the theoretical aspects of the effects of sodium nitrite and ponceau 4 R on the respiratory system, as well as to collect, analyse and synthesise literature data on the issue of food additives and their detrimental effect on human health. Numerous studies show that consumption of sodium nitrite and ponceau 4 R increases the potential risk of cancer, diabetes, lung disease, and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. These supplements increase the hyperactivity of children; they can also provoke allergic reaction and cause anaphylactic shock, or trigger asthma attacks or breathing problems in people with aspirin intolerance, therefore, the study of the effects caused by food additives is appropriate, clinically and socially relevant.

Endophenotype-based in silico network medicine discovery combined with insurance record data mining identifies sildenafil as a candidate drug for Alzheimer's disease.

We developed an endophenotype disease module-based methodology for Alzheimer's disease (AD) drug repurposing and identified sildenafil as a potential disease risk modifier. Based on retrospective case-control pharmacoepidemiologic analyses of insurance claims data for 7.23 million individuals, we found that sildenafil usage was significantly associated with a 69% reduced risk of AD (hazard ratio = 0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.25-0.39, P<1.0×10-8). Propensity score stratified analyses confirmed that sildenafil is significantly associated with a decreased risk of AD across all four drug cohorts we tested (diltiazem, glimepiride, losartan and metformin) after adjusting age, sex, race, and disease comorbidities. We also found that sildenafil increases neurite growth and decreases phospho-tau expression in AD patient-induced pluripotent stem cells-derived neuron models, supporting mechanistically its potential beneficial effect in Alzheimer's disease. The association between sildenafil use and decreased incidence of AD does not establish causality or its direction, which requires a randomized clinical trial approach.

Impact of education on APOL1 testing attitudes among prospective living kidney donors.

It is unknown how providing prospective living donors with information about APOL1, including the benefits and drawbacks of testing, influences their desire for testing. In this study, we surveyed 102 participants with self-reported African ancestry and positive family history of kidney disease, recruited from our nephrology waiting room. We assessed views on APOL1 testing before and after presentation of a set of potential benefits and drawbacks of testing and quantified the self-reported level of influence individual benefits and drawbacks had on participants' desire for testing in the proposed context of living donation. The majority of participants (92%) were aware of organ donation and more than half (56%) had considered living donation. And though we found no significant change in response following presentation of the potential benefits and the drawbacks of APOL1 testing by study end significance, across all participants, "becoming aware of the potential risk of kidney disease among your immediate family" was the benefit with the highest mean influence (3.3±1.4), while the drawback with the highest mean influence (2.9±1.5) was "some transplant centers may not allow you to donate to a loved one". This study provides insights into the priorities of prospective living donors and suggests concern for how the information affects family members may strongly influence desires for testing. It also highlights the need for greater community engagement to gain a deeper understanding of the priorities that influence decision making on APOL1 testing.

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 and carotid intima-media thickness in primary Sjögren syndrome.

Objectives This study aims to evaluate serum lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) level and carotid intima-media thickness in primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) as an indicator of atherosclerosis.Patients and methods Between July 2019 and July 2020, a total of 33 female pSS patients (mean age: 44.5±11.2 years; range, 23 to 60 years) and 37 female age- and sex-matched healthy individuals (mean age: 40.9±7.2 years; range, 25 to 54 years) were included. Carotid intima-media thickness and serum Lp-PLA2 levels were measured in the patient and control groups.Results The patients had a higher median serum Lp-PLA2 of 560 (range, 108 to 1,222) ng/mL vs. 328 (range, 0 to 1,280) ng/mL in the controls (p=0.024) and a similar mean intima-media thickness of carotid artery (0.64±0.14 mm vs. 0.62±0.15 mm, respectively; p=0.595). Serum Lp-PLA2 was positively correlated with platelet count (r=0.411, p=0.018) and negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=-0.409, p=0.018). The mean value of carotid intima-media thickness was positively correlated with disease duration (r=0.316, p=0.074) and was negatively correlated with the level of leucocyte (r=-0.458, p=0.007).Conclusion Our study suggests that the patients of pSS have a potential risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and disease severity.

Nidoviruses in Reptiles: A Review

Since their discovery in 2014, reptile nidoviruses (also known as serpentoviruses) have emerged as significant pathogens worldwide. They are known for causing severe and often fatal respiratory disease in various captive snake species, especially pythons. Related viruses have been detected in other reptiles with and without respiratory disease, including captive and wild populations of lizards, and wild populations of freshwater turtles. There are many opportunities to better understand the viral diversity, species susceptibility, and clinical presentation in different species in this relatively new field of research. In captive snake collections, reptile nidoviruses can spread quickly and be associated with high morbidity and mortality, yet the potential disease risk to wild reptile populations remains largely unknown, despite reptile species declining on a global scale. Experimental studies or investigations of disease outbreaks in wild reptile populations are scarce, leaving the available literature limited mostly to exploring findings of naturally infected animals in captivity. Further studies into the pathogenesis of different reptile nidoviruses in a variety of reptile species is required to explore the complexity of disease and routes of transmission. This review focuses on the biology of these viruses, hosts and geographic distribution, clinical signs and pathology, laboratory diagnosis and management of reptile nidovirus infections to better understand nidovirus infections in reptiles.

Experience of patients diagnosed as asymptomatic COVID-19 after dental treatment

BackgroundThe potential risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission from asymptomatic COVID-19 patients is a concern in dental practice. However, the impact of this risk is not well documented to date. This report describes our dental clinical experience with patients who did not exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 but were later confirmed as positive for COVID-19.Case presentationOf the 149,149 patients who visited the outpatient clinic of KNUDH and the 3291 patients who visited the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic of KNUH, 3 were later confirmed as having COVID-1 between 1 February 2020 and 28 February 2021. Owing to close contact with these patients during their treatments, 46 dental and medical staff had to undergo quarantine from the date of the patients’ confirmation of COVID-19 infection.ConclusionThe presented cases showed the potential existence of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients after dental treatment with aerosol-generating procedures. Clinicians should be aware of the infection prevention measures and try to protect healthcare personnel from secondary infection of COVID-19 during dental treatments.

Association between high BMI and high homocysteine levels in Chinese patients with bipolar disorder

BackgroundBipolar disorder (BD) has been associated with an increased prevalence of weight gain and abnormally elevated plasma homocysteine (Hcy) levels. However, the relationship between BMI and Hcy in BD patients has not been investigated. This study aimed to explore this relationship in Chinese patients with BD. MethodsPlasma Hcy levels, socio-demographic parameters, clinical and anthropometric data were collected from 195 BD inpatients and 84 healthy controls. The level of plasma Hcy was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by body weight divided by the square of the height. The participants were divided into a high BMI group and a low BMI group using 24 kg/m2 as a threshold. ResultsThe prevalence of high BMI was slightly elevated in BD patients in comparison to healthy controls. Patients with elevated BMI had significantly higher Hcy levels than patients with low BMI. Hcy level was an independent contributor of the occurrence of high BMI in BD patients. The level of Hcy was positively correlated with BMI in BD patients. In addition, depressive episodes of BD were positively correlated with the prevalence of high BMI and married BD patients were more likely to have high BMI levels. ConclusionsThere is a close relationship between BMI and plasma Hcy levels in patients with BD, suggesting that Hcy may be an important indicator for BD-induced weight gain. This finding provides a new avenue for weight management of BD patients and to help avoid the potential risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Molecular Detection and Phylogenetic Analysis of Tick-Borne Pathogens in Ticks Collected from Horses in the Republic of Korea

The horse industry has grown rapidly as a leisure industry in the Republic of Korea (ROK) in parallel with an increased demand for equestrian activities. As a result, there has been an increase in horse breeding and equestrian population and potential exposure to ticks and their associated pathogens. To provide a better understanding of the potential disease risks of veterinary and medical importance, a study was conducted to determine the geographical distribution and diversity of ticks collected from horses and vegetation associated with horse racetracks/ranches throughout the ROK. This included a survey of five associated common pathogens, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, Borrelia spp., Babesia caballi, and Theileria equi. A total 9220 ticks were collected from horses and associated pastures. Ticks were identified to species, stage of development, and sex. Two species of ticks, Haemaphysalis longicornis (99.9%) and Ixodes nipponensis (0.1%) were identified. Two of the target pathogens, A. phagocytophilum and Borrelia spp., were detected in 5/1409 tick pools (0.35%) and 4/1409 pools (0.28%) of H. longicornis, respectively, both of which are zoonotic pathogens of medical importance. The results of 16S rRNA phylogenetic analysis of A. phagocytophilum showed a close relationship to strains distributed in China, USA, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Poland. Borrelia spp. showed a close relationship, based on 16S rRNA gene, to the strains reported from the USA (B. burgdorferi and B. americana) and Japan (B. tanukii and B. garinii). These results provide information about the potential risks of veterinary and medical importance and the development of mitigation strategies for disease prevention.

TickPhone App: A Smartphone Application for Rapid Tick Identification Using Deep Learning

Tick species are considered the second leading vector of human diseases. Different ticks can transmit a variety of pathogens that cause various tick-borne diseases (TBD), such as Lyme disease. Currently, it remains a challenge to diagnose Lyme disease because of its non-specific symptoms. Rapid and accurate identification of tick species plays an important role in predicting potential disease risk for tick-bitten patients, and ensuring timely and effective treatment. Here, we developed, optimized, and tested a smartphone-based deep learning algorithm (termed “TickPhone app”) for tick identification. The deep learning model was trained by more than 2000 tick images and optimized by different parameters, including normal sizes of images, deep learning architectures, image styles, and training–testing dataset distributions. The optimized deep learning model achieved a training accuracy of ~90% and a validation accuracy of ~85%. The TickPhone app was used to identify 31 independent tick species and achieved an accuracy of 95.69%. Such a simple and easy-to-use TickPhone app showed great potential to estimate epidemiology and risk of tick-borne disease, help health care providers better predict potential disease risk for tick-bitten patients, and ultimately enable timely and effective medical treatment for patients.

Sampling implications of variation in daily activity of the sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus at a coastal grassland site in the U.K.

The sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus L. (Acari: Ixodidae), is an important vector of many pathogens of medical and veterinary significance. Determining vector abundance is a requisite of assessing potential vector-borne disease risk. Estimation of tick abundance is often conducted by blanket drag sampling a site, conducted at one time point during the day. The time of day chosen for sampling can vary, is not widely standardized and is often unreported by the investigator. This study investigated whether the time of day chosen for sampling had an effect on tick collection at an open grassland coastal site in North Devon, U.K., during May 2019 to July 2019. Tick abundance for both adults and nymphs in the evening period was more than twice that found in the mid-day sampling period. Overall abundance differed with site aspect, ground temperature and relative humidity. This study shows that for this open grassland recreational site, the time of day chosen for sampling has important implications for tick collection and the assessment of the relative risk of human exposure to ticks and tick-borne infections.

Glycaemic index and glycaemic load of commonly consumed Thai fruits

The present work was aimed to determine the glycaemic index (GI) and glycaemic load (GL) of commonly consumed Thai fruits for the potential risk of chronic diseases. Healthy subjects consumed 25 g available carbohydrate (fruits and glucose) in random order. Eighteen fruits were classified as low GI (26.5 - 54.8%) including jujube, unripe mango, banana (Kluai-Namwa, Kluai-Khai, and Kluai-Leb-Mu-Nang varieties), guava, tamarind, jackfruit, durian (Monthong and Chanee varieties), tangerine, longan, starfruit, pomelo (Thong Dee variety), sapodilla, white dragon fruit, sala, and rambutan. Fruits with medium GI (55.4 - 69.6%) includes pomelo (Kao Nampheung variety), banana (Kluai Hom variety), red dragon fruit, watermelon, coconut, mangosteen, longkong, ripe mango, papaya, rose apple, and lychee. Pineapple has a high GI value. Most of the studied fruits were classified as low GL except for tamarind, red dragon fruit, mangosteen, lychee, and pineapple which were classified as medium GL. Various kinds of Thai fruits provided different GI and GL values. Therefore, low GI fruit with low GL regimen can be considered as alternative food sources to be used for diet manipulation in diabetic patients as well as in healthy population.