Thematic Reference Research Articles

In an interconnected world: joint research priorities for the environment, agriculture and infectious disease

In 2008 the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) commissioned ten think-tanks to work on disease-specific and thematic reference groups to identify top research priorities that would advance the research agenda on infectious diseases of poverty, thus contributing to improvements in human health. The first of the thematic reference group reports – on environment, agriculture and infectious diseases of poverty – was recently released. In this article we review, from an insider perspective, the strengths and weaknesses of this thematic reference group report and highlight key messages for policy-makers, funders and researchers.

A Research and Development Agenda for the Control and Elimination of Human Helminthiases

In this issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the Disease Reference Group on Helminth Infections (DRG4) has put forward a collection of eight reviews that, taken together, outline a compelling research and development agenda for the control and elimination of helminth diseases of humans (http://www.ploscollections.org/helminths [1]–[8]). Emphasis is placed on six major helminth infections: (i) soil-transmitted helminthiasis; (ii) schistosomiasis; (iii) lymphatic filariasis; (iv) onchocerciasis; (v) food-borne trematodiasis; and (vi) cysticercosis/taeniasis. Selection of these helminthiases is justified on multiple grounds. Firstly, as shown in Table 1, more than half of the world's population is at risk of one or several of these helminthiases, and hundreds of millions of people are currently infected. Secondly, consequences of the mainly long-term chronic infection include suffering, stigmatisation, subtle and gross morbidity (e.g., anaemia, limb deformations and blindness), and premature death, hence causing an intolerable global burden [9]–[17]. These features, in turn, exacerbate poverty [18]–[20]. Thirdly, there is growing commitment at all levels—from local communities to politicians, philanthropic organisations, and civil society—to control and eventually eliminate/eradicate the major human helminthiases. Table 1 Helminth Infections Emphasised by DRG4 for Development of a Research Agenda for Control and Elimination. Figure 1 shows that the six helminthiases are at distinctively different stages of control and elimination with geographical idiosyncrasies for some of them [21]. Several helminthiases have been targeted for elimination (e.g., lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis in the Americas), and progress made thus far gives hope that this goal can indeed be achieved by 2015 or 2020 if certain conditions are met [14], [21]. For schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, discussions are escalating to shift the focus from control to elimination [22], [23], and in Africa, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) is also moving towards this goal [24]. The pivotal role of research, coupled with teaching and training of strong cadres of researchers from endemic settings as essential backbones and platforms to design, implement, and adapt the control and elimination agenda for major helminthiases as well as other tropical diseases, cannot be emphasised enough [25]–[27]. Figure 1 Stages of control/elimination of the six helminthiases emphasised by DRG4. In 2007/2008, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), based at and executed by the World Health Organization (WHO), and co-sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and WHO, initiated a network of disease-specific and thematic reference groups (DRGs/TRGs). DRG4 was particularly prolific, as witnessed in the collection of authoritative reviews presented here. This accompanying editorial summarises the goal, objectives and expected outcomes of the DRGs/TRGs global research “think tank”. Next, light is shed on the composition of DRG4, its mode of operation and its first outputs. It is then argued that PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases is an appropriate outlet for the studies reviewed and synthesised by DRG4. Indeed, open access to the identified and ranked research priorities by all stakeholders is a major asset and is likely to reinforce the control and elimination agenda of the major helminthiases.

Assessing the application of a geographic presence-only model for land suitability mapping

Recent advances in ecological modeling have focused on novel methods for characterizing the environment that use presence-only data and machine-learning algorithms to predict the likelihood of species occurrence. These novel methods may have great potential for land suitability applications in the developing world where detailed land cover information is often unavailable or incomplete. This paper assesses the adaptation and application of the presence-only geographic species distribution model, MaxEnt, for agricultural crop suitability mapping in a rural Thailand where lowland paddy rice and upland field crops predominant. To assess this modeling approach, three independent crop presence datasets were used including a social-demographic survey of farm households, a remote sensing classification of land use/land cover, and ground control points, used for geodetic and thematic reference that vary in their geographic distribution and sample size. Disparate environmental data were integrated to characterize environmental settings across Nang Rong District, a region of approximately 1300 sq. km in size. Results indicate that the MaxEnt model is capable of modeling crop suitability for upland and lowland crops, including rice varieties, although model results varied between datasets due to the high sensitivity of the model to the distribution of observed crop locations in geographic and environmental space. Accuracy assessments indicate that model outcomes were influenced by the sample size and the distribution of sample points in geographic and environmental space. The need for further research into accuracy assessments of presence-only models lacking true absence data is discussed. We conclude that the MaxEnt model can provide good estimates of crop suitability, but many areas need to be carefully scrutinized including geographic distribution of input data and assessment methods to ensure realistic modeling results.

Improving data management and dissemination in web based information systems by semantic enrichment of descriptive data aspects

The German–Vietnamese water-related information system for the Mekong Delta (WISDOM) project supports business processes in Integrated Water Resources Management in Vietnam. Multiple disciplines bring together earth and ground based observation themes, such as environmental monitoring, water management, demographics, economy, information technology, and infrastructural systems. This paper introduces the components of the web-based WISDOM system including data, logic and presentation tier. It focuses on the data models upon which the database management system is built, including techniques for tagging or linking metadata with the stored information. The model also uses ordered groupings of spatial, thematic and temporal reference objects to semantically tag datasets to enable fast data retrieval, such as finding all data in a specific administrative unit belonging to a specific theme. A spatial database extension is employed by the PostgreSQL database. This object-oriented database was chosen over a relational database to tag spatial objects to tabular data, improving the retrieval of census and observational data at regional, provincial, and local areas. While the spatial database hinders processing raster data, a “work-around” was built into WISDOM to permit efficient management of both raster and vector data. The data model also incorporates styling aspects of the spatial datasets through styled layer descriptions (SLD) and web mapping service (WMS) layer specifications, allowing retrieval of rendered maps. Metadata elements of the spatial data are based on the ISO19115 standard. XML structured information of the SLD and metadata are stored in an XML database. The data models and the data management system are robust for managing the large quantity of spatial objects, sensor observations, census and document data. The operational WISDOM information system prototype contains modules for data management, automatic data integration, and web services for data retrieval, analysis, and distribution. The graphical user interfaces facilitate metadata cataloguing, data warehousing, web sensor data analysis and thematic mapping.

"A Warm Politition and Devotedly Attached to the Democratic Party": Catharine Read Williams, Politics, and Literature in Antebellum America

In order to demonstrate the persistence of "female politicians" in the antebellum period, this article explores Catherine Read Williams's use of publication to advance her partisan agenda. A staunch yet unlikely Democrat, Williams engaged in politics and used publishing to promote Democratic positions on controversial issues such as slavery and Indian removal. In addition, Williams employed history to emphasize the strong and politically active role of women in the American past. In Rhode Island's 1842 Dorr Rebellion, Williams took a fervent public stance in favor of expanding suffrage to all white men. At a time when it was unacceptable for women to be publicly partisan, her confrontational style rendered her exceptional from even politically engaged women of her era. She pushed the gendered boundaries of Jacksonianism by aggressively supporting Democratic policy, depicting heroic women in her historical narratives, and commanding a political presence in her community. Williams's career as a historian and bold political activist reveals the presence of public female partisanship in American political culture during the antebellum period.

Uma Contribuição para a Reflexão sobre o Lugar das Categorias “Gênero” e “Direitos Humanos” no Projeto Universidade

The issues of human rights and gender must be acknowledged as criteria of inclusion, permanence and efficacy in and of higher education; as a thematic reference and transversal ethics; as transdisciplinary categories of analysis and intervention in reality; as programmatic contents in the different fields of knowledge; and as conceptual instruments of politization of the technician. Citizenship should be the highest value within people's education. That means, in a first approach, that there must be an ethical increment opposing the asymmetries created in the economical, social, and cultural spheres, and sociability should be promoted where individualism now rules.

Mindful Pleasure

"[C]ritics after [Susan] Strehle and [John] Johnston will go on to map further cultural migrations of literature into science and technology, not only in such evident heirs to Pynchon as Vollmann, Wallace and Powers, but also in narratives further afield that, with no obvious thematic reference to science, nonetheless illustrate its rippling cultural effects" (Joseph Tabbi, "The Medial Turn," <em>Pynchon Notes</em> 42–43 [1998]: 317). Four years later, Joseph Tabbi's own intellectually challenging, very stimulating <em>Cognitive Fictions </em>provides evidence of what its author had presaged in <em>Pynchon Notes. </em>The investigation into how "print narrative might … recognize itself, at the moment when it is forced to consider its own technological obsolescence, as a figuration of mind within the new medial ecology" (CF xi) dedicates extensive chapters to Pynchon and Powers. Another chapter presents a superb analysis of the "fictional observations" of Paul Auster, and yet another offers a series of critical considerations of the considerations and, subsequently, the re-considerations of David Markson's writer figure Kate in <em>Wittgenstein's Mistress, </em>who re-enters "her life-narrative, so that what she had once presented (to no one in particular) as a writer, she can now revisit as a reader" (109).

TEACHING ESL COMPOSITION: PURPOSE, PROCESS, AND PRACTICE. Dana Ferris and John S. Hedgcock. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998. Pp. xvii + 329. $21.95 paper.

According to its authors, Teaching ESL Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice is designed to help pre- and in-service teachers become experts in the field of L2 writing pedagogy. If readers take this text seriously and practice a healthy portion of the application activities, they should succeed in moving toward this ambitious goal. The book is divided into nine chapters, each addressing a different practical aspect of teaching composition. At the start of each chapter, “Questions for Reflection” builds schema; a summary and “Reflection and Review” questions check for comprehension at the end. Each chapter also has application activities referenced to the topic they address throughout the text and in the “Application Activity Thematic Reference Guide.” Most chapters provide figures and appendixes containing authentic samples and models. At the end of the book there is an extensive list of references including research, practical guides, and workbooks in ESL and L1 composition.

Spatial Analysis of the Distribution of Tsetse Flies in the Lambwe Valley, Kenya, Using Landsat TM Satellite Imagery and GIS

Satellite imagery, geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics provide tools for studies of population dynamics of disease vectors in association with habitat features on multiple spatial scales. Tsetse flies were collected during 1988-90 in biconical traps located along transects in Ruma National Park in the Lambwe Valley, western Kenya. Fine spatial resolution data collected by Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite and reference ground environmental data were integrated in a GIS to identify factors associated with local variations of fly density. Statistical methods of spatial autocorrelation and spatial filtering were applied to determine spatial components of these associations. Strong positive spatial associations among traps occurred within transects and within the two ends of the park. From satellite data, TM band 7, which is associated with moisture content of soil and vegetation, emerged as being consistently highly correlated with fly density. Using several spectral bands in a multiple regression, as much as 87% of the variance in fly catch values could be explained. When spatial filtering was applied, a large component of the association between fly density and spectral data was shown to be the result of other determinants underlying the spatial distributions of both fly density and spectral values. Further field studies are needed to identify these determinants. The incorporation of remotely sensed data imagery into a GIS with ground data on fly density and environnmental conditions can be used to predict favourable fly habitats in inaccessible sites, and to determine number and location of fly suppression traps in a local control programme.

Writing scientific English: overcoming intercultural problems

“Publish in English or perish!” has become a slogan frequently heard in non-English-speaking academic contexts all over the world. For many nations, proficiency in spoken and written English has become a must. But achieving such proficiency involves problems and hard work. This paper discusses some of the intercultural problems of writing academic English in a non-English context, namely in Finland. A further issue addressed in this paper is the training of language teachers to teach writing courses in academic English in such a context. It is argued that before such courses are designed for academic non-native writers and for teachers of such writers, it is essential to conduct textlinguistic research into the cultural and linguistic differences in writing practices which exist between the source and target languages. As will be shown, such textlinguistic research gives us vital information on cohesion and coherence problems that non-native writers of English have in areas such as thematic patternings, reference and connectors. The results show that for linguists, as well as for teachers and writers, textlinguistics offers convenient tools for analysing, understanding, and correcting intercultural linguistic problems in writing. Furthermore, the results of the analyses feed directly into the design of academic writing courses in English for non-native writers and into the training of teachers for such courses.

Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs

This index is a veritable who's who of the greats of Western literature. . . . The Board recommends it for every collection whose users conduct analytical studies of literature. Reference Books Bulletin The powerful hold that literature exercises is based primarily on recognition--the reader's ability to identify with others through shared human concerns that transcend ttace, time, and cultural boundaries. These universal themes, and how they have been treated in literature from the classical period to the present, are the subject of the critical essays comprising this volume. A fascinating resource for students and general readers and an essential research tool for scholars in literature, it is the first thematic reference on this scale to be published in English. The dictionary consists of 143 essays contributed by 98 specialists in world literature. Topics covered include themes relating to adventure, family life, the supernatural, eroticism, status, humor, idealism, terror, and many other categories of human experience. Each entry begins with a defintion and a sketch on the origin and historical background of the literary theme. The topical essay discusses the significance and occurrence of the theme in world literature and supplies information on geographical area, genre, style, and chronology. Entries conclude with a selected bibliography of scholarship in the area. A cross-index to themes and motifs will enable the reader to find information on secondary or related topics. Convenient to use and presented in a standardized format, this major new reference will be an important acquisition for libraries with collections in English, American, and world literature.

Critical Atlas Reviews: Writing to Learn About Maps

Writing critical reviews of thematic and general reference atlases can provide a professional writing experience for students in both introductory and advanced cartography classes. The rationale for assigning critical atlas reviews, a set of objectives for the assignment and a list of questions to distribute to students are presented herein.