Following the recent report of strongyloidiasis caused by Strongyloides fuelleborni within a semi-captive colony of baboons in a UK safari park, we investigated the genetic relationships of this isolate with other Strongyloides isolates across the world. Whole-genome sequencing data were generated with later phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial (mt) cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) and nuclear ribosomal 18S sequences against 300 published Strongyloides reference genotypes. The putative African origin of the UK S. fuelleborni was confirmed and full-length mt genome sequences were assembled to facilitate a more detailed phylogenetic analysis of 14 mt coding regions against all available Strongyloides species. Our analyses demonstrated that the UK isolate represented a novel African lineage not previously described. Additional complete mt genomes were assembled for several individual UK safari park worms to reveal a slightly altered mt genome gene arrangement, allowing clear separation from Asian S. fuelleborni. Furthermore, these UK worms possessed expanded intergenic regions of unknown function that increase their mt genome size to approximately 24 kilobases (kb) as compared with some 16 kb for Asian S. fuelleborni; this may have arisen from unique populational founder and genetic drift effects set within the peculiar mixed species baboon and drill ancestry of this semi-captive primate colony. A maximum likelihood phylogeny constructed from 14 mt coding regions also supported an evolutionary distinction between Asian and African S. fuelleborni.

Vaccines have revolutionised the field of medicine, eradicating and controlling many diseases. Recent pandemic vaccine successes have highlighted the accelerated pace of vaccine development and deployment. Leveraging this momentum, attention has shifted to cancer vaccines and personalised cancer vaccines, aimed at targeting individual tumour-specific abnormalities. The UK, now regarded for its vaccine capabilities, is an ideal nation for pioneering cancer vaccine trials. This article convened experts to share insights and approaches to navigate the challenges of cancer vaccine development with personalised or precision cancer vaccines, as well as fixed vaccines. Emphasising partnership and proactive strategies, this article outlines the ambition to harness national and local system capabilities in the UK; to work in collaboration with potential pharmaceutic partners; and to seize the opportunity to deliver the pace for rapid advances in cancer vaccine technology.

The 16-8-, 8-5-, 5-2-, 2-1-, 1-0.5-, 0.5-0.3-, 0.3-0.1-, and <0.1-μm size fractions were centrifuged from a Georgia (U.S.A.) sedimentary kaolin and a hydrothermal kaolin from the Sasso mine (Italy) and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetry (TGA) together with the corresponding whole rocks. All size fractions of the Georgia sample consisted dominantly of well-crystallized, fine-grained kaolinite, associated with minor quantities of smectite. Some halloysite-like elongate particles were noted by SEM in the intermediate size fractions, minor amounts of quartz were identified in the coarsest size fractions, and < 1% noncrystalline material and traces of organic material were suspected in the finest size fraction. The crystallinity of the kaolinite as measured by XRD and IR varied moderately with size. IR suggested that nacrite-like stacking disorder increased with decreasing size for particles < 5 μm in size.

In the Sasso sample kaolinite dominated all size fractions and was accompanied by dickite in the coarse and by halloysite in the fine size fractions. Regular mixed-layer illite/smectite (I/S) was present in all size fractions and dominated in the finest. Abundant quartz and traces of alunite were identified in the whole rock and coarsest size fractions. The kaolinite in this sample showed marked variation in stacking order and crystallinity, as shown by changes in XRD, IR, and DTA patterns.

The observed compositional and structural variations in the size fractions of the Georgia sedimentary kaolin are small, as expected from formational environment, which was characterized by low temperatures and relative stable genetic conditions. The much more marked differences in composition within the size fractions of the Sasso hydrothermal kaolin are likely a result of the broad range of temperatures and fluid chemistry of its formational environment. The sequence dickite-well-crystallized kaolinite-kaolinite-halloysite is probably temperature-dependent.

Purity violations overlap with other moral domains. They are not uniquely characterized by hypothesized markers of purity – the witness's emotion of disgust, taint to perpetrator's soul, or the diminished role of intention in moral judgment. Thus, Fitouchi et al.'s proposition that puritanical morality (a subset of violations in the purity domain) is part of cooperation-based morality is an important advance.

From the safety inside vehicles, Knowsley Safari offers visitors a close-up encounter with captive olive baboons. As exiting vehicles may be contaminated with baboon stool, a comprehensive coprological inspection was conducted to address public health concerns. Baboon stools were obtained from vehicles, and sleeping areas, inclusive of video analysis of baboon–vehicle interactions. A purposely selected 4-day sampling period enabled comparative inspections of 2662 vehicles, with a total of 669 baboon stools examined (371 from vehicles and 298 from sleeping areas). As informed by our pilot study, front-line diagnostic methods were: QUIK-CHEK rapid diagnostic test (RDT) (Giardia and Cryptosporidium), Kato–Katz coproscopy (Trichuris) and charcoal culture (Strongyloides). Some 13.9% of vehicles were contaminated with baboon stool. Prevalence of giardiasis was 37.4% while cryptosporidiosis was <0.01%, however, an absence of faecal cysts by quality control coproscopy, alongside lower than the expected levels of Giardia-specific DNA, judged RDT results as misleading, grossly overestimating prevalence. Prevalence of trichuriasis was 48.0% and strongyloidiasis was 13.7%, a first report of Strongyloides fuelleborni in UK. We advise regular blanket administration(s) of anthelminthics to the colony, exploring pour-on formulations, thereafter, smaller-scale indicator surveys would be adequate.

Malformed trilobite specimens present important insight into understanding how this extinct arthropod group recovered from developmental or moulting malfunctions, pathologies, and injuries. Previously documented examples of malformed trilobite specimens are often considered in isolation, with few studies reporting on multiple malformations in the same species. Here we report malformed specimens of the ellipsocephaloid trilobite Estaingia bilobata from the Emu Bay Shale Konservat-Lagerstätte (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4) on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Ten malformed specimens exhibiting injuries, pathologies, and a range of teratologies are documented. Furthermore, five examples of mangled exoskeletons are presented, indicative of predation on E. bilobata. Considering the position of malformed and normal specimens of E. bilobata in bivariate space, we demonstrate that the majority of malformed specimens cluster among the larger individuals. Such specimens may exemplify larger forms successfully escaping predation attempts, but could equally represent individuals exhibiting old injuries that were made during earlier (smaller) growth stages that have healed through subsequent moulting events. The available evidence from the Emu Bay Shale suggests that this small, extremely abundant trilobite likely played an important role in the structure of the local ecosystem, occupying a low trophic level and being preyed upon by multiple durophagous arthropods. Furthermore, the scarcity of malformed E. bilobata specimens demonstrates how rarely injuries, developmental malfunctions, and pathological infestations occurred within the species.

During the past decade—more precisely during the last five to seven years—the increased use of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism have characterized the activities of many revolutionary groups in the less developed world. High-lighted by the olympic assassinations of 1972, this phenomenon has also been evident in various African and Asian states. It is in Latin America, however, that the change from the traditional rural base for guerrilla operations to an urban environment has been most pronounced. The years from 1962 to 1967 saw many Latin American insurgents copying the Cuban revolutionary model, with its emphasis on rural guerrilla operations and the peasantry as the ultimate motive force, but recent years have seen an equally strong pull toward either purely urban insurgency or a more balanced strategy according equal importance to both rural and urban activities. In either case, the identifiable shift away from a totally rural guerrilla strategy for most Latin American revolutionary groups seems an established fact.

Urban insurgency has been used with increasing frequency and effectiveness in many areas of the developed and less developed world during the past decade. In Latin America, this trend toward expanded urban guerrilla warfare has been most pronounced in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In the three nations, revolutionary forces have rejected completely the concept of the primacy of guerrilla activities based in the countryside, a theory adapted to the Latin American environment by Cuba's Ernesto “Che” Guevara and French Marxist Régis Debray. Instead, attention has been focused on organizing and developing guerrilla and terrorist operations in such population centers as Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba. (For a discussion of factors leading to the development of urban insurgency in Latin America see “The Urban Guerrilla in Latin America: A Select Bibliography,” LARR: 9: 1).

Historical accounts of the Internet's origins tend to emphasize U.S. government investment and university-based researchers. In contrast, this article introduces actors who have been overlooked: the entrepreneurs and private firms that developed standards, evaluated competing standards, educated consumers about the value of new products, and built products to sell. Start-up companies such as 3Com and Cisco Systems succeeded because they met rapidly rising demand from users, particularly those in large organizations, who were connecting computers into networks and networks into internetworks. We consider a relatively brief yet dynamic period, from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, when regulators attacked incumbent American firms, entrepreneurs flourished in new market niches, and engineers set industry standards for networking and internetworking. As a consequence, their combined efforts forged new processes and institutions for so-called open standards that, in turn, created the conditions favorable for the “network effects” that sustained the formative years of the digital economy.

The idea of Zoroastrian mysticism might at first glance seem a contradiction in terms. The Good Religion, after all, is čīmīg, “rational,” above all else: Zoroaster elegantly solved the most intractable mystery of all faiths, theodicy, by the revelation of cosmic dualism. The mere assertion that there are esoteric doctrines within Zoroastrianism has been criticized. This criticism springs in part from a flawed perception of mysticism itself, which, as it will be argued, is not an independent entity, everywhere the same. Rather, each religion has a mysticism of its own, often irreconcilable in some of its features with the mainstream, and, in the case of Zoroastrianism, with some of the religion's plain logic. Also, the existence of mysticism within a religious tradition does not imply its centrality to that tradition. Mysticism exists in Christianity, but could scarcely be called essential to it, considering the claim, elaborated as the Christian church rose to universal prominence, to the radically overt and sufficient truth of the Gospel.

Two introduced carnivores, the European red fox Vulpes vulpes and domestic cat Felis catus, have had extensive impacts on Australian biodiversity. In this study, we collate information on consumption of Australian birds by the fox, paralleling a recent study reporting on birds consumed by cats. We found records of consumption by foxes on 128 native bird species (18% of the non-vagrant bird fauna and 25% of those species within the fox’s range), a smaller tally than for cats (343 species, including 297 within the fox’s Australian range, a subset of that of the cat). Most (81%) bird species eaten by foxes are also eaten by cats, suggesting that predation impacts are compounded. As with consumption by cats, birds that nest or forage on the ground are most likely to be consumed by foxes. However, there is also some partitioning, with records of consumption by foxes but not cats for 25 bird species, indicating that impacts of the two predators may also be complementary. Bird species ≥3.4 kg were more likely to be eaten by foxes, and those <3.4 kg by cats. Our compilation provides an inventory and describes characteristics of Australian bird species known to be consumed by foxes, but we acknowledge that records of predation do not imply population-level impacts. Nonetheless, there is sufficient information from other studies to demonstrate that fox predation has significant impacts on the population viability of some Australian birds, especially larger birds, and those that nest or forage on the ground.