Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
Selection versus Transmission: Quantitative and Organismic Biology in Antibiotic Resistance
Published: 2024-02-02
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences
We aimed to determine the importance of selection (mostly dependent on the anthropogenic use of antimicrobials) and transmission (mostly dependent on hygiene and sanitation) as drivers of the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacterial populations. The first obstacle to estimating the relative weight of both independent variables is the lack of detailed quantitative data concerning the number of [...]
Bacterial stress in the gut environment might increase the fitness cost associated with antibiotic resistance mechanisms: on the way to biorestoration of susceptible populations
Published: 2023-11-28
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences
The acquisition and expression of antibiotic resistance implies changes in bacterial cell physiology, imposing fitness costs. Many human opportunistic pathogenic bacteria, such as those causing urinary tract or bloodstream infections, colonize the gut. In this review, we will examine the various types of stress that these bacteria might suffer during their intestinal stay. These stresses, and [...]
Bacteriostatic cells instead of bacteriostatic antibiotics?
Published: 2023-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences
This year we commemorate the centennial of the birth of the mature concept of bacteriostasis by John W. Churchman at Cornell University Medical School. The term bacteriostasis has primarily been applied to antibiotics (bacteriostatic antibiotics). In this Opinion paper, we are revisiting this concept by suggesting that bacteriostatic antibiotics are drugs that induce bacteria to become [...]
Robust point and variance estimation for ecological and evolutionary meta-analyses with selective reporting and dependent effect sizes
Published: 2023-10-04
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Statistics and Probability
Meta-analysis produces a quantitative synthesis of evidence-based knowledge, shaping not only research trends but also policy and practices in ecology and evolution. However, two statistical issues, selective reporting and statistical dependence, can severally distort meta-analytic evidence. Here, we propose a two-step procedure to tackle these challenges concurrently and re-analyse 448 [...]
Bacterial Subcellular Architecture, Structural Epistasis, and Antibiotic Resistance
Published: 2023-03-21
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences
Epistasis refers to how genetic interactions between some genetic loci affect phenotypes and fitness. In this study, we propose the concept “structural epistasis” to emphasize the role of the variable physical interactions between molecules located at particular spaces inside the bacterial cell in the emergence of novel phenotypes. The architecture of the bacterial cell (typically a [...]
Nature exposure and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Navigation Guide systematic review with meta-analysis
Published: 2023-02-18
Subjects: Medicine and Health Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Previous reviews concluded that nature contact was an important coping strategy against poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the quality of evidence in these reviews was not sufficiently documented in terms of the risk of bias in reviewed studies. We attempted to fill this gap with a Navigation Guide systematic review and meta-analyses on the associations between nature [...]
More Than Half of Statistically Significant Research Findings in the Environmental Sciences are Actually Not
Published: 2023-01-25
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Researchers have incentives to search for and selectively report findings that appear to be statistically significant and/or conform to prior beliefs. Such selective reporting practices, including p-hacking and publication bias, can lead to a distorted set of results being published, potentially undermining the process of knowledge accumulation and evidence-based decision making. We take stock of [...]
Psychological and Cultural Factors Influencing Antibiotic Prescription
Published: 2023-01-20
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Microbiology, Psychiatry and Psychology
Humans have been giving a selective advantage to antibiotic-resistant bacteria worldwide by inundating the environment with antimicrobials for about one century. As a result, the efficacy of antibiotics has been impaired. Antibiotic resistance is a public health problem, responsible for increases in mortality and extended stays at hospitals. Hospitals and other clinical settings have implemented [...]
Psychological and Cultural Factors Influencing Antibiotic Prescription
Published: 2023-01-03
Subjects: Biology, Economics, Geography, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Microbiology, Psychiatry and Psychology, Psychology, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Humans have inundated the environment worldwide with antimicrobials for about one century, giving selective advantage to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Therefore, antibiotic resistance has become a public health problem responsible for increased mortality, and extended hospital stays because the efficacy of antibiotics has diminished. Hospitals and other clinical settings have implemented [...]
Evolution of new variants of SARS-COV-2 during the pandemic: mutation limited or selection limited?
Published: 2022-09-24
Subjects: Diseases, Medicine and Health Sciences, Virus Diseases
The recent pandemic caused by SARS-Cov-2 has witnessed an evolving succession of variants of the virus. While the phenomenon of invasion by immunity evading variants is known for other viruses such as influenza, the dynamics of the ecological and evolutionary process in the succession is little known. Since during the Covid-19 pandemic, large scale epidemiological data were collected and made [...]
The promise of an evolutionary perspective of alcohol consumption
Published: 2022-08-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
The urgent need for medical treatments of alcohol use disorders has motivated the search for novel molecular targets of alcohol response. Most studies exploit the strengths of lab animals without considering how these and other species may have adapted to respond to alcohol in an ecological context. Here, we provide an evolutionary perspective on the molecular and genetic underpinnings of alcohol [...]
Curated dataset of accessible and recreational parks in the U.S.: Comparison to greenspace metrics and sociodemographics
Published: 2022-08-23
Subjects: Epidemiology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Public Health
Most spatial epidemiological studies of nature-health relationships use generalized green space measures. For instance, coarse resolution spatial data containing normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) values are prominent despite criticisms, such as the researcher’s inability to restrain exposure estimates to public (accessible) and private (largely inaccessible) land. Non-threatening [...]
Beyond "bluespace" and "greenspace": A narrative review of possible health benefits from exposure to other natural landscapes
Published: 2022-08-11
Subjects: Environmental Public Health, Medicine and Health Sciences, Public Health
Numerous studies have highlighted the physical and mental health benefits of contact with nature, typically in landscapes characterized by plants (i.e., “greenspace”) and water (i.e., “bluespace”). However, natural landscapes are not always green or blue, and the effects of other landscapes are worth attention. This narrative review attempts to overcome this limitation of past research. Rather [...]
First recorded outbreak of Veronaea botryosa in North American amphibians: clinicopathologic features of a rare cause of phaeohyphomycosis in captive White’s tree frogs (Litoria caerulea)
Published: 2022-08-05
Subjects: Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Veterinary Infectious Diseases, Veterinary Medicine
We describe fatal phaeohyphomycosis due to Veronaea botryosa in captive White’s tree frogs (Litoria caerulea), the first confirmed report in amphibians in North America. Over 15 months, six frogs developed ulcerative dermatitis on distal extremities/ventrum, which in one animal progressed to vasculitis and necrotizing osteomyelitis. All six frogs died. Clinicopathologic findings, diagnostic [...]
Psychological and Cultural Factors Influencing Antibiotic Prescription
Published: 2022-06-21
Subjects: Bacteriology, Child Psychology, Health Psychology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health, Medicine and Health Sciences, Microbiology, Psychiatry and Psychology, Psychological Phenomena and Processes, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology, Sociology of Religion
Humans have been giving a selective advantage to antibiotic-resistant bacteria worldwide by inundating the environment with antimicrobials for about one century. As a result, the efficacy of antibiotics has been impaired. Antibiotic resistance is a public health problem, responsible for increases in mortality and extended stays at hospitals. Hospitals and other clinical settings have implemented [...]