- Jonathan Swift

December 30, 2013

December 13, 2013

Lethacotyle vera

Images from the paper

November 24, 2013

Tracheliastes polycolpus

Photo of adult T. polycolpus from here
Tracheliastes polycolpus is a parasitic copepod that lives on freshwater fish and does so by attaching to the fins of its host, grazing on mucus and epithelial cells. While T. polycolpus can infect a handful of different freshwater fishes, it is primarily found on the beaked dace (Leuciscus burdigalensis). When they occur in large numbers, their feeding activities can severely erode the fins of their hosts, so much that in some fish the fins are gnawed down to mere nubs (see the photo below of a heavily parasitised dace, with outlines showing the missing fin tissue).

So when it gets crowded on this parasite's usual, preferred host, some T. polycolpus find a home elsewhere and start parasitising other species of fish living in the same area. Even though T. polycolpus is considered to be a host generalist and can infect multiple species of fish, not all fish are considered equally habitable for this parasite and it does have a predilection for certain species over others. So what determines which other fish end up acquiring these parasitic copepods?

A group of scientists from France conducted a study looking at T. polycolpus population on freshwater fish in two French rivers, focusing on the 10 most abundant fish species in those rivers. Of the fish that they examined, eight of them were cyprinids (the family of fish that include dace, roach, and carp) while the two remaining species were the stone loach and brown trout.
Photo of parasitised dace with missing fin tissue from this paper

Only cyrpinids were found to be infected with T. polycolpus and of those only four species (dace, nase, gudgeon, minnows) were found to be consistently infected across both study sites. It turns out that next to the beaked dace, the second most preferred host for T. polycolpus is Parachondrostoma toxostoma, also known as South-west European Nase. After the beaked dace, it was the most commonly infected fish, especially in the Viaur river where there was generally higher abundance of the parasite.

It just so happens that out of all the fishes in those rivers, the nase is most similar to the dace in terms of its general body size, feeding style and habitat, making it the ideal second choice for T. polycolpus. On the flip side, it seems that minnow is the worst host for T. polycolpus - it hosted the least parasites out of the four fish species that were found with T. polycolpus and the parasites that were found on minnows were smaller and produced less eggs than those found on the other fish species. This is probably due to the minnow being a smaller fish than the beaked dace or the nase, so it does not produce as much mucus for T. polycolpus to graze on.

So even when generalist parasites do infect other hosts, they prefer some familiarity. The more similar you are (physiologically and/or ecologically) to the parasite's preferred host, the more likely that you will be next in line to get infected should the parasite's preferred host become too heavily parasitised.

But here's an added to layer to this story which you might want to consider - the South-west European nase is actually listed as a vulnerable species - its population has declined by at least 30% in the past 10 years due to habitat destruction and hybridisation with introduced species, so if the number of nase continues to decline, what does this mean for T. polycolpus? Would this result in increased parasite pressure on other fish species as they find themselves soaking up the "excess" T. polycolpus? Or will the the beaked dace experience even more exacerbated pathology as T. polycolpus are left with less alternative hosts to infect?

Lootvoet, A., Blanchet, S., Gevrey, M., Buisson, L., Tudesque, L., & Loot, G. (2013). Patterns and processes of alternative host use in a generalist parasite: insights from a natural host–parasite interaction. Functional Ecology 27: 1403-1414

November 12, 2013

Ophiocordyceps sessilis

There are many species of fungi that infect insects and some of the most well-known species are the ones that infect ants, better known to most as the "zombie ant fungus". We have previously featured one such fungus and its ant-jacking antics on this blog. But while most people might think that there's just a single zombie ant fungus out there which is responsible for creating this intriguing wonder (or nightmare) of nature, there are actually many different species of such fungi and they are found all over the world infecting various different insects. In the Ophiocordyceps genus alone there are over a hundred species and there might be some undescribed fungi that are hiding in plain sight because they have been misidentified and misclassified as a previously known species.
Photo of Ophiocordyceps sessilis from
Fig. 1 of the paper

Today, we are going to be featuring one such fungus and it hails from Japan where they are called Kobugata-aritake which means the "bump-neck ant fungus". The fungi specimen described in the paper we are discussing today were originally collected in 2006 from a forest near the village of Iitate, Fukushima. They were initially thought to be specimen of a fairly commonly found species call Ophiocordyceps pulvinata, but upon reexamination, researchers noticed a number of key differences which separated O. sessilis from O. pulvinata.

Both fungi were found sprouting from dead ants which had their mandibles clamped tightly around a branch in the typical "zombie ant" pose, but whereas O. pulvinata produce a bulbous fruiting body that sprouts from the back of the ant's head (see photo on lower left), ants infected with O sessilis are covered in spiny fruiting bodies jutting out all over the ant's body (see photo on upper right).

Further difference between the two fungi can be seen under the microscope; O. pulvinata produce discrete spores that are long and slim, but the spores of O. sessilis look like beads on a necklace which readily breaks apart into small "part-spores". These part-spores of O. sessilis can also germinate on malt-extract agar plates within two days, growing into soft, velvety colonies of fungal mass, whereas O. pulvinata spores failed to grow on such artificial medium. Finally, comparisons of sequences from selected genetic markers revealed that O. sessilis is clearly a very different species to O. pulvinata.

Photo of Ophiocordyceps pulvinata from
Fig. 1 of the paper
A peculiar thing the researchers noticed is that O. sessilis is only ever found in ants that are also infected with O. pulvinata. They suggested that O. sessilis is actually a parasite of O. pulvinata itself and noted other Ophiocordyceps species are often found in pairs, so what had previously be considered as coinfections may in fact be a case of hyperparasitism (whereby a parasite is itself infected by a parasite).

However, there is another possibility that the researchers did not mention in their paper, which was that O. sessilis needs O. pulvinata to pave the way in order for them to colonise the ant's body. An example of this is can be found among fluke-snail host-parasite systems. Like most digenean trematodes, the blood fluke Austrobilharzia terrigalensis they needs to infect a snail for the asexual part of its life cycle, but unlike those other species, A. terrigalensis cannot infect a snail on its own and is always found in snails that are already infected with another species of fluke. The coinfecting species always appear shriveled and emaciated in the presence of A. terrigalensis and it has been suggested that while A. terrigalensis lacks the ability to subvert or suppress the immune defences of snails, they are capable of colonising a snail once its defences have been knocked out by another species, at which point they barge in, overpower the resident parasite and take over the host.

So either O. sessillis is a hyperparasite (or a "mycoparasite" - a parasite of a fungus) of O. pulvinata, or it cannot colonise a host on its own and instead piggybacks on O. pulvinata, eventually usurping it and taking over the ant for its own. Either way, it appears that O. sessilis is a fungus that can hijack a fungus which is used to hijacking ants.

Kaitsu, Y., Shimizu, K., Tanaka, E., Shimano, S., Uchiyama, S., Tanaka, C., & Kinjo, N. (2013). Ophiocordyceps sessilis sp. nov., a new species of Ophiocordyceps on Camponotus ants in Japan. Mycological Progress 12: 755-761.

P.S. I recently wrote an article for The Conversation about parasites that can survive freezing - including the hairworm (otherwise known as the parasite that gives crickets nightmares). To read it, just follow this link here.

October 24, 2013

Sphaerularia vespae

Photo of a hornet releasing
some S. vespae juveniles
(from Fig. 2 of the paper)

October 10, 2013

Paragordius varius

Photo of adult worm by Matthew Bolek

Photo of P. varius larva from Nematomorpha.net

September 27, 2013

photo credit: Don Ward
photo credit:
Maria Sala-Bozano/University of Salford

Left: Philophthalmid rediae in snail
Right: Philophthalmid larva encysted on a Petri dish

Photo credit: Stefan Kraft

September 13, 2013

Special Report: #WAAVP2013 Part I (lancet fluke, dolphin poop and a turtle parasite)

Last month, I attended the 24th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP 2013). While veterinary parasitology is not my usual scene, it was also a joint conference with the annual Australian Society for Parasitologists meeting, and there were also plenty of wildlife and aquatic parasitology on the program that caught my interest. The major themes of this conference included food security and public health in relation to parasites. As this was a big international conference and there were multiple concurrent sessions, the talks that I will be writing about here will be heavily biased towards my own experience and interests - but if any of you reading this also happen have attended WAAVP 2013, feel free to leave your own highlights in the comment section.

The conference reception night kicked off with a public event call "Parasites and Pets, Pets and You" which I live-tweeted (see the storify here). The presentations were about the critters that live in and on people's beloved pet as well as addressing many myths and misconceptions about parasites. The presentation addressed zoonosis and how while it is possible to catch parasites from your pets, you are more likely to catch parasites from the people around you, also that you are more likely to get infected with Toxoplasma gondii from contaminated food than from cats. (On a side note, during the reception night I also picked up some appropriately themed souvenirs - see photo above)

Photo by MONGO
The first day of the conference began off with a plenary session on the history of veterinary parasitology in Australia by Ian Beveridge and Brown Besier. Later in the morning I saw a talk by Melissa Beck on Dicrocoelium dendriticum. For those who don't know, D. dendritium is also known as the lance fluke - the parasite well-known for hijacking the brain of its ant host, causing it to climb to the top of the blade of grass and stay there all night, waiting to be eaten by its next host (a grazing mammal such as a sheep or a deer). Beck's study looked at the age-related pattern of lancer fluke infection in free-ranging wapiti (Cervus candensis) in Alberta, Canada. The study was carried out in Cypress Hills Provincial Park, Canada (so I guess you can say that the ants in that area which are infected with lancet flukes are *[don sunglasses]* - Insane In The Membrane?). She found that the elks seem to become less infected as they get older, with the majority of flukes in the host population found in younger individuals. This may be due to the adult elks having a more robust immune system which prevents them from becoming reinfected by the lancet fluke, or it might even involve some kind of behavioural defence that develop in mature individuals (adult elks learning to avoid eating ant-laden grass?).

Later on that same day, I gave a talk on a study I conducted with my collaborator Amanda Bates on the global pattern of disease outbreaks in aquaculture (which you can read for free here), afterwards I saw a session on the wide variety of parasites that currently plague aquaculture the world over. There was a talk by Ronald Kaminsky on the development of anti-parasite compounds and the salmon lice that are evolving resistance to them. This was followed by Supranee Chinabut who discussed the different types of parasites that infect captive fish in southeast Asia such as monogeneans (ectoparasitic flatworms), parasitic crustaceans, and infectious protozoans (like the startlingly beautiful Trichodina), emphasising the importance of having multiple strategies for dealing with outbreaks of different types of parasites.

In the same session, Kyle McHugh presented a study looking at how introduction of popular angling and aquaculture species such as the large mouth bass and grass carp has brought with them various parasites such as anchor worm and the Asian fish tapeworm that now infest South Africa's own native freshwater fish. Finally Zoe Spiers presented some results from an investigation into the aetiology of oyster winter mortality syndrome - a disease which causes significant loss to oysters farms along the coast of New South Wales, Australia every year. The investigation involved a combination of ecology, histopathology and molecular biology, and while it is commonly believed that oyster winter mortality syndrome is a disease caused by the protozoan parasite Bonamia roughleyi, the result Spiers presented indicates that the symptoms of the disease is not always associated with B. rougleyi and that the actual agent(s) causing winter mortality is still unclear.

Photo by Richard Ling
Keeping the theme underwater, I attend a session the next morning on aquatic parasitology Sarah Catalano (she presented a talk about those parasites at last year's Australian Society for Parasitology meeting) about using the weird and wonderful dicyemid parasites to distinguish different sub-populations of cuttlefish in the waters of South Australia. Dicyemids are very odd parasites that live exclusively in the renal sac of cephalopods, and their exact taxonomic position on the tree of life is currently unknown.

Carlos Hermosilia presented a study which was quite astonishing in its the method of execution. Hermosilia conducts research on the parasites of dolphins but while most studies on dolphin obtain sample from dead stranded dolphins, he chases after parasites from live dolphins, and I mean that quite literally. His methodology involves swimming after dolphins with a tube and scooping up their poop (or vomit). That's right, just like how a responsible dog owner might scoop up after their pooch, but with dolphins - which are powerful swimmers - not to mention dolphin poop comes out in a cloud instead of Fido's neat little turds. Needless to say, chasing down flipper with the aquatic equivalent of a pooper scooper sounds like no mean feat. He found that dolphins harboured all the usual parasitic protozoan and intestinal worms one would expect from a marine mammal, but one unexpected finding was a cymothoid isopod in a dolphin vomit sample. Cymothoids are usually fish parasites (including the infamour "tongue-biter") so it is quite likely that the crustacean might have been from a fish that the dolphin just ate.

Hermosilia's tale of dolphin chasing and poop scooping was followed by a talk on the spirochiid blood fluke of marine turtles by Phoebe Chapman. Spirochiid blood fluke can cause disease in sea turtles and there are 91 species of spirorchiids described worldwide, 30 of which are found in marine hosts.  The species found in sea turtles live in the cardiovascular system of the host where they mate and lay eggs - which is the main cause of disease (at this point it is unknown how the eggs reach the outside environment - there is even a hypothesis that they simply wait for the host to die to be released). The eggs of spirochiid can become lodged in the turtles organs, causing embolism, thrombosis, lung fiborsis, and a long list of other internal injuries. Currently there is no way of detecting the presence of spirochiids in the host while it is still alive and a part of Chapman's research involve developing a method for diagnosing spirochiid infection in live animals.

I will be writing about the rest of Tuesday and the rest of the conference in Part Two of my special report on WAAVP 2013. Stay tuned as there are more to come including tongue-biters, snails and flukes on the rocks, ticks (real ticks, not plastic ones) and parasites of various weird and wonderful wildlife.

August 23, 2013

Maritrema novaezealandensis (revisited)

This is the fourth and final post in a series of blog posts written by students from my third year Evolutionary Parasitology unit (ZOOL329/529) class of 2013. This particular post was written by Sally Thorsteinsson on a study that investigated how an intertidal parasite with a complex life cycle might respond to global warming (you can read a previous post about toxic birds and their lice here, a post about bees protecting themselves against fungal parasites by lining their hives with resin here, and how an avian malaria parasite might make its bird host more attractive to mosquitoes here).

Paracalliope novizealandiae
Intertidal habitats are tough places to live: one minute you may be submersed, buffeted, and chilled by salt water, the next baking under a hot, drying sun. However, global warming is predicted to turn up the heat even more on those that inhabit these environments. The tidal flats on the South Island of New Zealand are the habitats of the parasite trematode Maritrema novaezealandensis and the three hosts necessary for it to complete its life cycle – mudsnail Zeacumantus subcarinatus, amphipod Paracalliope novizealandiae (a type of sandhopper-like crustacean) and gulls which are its final host (this life cycle is described in a previous Parasite of the Day blog post here).

Cercaria of
M. novaezealandensis
Trematodes are strongly influenced by the heat, and some studies have predicted that they will flourish with global warming and increase their impact on intertidal systems. However, parasites cannot be looked at in isolation, but considered as part of the ecosystem, which may also be temperature sensitive. For M. novaezealandensis itself, there may be a perk to global warming, as long as temperatures stay within its optimal range.

When the water in rock pools is comfortable for us to roll up our jeans and paddle (between 20 and 25 °C), M. novaezealandensis thrives. At present this happens during low tide on hot summer days and the warmth sparks the release of multitudes of cercariae (free-swimming trematode larvae) into the water from the bodies of their snail hosts, ready to drill their way into their next host, the amphipod. In such temperature, the cercariae survive for relatively long periods, are at their infective peak and develop well inside the amphipods. These conditions are expected to occur more often and for longer periods with global warming - not particularly good news for the host snails and amphipods of M. novaezealandensis  bombarded by increased numbers of this parasite and suffering death and destruction (particularly the amphipods) as a result.

But the heat gets all too much for M. novaezealandensis at temperatures greater than 30 °C when there are still many cercariae but they infect amphipods at lower rates and their lifespans are shortened. The amphipods also die at such heat, making it harder for the parasites to find their hosts and live in them long enough to develop. At present these extremes are rare, but the increase in high-temperature days as predicted would disrupt the parasite’s life cycle further and decrease the population of amphipods. As amphipods are an important food source for other animals, as well as the decomposers of the intertidal world, their demise can have widespread consequences.

Who knows what changes global warming will be bringing to the wider ecosystem; lab experiments, such as the one providing these results in this study, can only offer an indication. Further research into the effects of climate change on host-parasite systems will be important given the pivotal role of parasites and the complexity of the ecosystems that they are part of. Perhaps the behaviour of the snail, amphipod and gull hosts will also be affected by temperature changes, sea level rise or alterations in habitats and such selection pressure over generations of hosts and parasites will turn up the heat on evolution, resulting in offspring that may be quite differently to those that are alive today.

Studer, A., Thieltges, D. W., & Poulin, R. (2010). Parasites and global warming: Net effects of temperature on an intertidal host-parasite system. Marine Ecology Progress Series 415: 11-22.

This post was written by Sally Thorsteinsson

August 15, 2013

Plasmodium relictum (revisited)

This is the third post in a series of blog posts written by students from my third year Evolutionary Parasitology unit (ZOOL329/529) class of 2013. This particular post was written by David Rex Mitchell on a paper published just this year on how an avian malaria parasite might make its bird host more attractive to mosquitoes which are the parasite's vector (you can read a previous post about toxic birds and their lice here and a post about bees protecting themselves against fungal parasites by lining their hives with resin here).

Photo of Culex pipiens
by Joaquim Alves Gaspar
One of the aspects of parasites that people tend to find a little more disturbing is the idea that they can control the minds of other animals. Although this may seem like the stuff of science fiction, this is indeed sometimes the case. For those parasites that live inside other animals, there are often several stages to their lives and each of these stages may require the use of a different type of animal. This presents a challenge in getting from one animal to the next and so if a parasite can influence the behaviour of one animal in some way, making it easier to reach the next, this is incredibly advantageous.

Many parasites have evolved abilities to do just this. For example, some blood-sucking insects infected with certain parasites are known to bite more frequently than when uninfected, helping to spread the disease to more animals. This is seen in malaria-infected mosquitoes, tsetse flies infected with sleeping sickness, and plague-infected fleas. But is it possible that a parasite can also influence a healthy, uninfected animal’s behaviour? The paper featured today attempts to address this question. Researchers used a species of avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum - a parasite that has been previously covered on the blog by this post here) and its natural mosquito carrier (Culex pipiens) to find out if malaria-infected animals are more attractive to mosquitoes than healthy, uninfected animals. This species of malaria is spread among birds via its mosquito carriers and thus the researchers chose canaries to carry out the experiment.

Photo of canaries by 3268zauber
Pairs of canaries, one infected with the parasite and one uninfected, were exposed to uninfected mosquitoes to see which bird they would prefer to feed on. The mosquitoes mostly fed on only one animal per sitting, so the blood inside their bellies could be removed and the DNA analysed to determine which bird it fed upon. The experiment was carried out on the day the birds were injected with the parasite, as well as 10 days and 24 days after injection, so as to monitor any changes as the parasites matured inside them.

From this experiment the researchers discovered that, not only did the mosquitoes clearly prefer to feast on the malaria-infected canaries, but also this behaviour became more prominent as the malaria parasites mature within the canary and become capable of crossing into a mosquito. The researchers suggest that the malaria parasite influences the mosquito’s decision to feed on the infected animal, assisting its transfer to said mosquito – the next stage in its life-cycle. The mechanism used to achieve this has not yet been determined but the researchers suggest that the parasite may alter the odours that are emitted from the host animal, enticing the mosquitoes to choose its infected animal over other uninfected animals. If these odours can be identified and reproduced, they may prove very useful in control of malaria in the future, for example in mosquito traps.

So is this an example of crazy sci-fi mind-controlling by parasites? Ok, so mosquitoes may not exactly be renowned for their calculated decision making skills. But the results of this experiment were still able to show us how the malaria parasite can influence a healthy mosquito’s decisions, offering further insight into the awesome manipulative powers of parasites.

Cornet S, Nicot A, Rivero A, & Gandon S (2013) Malaria infection increases bird attractiveness to uninfected mosquitoes. Ecology Letters 16: 323 – 329.

This post was written by David Rex Mitchell

August 9, 2013

Ascosphaera apis

This is the second post in a series of blog posts written by students from my third year Evolutionary Parasitology unit (ZOOL329/529) class of 2013. This particular post was written by Karen McDonald on a paper published in 2008 on how bees use resin to protect their hive against fungal parasites (you can read the previous post about toxic birds and their lice here).

Animals have evolved many different strategies to fight parasite infections; from eating tough or poisonous leaves (which would normally never be chosen as part of their diet), dirt bathing, grooming themselves with plants that contain chemicals that kill parasites, living in hostile environments that parasites can't tolerate, to drinking toxic substances like alcohol to kill internal parasites. Animals in general are individuals and care only for their own personal well-being and so the parasite-ridding strategies animals use really only affect their own health and well-being. But bees, on the other hand, are different.

SEM photo of Ascosphaera apis sporeball from here
Bees are communal animals and each bee is an important part of the hive community. The article I am going to talk about today shows that bees don't act on a self-motivated level where they are only concerned with their own well-being, instead bees work only to improve and support the whole hive community. Wild bees always smother the inside of their nests with sticky plant resin and the reason for this was never really understood. Domesticated bees don't use much, if any resin at all. They have been selectively bred to not use it because the sticky resin makes opening the hive and removing the honey and combs very difficult. But domestic bees are also plagued by many, often destructive, parasites.

In 2008 researchers decided to document whether the amount of plant resin that domestic bees use in their hives has an effect on fungal parasite levels in that hive. Two groups of hives were set up; the first group of 12 had the inside of each box painted with thick resin to replicate the nests of wild bees, the second group of 11 boxes were only painted with the type and quantity of resin used by commercial apiaries. Bees from both groups were fed with pollen infected with Chalkbrood, which they ate and/or carried back to their hives.

Photo of chalkbrood-infect larvae from here
Chalkbrood (Ascosphaera apis) is a fungal infection of bee larvae, causing them to die and mummify in the nest (see photo on the right). Adult bees are not affected by the parasite but they do carry it in their bodies and drop spores throughout the nest infecting young bees. Normally, as mentioned above, infected animals are usually only concerned with their own well-being and so the researchers were interested in seeing whether the adults would react to the threat to the larvae or ignore the parasite menace because it did not affect them personally.

Within days, the bees immediately began collecting more resin for their nests. Normally, there are only a few bees in each hive that forage for resin, the majority forage for pollen or nectar. Bees do not eat resin; its only function is to line the nest, so not much energy is used by the hive community to collect it. But when the hive is under threat from a parasite like Chalkbrood, more bees begin to forage for resin and a lot of energy is used to find it.  The nests painted with resin, although infected at the same level, also had a reduced level of infection compared to the commercial standard nests, but the level of infection in all nests dropped as the amount of resin in the nest increased. The bees were using the resin as a form of  social immunity rather than self-immunity.

Simone-Finstrom M.D., Spivak M., (2012) Increased Resin Collection after Parasite Challenge: A Case of Self-Medication in Honey Bees? PloS One, 7(3): e34601. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0034601

This post was written by Karen McDonald

August 1, 2013

Toxic Birds Make For Sad Lice

It has been a while since we had a guest post at the Parasite of the Day blog (in fact the last guest-contributed post date back to May 2011), but in the next few weeks I will be bringing you a series of posts from guest contributors. Earlier this year, I ran my third year Evolutionary Parasitology unit (ZOOL329/529) for the first time. One of the assessments I set for the students who took that unit was for them to summarise a paper that they have read, and write it in the manner of a blog post, much like the ones you see on this and other blogs.

I also told them that the best blog posts from the class will be selected for re-posting (with their permission) here on the Parasite of the Day blog. I am pleased to be presenting these posts from the ZOOL329/529 class of 2013. To kick things off, here's a post by Bianca Boss-Bishop on a paper published in 1999 on toxic birds and their lice.

Photo by John Dumbacher from
the California Academy of Sciences
Birds are host to an impressive diversity of external parasites, from insects (including lice, fleas, bugs and flies) to mites, ticks and even fungi and bacteria. These parasitic organisms can have severe negative effects on host fitness. Therefore, it is not surprising that birds invest a lot of time engaged in behaviours such as grooming, preening, dusting and sunning in attempts to rid themselves of their ectoparasites. A handful of unique birds from the genus Pitohui have an interesting physiological adaptation that may assist in the fight against parasite infestation: feather toxins.

Yes, toxic birds. The six species of Pitohui, which are endemic to New Guinea have been found to carry toxin in their skin and plumage. These are the same potent toxins as those found in the skin of poison dart frogs (Phyllobates spp.) and are some of the most toxic natural substances known. The toxin present in the Pitohui is known as homobatrachotoxin and like all batrachotoxins is a neurotoxic steroidal alkaloid capable of depolarising nerve and muscle cell membranes. The level of toxins present in Pitohui tissue varies between species and geographic location. The most toxic species is the hooded pitohui (Pitohui dichrous), from which merely handling an individual can cause numbness, sneezing, and irritation of the eyes and sensitive mucous membranes. It has been hypothesised that the high proportions of toxin present in the Pitohui skin and feathers could provide the bird with a barrier from ectoparasites that live and feed on skin, feathers and subdermal blood supplies.

SEM photograph from phthiraptera.info
John Dumbacher, current curator and department chair of Ornithology and Mammology at the California Academy of Sciences was the first to test if the presence of toxins in Pitohui feathers and skin would deter or kill chewing lice (order Phthiraptera). In order to investigate this he conducted a series of choice and lifespan experiments. Dumbacher found that when individual lice in the laboratory were given a choice of two feathers (one toxic Pitohui feather and one non-toxic non-Pitohui feather) there was a statistically significant preference against feeding or resting on the toxic feathers. Lice exposed to the highly toxic feathers of P. dichrous rarely showed signs of eating, with many becoming immobile and inactive. In some cases the louse would simply drop off the toxic feather. In a natural setting, immobility and lower feeding rates reduces the damaging effect of the lice and may even allow the birds to more easily remove or dislodge the parasites mechanically by preening or flying. Since this part of the study showed that the lice exhibited an active choice against the naturally toxic Pitohui feathers we can conclude that homobatrachotoxin has the potential to act as a repellent against these parasites.

Dumbacher also determined that the natural levels of homobatrachotoxin in Pitohui feathers greatly increased louse mortality. The results of the lifespan experiments showed that the mean lifespan of lice exposed to feathers of either high or low level toxicity was half that of those on nontoxic feathers. Interestingly, the mean lifespan of the lice on the toxic feathers was similar even though the toxin levels in P. ferrugineus are ten times lower than P. dichrous. Therefore, Pitohui feathers with lower toxin levels may not have been potent enough to repel lice during the choice experiments but were as effective in increasing louse mortality as the highly toxic feathers. Increased mortality in lice could have many benefits for the host. Less time spent on the host will reduce the negative effect of each individual louse.

One observation from the study was that non-toxic feathers showed obvious damage from lice feeding. This may be due to the extended life span offering additional feeding time, or the lice simply find nontoxic feathers more palatable. Further investigations may provide insight into additional  benefits, for example whether or not the potent toxin is able to reduce louse fecundity. If mating in lice is decreased then subsequent generations of lice are also reduced. Smaller populations would cause less irritation to the host and also be less visible to potential mates. Additionally, less ectoparasites would reduce time spent mechanically removing them and more time to invest in other activities. The results of Dumbacher's study suggest that the naturally occurring homobatrachotoxin found in the skin and feathers of the Pitohui repels and kills lice. The presence of a powerful toxin in skin and feathers has the potential to create a formidable barrier and protect the bird against infestation from ectoparasites.

Dumbacher, J. P. (1999). Evolution of toxicity in Pitohuis: I. effects of homobatrachotoxin on chewing lice (order: Phthiraptera). The Auk, 116: 957-963.

This post was written by Bianca Boss-Bishop

July 15, 2013

Tetrabothrius bassani

It has been known for some time that intestinal parasites such as tapeworms can accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals, acting as a sink for such substances in the host's body. Back in 2010 a study on shark tapeworms accumulating heavy metals was featured on this blog, but most of such studies comparing the concentration of heavy metals in the host's organs with that of their parasites have been conducted on fish and fewer studies have looked at the heavy metal concentrations of intestinal parasites in birds and in particular seabirds, which form an important part of the marine ecosystem.

Photo of Tetrabothrius scolex (attachment organ)
from this paper
In the study we are featuring today, researchers tested the concentration of various heavy metals in the organs of twenty-three Northern Gannets from the central coast of Portugal. The birds had died when they were tangled up in fishing gear from commercial fishing boats, but they were otherwise in good health before they ended up on the wrong end of some fishing nets. They all had stomachs full of fish and the only parasite found in their intestines was the tapeworm we are featuring today - Tetrabothrius bassani. There are a number of different species in the Tetrabothrius genus, some species like T. bassani parasitise seabirds such as gannets and albatrosses, while other are found in whales - for example, I wrote a post a few years ago about some tapeworms I found in the gut of a beaked whale, which you can read about here.

For this study, the researchers collected at least one T. bassani from each gannet and took tissue samples from the bird's liver, kidney and pectoral muscle to measure the concentration of different heavy metals. They found that, on average, T. bassani accumulated twelve times as much cadmium as the gannet's pectoral muscles. Furthermore the tapeworms had seven to ten times more lead than the seabird's kidneys and liver. Since these worms seem to act like sponges that soak up and concentrate heavy metals, such substances would reach detectable level in the tapeworms well before they became noticeable in the host's own tissues. Because of that, these parasites can possibly serve as early warning indicators for the presence of pollutants in the environment.

Mendes, P., Eira, C., Vingada, J., Miquel, J., & Torres, J. (2013). The system Tetrabothrius bassani (Tetrabothriidae)/Morus bassanus (Sulidae) as a bioindicator of marine heavy metal pollution. Acta Parasitologica, 58: 21-25.

July 2, 2013

Flamingolepis liguloides

The parasite that features prominently in the study we are looking at today is a tapeworm that lives in flamingoes - something that you might have already guessed by the parasite's genus name. The larval stage of the tapeworm Flamingolepis liguloides lives inside brine shrimps, which happen to be a major part of the flamingo's diet. Previous research has found that this parasite is capable of altering the behaviour of the shrimp as well as their colour and fat content.

Photo of F. liguloides larvae from the paper
In this new study, a team of scientists looked at the frequency of larval F. liguloides (and other tapeworms) in two brine shrimp species found in Mediterranean wetlands - Artemia parthenogenetica and Artemia salina - and how they related to the abundance of birds, the final hosts for those tapeworms. As the name indicates, A. parthenogenetica reproduces asexually (without mating), while A. salina is a more conventional sexually reproducing species.

Flamingolepis liguloides is not the only species of tapeworm infecting those shrimps, in fact each Artemia species harbours nine different tapeworm species each for a total of ten different tapeworms (both species of shrimps share a number of tapeworms in common). But F. liguloides is by far the most dominant, probably because flamingoes also happen to be the most numerous and long-lived birds in the area - the researchers estimated that flamingoes represented almost ninety percent of the bird biomass at those wetlands. Despite its dominance, F. liguloides does not seem to push aside the other tapeworms; the brine shrimps often harbour multiple species of tapeworms and the different parasites don't seem to get in each other's way. The fact that they have so many different species of parasites is also an indicator of the wide variety of birds that frequently visited the area. The Odiel marshes, where the scientists collected the asexual brine shrimps, is home for up to twenty thousand shorebirds during migration periods.

Photo of brine shrimps by Hans Hillewaert via Wikipedia
There were some seasonal patterns in infection prevalence. For the asexual brine shrimp, it ranged from a low of four percent to almost half the population being infected, whereas the parasite prevalence in sexual brine shrimps was consistently high, with tapeworms being found in over a quarter to almost three quarters of the shrimp throughout the year. The researchers found that such seasonal changes in the prevalence of some (but not all) of the tapeworms were associated with changes in abundance of the bird hosts. However, the scientists suggested that the consistently high tapeworm abundance in A. salinawas due to the areas they studied being protected areas that harbour thousands of birds, especially flamingoes, which flock there in huge numbers as their wetland habitats are destroyed elsewhere.

The high abundance of tapeworm infections simply reflects a high abundance in the bird hosts that harbour the adult worm that produces eggs that infect the brine shrimps. Therefore, bird watchers should perhaps be thankful for the presence of shrimps heavily infected by a wide variety of parasitic worms!

Sánchez, Marta I., et al. (2013) "High prevalence of cestodes in Artemia spp. throughout the annual cycle: relationship with abundance of avian final hosts." Parasitology Research 112: 1913-1923.

June 16, 2013

Himasthla elongata

Photo taken by and used
with permission from Kirill V. Galaktionov
Today's post is bit of a trip down nostalgia lane for me, as the experimental model used in the study we are featuring today is a host-parasite combination similar to one I worked on for somes years during my PhD and postdoc - bivalves and flukes (specifically flukes from a family called the Echinostomatidae - identifiable by their fetching array of collar spines). Much like a parasite that I worked on (Curtuteria australis), Himasthla elongata encysts in the foot muscle of its host and transforms into a stage called the metacercaria (see left photo). But whereas C. australis infects cockles on the mudflats of New Zealand, H. elongata infects mussels on the rock shores of the White Sea.

By embedding itself in the mussel's foot, this parasite hinders the mollusc's ability to move and produce the all-important byssus threads that anchor them to rocks or other substrates. If it becomes infected with too many H. elongata, the mussel loses its ability to use its foot and its survival becomes compromised. Thus this parasite selects for the evolution of mussels that are resistant against it, resulting in a coevolution arms race between the mussels and H. elongata.

To find out how parasites and mussels fare against each other and the role that genetic variants in both the parasite and host population play in coevolution, a group of Russian researchers conducted a series of parasite survival studies and experimental infections. First of all, they did an in vitro experiment where they exposed the infective larval stage of H. elongata (called cercariae) to the blood of different mussels. This was followed by an experimental infection study where they exposed some of those same "blood donor" mussels to H. elongata larvae and measured how well they were they at resisting the parasite.
Photo taken by and
used with permission
from Kirill V. Galaktionov

The researchers obtained parasite-free mussels from an experimental aquaculture farm to act both as blood donors and infection targets for H. elongata cercariae, while the parasites themselves came from infected periwinkles that the researchers collected from an intertidal inlet. These periwinkles harboured the asexual proliferative stages of H. elongata which produce cercariae (see photo on the right). Because H. elongata undergoes asexual multiplication in the periwinkle host, the researchers were able to obtain multiple genetically-identical (clones, essentially) cercariae from each infected snail and test them against a group of genetically-varied mussels.

The researchers paired up 51 different H. elongata clonal lines to blood samples from 161 randomly selected mussels for a total 764 parasite versus host blood combinations* (!). They found that a handful of mussels had blood that killed every single cercaria that came in contact with it and another handful had blood where all the cercariae survived and successfully turn into metacercariae. It seem that H. elongata is adapted specifically to surviving contact with mussel blood (just that it seems that some are better adapted than others), because when they tried to incubate H. elongata cercariae in the blood of the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria), all the cercariae died within an hour or two.

In a follow-up experiment, they selected 39 of those mussels that had previously served as "blood donors"and exposed each to one of twelve H. elongata clones that were used in the in vitro experiment and found that the results of the in vitro experiment were pretty good indicators of the outcome of those experimental exposures - mussels with blood that killed all the H. elongata they came in contact with were also better than most at fighting off infection by the parasitic fluke. The rest of the mussels were fairly vulnerable to H. elongata and a small handful offered almost no resistance. The larger mussels were generally better at fighting off the parasites with just a little over a quarter of the H. elongata cercariae getting through, while more than half of the cercariae successfully established in the smaller mussels, regardless of the host or parasite genotype.

The parasites themselves also varied in their effectiveness at infecting mussels. Most of the H. elongata clones were fairly good at it, there were a few "superstars" that were especially effective at becoming metacercariae in mussels, while there were also a few "duds" that were hopeless, regardless of which particular mussel they were up against.

Other host-parasite coevolution arms races operate under so-called "gene-for-gene"-type interaction. Examples of which include the bacterial parasite Pasteuria ramosa in waterfleas where a specific parasite strain is most successful at infecting a specific host strain, or the arms race between parasitoid wasps and aphids' protective symbionts where you have wasp lines that can overcome most of aphid protective symbiont strains out there, but remain vulnerable to one specific strain of the symbiont.

What those Russian scientists found with the mussel-Himasthla elongata system does not seem as absolute. Instead, we see variation in overall performance in the population of both host and parasite: there are parasites that ranged from being super effective at what they do, all the way down to complete duds and everything in between. They in turn are going up against mussels with varied level of resistance against them, and how much of a fight those bivalves put up can also be affected by the age and/or body size of the host. However, what it does have in common with those "gene-for-gene"-type coevolutionary systems is that there is a genetic component to either infectivity or resistance, and none of the host are completely resistant to all parasites, just as not all the parasites are completely effective at infecting the available hosts.

Levakin, I. A., Losev, E. A., Nikolaev, K. E., & Galaktionov, K. V. (2013). In vitro encystment of Himasthla elongata cercariae (Digenea, Echinostomatidae) in the haemolymph of blue mussels Mytilus edulis as a tool for assessing cercarial infectivity and molluscan susceptibility. Journal of Helminthology, 87: 180-188.

*because there was simply not enough blood and cercariae to go around, not every H. elongata clone was exposed to the blood from every mussel


G dragon and sandara dating Webcam sexclip

Posted by / 08-Feb-2018 19:29

Meanwhile, Sandara Park is reported to be preparing for an upcoming cartoon series entitled "Cheese in the Trap." According to Korea Portal, Sandara Park will be taking up the role of Jang Bora.

The upcoming "Cheese in the Trap" movie is an adaptation of the original hit cartoon series.

Host Ha Ha asked, "There were rumors you were dating G-Dragon previously.

How did that come about," and she responded, "As a public relations representative, I went to Big Bang's concert, and we were on the way to our after party.

Last weekend saw BIGBANG perform the last of their 10th anniversary "0.

TO.10" concerts and while there was much buzz over the group's awesome performance and all the celebrities who attended, there was one particular incident that made headlines - G-Dragon and 2NE1's Dara being spotted together after the concert!

- GD têm 2 quartos só pra guardar suas roupas em sua casa e ainda usa uma parte da casa dos pais. - Kim Woo Bin já disse que gostaria de ser amigo de G-Dragon mas que é difícil se aproximar dele. - Kwanghee (ZE: A) comentou com G-Dragon: “Eu vi que você tirou fotos com celebridades internacionais”, e o líder do BIGBANG respondeu: “No entanto, eu gosto mais de estar com você”. - Ele disse que a razão dele estar no mundo da música pode ser descrita em uma palavra: Destino.

- Yeon Jung Hoon já disse que é mais fã de GD do que de sua esposa. - Ele tinha o dente frontal torto, então em 2009 ele fez uma cirurgia para consertar.

The EP was acclaimed by critics, and went to win the award for Best R&B & Soul Album at the 6th Korean Music Awards.

For those who are unaware, fans spotted G-Dragon and Dara leaving the concert venue together following BIGBANG's concert, and the interactions between the two caused dating rumours to quickly spread.

While fans and netizens are debating whether G-Dragon and Dara are dating, YG Entertainment have now released a new statement clarifying the situation - no, they are not dating!

Hot was followed by his first full-length studio album, Solar in 2010, that garnered sales of over 100,000 copies.

His second studio album, Rise, peaked at number 112 on the US Billboard 200 Chart, becoming the highest ranking album by a Korean soloist to enter the chart, Born and raised in Uijeongbu, Gyeong Gi-Do, South Korea, Dong Yong-bae's first contact with music was playing the piano, where he enjoyed classical music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

g dragon and sandara dating-43g dragon and sandara dating-17g dragon and sandara dating-30

G-Dragon said, 'It's just a concept,' and put his arm around me as we went."Dara continued, "I didn't know that it would make headlines like that." Do you remember the rumors?

One thought on “g dragon and sandara dating”


Gathering Minds
random musing of an undefined nature

Tags : realistic

Realistic Idealist

I’ve come to determine that my idealistic outlook requires that others be compassionate, insightful, aware and interested (specifically beyond self-interest). Unfortunately my realistic outlook tempers all that through the recognition that I…


Trails in Indiana

Connecting the Dots: Building a network of bike and pedestrian trails across Indiana.

True to form, the Hoosier Rails to Trails Council, Inc., continues to demonstrate their brand of initiative in promoting people friendly pathways for fun, exercise, and commerce across the Hoosier State.
Now meeting with groups in Bartholomew, Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Delaware, Johnson , Hendricks, Lawrence, Marion, , Martin,  Shelby, Wayne, White, Whitley, and  other counties, HRTC has generated and supported proposals for city, county, and city to city bike routes to benefit the health and economic growth of these communities.
Participating in meetings, and by providing maps and website representation, the Council has undertaken to assist in connecting locales by helping plot out and establish non motorized routes providing a travel advantage for folks in a tough economy.

 The Recreational Bike Map is an example proposed by Ken Lanteigne of the Shelbyville "Our Aspiration" Group, Showing connections between Columbus, Greensburg, and Shelbyville.

“You don’t need money for signs or paving to start out” opines Richard Vonnegut, Vice Chairman of the Council.  “Community members can organize and put together bike and hike paths of their own using existing streets and roadways to begin with.  It doesn’t take a lot of money to make this work.   It only takes people who can organize and motivate people to scout out and advocate for these kinds of trail opportunities for people to be able to take advantage of them,” he added.
As successful advocates who collected thousands of signatures during the early years when the Monon Trail was being knitted together, Hoosier Rails to Trails Council was able to put the old Monon corridor right of way into the limelight, pushing the use of the corridor as a trail into a reality.
Tom Healy, owner of Apple Press in Broad Ripple Village on Indianapolis’ northside had this to say.  “The (Hoosier Rails to Trails Council), organization emerged out of a broad based grassroots initiative to convince the City of Indianapolis to acquire the former Monon Raiload right-of-way and turn it into a linear park.  The effort required coalition-building with diverse constituencies, widespread public outreach and a vision of a healthier, more active populace.”
Continuing in this tradition, HRTC  has a vision for promoting smaller towns in Indiana, building access to them thereby fostering growth and cooperation through the common means of enhancing connectivity.


Team Development Programs

From Groupwork to Teamdevelopment

The fact that people are assigned to the same goal, working as a group, doesn’t lead hem a team by itself. It needs communication, direction, understanding each other’s qualities and the awareness that teamwork is more than the sum of the different parts.

In this workshop we align the best of proven methods on team development. The joy of play and creating a learning environment with the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method, as well as the insight on teamrol management through the Belbin method, giving participants feedback on their qualities and Points of Attention.

This workshop is all about making teams within organizations as high performing as they can be.

Feedback - Feedforward

The LSP method really facilitates the communication process between people, because people can use the power of ‘image language’, the positive and inviting way of asking questions into the models they have built and exchange insights so feedback becomes a feed-forward process.

This workshop start as half-day workshop where participants practice the essentials of a feed-forward communication process . The focus area is very much on the communication between individuals. In a 4 – step process participants practise, learn and start changing their behavior through:

  1. understanding the power of visualizing communication which enhances the conversation between people.
  2. participants work on an issue where miscommunication is the start of misunderstanding and learn how to intervene with the intention of reconnecting.
  3. Participants experience the power of the transition from feedback to feed-forward communication. The exercise will result in a problem-solving approach of the topic brought to the table.
  4. The final step is to incorporate the lessons learned and the way they handle future challenges with this feedback-feed-forward approach.

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Copyright © Bricks and Business 2017. LEGO®, SERIOUS PLAY®, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website


Lightroom 2.0 upgrade

Today I upgraded my Lightroom to 2.0 and re-confirmed my commitment to the software with my wallet. I promised myself to work through my internal resistance to change workflow, and now I am narrowing my excuses. Adobe is doing a great job of hyping the new release, and I am always a sucker for a good sales pitch (bought a few Magic Bullets a while back). I've started going down the Lightroom path at least 3 times, and now I am going again. There are several big mental obstacles to overcome and it means just setting one's mind to the task and doing it. Old habits are hard to break and this old dog needs to learn some new tricks. The first big rock to overcome is convincing yourself that your existing tools and ways just cannot accommodate what you want to do. Here is my situation:

I have been shooting digitally since 2004 and have amassed around 280 GB of photos, mostly RAW, numbering in the neighborhood of 28,000 images. These are all organized on several external HDDs, my 1 TB drive has everything as a master archive, a 250 GB has 2007/2008 and is my "working" drive, and an additional 160 GB drive has 2006-2004.

I am tired of looking for images based on memory of when and where they were taken. As I venture into selling stock, I need to be able to not only find images but keywording is essential. If I take the time to title, caption, and keyword an image I only want to do this one time for all eternity, and I need a place where this can be done efficiently and in an organized way. I'm not going to re-enter the same title for my pBase site, Zenfolio site, PhotoShelter, etc.

Although Canon DPP has served me well, it is time to move on. The editing tools in LR are far superior, and the integration with Photoshop is designed to help your workflow.  I'm looking forward to the upgrade.


Pam Whelan, Simplyhealth’s director of corporate, explains why good mental health is the key to productivity – and what employers can do to support their staff

An inspired team is a winning team picture id646457606

Why does productivity matter at work, for employers, employees and also for the UK’s economy as a whole?

Having a productive workforce and having your people perform well in work can be a real differentiator for any company. The working landscape is changing fast, with increased automation, off-shoring certain functions and artificial intelligence. As a business, it is increasingly your people who make the difference. If they perform well, your business is likely to perform well also.

What do you think are the biggest barriers to increasing productivity and how can employers address them?

We are no longer working nine-to-five, it is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so there are increased demands and pressure on everyone. Really, I think mental health is the biggest issue. We all have mental health. When we use the term mental health it implies that you’re struggling but actually, you can have good mental health as well as bad mental health. As businesses, we should be supporting our people and talking openly, equipping our managers to encourage open dialogue and putting support mechanisms in place for our people to access counselling. For example, a cash plan will typically offer both telephone and access to face-to-face counselling when is that is required.

How do you start to empower managers to make them feel a bit more confident about addressing these issues?

It really starts at the top with the culture that you create. If employees feel safe and supported, they’re more likely to be open. We’ve got a situation in our own office where we have an individual with struggling with their mental health, and the feedback from them is that the support that the line managers have given has been the difference between them being able to manage it better and be present in the office rather than having to take time off. That individual feels supported, listened to and does feel that there is not a stigma attached to it.

How do you foster good mental health in your workforce?

It is important to ensure that people are aware that they work in a culture where they can talk and where, as a business, it is recognised that mental health is as important as physical health. That open environment encourages people to talk to managers and their colleagues.

From our own company’s perspective, we encourage people to perform well whilst in work but equally ensure that when they’re not in work that they are making the most of life and not stressing about work. We encourage a culture of not emailing over the weekends or at silly o’clock in the evening. You come in, you do your work, you perform well and then you have your downtime to enjoy the other aspects of your life that feed your happiness and your health.

We try to encourage not only good mental health but good physical health by providing our employees with our benefits. Cash plan benefits help our people to take more of a preventative approach to their health and wellbeing, encouraging them to not wait until a problem manifests but to be really aware of their own health and wellbeing and take more of a preventative approach. That as a business is the proposition that we offer, so we instil it within our employees.

Mental illness and poor financial health are often interrelated. As an employer, how do you start addressing that complete picture and help employees to tackle their debt issues which, if left unaddressed, could also lead to stress?

It is important to have an employee benefits package that takes into account the whole range of issues that can impact financial wellness. Allowing employees to access financial advice through their benefits package is one way of dealing with it. So hopefully any financial concerns can be addressed through financial advice before they become an issue that starts playing on their mind and then can manifest in the form of bigger problems down the line.

We’ve got probably the biggest range of ages that we’ve ever seen within the workforce, and the issues are very different at different life stages. As employers, it is important to ensure that you understand the demographics of your workforce and have appropriate benefits in place to manage all the challenges that may manifest themselves throughout people’s working lives.

Do you see the stretched sandwich generation, who are often caring for children and older parents, as an issue within your workforce? What kind of solutions can employers put in place?

I don’t think we see it as an issue because we recognise that all those challenges exist for our people, and therefore ensure that the appropriate propositions are there to support them. We have got the Care for Life proposition, where we recognise that a lot of people are carers for elderly relatives or disabled partners or children. It’s a case of ensuring that we’ve got the right support mechanisms in place for them so that they can access practical advice on how to manage certain situations.

We have an open culture where we can talk and allow flexibility to make sure that carers have the ability to drop somebody off at respite care. Equally, when carers are in the office they are able to be more present because they know that they are supported.

There’s a perception that burnout and stress are a bigger problem now than in the past - is that really the case, or have we just become better at recognising, recording and quantifying it?

You could probably ask ten different people that question and get very different responses from each of them. But my personal view is it’s probably a combination of both as well as an ageing workforce, which I think is another dynamic which is adding to it as well. But whatever the reason, the positive news is that we are recognising more and more the problems now and offering appropriate benefits to support, which has got to be good for everybody.

When you say, ‘the right sort of support’, does that mean measures like counsellors in the workplace, or is it more a case of fostering openness among managers, or will it vary from company to company?

If a company is identifying that they have got a big issue with mental health, then they need to look seriously at what support mechanisms they can put in place, whether that is through appropriate products available for their employees that gives them access to counselling, or indeed a counsellor on site, which for certain types of workforces may well be appropriate. Companies should look at the feedback they are receiving from their employees and understand what the challenges are. Are they adding to the challenge by expecting a 24/7 working culture? Is there something that they can do to change working practices as well as providing practical support through offering counselling, for instance?

Do you think employers are taking more responsibility now for mental health than they did in the past, especially as public services are under pressure?

I think employers are taking more responsibility now because they understand the challenges their employees have. Equally, whilst employers can provide the products, services, we really need the employees to take ownership for their own health and wellbeing.

Employers can provide appropriate benefits which encourage a preventative approach. I think where we’ve got challenges with the NHS, challenges with accessing even general GP appointments and dental appointments, we really do need to be empowering people to take more responsibility for their everyday health and helping them perform well, not only in work but also in their home life as well.

If you were a company that was perhaps reading this interview when it’s published thinking, ‘I really need to do something about this,’ what would be the first steps you would advise that they should think about taking?

First of all, how are they recognising there is a problem? Have they already gone out and surveyed their workforce, have they empowered their managers to have those conversations? Is this where they are starting to get the feedback from? Once they understand what the problem is and where the challenges are, then it is talking to the likes of ourselves, Simplyhealth, and understanding what our propositions are and where we can offer practical support through the products that we offer. We can also help employers to communicate with their workforce and help them to identify the culture that they are trying to drive.

 This article is featured in Reward’s Rewarding Tomorrow’s Workforce research report. CLICK HERE to read the full report.

Rtw18 mpu 300x250 an (002)


Japan's Seibu Holdings valued at $7.1 billion on relisting

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese railway and hotels giant Seibu Holdings returned to the stock market Wednesday after aggressive restructuring following its delisting more than nine years ago, with early trade valuing the group at 576 billion yen (S$7.1 billion).

Seibu was changing hands at 1,685 yen after the first 30 minutes of trading, up 5.3 per cent from its initial public offering (IPO) price.

The IPO price was the bottom end of the company's proposed range as the Tokyo stock market has lost momentum recently and global investors are becoming more selective about Japanese shares.

Because the price range Seibu had set was lower than expected, its top shareholder, Cerberus Capital Management, decided not to sell shares in the listing.

Cerberus will continue to hold its current 35.4 per cent stake.

Despite Cerberus's decision, the company's other major shareholders, including Norinchukin Bank and Development Bank of Japan, intend to sell their shares.

Seibu was delisted more than nine years ago. The group returned to the stock market after aggressively shedding assets, cutting costs and receiving a private bailout.


Classical 91.5

Fascinatin' Rhythm with Michael Lasser

Playlists for Fascinatin' Rhythm are located here.

Episode # 1815

Every Ziegfeld Follies featured long-legged, scantily-clad show girls whose primary role was to look beautiful and walk gracefully. Ziegfeld invented the show girl, and then songs and stories turned her into an archetype, cool and distant, yet linked for all time to Sugar Daddies.

Episode # 1814

Ira Gershwin was the oldest brother but George established himself earlier. His first important collaboration was with B.G. DeSylva, known as Buddy. When George began to work with Ira, Buddy moved on to his most important collaboration—with Ray Henderson and Lew Brown.

Episode # 1813

Few tender ballads but a lot of exuberant comedy in songs about the beasts, the birds, and the bees.

Daily Urbanista

Episode #1812

Songs to celebrate the casual and not so casual affair.

Episode #1811

Songs about coffee, especially from the Great Depression when we seemed to be addicted to it.

The Art Story

Episode #1810

From dreams that walk to dreams you keep in your pocket. Surrealism was a pop culture phenomenon in the 30s and 40s.

Episode #1809

What happened to the blues when it moved from the Mississippi Delta to Memphis, New Orleans, and New York City.

Episode #1808

Eating in and eating out, cooking and courting, from a day in the kitchen to your favorite deli.

Famous Biographies

Episode # 1807

Weldon, Rosemond, J.C., Howard, and more. They’re all songwriters named Johnson.

James Weldon Johnson - Civil Rights Activist, Songwriter, Literary Critic, Diplomat, Lawyer, Educator, Poet, Author

John Rosamond Johnson was a musical prodigy–at age 4, he was an accomplished pianist, composer, conductor and actor.

Episode #1806

James Reese Europe, was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. The man whose music was a harbinger of the jazz that followed.


VW assigns 20 bln euros in battery orders, speeds EV push

Analysis How will car makers meet new CO2 laws

Experts warn that new emissions tests could be near impossible to pass

Currently, the group produces electric vehicles at three locations.

However, under the group's new directive, this number is set to quadruple within just two years, as Volkswagen seeks to extend EV production to 16 of its factories by the end of 2022.

To ensure adequate battery capacity for this massive expansion, the company has already agreed to partnerships with battery manufacturers for Europe and China and has awarded contracts for a total volume of around Euro 20 billion.

As we discussed in the latest episode of the Electrek Podcast, Volkswagen's electric auto efforts mostly consist of press releases and concept vehicles at this time, but they seem quite serious about it based on their investments. Müller added that from 2019, it plans to offer a new electric auto, "virtually every month".

Volkswagen says that pushing for electric vehicles does not mean internal combustion units would die. He went on to say this rapid roll out is how "we intend to offer the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world, across all brands and regions, in just a few years".

"Over the last few months, we have pulled out all the stops to implement "Roadmap E" with the necessary speed and determination", Muller added.

The near-term plan includes nine new vehicles, three of which will be purely battery powered, to arrive in showrooms before the end of 2018.

As Muller detailed Volkswagen's increasing shift to electric vehicles, it was also reported that after the group's strong earnings in 2017, the company CEO's pay packet, plus additional benefits, surged around 40% to €10.14 million.

Audi's E-Tron SUV will lead the next-generation rollout by launching later this year as a production auto - and is in a race with Jaguar to launch the first European BEV in the segment. The company didn't go into specifics but one of the electric vehicles is the Audi E-Tron which was recently previewed at the Geneva Motor Show.

Volkswagen plans to launch the first full MEB auto, the I.D. hatch, in 2020 as the leader for an entire I.D. The R&D ratio, total research and development expenditure as a percentage of the Automotive Division's sales revenue, decreased to 6.7% from 7.3%.

Latest News


Uncertainty and the Internet

I want to type some things I’ve noticed about online vulnerability and why I still think it’s valuable.

Nearly without fail, any kind of post on the internet that I write where I mention I am questioning something, or struggling through something, or even one teeny bit uncertain, or even learning a new concept, I’ll get a specific response from someone. Well-meaning and kind, they inform me that the solution is to not feel that way. Or someone will text me to make sure that I am okay, that I haven’t dived off the deep-end.

To be honest, it’s kind of annoying. I include the word kind because it is also kind. I get the lovely concern of others but I also wonder why we all are so uncomfortable with uncertainty.

If I go into a sermon at my church, I can almost be guaranteed that at some point in the sermon, the pastor will mention that it is okay to have questions, that God accepts us as we are, that He loves our current self.

Yet online? It seems like uncertainty looks bad. Sometimes offline too. But maybe that's a story for another day.

Online vulnerability, specifically about being uncertain on ideas or topics or concepts — I still think it’s valuable.

When I write online about something I am uncertain about, someone else might read along and go “oh really? I’m not the only one who thinks like that?” And then suddenly instead of two lonely people wondering and wandering alone, we are two friends walking together in a journey.

So I would rather link arms and be okay with uncertainty than cross my arms and acts if I think doubt is a problem. Or if uncertainty isn't the right word, I want to be okay with knowing part of something and seeking to learn more. Specifically for topics like white privilege and anything around race, I want to be uncertain, listen well, ask questions, and keep living as a learner.

Maybe that's really what I'm trying to say today. I want to live as a learner. Not swayed by false ideas but constantly paying attention to understand truth better. And constantly willing to speak even before I have perfected my sentence.

Uncertainty paired with humility and grace? That's my current goal.

On the flip side, there is also a type of happy vulnerability. What about when life is lovely, when cards are falling in place, when easy breezy really is the sentiment? Should I get quiet? Pretend life isn't blissful? I don't think so.

Never be quiet because of fear or loud because of pride.

I'm in the middle of these questions. What is a correct vulnerability? How much is too much? How little is too little? What aides others? When am I bragging? When am I complaining? When is my word of ease or uncertainty the right one?

So many questions. Yet also, such peace in the midst of them. That's my honest feeling today: Peace in the midst of questions.


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Seminar Of Mechanical Engineering

Infrared Thermography

Noise Reduction

Noise Reduction Such action involves the implementation of any measure that will reduce noise being generated, and/or will reduce the noise transmission through the air or through the structure of the workplace. is to eliminate or reduce the hazard

Differential Unit locking system

Differential Unit locking system When the car is taking a turn, the outer wheel will have to travel greater distance as compared to the inner wheel. having braking system with slightly modification. Maintains constants speed between both wheels.

Microcontroller based drip irrigation system

Microcontroller based drip irrigation system proves to be a real time feedback control system which monitors and controls all the activities of drip irrigation system efficiently. You can measure the output of your water supply with a one

Incineration Solid Waste Management

Automobile Safety System

Predicting Earth Quake Through Data Mining

This paper highlights the data mining techniques applied to mine for surface changes over time (eg Earthquake rupture). The data mining techniques help researchers to predict the changes in the intensity of volcano.

Self Healing Robots

When people or animal get injured ,they compensate for minor injuries and keep limping along. But in the case of robots, even a slight injury can make them stumble and fall .Self healing robots have an ability to adapt to minor injuries

Hydrogen Fueled Rotary Engine

Hydrogen when burns produce clean energy. Hydrogen can be produce easily. Hydrogen is lightest fuel and richest in energy per unit mass (120 700 kJ/kg). Petrol vapor creeps along the ground while Hydrogen goes up in the air so it is relatively safe.

F1 Racing Cars

We all know about passenger cars and F1 racing cars. Passenger cars are normal cars we can use in our roads which used to travel. F1 racing cars are used only for F1 racing. There are big differences between F1 cars and passenger cars.

Pole Climbing Robot

Climbing robots are useful when a task requires the use of far-reaching tools or is risky if carried out by humans. These robots can be equipped with video cameras, microphones, other sensors, and robotic manipulators to perform certain tasks.

Pollution Less Engine

The Stirling engine is the engine, which uses a fixed amount of gas sealed inside a cylinder. The expansion and contraction of the gas, using heat from external source, its capability to use any type of fuel and the emission of no exhaust gases.

Effect of Various Composition on Mechanical Properties of Alumina

Alumina is a common name for the compound aluminium oxide, Al2O3. It is most known for its use in the Hall-Heroult process, where it is a raw material used in the production of aluminium metal.

A Design of Hydro Wankel Cell

The fusion of a wankel engine and a fuel cell gives a wonderful new dimension. The net output given by the engine is both mechanical and electrical. The Hydro wankel cell works on the basic ideas of Wankel engine and fuel cells into account.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy sources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Renewable energy sources include the sun, wind, water, geothermal energy and biomass.

Effect of Ethanol Gasoline Blend on NOx Emission in SI Engine

Effect of Ethanol Gasoline Blend on NOx Emission in SI Engine different fuel composition, engine parameter and engine modiﬁcation effects on NOx formation as well as mathematical approach for NOx prediction using ethanol.

Automated Solar Street Light System

Solar tracking systems allows more energy to be produced because the solar array is able to remain aligned to the sun and therefore it will provide the maximum output power used in lightning the street lights at night.

3D Printing

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. This method uses a high powered laser to melt powder together.

Under Water Welding

Under water welding is the installation of large patches, as well as the attachment of suitable pad-eyes presents a more complicated problem to the diver than does underwater cutting. Hyperbaric welding ,Wet Welding


American Essays

About a famous American author Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author. He was known for his poems and short stories, some including “A Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Raven” and “The Cask of Amontillado”. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” the protagonist Montresor wants

An American abolitionist newspaper The Liberator

In 1830, The Liberator was established by William Lloyd Garrison, he was an abolitionist and a member of the American Colonization Society. On the discussion of slavery, majority of the members thought a solution for the slaves to move back

The production of tobacco

Between 1790 and 1850, the economy of the South experienced an extreme economic growth. The production of tobacco, which was the South’s main crop, was failing and as a result, the production of cotton arose, which was a big factor

Abigail Adams an American Woman

Abigail Adams would always be remembered as the most reputed and significant woman in the American history. She was the woman who not only influenced famous political figures of her time but also supported her husband, John Adams, throughout the

Shopping Malls an American Cultural Phenomenon

            In his provocative book One Nation Under Goods: Malls and the Seductions of American Shopping, James Farrell made the assertion that malls are an American cultural phenomenon. He strengthened this argument by stating that by the year 2000 there

The American Pageant Notes

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey, 1887-1940

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Mayflower Significance

Have you ever wondered what life would have been like without rules or laws? Did you ever stop and think what could have been had the mayflower compact not been made of signed? The Mayflower Compact may be one of

Proud to Be an American

One dark stormy night, it was just me in my back yard digging when I came upon a large, red, wooden door with a rusty door knob right in front of me. The first thing I thought to myself was,

Racial Fault Lines Paper

California has more ethnic history than one would think or would have even known. Racial Fault Lines: The historical origins of white supremacy in California brings forth the ethnic conflicts that took place in California. Tomas Almaguer former dean of

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