CNH: Collaborative Research: Climatic Extremes, Mining, and Mycobacterium Ulcerans: A Coupled Systems Approach

CNH：合作研究：极端气候、采矿和溃疡分枝杆菌：耦合系统方法

• 批准号: 0909447
• 负责人: Petra Tschakert
• 金额: $ 142.2万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0909447&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CNH; Collaborative; Research; Climatic; Extremes

Buruli ulcer (BU) is one of the most neglected but treatable diseases in tropical countries. It is considered to be a disease of the poor because of its debilitating and disfiguring skin alterations that often create social stigmas. BU typically occurs near water bodies, especially near stagnant water, such as slow-flowing rivers, ponds, swamps, and lakes. In Ghana, more than 11,000 cases have been counted since 1993, the second highest rate in Africa. The large majority of BU cases are reported for children and women. While the clinical dimensions of the development of the ulcer on the human skin are well understood, the natural reservoir, activation, and transmission of the bacterium remain unknown, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to label BU as an "intriguing disease." Several studies have confirmed the linkage between BU and disturbed environments, especially in association with flooding. Environmental disturbances and landscape modifications may play a major role in the creation of stagnant water and the occurrence of the disease, but little research has focused on the linkages between human-related land disturbance or fragmentation and BU outbreaks. This interdisciplinary research project will focus on Ghana as a case study and will explore role of environmental change and the emergence of BU at multiple temporal and spatial scales. The investigators hypothesize that BU outbreaks are triggered by increased systems vulnerability resulting from exogenous disturbance in the form of more extreme and frequent rainfall events and slow drivers of landscape change due to deforestation, agriculture, and mining activities. Project objectives are to enhance basic understanding of the role and types of land disturbance on BU outbreak; identify overlooked yet potentially critical nonlinearities and surprises resulting from the interaction of human and natural factors on the landscape and subsequent disease emergence; add to the ongoing debate on BU reservoirs, host(s), and transmission; and contribute to the growing body of literature and scientific discourse regarding emerging infectious disease and ecological change, with emphasis on climatic extremes. The investigators will use an innovative combination of environmental sampling, interviews and surveys, participatory mapping activities, and complex systems modeling to unravel the complexities of BU.This project will have significant implications for the understanding of resilience in coupled human-environmental systems. It will address new and important questions regarding complex, emerging diseases in changing landscapes, with particular emphasis on types and scales of interactions, positive feedbacks, thresholds, and non-linear dynamics. The research will provide health benefits for the study populations in Ghana and education and training opportunities in the U.S. and Ghana. The U.S. investigators will work closely with researchers and practitioners at Ghanaian partner institutions (University of Mines and Technology, Kwameh Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Ghana, Minerals Commission, and Ghana Health Services). Through its educational component involving cross-cultural, international "K-12 sister-schools," the project will demonstrate how human-modified landscapes and disease patterns are interconnected in both the United States and Africa. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.

布鲁里溃疡(BU)是热带国家最被忽视但可治疗的疾病之一。它被认为是穷人的一种疾病，因为它会导致虚弱和毁容的皮肤变化，经常造成社会耻辱。BU通常发生在水体附近，特别是在死水附近，如缓流的河流、池塘、沼泽和湖泊。在加纳，自1993年以来已统计了11000多例病例，在非洲排名第二。报告的BU病例绝大多数为儿童和妇女。虽然人类皮肤溃疡发生的临床层面已经被很好地了解，但细菌的自然储存、激活和传播仍然未知，导致世界卫生组织(WHO)将BU列为“令人感兴趣的疾病”。一些研究已经证实了BU与受干扰的环境之间的联系，特别是与洪水有关的环境。环境干扰和景观变化可能在造成积水和疾病发生方面发挥重要作用，但很少有研究侧重于与人类有关的土地干扰或碎片化与BU爆发之间的联系。这一跨学科研究项目将以加纳为例进行研究，并将探讨环境变化的作用以及在多个时间和空间尺度上出现的BU。研究人员假设，BU的爆发是由系统脆弱性增加引发的，外部干扰的形式是更极端和频繁的降雨事件，以及由于砍伐森林、农业和采矿活动而导致的景观变化的缓慢驱动因素。项目目标是加强对土地干扰对布病暴发的作用和类型的基本了解；确定人为和自然因素相互作用对景观和随后出现的疾病造成的被忽视但潜在的严重非线性和意外；增加关于布病水库、宿主(S)和传播的持续辩论；促进关于新出现的传染病和生态变化的越来越多的文献和科学论述，重点是极端气候。研究人员将使用环境采样、访谈和调查、参与性测绘活动和复杂系统建模的创新组合来揭开BU的复杂性。该项目将对理解人-环境耦合系统中的弹性具有重要意义。它将解决与变化的地貌中的复杂、新出现的疾病有关的新的重要问题，特别强调相互作用的类型和规模、正反馈、阈值和非线性动态。这项研究将为加纳的研究人群提供健康益处，并为美国和加纳提供教育和培训机会。美国调查人员将与加纳合作机构(矿业大学、夸梅赫·恩克鲁马科技大学、加纳大学、矿产委员会和加纳卫生服务机构)的研究人员和从业人员密切合作。通过涉及跨文化的国际“K-12姊妹学校”的教育部分，该项目将展示人类改造的景观和疾病模式在美国和非洲是如何相互关联的。该项目得到了美国自然与人类耦合系统动力学(CNH)计划的支持。