"Why me, why now?" Using clinical immunology and epidemiology to explain who gets nontuberculous mycobacterial infection

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) disease is rising. An understanding of known risk factors for disease sheds light on the immunological and physical barriers to infection, and how and why they may be overcome. This review focuses on human NTM infection, supported by experimental and in vitro data of relevance to the practising clinician who seeks to understand why their patient has NTM infection and how to further investigate. DISCUSSION: First, the underlying immune response to NTM disease is examined. Important insights regarding NTM disease susceptibility come from nature's own knockouts, the primary immune deficiency disorders. We summarise the current knowledge surrounding interferon-gamma (IFNγ)-interleukin-12 (IL-12) axis abnormalities, followed by a review of phagocytic defects, T cell lymphopenia and rarer genetic conditions known to predispose to NTM disease. We discuss how these define key immune pathways involved in the host response to NTM. Iatrogenic immunosuppression is also important, and we evaluate the impact of novel biological therapies, as well as bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy for solid organ malignancy, on the epidemiology and presentation of NTM disease, and discuss the host defence dynamics thus revealed. NTM infection and disease in the context of other chronic illnesses including HIV and malnutrition is reviewed. The role of physical barriers to infection is explored. We describe how their compromise through different mechanisms including cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and smoking-related lung disease can result in pulmonary NTM colonisation or infection. We also summarise further associations with host factors including body habitus and age. We use the presented data to develop an over-arching model that describes human host defences against NTM infection, where they may fail, and how this framework can be applied to investigation in routine clinical practice

Antibody dependent enhancement: a model for understanding congenital Zika syndrome

This literature review will discuss Zika virus and the salient research on antibody dependent enhancement and how this mechanism may lead to congenital defects. Specific objectives include: the mechanism of antibody dependent enhancement, Zika and dengue virus pathogenesis, placenta pathophysiology, and how changes in viral virulence may play a role the pathogenesis of neurologic congenital defects seen in infants infected with Zika virus in utero. While some cohort studies have examined the relationship between prior dengue immunity, Zika virus infection in pregnancy, and effects on neonatal outcomes further prospective studies using large cohorts and more detailed lab testing and imaging is essential to better understand this relationship. A proposed study enrolling a large cohort of women in the 6th- 8th week of pregnancy from Northeastern Brazil will seek to further describe what additional risk dengue immunity may pose in the context of Zika virus. This risk is essential to understand, as Zika and Dengue viruses co-circulate in many regions of the world. Furthermore, participants in the proposed study will undergo bi-weekly screening for Zika virus through laboratory and ultrasound testing until their delivery. Infants will then have full neurologic testing and MRI scanning for the following year after birth to characterize any congenital defects. Neonates born to mothers with prior dengue immunity who contract Zika virus during pregnancy will be compared to neonates not exposed to Zika virus in utero. This experiment will illuminate the associated risk and evidence of ADE occurring with prior dengue immunity and Zika virus infection during pregnancy. Results from this study will not only help define risks of congenital defects with Zika virus, it will inform vaccine research and elucidate challenges in the administration of the current tetravalent dengue vaccine

Tracking Chart 2009 Patagonia, Mexico 090050584FV

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_2009_Patagonia_TC_Mexico_090050584FV.pdf: 17 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Explanation and Elaboration Document for the STROBE-Vet Statement: Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology—Veterinary Extension

The STROBE (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology) statement was first published in 2007 and again in 2014. The purpose of the original STROBE was to provide guidance for authors, reviewers and editors to improve the comprehensiveness of reporting; however, STROBE has a unique focus on observational studies. Although much of the guidance provided by the original STROBE document is directly applicable, it was deemed useful to map those statements to veterinary concepts, provide veterinary examples and highlight unique aspects of reporting in veterinary observational studies. Here, we present the examples and explanations for the checklist items included in the STROBE-Vet Statement. Thus, this is a companion document to the STROBE-Vet Statement Methods and process document, which describes the checklist and how it was developed

Anticipation and Risk – From the inverse problem to reverse computation

Abstract. Risk assessment is relevant only if it has predictive relevance. In this sense, the anticipatory perspective has yet to contribute to more adequate predictions. For purely physics-based phenomena, predictions are as good as the science describing such phenomena. For the dynamics of the living, the physics of the matter making up the living is only a partial description of their change over time. The space of possibilities is the missing component, complementary to physics and its associated predictions based on probabilistic methods. The inverse modeling problem, and moreover the reverse computation model guide anticipatory-based predictive methodologies. An experimental setting for the quantification of anticipation is advanced and structural measurement is suggested as a possible mathematics for anticipation-based risk assessment

Planning long-term maintenance for electric vehicle charging infrastructure using the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method

Electric vehicles (EVs) are mainly known for their advantages as emission free, energy efficient and noiseless transport, but electric mobility has never matured in the automotive market and it remains in the shadow of the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The EV penetration depends so much on the availability of the charging facilities. The availability and the performances of the charging infrastructure will have a major impact on the satisfaction of electric vehicle drivers and therefore on the future viability and successful of the technology. In this context, maintenance will play a key role to ensure appropriate levels of availability and reliability and also to keep the expensive infrastructure in good conditions for a long time: it will need to have a long and trouble free life, if it is to persuade the typical car user to change his behavior and choices. This paper will provide a long-term maintenance plan, in which the preventive maintenance tasks will be defined based on the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) approach, starting from the definition of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure and explaining how it works and by which components it is constituted