Field evaluation of an immunochromatographic test for diagnosis of cystic and alveolar echinococcosis

Background: The larval stages of the tapeworms Echinocoocus granulosus and Echinococcus multilocularis are the causative agents of human cystic echinococcosis (CE) and human alveolar echinococcosis (AE), respectively. Both CE and AE are chronic diseases characterised by long asymptomatic periods of many years. However, early diagnosis of the disease is important if treatment and management of echinococcosis patients are to be successful. Methods: A previously developed rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for the differential detection of CE and AE was evaluated under field conditions with finger prick blood samples taken from 1502 people living in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China, a region with a high prevalence for both forms of human echinococcosis. The results were compared with simultaneously obtained abdominal ultrasonographic scans of the individuals. Results: Using the ultrasonography as the gold standard, sensitivity and specificity, and the diagnostic accuracy of the RDT were determined to be greater than 94% for both CE and AE. For CE cases, high detection rates (95.6–98.8%) were found with patients having active cysts while lower detection rates (40.0–68.8%) were obtained with patients having transient or inactive cysts. In contrast, detection rates in AE patients were independent of the lesion type. The positive likelihood ratio of the RDT for CE and AE was greater than 20 and thus fairly high, indicating that a patient with a positive test result has a high probability of having echinococcosis. Conclusions: The results suggest that our previously developed RDT is suitable as a screening tool for the early detection of human echinococcosis in endemic areas

Linking formal child care characteristics to children's socioemotional well-being: A comparative perspective

Most research on formal child care and children’s outcomes has focused on single countries. We, however, contend that policy context may moderate the association between formal child care characteristics and children’s socioemotional well-being. We examined this by comparing the Netherlands, Finland and the UK; three countries that differ regarding family policies. Of these three countries, Finland was recently ranked highest (ranked 1st) with regards to quality of child care in a recent analysis by the Economist ,followed by the UK (ranked 3rd) and then the Netherlands (ranked 7th) .We hypothesized that children who attend child - care settings in countries with higher- uality formal child- are provision would generally show better socioemotional outcomes. Data from the comparative ‘F amilies 24/7’ survey were used, including 990 parents with children aged 0–12. We distinguished between two age groups in our analysis. Results indicated that, compared to the UK, longer hours in formal care were less beneficial in the Netherlands. Furthermore, spen ding time in formal care during nonstandard hours was more harmful for children in Finland compared to the UK. Lastly, receiving care from multiple caregivers was more disruptive for British children than for Dutch children. No differences were found between Finland and the Netherlands

Pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables from Croatian market

Pesticides are used with the aim to control insects, diseases, fungi and other pests.  Along with the benefits, there are potential effects from trace amounts of residues remaining on fruits and vegetables. The objective of this study was to check for compliance with the maximum residue levels in fruits and vegetables from Kvarner region of Croatia. 14 Fourteen sorts of  vegetables and 6 sorts of fruits (n = 263), randomly selected from market,  were analysed for organochlorine, organophosphorus and fungicide residues. Multi residue analysis using GC/NPD, GC/ECD  and spectrophotometric methods were performedapplied. The results of this study indicated that though all the commodities were contaminated with pesticides, the levels were low and residues above MRL were found only in 1.52% of  samples. All other levels were below the criteria for maximum residue limits established by Croatia and the EU