Andreas Wimmer, Lars-Erik Cederman, and Brian Min Ethnic politics and armed conflict. A configurational analysis of a new global dataset. Published in the American Sociological Review 74(2), 2009 ONLINE APPENDIX

The Ethnic Power Relations (EPR) data set improves on earlier work along similar line

Creating Sustainable Models for Short-term Volunteers Through the Global Health Service Partnership

Thirty-one countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have a critical shortage of health care professionals. Subsequently, African medical schools are increasing enrollment, thus increasing demand on limited faculty. Simultaneously, US medical residents’ interest in global health is increasing and training programs are seeking ways to provide high quality experiences while also contributing to the host country health system. Recently published guidelines outlined key factors in successful global health training partnerships: structured programs, mutual benefits, long-term relationships, on-site mentorship, and trainee preparation. Partnerships between US academic institutions, GHSP, and SSA institutions create meaningful and sustainable ways of enabling residents and faculty across a variety of specialties to serve in resource-limited settings, gaining valuable global health experience, and reducing the critical faculty shortages in SSA. Additionally, this partnership creates a pipeline for residency graduates to continue to work in global health and contribute to both the US and SSA institution. AAMC MedEdPORTAL publication ID 4344. Link to origina

Global, Regional, And National Cancer Incidence, Mortality, Years Of Life Lost, Years Lived With Disability, And Disability-Adjusted Life-Years For 29 Cancer Groups, 1990 To 2016: A Systematic Analysis For The Global Burden Of Disease Study

Importance: The increasing burden due to cancer and other noncommunicable diseases poses a threat to human development, which has resulted in global political commitments reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan on Non-Communicable Diseases. To determine if these commitments have resulted in improved cancer control, quantitative assessments of the cancer burden are required. Objective: To assess the burden for 29 cancer groups over time to provide a framework for policy discussion, resource allocation, and research focus. Evidence Review: Cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) were evaluated for 195 countries and territories by age and sex using the Global Burden of Disease study estimation methods. Levels and trends were analyzed over time, as well as by the Sociodemographic Index (SDI). Changes in incident cases were categorized by changes due to epidemiological vs demographic transition. Findings: In 2016, there were 17.2 million cancer cases worldwide and 8.9 million deaths. Cancer cases increased by 28% between 2006 and 2016. The smallest increase was seen in high SDI countries. Globally, population aging contributed 17%; population growth, 12%; and changes in age-specific rates, -1% to this change. The most common incident cancer globally for men was prostate cancer (1.4 million cases). The leading cause of cancer deaths and DALYs was tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer (1.2 million deaths and 25.4 million DALYs). For women, the most common incident cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths and DALYs was breast cancer (1.7 million incident cases, 535 000 deaths, and 14.9 million DALYs). In 2016, cancer caused 213.2 million DALYs globally for both sexes combined

Piloting CareStart™ Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) to promote Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) Screening in malaria endemic community in Cambodia

Background: Primaquine (PQ) is the only FDA-approved drug for radical cure of Plasmodium vivax (P.v) malaria, but treatment can result in life-threatening hemolysis if given to a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient (G6PDd) patient. Therefore, the G6PD status of the patient with P.v must be known prior to prescribing PQ. However, a patient’s G6PD status in rural malaria endemic settings is generally unknown, illuminating the need for reliable point of care G6PD diagnostic tests as a prerequisite to safely administer PQ. To increase community PQ access in Cambodia, performance of CareStart™ G6PD rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) needs to be evaluated in healthcare workers (HCWs) and village malaria workers (VMWs). Methods: Training materials on G6PD and PQ were developed for HCWs and VMWs, and each trainee performed G6PD RDT test on 8-12 adult male volunteers, with pre- and post-training questionnaires completed by trainees and volunteers. The performance of CareStart™ RDT for G6PDd screening was assessed against a quantitative G6PD test (Pointe Scientific, Inc. MI, USA). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results:94 trainees and 960 G6PD volunteers were recruited in Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia from December 2017 to February 2018. Of the 960 volunteers, 146 (15%) were G6PD deficient based on a quantitative test activity threshold of 30%. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of CareStart™ RDT were 96.8%, 95.5%, 80.2%, 99.4% for HCW/VMW trainees vs. 96.2%, 97.2%, 86.7%, and 99.3% for trained study staff in the field and 94.2%, 98.8%, 93.6% and 98.92% for experienced laboratory staff, with no statistical difference among the groups. The mean knowledge score pre-training was 33.9% (VMWs) and 56.4% (HCWs), with improvement to 89% and 90% post training (p Conclusions: With minimal training, CareStart™ RDT seem highly specific, feasible and a practical option for the identification of G6PDd male patients and its use may enable safer prescribing of PQ to decrease the burden of P.v relapse

Gait and Turning Characteristics from Daily Life increase ability to predict future falls in people with Parkinson’s disease

Objectives: To investigate if digital measures of gait (walking and turning) collected passively over a week of daily activities in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) increases the discriminative ability to predict future falls compared to fall history alone. Methods: We recruited 34 individuals with PD (17 with history of falls and 17 non-fallers), age: 68 ± 6 years, MDS-UPDRS III ON: 31 ± 9. Participants were classified as fallers (at least one fall) or non-fallers based on self-reported falls in past 6 months. Eighty digital measures of gait were derived from 3 inertial sensors (Opal® V2 System) placed on the feet and lower back for a week of passive gait monitoring. Logistic regression employing a “best subsets selection strategy” was used to find combinations of measures that discriminated future fallers from non- fallers, and the Area Under Curve (AUC). Participants were followed via email every 2 weeks over the year after the study for self-reported falls. Results: Twenty-five subjects reported falls in the follow-up year. Quantity of gait and turning measures (e.g., number of gait bouts and turns per hour) were similar in future fallers and non-fallers. The AUC to discriminate future fallers from non-fallers using fall history alone was 0.77 (95% CI: [0.50–1.00]). In contrast, the highest AUC for gait and turning digital measures with 4 combinations was 0.94 [0.84–1.00]. From the top 10 models (all AUCs\u3e0.90) via the best subsets strategy, the most consistently selected measures were variability of toe-out angle of the foot (9 out of 10), pitch angle of the foot during mid-swing (8 out of 10), and peak turn velocity (7 out of 10). Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of considering precise digital measures, captured via sensors strategically placed on the feet and low back, to quantify several dierent aspects of gait (walking and turning) during daily life to improve the classification of future fallers in PD

T-Cell responses in individuals infected with Zika virus and in those vaccinated against dengue virus

Background: The outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in Brazil has raised concerns that infection during pregnancy could cause microcephaly and other severe neurodevelopmental malformations in the fetus. The mechanisms by which ZIKV causes fetal abnormalities are largely unknown. The importance of pre-infection with dengue virus (DENV), or other flaviviruses endemic to Brazil, remains to be investigated. It has been reported that antibodies directed against DENV can increase ZIKV infectivity by antibody dependent enhancement (ADE), suggesting that a history of prior DENV infection might worsen the outcome of ZIKV infection. Methods: We used bioinformatics tools to design 18 peptides from the ZIKV envelope containing predicted HLA-I T-cell epitopes and investigated T-cell cross-reactivity between ZIKV-infected individuals and DENV-vaccinated subjects by IFNg ELISPOT. Results: Three peptides induced IFNg production in both ZIKV-infected subjects and in DENV-vaccinated individuals. Flow cytometry indicated that 1 ZIKV peptide induced a CD4+ T-cell response in DENV-vaccinated subjects. Conclusions: We demonstrated that vaccination against DENV induced a T-cell response against ZIKV and identified one such CD4+ T-cell epitope. The ZIKV-reactive CD4+ T cells induced by DENV vaccination and identified in this study could contribute to the appearance of cross-reactive antibodies mediating ADE