Rethinking the benefits and costs of childhood vaccination: the example of the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine

Economic evaluations of health interventions, such as vaccinations, are important tools for informing health policy. Approaching the analysis from the appropriate perspective is critical to ensuring the validity of evaluation results for particular policy decisions. Using the example of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccination, we demonstrate that past economic evaluations have mostly adopted narrow evaluation perspectives, focusing primarily on health gains, health care cost savings, and reductions in the time costs of caring, while ignoring other important benefits including outcome-related productivity gains (prevention of mental and physical disabilities), behavior-related productivity gains (economic growth due to fertility reductions as vaccination improves child survival), and community externalities (prevention of antibiotic resistance and herd immunity). We further show that the potential cost reductions that could be attained through changes in the delivery of the Hib vaccine have also usually been ignored in economic evaluations. Future economic evaluations of childhood vaccinations should take full account of benefits and costs, so that policy makers have sufficient information to make well-informed decisions on vaccination implementation.Economic evaluation, review, Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine

Understanding “green” multicellularity: do seaweeds hold the key?

International audienceLiving organisms are unicellular, composed of a single cell, or multicellular, where a group of up to ~1012 cells functions co-operatively (Kaiser, 2001). All multicellular organisms evolved from single-celled ancestors; every individual organism arises from a unicell and reproduces by forming unicells. Multicellularity enables competitive advantages, and may have shaped our oxygen-rich atmosphere (Grosberg and Strathmann, 1998; Kaiser, 2001; Schirrmeister et al., 2013). Multicellularity has evolved multiple times: animals, plants, algae, amoebae, fungi, and bacteria are or can all be multicellular (King, 2004; Grosberg and Strathmann, 2007; Rokas, 2008; Claessen et al., 2014). Multicellularity can be clonal (arising from division of a single cell) or aggregative (aggregation of genetically diverse cells), with clonal multicellularity considered evolutionarily more stable (Grosberg and Strathmann, 1998). The molecular mechanisms by which organisms become multicellular are not well understood. In this article, we outline eukaryotic multicellular evolution, and discuss how to increase our future understanding

Morphological Transformations of Galaxies in the A901/02 Supercluster from STAGES

We present a study of galaxies in the Abell 901/902 Supercluster at z~0.165, based on HST ACS F606W, COMBO-17, Spitzer 24um, XMM-Newton X-ray, and gravitational lensing maps, as part of the STAGES survey. We characterize galaxies with strong externally-triggered morphological distortions and normal relatively undisturbed galaxies, using visual classification and quantitative CAS parameters. We compare normal and distorted galaxies in terms of their frequency, distribution within the cluster, star formation properties, and relationship to dark matter (DM) or surface mass density, and intra-cluster medium (ICM) density. We revisit the morphology density relation, which postulates a higher fraction of early type galaxies in dense environments, by considering separately galaxies with a low bulge-to-disk (B/D) ratio and a low gas content as these two parameters may not be correlated in clusters. We report here on our preliminary analysis.Comment: To appear in the ASP conference proceedings of the "Frank N. Bash Symposium 2007: New Horizons in Astronomy", Eds. A. Frebel, J. Maund, J. Shen, M. Siegel. 4 pages, 4 figure

Spin Dynamics and Ground State of the Frustrated Diamond Lattice Magnet CoAl<inf>2</inf>O<inf>4</inf> as seen by ²⁷Al NMR

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Wien.We report an experimental study of the low-temperature dynamics of electron spin fluctuations in the magnetically frustrated spinel CoAl2O4 as revealed by 27Al nuclear magnetic relaxation measurements in a magnetic field of 7.7 T in the temperature range 4 < T < 240 K. With this local probe technique, we show that the dynamics of the correlated Co spins strongly depends on the frustration of spin interactions and on Co/Al site disorder. The anisotropy of the temperature dependences of the spin–lattice (T1−1) and spin–spin (T2−1) 27Al nuclear relaxation rates reveals a coexistence of the short-range Néel order below a characteristic temperature T* = 8 K and slow non-commensurate magnetic correlations below and above T*, in agreement with the results of neutron diffraction experiments and our previous NMR spectroscopy data

Characterization of pulmonary function in 10â18 year old patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Pulmonary function loss in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is progressive and leads to pulmonary insufficiency. The purpose of this study in 10â18 year old patients with DMD is the assessment of the inter-correlation between pulmonary function tests (PFTs), their reliability and the association with the general disease stage measured by the Brooke score. Dynamic PFTs (peak expiratory flow [PEF], forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV1]) and maximum static airway pressures (MIP, MEP) were prospectively collected from 64 DMD patients enrolled in the DELOS trial (ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01027884). Baseline PEF percent predicted (PEF%p) was <80% and patients had stopped taking glucocorticoids at least 12 months prior to study start. At baseline PEF%p, FVC%p and FEV1%p correlated well with each other (Spearman's rho: PEF%pâFVC%p: 0.54; PEF%pâFEV1%p: 0.72; FVC%pâFEV1%p: 0.91). MIP%p and MEP%p correlated well with one another (MIP%pâMEP%p: 0.71) but less well with PEF%p (MIP%pâPEF%p: 0.40; MEP%pâPEF%p: 0.41) and slightly better with FVC%p (MIP%pâFVC%p: 0.59; MEP%pâFVC%p: 0.74). The within-subject coefficients of variation (CV) for successive measures were 6.97% for PEF%p, 6.69% for FVC%p and 11.11% for FEV1%p, indicating that these parameters could be more reliably assessed compared to maximum static airway pressures (CV for MIP%p: 18.00%; MEP%p: 15.73%). Yearly rates of PFT decline (placebo group) were larger in dynamic parameters (PEF%p: â8.9% [SD 2.0]; FVC%p: â8.7% [SD 1.1]; FEV1%p: â10.2% [SD 2.0]) than static airway pressures (MIP%p: â4.5 [SD 1.3]; MEP%p: â2.8 [SD 1.1]). A considerable drop in dynamic pulmonary function parameters was associated with loss of upper limb function (transition from Brooke score category 4 to category 5). In conclusion, these findings expand the understanding of the reliability, correlation and evolution of different pulmonary function measures in DMD patients who are in the pulmonary function decline phase

Structural and effective connectivity reveals potential network-based influences on category-sensitive visual areas

Visual category perception is thought to depend on brain areas that respond specifically when certain categories are viewed. These category-sensitive areas are often assumed to be modules (with some degree of processing autonomy) and to act predominantly on feedforward visual input. This modular view can be complemented by a view that treats brain areas as elements within more complex networks and as influenced by network properties. This network-oriented viewpoint is emerging from studies using either diffusion tensor imaging to map structural connections or effective connectivity analyses to measure how their functional responses influence each other. This literature motivates several hypotheses that predict category-sensitive activity based on network properties. Large, long-range fiber bundles such as inferior fronto-occipital, arcuate and inferior longitudinal fasciculi are associated with behavioural recognition and could play crucial roles in conveying backward influences on visual cortex from anterior temporal and frontal areas. Such backward influences could support top-down functions such as visual search and emotion-based visual modulation. Within visual cortex itself, areas sensitive to different categories appear well-connected (e.g., face areas connect to object- and motion sensitive areas) and their responses can be predicted by backward modulation. Evidence supporting these propositions remains incomplete and underscores the need for better integration of DTI and functional imaging

K0S and Λ production in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−−√=2.76 TeV

The ALICE measurement of K0S and Λ production at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=2.76  TeV is presented. The transverse momentum (pT) spectra are shown for several collision centrality intervals and in the pT range from 0.4  GeV/c (0.6  GeV/c for Λ) to 12  GeV/c. The pT dependence of the Λ/K0S ratios exhibits maxima in the vicinity of 3  GeV/c, and the positions of the maxima shift towards higher pT with increasing collision centrality. The magnitude of these maxima increases by almost a factor of three between most peripheral and most central Pb-Pb collisions. This baryon excess at intermediate pT is not observed in pp interactions at s√=0.9  TeV and at s√=7  TeV. Qualitatively, the baryon enhancement in heavy-ion collisions is expected from radial flow. However, the measured pT spectra above 2  GeV/c progressively decouple from hydrodynamical-model calculations. For higher values of pT, models that incorporate the influence of the medium on the fragmentation and hadronization processes describe qualitatively the pT dependence of the Λ/K0S ratio