Caprine arthritis encephalitis (C.A.E.). Serological survey. Heat treatment

Après avoir rappelé les principales caractéristiques anatomo-cliniques de l’Arthrite Encéphalite Caprine, les auteurs étudient cette maladie dans 22 trou peaux de la région Poitou-Charentes. De cette étude, il ressort que les pour centages d’animaux séro positifs en permière et seconde année constituent un critère essentiel permettant d’apprécier son incidence clinique. L’administra tion aux chevreaux nouveau-nés de colostrum traité par la chaleur, en rédui sant ces pourcentages, permet de réduire, par conséquent, cette incidence clinique.Recording the main anatomic and clinic aspects of Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis, the autors show the status of 22 flocks of Poitou-Charentes area. Pourcentages of sero positive animals in one year age and second year age classes are a very significant test to assess clinical incidence of the disease. Heat-treatment of colostrum reducing such pourcentage allows to reduce con sequently clinical incidence

Does Cataract Surgery Alleviate Poverty? Evidence from a Multi-Centre Intervention Study Conducted in Kenya, the Philippines and Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: Poverty and blindness are believed to be intimately linked, but empirical data supporting this purported relationship are sparse. The objective of this study is to assess whether there is a reduction in poverty after cataract surgery among visually impaired cases. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A multi-centre intervention study was conducted in three countries (Kenya, Philippines, Bangladesh). Poverty data (household per capita expenditure--PCE, asset ownership and self-rated wealth) were collected from cases aged ≥50 years who were visually impaired due to cataract (visual acuity<6/24 in the better eye) and age-sex matched controls with normal vision. Cases were offered free/subsidised cataract surgery. Approximately one year later participants were re-interviewed about poverty. 466 cases and 436 controls were examined at both baseline and follow-up (Follow up rate: 78% for cases, 81% for controls), of which 263 cases had undergone cataract surgery ("operated cases"). At baseline, operated cases were poorer compared to controls in terms of PCE (Kenya: $22 versus £35 p = 0.02, Bangladesh:$16 vs $24 p = 0.004, Philippines:$24 vs 32 p = 0.0007), assets and self-rated wealth. By follow-up PCE had increased significantly among operated cases in each of the three settings to the level of controls (Kenya: $30 versus £36 p = 0.49, Bangladesh:$23 vs $23 p = 0.20, Philippines:$45 vs $36 p = 0.68). There were smaller increases in self-rated wealth and no changes in assets. Changes in PCE were apparent in different socio-demographic and ocular groups. The largest PCE increases were apparent among the cases that were poorest at baseline. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study showed that cataract surgery can contribute to poverty alleviation, particularly among the most vulnerable members of society. This study highlights the need for increased provision of cataract surgery to poor people and shows that a focus on blindness may help to alleviate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals

Absorption in the fractional quantum Hall regime: trion dichroism and spin polarization

We present measurements of optical interband absorption in the fractional quantum Hall regime in a GaAs quantum well in the range 0 < nu < 1. We investigate the mechanism of singlet trion absorption, and show that its circular dichroism can be used as a probe of the spin polarization of the ground state of the two-dimensional electron system (2DES). We find that at nu = 1/3 the 2DES is fully spin-polarized. Increasing the filling factor results in a gradual depolarization, with a sharp minimum in the dichroism near nu = 2/3. We find that in the range 0.5 < nu < 0.85 the 2DES remains partially polarized for the broad range of magnetic fields from 2.75 to 11 Tesla. This is consistent with the presence of a mixture of polarized and depolarized regions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (Fig 4 is in color

The Importance of Noise Colour in Simulations of Evolutionary Systems.

Simulations of evolutionary dynamics often employ white noise as a model of stochastic environmental variation. Whilst white noise has the advantages of being simply generated and analytically tractable, empirical analyses demonstrate that most real environmental time series have power spectral densities consistent with pink or red noise, in which lower frequencies contribute proportionally greater amplitudes than higher frequencies. Simulated white noise environments may therefore fail to capture key components of real environmental time series, leading to erroneous results. To explore the effects of different noise colours on evolving populations, a simple evolutionary model of the interaction between life-history and the specialism-generalism axis was developed. Simulations were conducted using a range of noise colours as the environments to which agents adapted. Results demonstrate complex interactions between noise colour, reproductive rate, and the degree of evolved generalism; importantly, contradictory conclusions arise from simulations using white as opposed to red noise, suggesting that noise colour plays a fundamental role in generating adaptive responses. These results are discussed in the context of previous research on evolutionary responses to fluctuating environments, and it is suggested that Artificial Life as a field should embrace a wider spectrum of coloured noise models to ensure that results are truly representative of environmental and evolutionary dynamics

Challenges of assessing community mortality due to respiratory viruses in children aged less than 5 years

Background: Estimating the real impact of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease is key for the development of vaccines and treatments. Ascertaining the burden of community mortality due to RSV is challenging due to the lack of primary data. Therefore, conducting observational studies to determine the factors associated with community mortality due to the virus in developing countries is important.Objective: Our aim in this study was to describe the obstacles, gaps, and challenges that investigators face in low-income, vulnerable regions in 4 developing countries on 3 continents.Results: The main obstacles and challenges of ascertaining community mortality due to RSV were defining strategies to consent families for testing before burial, sampling individuals at the household level, supporting bereaved parents with different cultural and religious backgrounds, establishing tailored strategies for studies in challenging settings, and integrating RSV mortality data from nasopharyngeal samples.Conclusion: Detailed logistical planning based on population sociodemographic information, grief counseling, staff training, and a multidisciplinary approach with adequate laboratory infrastructure is critical to successful observational community-based RSV studies

Vaccine-associated enhanced disease : case definition and guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation of immunization safety data

This is a Brighton Collaboration Case Definition of the term & ldquo;Vaccine Associated Enhanced Disease & rdquo; to be utilized in the evaluation of adverse events following immunization. The Case Definition was developed by a group of experts convened by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in the context of active development of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and other emerging pathogens. The case definition format of the Brighton Collaboration was followed to develop a consensus definition and defined levels of certainty, after an exhaustive review of the literature and expert consultation. The document underwent peer review by the Brighton Collaboration Network and by selected Expert Reviewers prior to submission. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The geographical distribution and burden of trachoma in Africa.

BACKGROUND: There remains a lack of epidemiological data on the geographical distribution of trachoma to support global mapping and scale up of interventions for the elimination of trachoma. The Global Atlas of Trachoma (GAT) was launched in 2011 to address these needs and provide standardised, updated and accessible maps. This paper uses data included in the GAT to describe the geographical distribution and burden of trachoma in Africa. METHODS: Data assembly used structured searches of published and unpublished literature to identify cross-sectional epidemiological data on the burden of trachoma since 1980. Survey data were abstracted into a standardised database and mapped using geographical information systems (GIS) software. The characteristics of all surveys were summarized by country according to data source, time period, and survey methodology. Estimates of the current population at risk were calculated for each country and stratified by endemicity class. RESULTS: At the time of writing, 1342 records are included in the database representing surveys conducted between 1985 and 2012. These data were provided by direct contact with national control programmes and academic researchers (67%), peer-reviewed publications (17%) and unpublished reports or theses (16%). Prevalence data on active trachoma are available in 29 of the 33 countries in Africa classified as endemic for trachoma, and 1095 (20.6%) districts have representative data collected through population-based prevalence surveys. The highest prevalence of active trachoma and trichiasis remains in the Sahel area of West Africa and Savannah areas of East and Central Africa and an estimated 129.4 million people live in areas of Africa confirmed to be trachoma endemic. CONCLUSION: The Global Atlas of Trachoma provides the most contemporary and comprehensive summary of the burden of trachoma within Africa. The GAT highlights where future mapping is required and provides an important planning tool for scale-up and surveillance of trachoma control

Murine model for Fusarium oxysporum invasive fusariosis reveals organ-specific structures for dissemination and long-term persistence

Peer reviewedPublisher PD