Assessment of left ventricular mass and volumes by three-dimensional echocardiography in patients with or without wall motion abnormalities: comparison against cine magnetic resonance imaging

To evaluate if three-dimensional echocardiography (3-DE) is as accurate and reproducible as cine magnetic resonance imaging (cMR) in estimating left ventricular (LV) parameters in patients with and without wall motion abnormalities (WMA)

Combined coronary and late-enhanced multidetector-computed tomography for delineation of the etiology of left ventricular dysfunction: comparison with coronary angiography and contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

AIMS: To evaluate whether comprehensive evaluation of coronary anatomy and delayed enhancement (DE) by multidetector-computed tomography (MDCT) would allow determination of etiology of left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) as compared with coronary angiography (CA) and DE-magnetic resonance (CMR). METHODS AND RESULTS: Seventy-one consecutive patients (50 males, 59 +/- 16 years) with LVD (ejection fraction: 26 +/- 11%) of unknown etiology underwent MDCT, LGE (late Gd-DTPA-enhanced)-CMR and CA. Patients were classified into four groups according to coronary artery disease (CAD) by CA and LGE-CMR patterns. Patients (n = 24) with CAD and transmural or sub-endocardial DE by CMR were considered having definite ischaemic LVD (group 1). Patients (n = 36) without CAD by CA and with no/atypical LGE-CMR were considered non-ischaemic LVD (group 2). Further we identified four patients with transmural DE but no CAD (group 3) and seven patients with CAD but no DE (group 4). On per-patient basis, combined coronary and DE-MDCT had excellent agreement (kappa = 0.89; P < 0.001) with CA/LGE-CMR to classify patients into the same four groups. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of MDCT were 97, 92 and 94%, respectively for detecting patients with definite (group 1) or likely (groups 3 and 4) ischaemic LVD. CONCLUSION: Combined coronary and DE-MDCT can accurately differentiate ischaemic vs. non-ischaemic etiology of LVD

Determinants of high residual post-PCV13 pneumococcal vaccine-type carriage in Blantyre, Malawi:a modelling study

Background In November 2011, Malawi introduced the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) into the routine infant schedule. Four to 7 years after introduction (2015–2018), rolling prospective nasopharyngeal carriage surveys were performed in the city of Blantyre. Carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine serotypes (VT) remained higher than reported in high-income countries, and impact was asymmetric across age groups. Methods A dynamic transmission model was fit to survey data using a Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo approach, to obtain insights into the determinants of post-PCV13 age-specific VT carriage. Results Accumulation of naturally acquired immunity with age and age-specific transmission potential were both key to reproducing the observed data. VT carriage reduction peaked sequentially over time, earlier in younger and later in older age groups. Estimated vaccine efficacy (protection against carriage) was 66.87% (95% CI 50.49–82.26%), similar to previous estimates. Ten-year projected vaccine impact (VT carriage reduction) among 0–9 years old was lower than observed in other settings, at 76.23% (CI 95% 68.02–81.96%), with sensitivity analyses demonstrating this to be mainly driven by a high local force of infection. Conclusions There are both vaccine-related and host-related determinants of post-PCV13 pneumococcal VT transmission in Blantyre with vaccine impact determined by an age-specific, local force of infection. These findings are likely to be generalisable to other Sub-Saharan African countries in which PCV impact on carriage (and therefore herd protection) has been lower than desired, and have implications for the interpretation of post-PCV carriage studies and future vaccination programs.</p

Адаптация гидравлической модели водостока к бассейнам рек Дунай и Днестр

Гидравлическая модель водостока адаптирована к бассейну рек Дунай и Днестр. По данным орографии, атмосферных осадках или поверхностном стоке она позволяет рассчитывать объемы, расходы и уровни воды с пространственным разрешением 1 км. В модели возможно использование данные об экосистемах на земной поверхности, типах почвы. По данным наблюдений стока оценены среднемесячные величины расходов рек, которые соответствуют наблюдениям, что позволяет применять модель в дальнейших оценках стока, наносов и т.д.Hydraulic model of water inflow is adapted to the Danube and the Dniester rivers basin. According to the orography, precipitation and surface inflow data it permits to calculate water volumes, discharges and levels with spatial resolution 1 km. It is possible to use the data on ecosystems on the ground surface, types of soil in the model. According to the observations data of the inflow the average monthly values of river discharges corresponding to the observations are estimated. It permits to apply the model in the further estimations of inflow, alluvia e t.c

Considering people in systematic conservation planning: insights from land system science

Species and ecosystems worldwide continue to decline and disappear in spite of decades of investment in conservation efforts. Systematic conservation planning ( SCP ) is a field of study designed to improve conservation programs by identifying land configurations that, if protected, would most efficiently sustain biodiversity. Despite contributing to species persistence in landscapes, SCP has been criticized for replacing site‐based conservation plans that often consider social context. In contrast, land system science ( LSS ), an emerging field that explores the process of land‐use and land‐cover change, integrates social systems and processes into conservation analyses. We suggest that by incorporating insights from LSS on social processes (eg livelihood adaptation or agricultural intensification), SCP can enhance the legitimacy of conservation plans, thereby reducing the gap between conservation planning and implementation. This represents a necessary first step for SCP to reinvent itself as a decision‐support tool that helps to reconcile the long‐standing divide between landscape‐level species conservation and social needs. </p