Assessment of human influenza pandemic scenarios in Europe

The response to the emergence of the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic was the result of a decade of pandemic planning, largely centred on the threat of an avian influenza A(H5N1) pandemic. Based on a literature review, this study aims to define a set of new pandemic scenarios that could be used in case of a future influenza pandemic. A total of 338 documents were identified using a searching strategy based on seven combinations of keywords. Eighty-three of these documents provided useful information on the 13 virus-related and health-system-related parameters initially considered for describing scenarios. Among these, four parameters were finally selected (clinical attack rate, case fatality rate, hospital admission rate, and intensive care admission rate) and four different levels of severity for each of them were set. The definition of six most likely scenarios results from the combination of four different levels of severity of the four final parameters (256 possible scenarios). Although it has some limitations, this approach allows for more flexible scenarios and hence it is far from the classic scenarios structure used for pandemic plans until 2009

Développement participatif d’un référentiel de compétences pour favoriser l’utilisation de la recherche en éducation : une analyse critique

Cet article décrit la démarche d’élaboration d’un référentiel de compétences visant à favoriser l’utilisation des connaissances issues de la recherche en éducation (CIR). Cette démarche visait à identifier les compétences des intervenants scolaires afin de favoriser l’utilisation des connaissances issues de la recherche dans leur école. Une analyse critique de cette démarche en regard des écrits scientifiques portant sur de telles démarches est aussi présentée. Cette analyse permet de constater que la démarche menée présente plusieurs forces, mais aussi quelques limites. Les principales forces de cette démarche résident dans le fait qu’elle a permis de tenir compte du contexte organisationnel, d’aller au-delà du statuquo pour décrire ce qui est, mais aussi ce qui devrait être, et cela dans un langage et un format faciles d’approche. Toutefois, l’analyse mène au constat que la démarche n’a pas permis le développement d’indicateurs permettant de juger du niveau de compétence des professionnels ciblés

The relativistic solar particle event on 28 October 2021: Evidence of particle acceleration within and escape from the solar corona

Aims. We analyse particle, radio, and X-ray observations during the first relativistic proton event of solar cycle 25 detected on Earth. The aim is to gain insight into the relationship between relativistic solar particles detected in space and the processes of acceleration and propagation in solar eruptive events.Methods. To this end, we used ground-based neutron monitor measurements of relativistic nucleons and space-borne measurements of electrons with similar speed to determine the arrival times of the first particles at 1 AU and to infer their solar release times. We compared the release times with the time histories of non-thermal electrons in the solar atmosphere and their escape to interplanetary space, as traced by radio spectra and X-ray light curves and images.Results. Non-thermal electrons in the corona are found to be accelerated in different regions. Some are confined in closed magnetic structures expanding during the course of the event. Three episodes of electron escape to the interplanetary space are revealed by groups of decametric-to-kilometric type III bursts. The first group appears on the low-frequency side of a type II burst produced by a coronal shock wave. The two latter groups are accompanied at higher frequencies by bursts with rapid drifts to both lower and higher frequencies (forward- or reverse-drifting bursts). They are produced by electron beams that propagate both sunward and anti-sunward. The first relativistic electrons and nucleons observed near Earth are released with the third group of type III bursts, more than ten minutes after the first signatures of non-thermal electrons and of the formation of the shock wave in the corona. Although the eruptive active region is near the central meridian, several tens of degrees east of the footpoint of the nominal Parker spiral to the Earth, the kilometric spectrum of the type III bursts and the in situ detection of Langmuir waves demonstrate a direct magnetic connection between the L1 Lagrange point and the field lines onto which the electron beams are released at the Sun.Conclusions. We interpret the forward- and reverse-drifting radio bursts as evidence of reconnection between the closed expanding magnetic structures of an erupting flux rope and ambient open magnetic field lines. We discuss the origin of relativistic particles near the Earth across two scenarios: (1) acceleration at the CME-driven shock as it intercepts interplanetary magnetic field lines rooted in the western solar hemisphere and (2) an alternative where the relativistic particles are initially confined in the erupting magnetic fields and get access to the open field lines to the Earth through these reconnection events.</p

Vitamin A deficiency and inflammatory markers among preschool children in the Republic of the Marshall Islands

BACKGROUND: The exclusion of individuals with elevated acute phase proteins has been advocated in order to improve prevalence estimates of vitamin A deficiency in surveys, but it is unclear whether this will lead to sampling bias. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the exclusion of individuals with elevated acute phase proteins is associated with sampling bias and to characterize inflammation in children with night blindness. METHODS: In a survey in the Republic of the Marshall Islands involving 281 children, aged 1–5 years, serum retinol, C-reactive protein (CRP), and α(1)-acid glycoprotein (AGP) were measured. RESULTS: Of 281 children, 24 (8.5%) had night blindness and 165 (58.7%) had serum retinol <0.70 μmol/L. Of 248 children with AGP and CRP measurements, 123 (49.6%) had elevated acute phase proteins (CRP >5 mg/L and/or AGP >1000 mg/L). Among children with and without night blindness, the proportion with serum retinol <0.70 μmol/L was 79.2% and 56.8% (P = 0.03) and with anemia was 58.3% and 35.7% (P = 0.029), respectively. The proportion of children with serum retinol <0.70 μmol/L was 52.0% after excluding children with elevated acute phase proteins. Among children with and without elevated acute phase proteins, mean age was 2.8 vs 3.2 years (P = 0.016), the proportion of boys was 43.1% vs. 54.3% (P = 0.075), with no hospitalizations in the last year was 11.0% vs 23.6% (P = 0.024), and with anemia was 43.8% vs 31.7% (P = 0.05), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Exclusion of children with inflammation in this survey of vitamin A deficiency does not improve prevalence estimates for vitamin A deficiency and instead leads to sampling bias for variables such as age, gender, anemia, and hospitalization history

Capability driven development: an approach to designing digital enterprises

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12599-014-0362-0[EN] The need for organizations to operate in changing environments is addressed by proposing an approach that integrates organizational development with information system (IS) development taking into account changes in the application context of the solution. This is referred to as Capability Driven Development (CDD). A meta-model representing business and IS designs consisting of goals, key performance indicators, capabilities, context and capability delivery patterns, is being proposed. The use of the meta-model is validated in three industrial case studies as part of an ongoing collaboration project, whereas one case is presented in the paper. Issues related to the use of the CDD approach, namely, CDD methodology and tool support are also discussed.This work has been partially supported by the EU-FP7 funded project no: 611351 CaaS - Capability as a Service in Digital Enterprises.Berzisa, S.; Bravos, G.; Cardona Gonzalez, T.; Czubayko, U.; España, S.; Grabis, J.; Henkel, M.... (2015). Capability driven development: an approach to designing digital enterprises. Business and Information Systems Engineering. 57(1):15-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-014-0362-0S1525571ArchiMate (2013) An enterprise modeling language from the Open Group. http://www.opengroup.org/archimate/ . Accessed 3 Dec 2014Asadi M, Ramsin R (2008) MDA-based methodologies: an analytical survey. In: Proceedings Model driven architecture – foundations and applications (ECMDA-FA 2008), LNCS 5095, pp 419–431Barney JB (1991) Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. J Manag 17(1):99–120Bērziša S, Bravos G, Gonzalez Cardona T, Czubayko U, España S, Grabis J, Henke lM, Jokste L, Kampars J, Koc H, Kuhr J, Llorca C, Loucopoulos P, Juanes Pascua lR, Sandkuh lK, Simic H, Stirna J, Zdravkovic J (2014) Deliverable 1.4: Requirements specification for CDD, CaaS – capability as a service for digital enterprises. FP7 project no 611351, Riga Technical University, Latvia. Submitted for reviewBubenko JA Jr, Persson A, Stirna J (2001) User guide of the knowledge management approach using enterprise knowledge patterns. Deliverable D3, IST programme project hypermedia and pattern based knowledge management for smart organisations. project no. IST-2000-28401, Royal Institute of Technology, SwedenBriand LC, Yue T, Labiche Y (2011) A systematic review of transformation approaches between user requirements and analysis models. Requir Eng 16:75–99De Kinderen S, Gordijn J, Akkermans H (2009) Reasoning about customer needs in multi-supplier ICT service bundles using decision models. In: Proceedings 11th international conference on enterprise information systems (ICEIS 2009), pp 131–136Deloitte (2009) Cloud computing: forecasting change. Deloitte Consulting, New York. http://public.deloitte.no/dokumenter/2_Cloud_Computing%5B1%5D.pdf . Accessed 3 Dec 2014Dey A (2001) Understanding and using context. Pers Ubiquitous Comput 5(1):4–7Gamma E, Helm R, Johnson R, Vlissides J (1995) Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software architecture. Addison-Wesley, BostonGomes D, Gonçalves JM, Santos R, Aguiar R (2010) XMPP based context management architecture. In: Proceedings GLOBECOM workshop, IEEE, pp 1372–1377González A, España S, Ruiz M, Pastor Ó (2011) Systematic derivation of class diagrams from communication-oriented business process models. In: 12th working conference on business process modeling, development, and support (BPMDS’11). Springer LNBIP 81, pp 246–260Henkel M, Stirna J (2010) Pondering on the key functionality of model driven development tools: the case of mendix. In: Forbrig P, Günther H (eds) Proceedings business informatics research (BIR 2010), Springer LNBIP 64, pp 146–160Hervas R, Bravo J, Fontecha J (2010) A context model based on ontological languages – a proposal for information visualisation. J Univers Comput Sci 16(12):1539–1555Jarke M, Loucopoulos P, Lyytinen K, Mylopoulos J, Robinson W (2011) The brave new world of design requirements. Information Syst 36(7):992–1008Kaplan RS, Norton DP (2004) Strategy maps: converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes. Harvard Business School Press, BostonKleppe A, Warmer J, Bast W (2013) MDA explained. Addison-Wesley, BostonLoniewski G, Insfran E, Abrahao L (2010) A systematic review of the use of requirements engineering techniques in model-driven development. In: Proceedings model driven engineering languages and systems (MODELS 2010), Part II, LNCS 6395, pp 213–227Mohagheghi P, Dehlen V (2008) Where is the proof? - a review of experiences from applying MDE in industry. In: Proceedings model driven architecture – foundations and applications (ECMDA-FA 2008). LNCS 5095. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 432–443Nilsson AG, Tolis C, Nellborn C (eds) (1999) Perspectives on business modelling: understanding and changing organisations. Springer, HeidelbergOASIS (2011) Reference architecture foundation for service oriented architecture version 1.0, committee specification draft 03/public review draft 02 06 July 2011. http://docs.oasis-open.org/soa-rm/soa-ra/v1.0/soa-ra.pdf . Accessed 3 Dec 2014OMG (2011a) UML superstructure. http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.4.1/ . 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A Day in the Life of Microcystis aeruginosa Strain PCC 7806 as Revealed by a Transcriptomic Analysis

The cyanobacterium, Microcystis aeruginosa, is able to proliferate in a wide range of freshwater ecosystems and to produce many secondary metabolites that are a threat to human and animal health. The dynamic of this production and more globally the metabolism of this species is still poorly known. A DNA microarray based on the genome of M. aeruginosa PCC 7806 was constructed and used to study the dynamics of gene expression in this cyanobacterium during the light/dark cycle, because light is a critical factor for this species, like for other photosynthetic microorganisms. This first application of transcriptomics to a Microcystis species has revealed that more than 25% of the genes displayed significant changes in their transcript abundance during the light/dark cycle and in particular during the dark/light transition. The metabolism of M. aeruginosa is compartmentalized between the light period, during which carbon uptake, photosynthesis and the reductive pentose phosphate pathway lead to the synthesis of glycogen, and the dark period, during which glycogen degradation, the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, the TCA branched pathway and ammonium uptake promote amino acid biosynthesis. We also show that the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, such as microcystins, aeruginosin and cyanopeptolin, occur essentially during the light period, suggesting that these metabolites may interact with the diurnal part of the central metabolism

Compilation and Network Analyses of Cambrian Food Webs

A rich body of empirically grounded theory has developed about food webs—the networks of feeding relationships among species within habitats. However, detailed food-web data and analyses are lacking for ancient ecosystems, largely because of the low resolution of taxa coupled with uncertain and incomplete information about feeding interactions. These impediments appear insurmountable for most fossil assemblages; however, a few assemblages with excellent soft-body preservation across trophic levels are candidates for food-web data compilation and topological analysis. Here we present plausible, detailed food webs for the Chengjiang and Burgess Shale assemblages from the Cambrian Period. Analyses of degree distributions and other structural network properties, including sensitivity analyses of the effects of uncertainty associated with Cambrian diet designations, suggest that these early Paleozoic communities share remarkably similar topology with modern food webs. Observed regularities reflect a systematic dependence of structure on the numbers of taxa and links in a web. Most aspects of Cambrian food-web structure are well-characterized by a simple “niche model,” which was developed for modern food webs and takes into account this scale dependence. However, a few aspects of topology differ between the ancient and recent webs: longer path lengths between species and more species in feeding loops in the earlier Chengjiang web, and higher variability in the number of links per species for both Cambrian webs. Our results are relatively insensitive to the exclusion of low-certainty or random links. The many similarities between Cambrian and recent food webs point toward surprisingly strong and enduring constraints on the organization of complex feeding interactions among metazoan species. The few differences could reflect a transition to more strongly integrated and constrained trophic organization within ecosystems following the rapid diversification of species, body plans, and trophic roles during the Cambrian radiation. More research is needed to explore the generality of food-web structure through deep time and across habitats, especially to investigate potential mechanisms that could give rise to similar structure, as well as any differences

Targeting surface nucleolin with a multivalent pseudopeptide delays development of spontaneous melanoma in RET transgenic mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The importance of cell-surface nucleolin in cancer biology was recently highlighted by studies showing that ligands of nucleolin play critical role in tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. By using a specific antagonist that binds the C-terminal tail of nucleolin, the HB-19 pseudopeptide, we recently reported that HB-19 treatment markedly suppressed the progression of established human breast tumor cell xenografts in the athymic nude mice without apparent toxicity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The <it>in vivo </it>antitumoral action of HB-19 treatment was assessed on the spontaneous development of melanoma in the RET transgenic mouse model. Ten days old RET mice were treated with HB-19 in a prophylactic setting that extended 300 days. In parallel, the molecular basis for the action of HB-19 was investigated on a melanoma cell line (called TIII) derived from a cutaneous nodule of a RET mouse.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>HB-19 treatment of RET mice caused a significant delay in the onset of cutaneous tumors, several-months delay in the incidence of large tumors, a lower frequency of cutaneous nodules, and a reduction of visceral metastatic nodules while displaying no toxicity to normal tissue. Moreover, microvessel density was significantly reduced in tumors recovered from HB-19 treated mice compared to corresponding controls. Studies on the melanoma-derived tumor cells demonstrated that HB-19 treatment of TIII cells could restore contact inhibition, impair anchorage-independent growth, and reduce their tumorigenic potential in mice. Moreover, HB-19 treatment caused selective down regulation of transcripts coding matrix metalloproteinase 2 and 9, and tumor necrosis factor-α in the TIII cells and in melanoma tumors of RET mice.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although HB-19 treatment failed to prevent the development of spontaneous melanoma in the RET mice, it delayed for several months the onset and frequency of cutaneous tumors, and exerted a significant inhibitory effect on visceral metastasis. Consequently, HB-19 could provide a novel therapeutic agent by itself or as an adjuvant therapy in association with current therapeutic interventions on a virulent cancer like melanoma.</p

Incorporating a Rapid-Impact Package for Neglected Tropical Diseases with Programs for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria: A comprehensive pro-poor health policy and strategy for the developing world

Hotez et al. argue that achieving success in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria may well require a concurrent attack on the neglected tropical diseases