2,164 research outputs found
A Vaccine Against Group B Streptococcus: Recent Advances
Group B streptococcus (GBS) causes a high burden of neonatal and infant disease globally. Implementing a vaccine for pregnant women is a promising strategy to prevent neonatal and infant GBS disease and has been identified as a priority by the World Health Organisation (WHO). GBS serotype-specific polysaccharide â protein conjugate vaccines are at advanced stages of development, but a large number of participants would be required to undertake Phase III clinical efficacy trials. Efforts are therefore currently focused on establishing serocorrelates of protection in natural immunity studies as an alternative pathway for licensure of a GBS vaccine, followed by Phase IV studies to evaluate safety and effectiveness. Protein vaccines are in earlier stages of development but are highly promising as they might confer protection irrespective of serotype. Further epidemiological, immunological and health economic studies are required to enable the vaccine to reach its target population as soon as possible
El paper de LluĂs SolĂ© i SabarĂs en la "Geografia de Catalunya"
Parlar de Lluis SolĂ© Sabans corn a geĂČgraf Ă©s una tasca que ultrapassa de molt les meves possibilitats, ja que no es tracta simplement d'escorcollar els aspectes mes geogrĂ fics d'un geĂČleg. Ans al contrari, sense voler prejutjar la seva tasca immensa en el camp de la Geologia, cal dir tot seguit que SolĂ©Sabans Ă©s ell mateix un geĂČgraf. Efectivament, des de les seves classes de Geografia a l'Institut-escola «Giner de los RĂos» de la Generalitat a les seves activitats mĂ©s recents com a president de la Societat Csltalana de Geografia, passant pel seu mestratge a tants de geĂČgrafs al Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientĂficas de Barcelona o als cursets de Pirineus, o per bona part de les seves obres i escrits, arreu hi podem trobar i'alenar de tot un geĂČgraf de l'escola francesa. (...
Optimal combined word-length allocation and architectural synthesis of digital signal processing circuits
Published versio
Distribution of skates and sharks in the North Sea: 112 years of change
How have North Sea skate and shark assemblages changed since the early 20th century when bottom trawling became widespread, whilst their environment became increasingly impacted by fishing, climate change, habitat degradation and other anthropogenic pressures? This article examines long-term changes in the distribution and occurrence of the elasmobranch assemblage of the southern North Sea, based on extensive historical time series (1902â2013) of fishery-independent survey data. In general, larger species (thornback ray, tope, spurdog) exhibited long-term declines, and the largest (common skate complex) became locally extirpated (as did angelshark). Smaller species increased (spotted and starry ray, lesser-spotted dogfish) as did smooth-hound, likely benefiting from greater resilience to fishing and/or climate change. This indicates a fundamental shift from historical dominance of larger, commercially valuable species to current prevalence of smaller, more productive species often of low commercial value. In recent years, however, some trends have reversed, with the (cold-water associated) starry ray now declining and thornback ray increasing. This shift may be attributed to (i) fishing, including mechanised beam trawling introduced in the 1960sâ1970s, and historical target fisheries for elasmobranchs; (ii) climate change, currently favouring warm-water above cold-water species; and (iii) habitat loss, including potential degradation of coastal and outer estuarine nursery habitats. The same anthropogenic pressures, here documented to have impacted North Sea elasmobranchs over the past century, are likewise impacting shelf seas worldwide and may increase in the future; therefore, parallel changes in elasmobranch communities in other regions are to be expected
Are Changes in the Mean or Variability of Climate Signals More Important for Long-Term Stochastic Growth Rate?
Population dynamics are affected by changes in both the mean and standard deviation of climate, e.g., changes in average
temperature are likely to affect populations, but so are changes in the strength of year-to-year temperature variability. The
impacts of increases in average temperature are extensively researched, while the impacts of changes in climate variability
are less studied. Is the greater attention given to changes in mean environment justified? To help answer this question we
developed a simple population model, explicitly linked to an environmental process. We used the model to compare the
sensitivities of a populationâs long-term stochastic growth rate, a measure of fitness, to changes in the mean and standard
deviation of the environment. Results are interpreted in light of a comparative analysis of the relative magnitudes of change
in means and standard deviations of biologically relevant climate variables in the United States. Results show that changes
in the variability of the environment can be more important for many populations. Changes in mean conditions are likely to
have a greater impact than changes in variability on populations far from their ideal environment, for example, populations
near species range boundaries and potentially of conservation concern. Populations near range centres and close to their
ideal environment are more likely to be affected by changes in variability. Among pest and insect disease vectors, as well as
species of commercial value, populations likely to be of greatest economic and public health significance are those near
species range centers, living in a near-ideal environment for the species. Observed changes in the variability of climate
variables may benefit these populations
Hydrological connectivity inferred from diatom transport through the riparian-stream system
Funding for this research was provided by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) in the framework of the BIGSTREAM (C09/SR/14), ECSTREAM (C12/SR/40/8854) and CAOS (INTER/DFG/11/01) projects. We are most grateful to the Administration des Services Techniques de lâAgriculture (ASTA) for providing meteorological data. We also acknowledge Delphine Collard for technical assistance in diatom sample treatment and preparation, François Barnich for the water chemistry analyses, and Jean-François Iffly, Christophe Hissler, JĂ©rĂŽme Juilleret, Laurent Gourdol and Julian Klaus for their constructive comments on the project and technical assistance in the field.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Power measures derived from the sequential query process
We study a basic sequential model for the discovery of winning coalitions in
a simple game, well known from its use in defining the Shapley-Shubik power
index. We derive in a uniform way a family of measures of collective and
individual power in simple games, and show that, as for the Shapley-Shubik
index, they extend naturally to measures for TU-games. In particular, the
individual measures include all weighted semivalues.
We single out the simplest measure in our family for more investigation, as
it is new to the literature as far as we know. Although it is very different
from the Shapley value, it is closely related in several ways, and is the
natural analogue of the Shapley value under a nonstandard, but natural,
definition of simple game. We illustrate this new measure by calculating its
values on some standard examples.Comment: 13 pages, to appear in Mathematical Social Science
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