The state of Florida's estuaries and future needs in estuarine research: Part 2. an academic research agenda (review draft)

As a program supporting academic research that addresses recognized societal needs, the Florida Sea Grant Program is developing a research theme area on estuaries to provide a uniquely academic product that will augment mission-oriented research undertaken by government and by the private sector. This report is not a call for proposals. It does not prescribe a specific research plan. Rather, it is a concept paper designed to focus research on two broad "organizing themes": (1) the hydrology of Florida's estuaries, and (2) the impact of cyclic environmental variability on estuarine function. (46pp.

LIMIT: Learning Interfaces to Maximize Information Transfer

Robots can use auditory, visual, or haptic interfaces to convey information to human users. The way these interfaces select signals is typically pre-defined by the designer: for instance, a haptic wristband might vibrate when the robot is moving and squeeze when the robot stops. But different people interpret the same signals in different ways, so that what makes sense to one person might be confusing or unintuitive to another. In this paper we introduce a unified algorithmic formalism for learning co-adaptive interfaces from scratch. Our method does not need to know the human's task (i.e., what the human is using these signals for). Instead, our insight is that interpretable interfaces should select signals that maximize correlation between the human's actions and the information the interface is trying to convey. Applying this insight we develop LIMIT: Learning Interfaces to Maximize Information Transfer. LIMIT optimizes a tractable, real-time proxy of information gain in continuous spaces. The first time a person works with our system the signals may appear random; but over repeated interactions the interface learns a one-to-one mapping between displayed signals and human responses. Our resulting approach is both personalized to the current user and not tied to any specific interface modality. We compare LIMIT to state-of-the-art baselines across controlled simulations, an online survey, and an in-person user study with auditory, visual, and haptic interfaces. Overall, our results suggest that LIMIT learns interfaces that enable users to complete the task more quickly and efficiently, and users subjectively prefer LIMIT to the alternatives. See videos here: https://youtu.be/IvQ3TM1_2fA

Economic considerations in the treatment of invasive aspergillosis: a review of voriconazole pharmacoeconomic studies

Invasive aspergillosis is a life-threatening fungal infection predominately affecting immunocompromised individuals. The incidence of inpatient-treated aspergillosis cases in the US is estimated to be between 3.02 and 3.80 per 10,000 hospitalized patients. The estimated difference in hospital costs of patients with an aspergillosis infection is US$36,867 to US$59,356 higher than those of patients without the infection. Voriconazole is a synthetic, broad spectrum triazole antifungal agent, with FDA-approved indications for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis, esophageal candidiasis, candidemia in nonneutropenic patients, invasive candidiasis, and infections due to Scedosporium apiospermum and Fusarium species in patients refractory to or intolerant of other therapy. Eight cost-effectiveness analyses, one cost-minimization analysis, and one cost analysis were identified from a Medline search. The 10 pharmacoeconomic analyses were conducted in six different countries comparing voriconazole to conventional amphotericin B, liposomal amphotericin B, itraconazole, and caspofungin. All the cost-effectiveness and cost-minimization analyses identified voriconazole as the most cost-effective therapy. The cost analysis demonstrated voriconazole cost-savings. While the acquisition costs of voriconazole are higher than those of conventional amphotericin B, the toxicity profile and rate of treatment success associated with voriconazole result in lower total treatment costs per successfully treated patient

An economic analysis of options for utilising additional land on a high rainfall Gippsland dairy farm

A range of options for utilising additional land on a dairy farm in the high rainfall area of Gippsland were analysed. The aim was to determine if additional land may assist the owners/operators in maintaining or increasing profit in the medium term (5-10 years). Historical trends have been towards fewer, larger, more intensive enterprises, and this project studies the value of additional land in continuing or altering this trend. A case study farm and spreadsheet modelling approach was used to examine these issues. Five different uses for additional land were identified by an expert steering committee, and were compared to the base farm system over a 10-year development period. The results suggest that expanding the milking area by purchasing additional land without a significant increase in herd size (2A) increased annual operating profit by approximately $70,000/year without increasing variability when compared to the base farm system. This was the only option examined to earn a high enough internal rate of return on additional capital investment to justify the investment without capital gains. Additional milking area with a substantial increase in stocking rate (2C) significantly reduced annual operating profit (by approximately$70,000/year) and notably increased the variability of these returns. The purchase of an outblock for conserved fodder production improved profitability, but would require some capital gains to be an attractive option on profit measures alone. The most appropriate changes to dairy farm businesses in response to changes in the operating environment will vary from farm to farm. The analysis indicated that simple following previous industry trends may not be appropriate on many farms. Optimising the amount of home grown feed and efficiently using purchased supplements are important, particularly if the milk produced is subject to the fluctuations of an export milk price.Farm Management,

An indirect method to assess the energy expenditure of manual labourers in situ

The aim of ergonomics is to identify any incompatibility between worker capabilities and the demands of their job. It is therefore desirable that in a developing country such as South Africa we have some basic, yet valid and usable means of measuring worker responses to physically demanding manual tasks. Extensive ergonomic research has been conducted in the controlled environment of laboratories around the globe, but only a limited number of investigations have been conducted in the workplace. This is due to the impossibility of controlling the extraneous factors such as the environment and changing workloads while assessing worker responses, plus the impracticality of using hi-tech equipment under difficult conditions on unsophisticated workers. The likelihood of obtaining ‘natural’ responses thereby is low. The focus of this study was to establish a less invasive means of assessing the physiological responses (specifically energy expenditure) of manual labourers working in the field. Twenty-three forestry stackers were assessed. Heart-rate responses were recorded during a full shift, after which the workers participated in a submaximal incremental step test. Subjects were fitted with a gas analyser, and heart rate and oxygen consumption responses were measured throughout the 12-min test. These data were used to establish a regression equation based on the relationship between heart rate and oxygen consumption (r² = 0.49; r = 0.69). Using this equation (y=0.26x – 6.42), one can measure heart rate in the field and predict the energy cost of manual tasks

Rapid virological surveillance of community influenza infection in general practice

No abstract available

Cardiac responses under diverse combinations of marching speed and backpack load

Thirty seasoned foot-soldiers were exposed to a total of 16 combinations of marching speed and backpack load, each soldier experiencing 8 of the combinations between 3.5km.h-1 with a 20kg load and 6.5km.h-1 with a 65kg load. Detailed physiological analyses were conducted, of which the heart rate responses are reported here. Steady state was achieved with all combinations under 5.5km.h-1 speed and 35kg load. Excessively elevated heart rates were elicited by all loads over 20kg at 6.5km.h-1 marching speed; by loads over 35kg at 5.5km.h-1 marching speed and by the 65kg load even at 4.5km.h-1 marching speed

Partial structure learning by subset Walsh transform.

Estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) use structure learning to build a statistical model of good solutions discovered so far, in an effort to discover better solutions. The non-zero coefficients of the Walsh transform produce a hypergraph representation of structure of a binary fitness function; however, computation of all Walsh coefficients requires exhaustive evaluation of the search space. In this paper, we propose a stochastic method of determining Walsh coefficients for hyperedges contained within the selected subset of the variables (complete local structure). This method also detects parts of hyperedges which cut the boundary of the selected variable set (partial structure), which may be used to incrementally build an approximation of the problem hypergraph

Universal screening for meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus : interim results from the NHS Scotland pathfinder project

Following recommendations from a Health Technology Assessment (HTA), a prospective cohort study of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) screening of all admissions (N = 29 690) to six acute hospitals in three regions in Scotland indicated that 7.5% of patientswere colonised on admission to hospital. Factors associated with colonisation included re-admission, specialty of admission (highest in nephrology, care of the elderly, dermatology and vascular surgery), increasing age, and the source of admission (care home or other hospital). Three percent of all those who were identified as colonised developed hospital-associated MRSA infection, compared with only 0.1% of those not colonised. Specialtieswith a high rate of colonisation on admission also had higher rates of MRSA infection. Very few patients refused screening (11 patients, 0.03%) or had treatment deferred (14 patients, 0.05%). Several organisational issues were identified, including difficulties in achieving complete uptake of screening (88%) or decolonisation (41%); the latter was largely due to short duration of stay and turnaround time for test results. Patient movement resulted in a decision to decontaminate all positive patients rather than just those in high risk specialties as proposed by the HTA. Issues also included a lack of isolation facilities to manage patients with MRSA. The study raises significant concerns about the contribution of decolonisation to reducing risks in hospital due to short duration of stay, and reinforces the central role of infection control precautions. Further study is required before the HTA model can be re-run and conclusions redrawn on the cost and clinical effectiveness of universal MRSA screening

Safety and pharmacokinetics of dolutegravir in HIV-positive pregnant women: a systematic review

Background: The integrase strand transfer inhibitor dolutegravir (DTG) is being introduced into low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as an alternative to first-line treatment with non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. However, DTG is not yet widely recommended for use in pregnant women. The aim of this systematic review was to analyse all available data on birth outcomes and congenital anomalies in the infants of pregnant women treated with DTG. Methods: A PubMed and Embase search was conducted using the terms "dolutegravir" or "DTG" and "pregnancy" or "pregnant" from the earliest available date on the database to 26 July 2017. Any reports involving women who were pregnant, HIV positive and taking DTG were included. The percentage of pregnant women with adverse birth outcomes or congenital anomalies in their infants after taking dolutegravir was compared with five historical control databases. Results: There were six databases included in the main analysis of birth outcomes and congenital anomalies, with a total of 1200 pregnant women. The percentage of pregnant women taking DTG with adverse birth outcomes and congenital abnormalities was similar to results from historical control studies of HIV-positive women. However, there was significant heterogeneity among the six databases - the percentage of infants with congenital anomalies ranged from 0.0% in Botswana (0/116 infants) to 13.3% in IMPAACT P1026S (2/15 infants). Conclusions: Up to 15 million people could be on treatment with DTG in LMICs within the next 5 years, of whom a substantial percentage is likely to be women of child-bearing potential. In many countries with large HIV epidemics, unplanned pregnancies are common and access to antenatal clinic facilities may be limited. Continued pharmacovigilance is essential, but it is reassuring that no clear safety signals have been detected, to date, for pregnant women treated with DTG in terms of birth outcomes or congenital anomalies