Measles at Work: Status of Measles Vaccination at a Multinational Company.

This study aims to evaluate the status of measles vaccination among employees working for a multinational company. It also assesses the effectiveness of an on-site prevention campaign. In keeping with the guidelines of the World Health Organization regarding measles awareness, the Federal Office of Public Health in Switzerland aims to eliminate measles by 2020. A questionnaire about measles vaccination was sent by e-mail and via a fluid survey. Logistic regression models examined the associations between explicative variables and the status of complete measles immunization. The status of complete measles immunization was used as the primary outcome. 17% of the participants were not aware of their measles immunization status, 14% had had only one dose of the vaccination, and only 24% had two doses. Male employees had a lower probability of being vaccinated against measles than women [aOR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.43⁻0.86]. Employees of Swiss and African origin had a higher probability of being vaccinated than employees of European origin (aOR = 1.94; 95% CI: 1.13⁻3.33). Based on the results of the questionnaire, further efforts are needed to promote measles vaccination through awareness campaigns so that employees become more aware of the importance of measles immunization

A comparison of the spatial dependence of body mass index among adults and children in a Swiss general population.

BACKGROUND: Body mass index (BMI) may cluster in space among adults and be spatially dependent. Whether BMI clusters among children and how age-specific BMI clusters are related remains unknown. We aimed to identify and compare the spatial dependence of BMI in adults and children in a Swiss general population, taking into account the area's income level. METHODS: Geo-referenced data from the Bus Santé study (adults, n=6663) and Geneva School Health Service (children, n=3601) were used. We implemented global (Moran's I) and local (local indicators of spatial association (LISA)) indices of spatial autocorrelation to investigate the spatial dependence of BMI in adults (35-74 years) and children (6-7 years). Weight and height were measured using standardized procedures. Five spatial autocorrelation classes (LISA clusters) were defined including the high-high BMI class (high BMI participant's BMI value correlated with high BMI-neighbors' mean BMI values). The spatial distributions of clusters were compared between adults and children with and without adjustment for area's income level. RESULTS: In both adults and children, BMI was clearly not distributed at random across the State of Geneva. Both adults' and children's BMIs were associated with the mean BMI of their neighborhood. We found that the clusters of higher BMI in adults and children are located in close, yet different, areas of the state. Significant clusters of high versus low BMIs were clearly identified in both adults and children. Area's income level was associated with children's BMI clusters. CONCLUSIONS: BMI clusters show a specific spatial dependence in adults and children from the general population. Using a fine-scale spatial analytic approach, we identified life course-specific clusters that could guide tailored interventions

Prevalence of Vaccine Type Infections in Vaccinated and Non-Vaccinated Young Women: HPV-IMPACT, a Self-Sampling Study.

Background: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for young girls aged 11⁻26 years was introduced in Switzerland in 2008. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of high- and low-risk HPV in a population of undergraduate students using self-sampling for monitoring the HPV vaccination program's effect. Undergraduate women aged between 18⁻31 years, attending the Medical School and University of Applied Sciences in Geneva, were invited to participate in the study. Included women were asked to perform vaginal self-sampling for HPV testing using a dry cotton swab. A total of 409 students participated in the study-aged 18⁻31 years-of which 69% of the participants were vaccinated with Gardasil HPV vaccine and 31% did not received the vaccine. About HPV prevalence, 7.2% of unvaccinated women were HPV 16 or 18 positive, while 1.1% of vaccinated women were infected by HPV 16 or 18 (p < 0.01). Prevalence of HPV 6 and 11 was 8.3% in non-vaccinated women versus 2.1% in vaccinated women (p < 0.02). We observed no cross-protection for the other HPV genotypes of a low- and high-risk strain. Prevalence of HPV 6/11/16/18 was lower in vaccinated women versus unvaccinated women. Continued assessment of HPV vaccine effectiveness in real population is needed

A New Swiss Federal Act on Gambling: From Missed Opportunities towards a Public Health Approach?

In January 2019, a new Swiss Federal Act on Gambling (Loi federal de jeux d'argent: LJAr) entered into force following a vote by the Swiss electorate. Intended to modernize and harmonize previous law and open the market for online casinos; the new regulations have highlighted the need for a comprehensive monitoring system. The present article outlines work undertaken by experts within the field to identify and elaborate the first steps towards developing such a monitoring system. This work includes the mapping of institutional actors and draft conceptualization of an impact model, including structural (i.e., prevention and intervention-based components), process (means), and outcomes (effect) indicators. Initial estimations of effective access to indicators and their perceived priority for data gathering are also described. Subsequent steps necessary for implementation of this public health approach for gambling are considered including grey areas for future action

Stress-Strain Modeling of Polypropylene Composite

Abstract The strain rate dependency of the initial modulus ( E i ), secant modulus at yield (E o ), and of the yield stress, ( y ), of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GF-PP) were investigated and modeled along with the stress strain relationship. The GF-PP had a density of 1940 kg/cm 3 . The tensile test specimens were directly machined out of the pipe insulation system. The strain rate, , of loading was varied from 0.30%/min to 35%/min. The stress strain relationship of the composite polymer in tension was elasto plastic with hardening and a stress strain model was used to predict the behavior

Perspective of Internet Poker Players on Harm-Reduction Strategies: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Internet gambling may increase rates of gambling harm. This current study aimed to assess Internet poker players' views on various harm-reduction (HR) strategies. It also examined differences in these views according to the games played (poker only vs. poker plus other gambling activities), indebtedness, and problem gambling severity. Methods: Internet poker players (n = 311; 94.2% Male) recruited online between 2012 and 2014 were included in the analyses and completed a survey on indebtedness, problem gambling severity index, and ten statements regarding HR features. Results: Among the whole sample, the most frequently endorsed HR strategy was setting money limits, specialized online help, and peer support forums. People who play poker only (70%) are less prone to endorse the utility of information on excessive gambling and specialized healthcare centers. No differences were found between those people with debt versus those without regarding HR assessment. Participants with severe problem gambling were more skeptical about HR strategies based on information on specialized healthcare centers. Conclusion: Setting money limits, online help, and peer support forums are the most commonly endorsed strategies. Future research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of online harm reduction strategies

Characteristics of HPV-unvaccinated undergraduate health students in Switzerland, a cross sectional study.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, intended for young women aged 11-14 years old, has been introduced in Switzerland in 2007. Ten years after its introduction, only a few studies have explored the reasons associated with uptake and non-uptake of the vaccination. Our objective was to identify the sociodemographic characteristics of a population of vaccinated and unvaccinated undergraduate healthcare female students, to define the reasons of non-uptake of vaccination, and compare our findings with those found in other Swiss cantons. Between January and November 2017, women studying in Health Sciences School and Medical School in Geneva, aged 18-31 years old, were recruited in a large trial assessing HPV prevalence. As part of a smaller, observational study nested in this larger trial, women were invited to complete a questionnaire. Self-reported HPV vaccination uptake or non-uptake, as well as knowledge and attitude about HPV vaccination were assessed. T-Test and Chi square test were used to compare characteristics of vaccinated and unvaccinated women. Overall, 409 women were recruited in the study. The majority of them (69.1%) reported having been vaccinated for HPV, while 30.9% of them had never received any dose of the HPV vaccine. The only factor associated with a higher vaccination rate was the participants' origin, as women from Geneva were more represented in the vaccinated group than women from other Swiss regions or countries. Unvaccinated women were more likely to consider HPV vaccination as less important than the vaccinated ones (50.4% vs 3.5% p < 0.001). Although no typical profile can be established in this studied population of unvaccinated women, a lack of information was a major reason of non-uptake of vaccination among the study participants. An effort by health authorities and carefully designed messages are essential to increase the population's awareness over cervical cancer and its prevention. The trial was registered under cliniclatrials.gov with the identifier: NCT03474211

Use of Oral Cholera Vaccine in Haiti: A Rural Demonstration Project

A cholera epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 8,000 Haitians and sickened 650,000 since the outbreak began in October 2010. Early intervention in the epidemic focused on case-finding, treatment, and water and sanitation interventions for prevention of transmission. Use of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) as part of a complementary set of control activities was considered but initially rejected by policymakers. In December 2011, the Minister of Health of Haiti called for a demonstration of the acceptability and feasibility of the use of OCV in urban and rural Haiti. This paper describes the collaborative activity that offered OCV to one region of the Artibonite Department of rural Haiti in addition to other ongoing treatment and control measures. Despite logistics and cold chain challenges, 45,417 persons were successfully vaccinated with OCV in the region, and 90.8% of these persons completed their second dose

Hepatocellular adenoma: what is new in 2008

Patients (85%) with hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) are women taking oral contraceptives. They can be divided into four subgroups according to their genotype/phenotype features. (1) Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1α (HNF1α) biallelic somatic mutations are observed in 35% of the HCA cases. It occurs in almost all cases in women. HNF1α-mutated HCA are most of the time, highly steatotic, with a lack of expression of liver fatty acid binding protein (LFABP) in immunohistochemistry analyses. Adenomatosis is frequently detected in this context. An HNF1α germline mutation is observed in less than 5% of HCA cases and can be associated with MODY 3 diabetes. (2) An activating β-catenin mutation was found in 10% of HCA. These β-catenin activated HCAs are observed in men and women, and specific risk factors, such as male hormone administration or glycogenosis, are associated with their development. Immunohistochemistry studies show that these HCAs overexpress β-catenin (nuclear and cytoplasmic) and glutamine synthetase. This group of tumours has a higher risk of malignant transformation into hepatocellular carcinoma. (3) Inflammatory HCAs are observed in 40% of the cases, and they are most frequent in women but are also found in men. Lesions are characterised by inflammatory infiltrates, dystrophic arteries, sinusoidal dilatation and ductular reaction. They express serum amyloid A and C-reactive protein. In this group, GGT is frequently elevated, with a biological inflammatory syndrome present. Also, there are more overweight patients in this group. An additional 10% of inflammatory HCAs express β-catenin, and are also at risk of malignant transformation. (4) Currently, less than 10% of HCAs are unclassified. It is hoped that in the near future it will be possible with clinical, biological and imaging data to predict in which of the 2 major groups (HNF1α-mutated HCA and inflammatory HCA) the patient belongs and to propose better guidelines in terms of surveillance and treatment

On the Benefits of Transparent Compression for Cost-Effective Cloud Data Storage

International audienceInfrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud computing has revolutionized the way we think of acquiring computational resources: it allows users to deploy virtual machines (VMs) at large scale and pay only for the resources that were actually used throughout the runtime of the VMs. This new model raises new challenges in the design and development of IaaS middleware: excessive storage costs associated with both user data and VM images might make the cloud less attractive, especially for users that need to manipulate huge data sets and a large number of VM images. Storage costs result not only from storage space utilization, but also from bandwidth consumption: in typical deployments, a large number of data transfers between the VMs and the persistent storage are performed, all under high performance requirements. This paper evaluates the trade-off resulting from transparently applying data compression to conserve storage space and bandwidth at the cost of slight computational overhead. We aim at reducing the storage space and bandwidth needs with minimal impact on data access performance. Our solution builds on BlobSeer, a distributed data management service specifically designed to sustain a high throughput for concurrent accesses to huge data sequences that are distributed at large scale. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach achieves large reductions (at least 40%) of bandwidth and storage space utilization, while still attaining high performance levels that even surpass the original (no compression) performance levels in several data-intensive scenarios