Identifying Refugees and Other Migrant Groups in European Large-scale Surveys: An Explorative Analysis of Integration Outcomes by Age Upon Arrival, Reasons for Migration and Country-of-birth Groups Using the European Union Labour Force Survey 2014 Ad Hoc Module

The aim of this article is to explore the association between self-reported reasons for migration, age upon arrival and Eurostat’s country-of-birth classification, and to study these measures in relation to education, employment and language skills. The European Union Labour Force Survey 2014 (11,345 women; 9,825 men) was used to study the immigrant working-age population (20–64 years) from seven West European countries with a substantial number of refugees. A third had arrived as children (0–19 years). Each reason for migration was well represented within all country-groups and the proportion of respondents reporting each reason was fairly similar across the country-groups. Regression analysis identified significant variation in education, employment and language skills by reasons for migration within country-groups and vice versa, with (female) refugees and family migrants arriving as adults faring worse than other migrants in language skills and employment. There were few significant gender differences. We recommend implementing reasons for migration and age upon arrival as core variables in quantitative migration studies

Older hip fracture patients: three groups with different needs

BACKGROUND: Norway, and particularly Oslo, has the highest reported incidence of hip fractures in the world. It is increasingly common to care for older hip fracture patients in orthogeriatric units where orthopaedic care is combined with interdisciplinary geriatric care. The characteristics and needs of older hip fracture patients are poorly described. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of these patients in order to better understand their need for care and rehabilitation. METHODS: This is an observational study based on a quality register for all patients 65+ years in an orthogeriatric unit who are operated for a hip fracture. The unit covers 250,000 inhabitants in Oslo. Patient data were collected in the aim of quality control. The quality database includes demographic, medical, and functional data collected from routine assessment by the interdisciplinary team. RESULTS: From January 2007 to September 2009, 1010 patients, included 241 (24%) from long-term care institutions, were enrolled in the database. Mean age was 85.1 years (SD 7.1), 76% were female, and 83% had experienced an indoor fall. Chronic diseases were registered in 88%, and 38% of the community-dwelling patients had pre-fracture cognitive impairment defined as IQCODE-SF > 3.6. Complications were observed in 51% of the patients, of which the most common were a need for blood transfusion, delirium, and urinary tract infections. Post-operative orthopaedic infections were rare (3.1%). Patients from long-term care were older, (87 vs. 84 years, p < 0.001), more had American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) score >/= 3 (67% vs. 48%, p < 0.001) and a higher number of chronic medical conditions (mean 2.2 vs. 1.6, p < 0.001). Among community-dwelling patients, those who had fallen indoors were older, more often female, had ASA score >/= 3, chronic medical conditions, impairment in pre-fracture ADL and cognitive function, and more complications during hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: Older hip fracture patients in this orthogeriatric unit may be divided into three groups; patients who are relatively fit and have experienced outdoors falls (17%), frail community-dwelling patients who have fallen indoors (59%), and patients from long-term care institutions (24%). Different caring pathways are needed for these groups

Comparative genomics of Enterococcus faecalis from healthy Norwegian infants

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Enterococcus faecalis</it>, traditionally considered a harmless commensal of the intestinal tract, is now ranked among the leading causes of nosocomial infections. In an attempt to gain insight into the genetic make-up of commensal <it>E. faecalis</it>, we have studied genomic variation in a collection of community-derived <it>E. faecalis </it>isolated from the feces of Norwegian infants.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The <it>E. faecalis </it>isolates were first sequence typed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and characterized with respect to antibiotic resistance and properties associated with virulence. A subset of the isolates was compared to the vancomycin resistant strain <it>E. faecalis </it>V583 (V583) by whole genome microarray comparison (comparative genomic hybridization (CGH)). Several of the putative enterococcal virulence factors were found to be highly prevalent among the commensal baby isolates. The genomic variation as observed by CGH was less between isolates displaying the same MLST sequence type than between isolates belonging to different evolutionary lineages.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The variations in gene content observed among the investigated commensal <it>E. faecalis </it>is comparable to the genetic variation previously reported among strains of various origins thought to be representative of the major <it>E. faecalis </it>lineages. Previous MLST analysis of <it>E. faecalis </it>have identified so-called high-risk enterococcal clonal complexes (HiRECC), defined as genetically distinct subpopulations, epidemiologically associated with enterococcal infections. The observed correlation between CGH and MLST presented here, may offer a method for the identification of lineage-specific genes, and may therefore add clues on how to distinguish pathogenic from commensal <it>E. faecalis</it>. In this work, information on the core genome of <it>E. faecalis </it>is also substantially extended.</p

Hot White Dwarf Donors in Ultracompact X-Ray Binaries

The discovery of two accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars in binaries with 43 minute orbital periods allows for a new probe of the donor's structure. For XTE J1751-305, only a hot white dwarf (WD) can fill the Roche Lobe. A cold He WD is a possible solution for XTE J0929-314, though I will show that evolutionary arguments make a hot WD more likely. In addition to being larger than the T=0 models, these finite entropy, low-mass (<0.03 solar masses) WDs have a minimum mass for a fixed core temperature. If they remain hot as they lose mass and expand, they can ``evaporate'' to leave an isolated millisecond radio pulsar. They also adiabatically expand upon mass loss at a rate faster than the growth of the Roche radius if the angular momentum deposited in the disk is not returned to the donor. If the timescale of the resulting runaway mass transfer is shorter than the viscous timescale in the outer disk, then the mass transfer instability of Ruderman and Shaham for He WDs would be realized. However, my estimates of these timescales still makes the instability unlikely for adiabatic responses. I close by noting the possible impact of finite T WDs on our understanding of AM CVn binaries.Comment: to appear in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Absence of "Ghost Images" Excludes Large Values of the Cosmological Constant

We used the 1.4 GHz NRAO NVSS survey to search for ghost images of radio sources, expected in cosmologies with a positive cosmological constant and positive space curvature. No statistically significant evidence for ghost images was found, placing constraints on the values of L, the space curvature or the duration of the radio-luminous phase of extragalactic radio sources.Comment: 11 pages 2 figure

Advancing integrative “one-health” approaches to global health through multidisciplinary, faculty-led global health field courses

AbstractBackgroundSince 2003, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute, together with collaborating campus and in-country partners, has offered immersive, multidisciplinary, faculty-led, global health field courses in Ecuador and Thailand. These courses aim to help students to develop a working understanding of integrative one-health approaches and acquire the skills to work effectively across disciplines. That is, we aim to foster an appreciation of the role of culture in perceptions of health, disease, and health care; the complex interactions of animal-human-ecosystem health and disease; and the value of integrating cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives and skills to solve complex public health problems.MethodsStudents from various University of Wisconsin-Madison health faculties travelled, lived (accommodation included homestays in indigenous or rural communities), learnt, and engaged in community-health assessments or service-learning projects as a multidisciplinary team. We recruited students through annual presentations in each University of Wisconsin school or college and through recommendations from past participants. We recorded student reflections during the course, at course completion, and after graduation.FindingsBetween 2003 and 2014: 215 students from the University of Wisconsin have taken part in the global health field courses. Students came from the fields of human medicine (53 [25%]), veterinary medicine (35 [16%]), nursing (40 [19%]), pharmacy (41 [19%]), and other degree programs (46 [21%]). Results of the in-course and post course assessments consistently show strong student satisfaction with many aspects of the programme, including safety, faculty mentorship, the value of the multidisciplinary approach, depth of learning, and programme cost. Former participants also report use of cross-cultural skills in their professional practice, work with populations from cultures other than their own, positive effects on their decisions for career activities, and the belief that immersive cross-cultural experiences should be a required part of professional training for all health professional students. Finally, the courses undergo independent programme evaluations (including in-country observation and interviews with participants and stakeholders) approximately every 5 years.InterpretationProgramme directors continue to seek improvements related to: sustainable faculty engagement from various disciplines; development of increasingly specific course group learning objectives, competencies, and assessment tools; sustainability of impacts on community-level health and wellbeing; continuity between University of Wisconsin-Madison and in-country university and community partners; and scholarship support and other approaches so that cost does not exclude interested students from participating.FundingThe GHI is supported through a combination of university, grants, and philanthropic funding; these field courses do not have specific, separate funding. Students self-fund participation in the courses

A survey for pulsating subdwarf B stars with the Nordic Optical Telescope

A search programme for pulsating subdwarf B stars was conducted with the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma over 59 nights between 1999 and 2009. The purpose of the programme was to significantly extend the number of rapidly pulsating sdB stars to better understand the properties of this new group of variable compact stars. Candidates were selected initially from the HS and HE surveys, but were supplemented with additional objects from other surveys. Short sequences of time-series photometry were made on the candidates to determine the presence of rapid pulsations. In total twenty new pulsators were found in this survey, most of which have already been published and some extensively studied. We present four new short period pulsators, bringing the total of such pulsators up to 49. We also give limits on pulsation amplitudes for 285 objects with no obvious periodic variations, summarise the results of the survey, and provide improved physical parameters on the composite pulsators for which only preliminary estimates were published earlier.Comment: 17 pages, accepted for publication in A&

Enhancement of cranial nerves in Lyme neuroborreliosis: incidence and correlation with clinical symptoms and prognosis

Purpose Symptoms of cranial neuritis are a common presentation of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB). Imaging studies are scarce and report contradictory low prevalence of enhancement compared to clinical studies of cranial neuropathy. We hypothesized that MRI enhancement of cranial nerves in LNB is underreported, and aimed to assess the prevalence and clinical impact of cranial nerve enhancement in early LNB. Methods In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, 69 patients with acute LNB were examined with MRI of the brain. Enhancement of cranial nerves III–XII was rated. MRI enhancement was correlated to clinical fndings of neuropathy in the acute phase and after 6 months. Results Thirty-nine of 69 patients (57%) had pathological cranial nerve enhancement. Facial and oculomotor nerves were most frequently afected. There was a strong correlation between enhancement in the distal internal auditory canal and parotid segments of the facial nerve and degree of facial palsy (gamma=0.95, p<.01, and gamma=0.93, p<.01), despite that 19/37 nerves with mild-moderate enhancement in the distal internal auditory canal segment showed no clinically evident palsy. Oculomotor and abducens nerve enhancement did not correlate with eye movement palsy (gamma=1.00 and 0.97, p=.31 for both). Sixteen of 17 patients with oculomotor and/or abducens nerve enhancement had no evident eye movement palsy. Conclusions MRI cranial nerve enhancement is common in LNB patients, but it can be clinically occult. Facial and oculomotor nerves are most often afected. Enhancement of the facial nerve distal internal auditory canal and parotid segments correlate with degree of facial palsy.publishedVersio

X-ray confirmation of the intermediate polar HTCam

We report on the first pointed X-ray observations with XMM-Newton and RXTE satellites of the X-ray source RXJ0757.0+6306 = HT Cam. We detect a strong 515 s X-ray modulation confirming the optical photometric period found in 1998, which definitively assigns this source to the intermediate polar class of magnetic cataclysmic variables. The lack of orbital sidebands in the X-rays indicates that the X-ray period is the spin period of the accreting white dwarf. Simultaneous ultraviolet and optical B-band photometry acquired with the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor and coordinated optical UBVRI photometric data acquired at the Nordic Optical Telescope (La Palma) show that the optical pulse is in phase with the X-rays and hence originates in the magnetically-confined accretion flow. The lack of ultraviolet spin modulation suggests that accretion-induced heating on the white dwarf surface is not important in this source. Spectral analyses of XMM-Newton EPIC and RGS data show that HTCam has a multi-temperature spectrum and, contrary to most intermediate polars, it does not suffer from strong absorption. With its 86 min orbital period, HTCam is the third confirmed system of this class below the 2–3 h period gap accreting at a low rate