Interdisciplinary approaches to zoonotic disease

Zoonotic infections are on the increase worldwide, but most research into the biological, environmental and life science aspects of these infections has been conducted in separation. In this review we bring together contemporary research in these areas to suggest a new, symbiotic framework which recognises the interaction of biological, economic, psychological, and natural and built environmental drivers in zoonotic infection and transmission. In doing so, we propose that some contemporary debates in zoonotic research could be resolved using an expanded framework which explicitly takes into account the combination of motivated and habitual human behaviour, environmental and biological constraints, and their interactions

Maternal age of menarche and blood pressure in adolescence: evidence from Hong Kong’s “Children of 1997” birth cohort

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Spatial clustering of SARS in Hong Kong.

1. Geographic information system (GIS) can be applied during an acute infectious disease outbreak to reveal new geospatial information in addition to standard field epidemiological analyses. 2. When applied in real time during the onset and evolution of an epidemic, GIS can monitor and enhance understanding of the transmission dynamics of an infectious agent, thereby facilitating the design, implementation and evaluation of potential intervention strategies.published_or_final_versio

Relating tissue/organ energy expenditure to metabolic fluxes in mouse and human: experimental data integrated with mathematical modeling

Mouse models of human diseases are used to study the metabolic and physiological processes leading to altered whole‐body energy expenditure (EE), which is the sum of EE of all body organs and tissues. Isotopic techniques, arterio‐venous difference of substrates, oxygen, and blood flow measurements can provide essential information to quantify tissue/organ EE and substrate oxidation. To complement and integrate experimental data, quantitative mathematical model analyses have been applied in the design of experiments and evaluation of metabolic fluxes. In this study, a method is presented to quantify the energy expenditure of the main mouse organs using metabolic flux measurements. The metabolic fluxes and substrate utilization of the main metabolic pathways of energy metabolism in the mouse tissue/organ systems and the whole body are quantified using a mathematical model based on mass and energy balances. The model is composed of six organ/tissue compartments: brain, heart, liver, gastrointestinal tract, muscle, and adipose tissue. Each tissue/organ is described with a distinct system of metabolic reactions. This model quantifies metabolic and energetic characteristics of mice under overnight fasting conditions. The steady‐state mass balances of metabolites and energy balances of carbohydrate and fat are integrated with available experimental data to calculate metabolic fluxes, substrate utilization, and oxygen consumption in each tissue/organ. The model serves as a paradigm for designing experiments with the minimal reliable measurements necessary to quantify tissue/organs fluxes and to quantify the contributions of tissue/organ EE to whole‐body EE that cannot be easily determined currently

The existence of global weak solutions for a weakly dissipative Camassa-Holm equation in H1(R)

The existence of global weak solutions to the Cauchy problem for a weakly dissipative Camassa-Holm equation is established in the space C([0,∞)×R)nL∞([0,∞);H1(R)) under the assumption that the initial value u 0 (x) only belongs to the space H 1 (R) . The limit of viscous approximations, a one-sided super bound estimate and a space-time higher-norm estimate for the equation are established to prove the existence of the global weak solution

The Nucleosome Assembly Protein TSPYL2 Regulates the Expression of NMDA Receptor Subunits GluN2A and GluN2B

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How early can myocardial iron overload occur in Beta thalassemia major?

BACKGROUND: Myocardial siderosis is the most common cause of death in patients with beta thalassemia major(TM). This study aimed at investigating the occurrence, prevalence and severity of cardiac iron overload in a young Chinese population with beta TM. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed T2* cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and serum ferritin (SF) in 201 beta TM patients. The median age was 9 years old. Patients received an average of 13 units of blood per year. The median SF level was 4536 ng/ml and 165 patients (82.1%) had SF>2500 ng/ml. Myocardial iron overload was detected in 68 patients (33.8%) and severe myocardial iron overload was detected in 26 patients (12.6%). Twenty-two patients ≤10 years old had myocardial iron overload, three of whom were only 6 years old. No myocardial iron overload was detected under the age of 6 years. Median LVEF was 64% (measured by CMR in 175 patients). Five of 6 patients with a LVEF<56% and 8 of 10 patients with cardiac disease had myocardial iron overload. CONCLUSIONS: The TM patients under follow-up at this regional centre in China patients are younger than other reported cohorts, more poorly-chelated, and have a high burden of iron overload. Myocardial siderosis occurred in patients younger than previously reported, and was strongly associated with impaired LVEF and cardiac disease. For such poorly-chelated TM patients, our data shows that the first assessment of cardiac T2* should be performed as early as 6 years old

Comparison between empirical prokinetics, Helicobacter test-and-treat and empirical endoscopy in primary-care patients presenting with dyspepsia: A one-year study

Aim: To investigate the optimal strategy to treat dyspeptic patients in primary care. Methods: Dyspeptic patients presenting to primary care outpatient clinics were randomly assigned to: (1) empirical endoscopy, (2) H pylori test-and-treat, and (3) empirical prokinetic treatment with cisapride. Early endoscopy was arranged if patients remained symptomatic after 2 wk. Symptom severity, quality-of-life (SF-36) as well as patient preference and satisfaction were assessed. All patients underwent endoscopy by wk 6. Patients were followed up for one year. Results: Two hundred and thirty four patients were recruited (163 female, mean age 49). 46% were H pylori positive. 26% of H pylori tested and 25% of empirical prokinetic patients showed no improvement at wk 2 follow-up and needed early endoscopy. 15% of patients receiving empirical cisapride responded well to treatment but peptic ulcer was the final diagnosis. Symptom resolution and quality-of-life were similar among the groups. Costs for the three strategies were HK$4343,$1771 and $1750 per patient. 66% of the patients preferred to have early endoscopy. Conclusion: The three strategies are equally effective. Empirical prokinetic treatment was the least expensive but peptic ulcers may be missed with this treatment. The H pylori test-and-treat was the most cost-effective option. © 2006 The WJG Press. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Role of polymorphisms of the inflammatory response genes and DC-SIGNR in genetic susceptibility to SARS and other infections.

Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Diseases: Research Dissemination Reports (Series 2)1. A genetic risk-association study involving more than 1200 subjects showed individuals homozygous for L-SIGN tandem repeats are less susceptible to SARS infection. 2. This was supported by in vitro binding studies that demonstrated homozygous L-SIGN, compared to heterozygous, had higher binding capacity for SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), with higher proteasome-dependent viral degradation. In contrast, homozygous L-SIGN demonstrated lower binding capacity for HIV1-gp120.3. Genetic-association studies for single nucleotide polymorphisms of the inflammatory response genes, namely TNF-alpha, INF-alpha, INF-beta, INF-gamma, IL1-alpha, IL1-beta, IL-4, IL-6 and iNOS, failed to show a significant association with SARS clinical outcomes or susceptibility.published_or_final_versio