How functional programming mattered

In 1989 when functional programming was still considered a niche topic, Hughes wrote a visionary paper arguing convincingly ‘why functional programming matters’. More than two decades have passed. Has functional programming really mattered? Our answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’. Functional programming is now at the forefront of a new generation of programming technologies, and enjoying increasing popularity and influence. In this paper, we review the impact of functional programming, focusing on how it has changed the way we may construct programs, the way we may verify programs, and fundamentally the way we may think about programs

Personal radio use and cancer risks among 48,518 British police officers and staff from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study

Background: Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phones have been classified as potentially carcinogenic. No study has investigated use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), a source of RF-EMF with wide occupational use, and cancer risks. Methods: We investigated association of monthly personal radio use and risk of cancer using Cox proportional hazards regression among 48,518 police officers and staff of the Airwave Health Monitoring Study in Great Britain. Results: During median follow-up of 5.9 years, 716 incident cancer cases were identified. Among users, the median of the average monthly duration of use in the year prior to enrolment was 30.5 min (inter-quartile range 8.1, 68.1). Overall, there was no association between personal radio use and risk of all cancers (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.03). For head and neck cancers HR = 0.72 (95% CI: 0.30, 1.70) among personal radio users vs non-users, and among users it was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.23) per doubling of minutes of personal radio use. Conclusions: With the limited follow-up to date, we found no evidence of association of personal radio use with cancer risk. Continued follow-up of the cohort is warranted

The effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the health impact of climate change:a systematic review of systematic reviews

Climate change is likely to be one of the most important threats to public health in the coming years. Yet despite the large number of papers considering the health impact of climate change, few have considered what public health interventions may be of most value in reducing the disease burden. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the disease burden of high priority climate sensitive diseases

Pedestrian, Crowd, and Evacuation Dynamics

This contribution describes efforts to model the behavior of individual pedestrians and their interactions in crowds, which generate certain kinds of self-organized patterns of motion. Moreover, this article focusses on the dynamics of crowds in panic or evacuation situations, methods to optimize building designs for egress, and factors potentially causing the breakdown of orderly motion.Comment: This is a review paper. For related work see http://www.soms.ethz.c

Reduced susceptibility to pyrethroid insecticide treated nets by the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae s.l. in western Uganda

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pyrethroid insecticide-treated mosquito nets are massively being scaled-up for malaria prevention particularly in children under five years of age and pregnant mothers in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there is serious concern of the likely evolution of widespread pyrethroid resistance in the malaria vector <it>Anopheles gambiae s.l</it>. due to the extensive use of pyrethroid insecticide-treated mosquito nets. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the status of pyrethroid resistance in <it>An. gambiae s.l</it>. in western Uganda.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Wild mosquitoes (1–2 days old) were exposed in 10 replicates to new nets impregnated with K-othrine (Deltamethrin 25 mg/m²), Solfac EW50 (Cyfluthrin 50 mg/m²) and Fendona 6SC (Cypermethrin 50 mg/m²) and observed under normal room temperature and humidity (Temperature 24.8°C���27.4°C, Humidity 65.9–45.7). A similar set of mosquitoes collected from the control area 80 km away were exposed to a deltamethrin 25 mg/m²impregnated net at the same time and under the same conditions. The 10-year mean KDT₅₀and mortality rates for each of the three pyrethroid insecticides were compared using the Student <it>t</it>-test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant increase in the mean knockdown time (KDT₅₀) and mean mortality rate were observed in almost all cases an indication of reduced susceptibility. The overall results showed a four-fold increase in the mean knockdown time (KDT₅₀) and 1.5-fold decrease in mortality rate across the three pyrethroid insecticides. There was a significant difference in the 10-year mean KDT₅₀between deltamethrin and cyfluthrin; deltamethrin and cypermethrin, but no significant difference between cyfluthrin and cypermethrin. The 10-year mean difference in KDT50 for mosquitoes exposed to deltamethrin from the control site was significantly different from that of mosquitoes from the intervention site (p<0.05, t=3.979, 9df). The 10-year mean difference in mortality rate between deltamethrin (84.64%); cyfluthrin (74.18%); cypermethrin (72.19%) and the control (90.45%) showed a significant decline in mortality across all the three insecticides.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Generally the results showed a trend of increase in mosquito resistance status with cross-resistance against all the three pyrethroid insecticides. This study reveals for the first time the development of pyrethroid resistance in <it>An. gambiae s.l</it>. in Western Uganda. It is therefore strongly recommended that the impact of this development on malaria control efforts be closely monitored and alternative fabric treatments be considered before this problem curtails community wide implementation of this malaria control strategy in Uganda.</p

New "light" for one-world approach toward safe and effective control of animal diseases and insect vectors from leishmaniac perspectives

Light is known to excite photosensitizers (PS) to produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the presence of oxygen. This modality is attractive for designing control measures against animal diseases and pests. Many PS have a proven safety record. Also, the ROS cytotoxicity selects no resistant mutants, unlike other drugs and pesticides. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) refers to the use of PS as light activable tumoricides, microbicides and pesticides in medicine and agriculture.Here we describe "photodynamic vaccination" (PDV) that uses PDT-inactivation of parasites, i.e. Leishmania as whole-cell vaccines against leishmaniasis, and as a universal carrier to deliver transgenic add-on vaccines against other infectious and malignant diseases. The efficacy of Leishmania for vaccine delivery makes use of their inherent attributes to parasitize antigen (vaccine)-presenting cells. Inactivation of Leishmania by PDT provides safety for their use. This is accomplished in two different ways: (i) chemical engineering of PS to enhance their uptake, e.g. Si-phthalocyanines; and (ii) transgenic approach to render Leishmania inducible for porphyrinogenesis. Three different schemes of Leishmania-based PDV are presented diagrammatically to depict the cellular events resulting in cell-mediated immunity, as seen experimentally against leishmaniasis and Leishmania-delivered antigen in vitro and in vivo. Safety versus efficacy evaluations are under way for PDT-inactivated Leishmania, including those further processed to facilitate their storage and transport. Leishmania transfected to express cancer and viral vaccine candidates are being prepared accordingly for experimental trials.We have begun to examine PS-mediated photodynamic insecticides (PDI). Mosquito cells take up rose bengal/cyanosine, rendering them light-sensitive to undergo disintegration in vitro, thereby providing a cellular basis for the larvicidal activity seen by the same treatments. Ineffectiveness of phthalocyanines and porphyrins for PDI underscores its requirement for different PS. Differential uptake of PS by insect versus other cells to account for this difference is under study.The ongoing work is patterned after the one-world approach by enlisting the participation of experts in medicinal chemistry, cell/molecular biology, immunology, parasitology, entomology, cancer research, tropical medicine and veterinary medicine. The availability of multidisciplinary expertise is indispensable for implementation of the necessary studies to move the project toward product development

The evolution of the urinary bladder as a storage organ: scent trails and selective pressure of the first land animals in a computational simulation

The function of waste control in all living organisms is one of the vital importance. Almost universally, terrestrial tetrapods have a urinary bladder with a storage function. It is well documented that many marine and aerial species do not have an organ of such a function, or have one with very depressed storage functionality. Bladder morphology indicates it has evolved from a thin-walled structure used for osmoregulatory purposes, as it is currently used in many marine animals. It is hypothesised that the storage function of the urinary bladder allows for an evolutionary selective advantage in reducing the likelihood of successful predation. Random walks simulating predator and prey movements with simplified scent trails were utilised to represent various stages of the hunt: Detection and pursuit. A final evolutionary model is proposed in order to display the advantages over inter-generational time scales and illustrates how a bladder may evolve from an osmoregulatory organ to one of the storage. Data sets were generated for each case and analysed indicating the viability of such advantages. From the highly consistent results, three distinct characteristics of having a storage function in the urinary bladder are suggested: reduced scent trail detection rate; increased prey–predator separation (upon scent trail detection); and a reduced probability of successful capture upon scent detection by the predator. Furthered by the evolutionary model indicating such characteristics are conserved and augmented over many generations, it is concluded that prey–predator interactions provide a large selective pressure in the evolution of the urinary bladder and its storage function

Alcohol use among university students in Sweden measured by an electronic screening instrument

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Electronic-based alcohol screening and brief interventions for university students with problem drinking behaviours forms an important means by which to identify risky drinkers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study an e-SBI project was implemented to assess drinking patterns, and to provide personalised feedback about alcohol consumption and related health problems, to students in a Swedish university. In this study, third semester university students (n = 2858) from all faculties (colleges) at the University were invited to participate in e-SBI screenings. This study employed a randomised controlled trial, with respondents having a equal chance of being assigned to a limited, or full-feedback response.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study shows that high risk drinkers tend to underestimate their own consumption compared to others, and that these high risk drinkers experience more negative consequences after alcohol intake, than other respondents. There was a strong belief, for both high- and low-risk drinkers, that alcohol helped celebrations be more festive. This study also confirms findings from other study locations that while males drank more than females in our study population; females reached the same peak alcohol blood concentrations as males.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Obtaining clear and current information on drinking patterns demonstrated by university students can help public health officials, university administration, and local health care providers develop appropriate prevention and treatment strategies.</p

Constraints on Nucleon Decay via "Invisible" Modes from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory have been used to constrain the lifetime for nucleon decay to ``invisible'' modes, such as n -> 3 nu. The analysis was based on a search for gamma-rays from the de-excitation of the residual nucleus that would result from the disappearance of either a proton or neutron from O16. A limit of tau_inv > 2 x 10^{29} years is obtained at 90% confidence for either neutron or proton decay modes. This is about an order of magnitude more stringent than previous constraints on invisible proton decay modes and 400 times more stringent than similar neutron modes.Comment: Update includes missing efficiency factor (limits change by factor of 2) Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Origins of cattle on Chirikof Island, Alaska, elucidated from genome-wide SNP genotypes

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