Transmission of Foot-and-Mouth Disease SAT2 Viruses at the Wildlife-Livestock Interface of Two Major Transfrontier Conservation Areas in Southern Africa.

Over a decade ago, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) re-emerged in Southern Africa specifically in beef exporting countries that had successfully maintained disease-free areas in the past. FMD virus (FMDV) serotype SAT2 has been responsible for a majority of these outbreaks. Epidemiological studies have revealed the importance of the African buffalo as the major wildlife FMD reservoir in the region. We used phylogeographic analysis to study dynamics of FMD transmission between buffalo and domestic cattle at the interface of the major wildlife protected areas in the region currently encompassing two largest Transfrontier conservation areas: Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) and Great Limpopo (GL). Results of this study showed restricted local occurrence of each FMDV SAT2 topotypes I, II, and III, with occasional virus migration from KAZA to GL. Origins of outbreaks in livestock are frequently attributed to wild buffalo, but our results suggest that transmission from cattle to buffalo also occurs. We used coalescent Bayesian skyline analysis to study the genetic variation of the virus in cattle and buffalo, and discussed the association of these genetic changes in the virus and relevant epidemiological events that occurred in this area. Our results show that the genetic diversity of FMDV SAT2 has decreased in buffalo and cattle population during the last decade. This study contributes to understand the major dynamics of transmission and genetic variation of FMDV SAT2 in Southern Africa, which will could ultimately help in designing efficient strategies for the control of FMD at a local and regional level

Circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and cause-specific mortality in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study.

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with higher all-cause mortality, but associations with specific causes of death are unclear. We investigated the association between circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration and cause-specific mortality using a case-cohort study within the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (MCCS). Eligibility for the case-cohort study was restricted to participants with baseline dried blood spot samples and no pre-baseline diagnosis of cancer. These analyses included participants who died (n = 2307) during a mean follow-up of 14 years and a sex-stratified random sample of eligible cohort participants ('subcohort', n = 2923). Concentration of 25(OH)D was measured using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Cox regression, with Barlow weights and robust standard errors to account for the case-cohort design, was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) for cause-specific mortality in relation to 25(OH)D concentration with adjustment for confounders. Circulating 25(OH)D concentration was inversely associated with risk of death due to cancer (HR per 25 nmol/L increment = 0.88, 95 % CI 0.78-0.99), particularly colorectal cancer (HR = 0.75, 95 % CI 0.57-0.99). Higher 25(OH)D concentrations were also associated with a lower risk of death due to diseases of the respiratory system (HR = 0.62, 95 % CI 0.43-0.88), particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HR = 0.53, 95 % CI 0.30-0.94), and diseases of the digestive system (HR = 0.44, 95 % CI 0.26-0.76). Estimates for diabetes mortality (HR = 0.64, 95 % CI 0.33-1.26) and cardiovascular disease mortality (HR = 0.90, 95 % CI 0.76-1.07) lacked precision. The findings suggest that vitamin D might be important for preventing death due to some cancers, respiratory diseases, and digestive diseases

Comparing Diet and Exercise Monitoring Using Smartphone App and Paper Diary: A Two-Phase Intervention Study

Background: There is increasing recognition that personalized approaches may be more effective in helping people establish healthier eating patterns and exercise more, and that this approach may be particularly effective in adolescents. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the use of a smartphone app (FoodWiz2) in supporting healthy lifestyle choices in adolescence. Methods: Participants (N=34: 11 male, 23 female) aged 16-19 years in full- or part-time education were recruited from sixth form colleges, schools, and other further education establishments in Norfolk and Suffolk, United Kingdom, between February and May 2015. Participants recorded food intake and exercise using a paper diary for 4-5 weeks and then used the app for the same duration. Initial nutrition education and general support were provided during the paper diary use, but the app included personalized messages sent in response to app activity. At the end of each study phase, participants completed an online questionnaire to describe their experience of using the paper diary and app. Results: Record completion declined throughout the study, possibly affected by examination pressure. Food intake data showed increased fruit consumption and significantly reduced consumption of chocolate snacks (P=.01) and fizzy drinks (P=.002) among participants using the app. Questionnaire responses indicated that the app was generally preferred to the paper diary, in particular, the app was seen as less boring to use (P=.03) and more acceptable in social settings (P<.001). Conclusions: This app-based approach has shown the potential for a more effective approach to improving adolescent diet and exercise levels

Language and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder : the relationship between complement syntax and false belief task performance.

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use their knowledge of complement syntax as a means of “hacking out” solutions to false belief tasks, despite lacking a representational theory of mind (ToM). Participants completed a “memory for complements” task, a measure of receptive vocabulary, and traditional location change and unexpected contents false belief tasks. Consistent with predictions, the correlation between complement syntax score and location change task performance was significantly stronger within the ASD group than within the comparison group. However, contrary to predictions, complement syntax score was not significantly correlated with unexpected contents task performance within either group. Possible explanations for this pattern of results are considered

New poly(amino acid methacrylate) brush supports the formation of well-defined lipid membranes

A novel poly(amino acid methacrylate) brush comprising zwitterionic cysteine groups (PCysMA) was utilized as a support for lipid bilayers. The polymer brush provides a 12-nm-thick cushion between the underlying hard support and the aqueous phase. At neutral pH, the zeta potential of the PCysMA brush was ∼-10 mV. Cationic vesicles containing >25% DOTAP were found to form a homogeneous lipid bilayer, as determined by a combination of surface analytical techniques. The lipid mobility as measured by FRAP (fluorescence recovery after photobleaching) gave diffusion coefficients of ∼1.5 μm2 s-1, which are comparable to those observed for lipid bilayers on glass substrates

Agency, qualia and life: connecting mind and body biologically

Many believe that a suitably programmed computer could act for its own goals and experience feelings. I challenge this view and argue that agency, mental causation and qualia are all founded in the unique, homeostatic nature of living matter. The theory was formulated for coherence with the concept of an agent, neuroscientific data and laws of physics. By this method, I infer that a successful action is homeostatic for its agent and can be caused by a feeling - which does not motivate as a force, but as a control signal. From brain research and the locality principle of physics, I surmise that qualia are a fundamental, biological form of energy generated in specialized neurons. Subjectivity is explained as thermodynamically necessary on the supposition that, by converting action potentials to feelings, the neural cells avert damage from the electrochemical pulses. In exchange for this entropic benefit, phenomenal energy is spent as and where it is produced - which precludes the objective observation of qualia

Towards interoperability in the european poetry community: the standardization of philological concepts

This paper stems from the Poetry Standardization and Linked Open Data project (POSTDATA). As its name reveals, one of the main aims of POSTDATA is to provide a means to publish European poetry (EP) data as Linked Open Data (LOD). Thus, developing a metadata application profile (MAP) as a common semantic model to be used by the EP community is a crucial step of this project. This MAP will enhance interoperability among the community members in particular, and among the EP community and other contexts in general (e.g. bibliographic records). This paper presents the methodology followed in the process of defining the concepts of the domain model of this MAP, as well as some issues that arise when labeling philological terms.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evidence for the classical integrability of the complete AdS(4) x CP(3) superstring

We construct a zero-curvature Lax connection in a sub-sector of the superstring theory on AdS(4) x CP(3) which is not described by the OSp(6|4)/U(3) x SO(1,3) supercoset sigma-model. In this sub-sector worldsheet fermions associated to eight broken supersymmetries of the type IIA background are physical fields. As such, the prescription for the construction of the Lax connection based on the Z_4-automorphism of the isometry superalgebra OSp(6|4) does not do the job. So, to construct the Lax connection we have used an alternative method which nevertheless relies on the isometry of the target superspace and kappa-symmetry of the Green-Schwarz superstring.Comment: 1+26 pages; v2: minor typos corrected, acknowledgements adde

A frequentist framework of inductive reasoning

Reacting against the limitation of statistics to decision procedures, R. A. Fisher proposed for inductive reasoning the use of the fiducial distribution, a parameter-space distribution of epistemological probability transferred directly from limiting relative frequencies rather than computed according to the Bayes update rule. The proposal is developed as follows using the confidence measure of a scalar parameter of interest. (With the restriction to one-dimensional parameter space, a confidence measure is essentially a fiducial probability distribution free of complications involving ancillary statistics.) A betting game establishes a sense in which confidence measures are the only reliable inferential probability distributions. The equality between the probabilities encoded in a confidence measure and the coverage rates of the corresponding confidence intervals ensures that the measure's rule for assigning confidence levels to hypotheses is uniquely minimax in the game. Although a confidence measure can be computed without any prior distribution, previous knowledge can be incorporated into confidence-based reasoning. To adjust a p-value or confidence interval for prior information, the confidence measure from the observed data can be combined with one or more independent confidence measures representing previous agent opinion. (The former confidence measure may correspond to a posterior distribution with frequentist matching of coverage probabilities.) The representation of subjective knowledge in terms of confidence measures rather than prior probability distributions preserves approximate frequentist validity.Comment: major revisio

Mindfulness interventions in medical education: A systematic review of their impact on medical student stress, depression, fatigue and burnout

Introduction: Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have gained popularity in medical education. A systematic review was conducted to determine the effectiveness of MBIs for reducing psychological distress in undergraduate medical students. Methods: A search protocol was conducted using online databases Embase, PubMed, PsycINFO, and MEDLINE. Articles were required to meet the following criteria to be included: (1) describe a MBI or use of mindfulness exercises as part of an intervention, (2) include at least one of: stress, burnout, fatigue, or depression, as an outcome, (3) include quantitative outcomes, and (4) published in English in a peer-reviewed journal. Results: Twelve articles were reviewed. Seven studies reported improvements in at least one targeted outcome. Four of seven studies exploring the impact on stress reported improvements. Five articles studying depression reported reductions. One study exploring burnout reported a decrease on a single subscale. Only one study measured the impact on fatigue (no change reported). Half of studies reviewed included predominantly female samples. Conclusions: Mixed evidence was found for the use of MBIs for reducing psychological distress in undergraduate medical students. Future work should aim to clarify the impact of mindfulness on burnout and fatigue, and explore the replicability of improvements in male medical students alone