6,192 research outputs found
Documentation of a fully integrated epidemiological-demographic-macroeconomic model of Malaria: The case of Ghana
We develop a novel and fully integrated epidemiological-demographic-macroeconomic EDM-malaria simulation model framework for modelling of P. falciparum malaria transmission in Ghana. Our model framework represents a milestone, as the first fully integrated EDM model framework for any type of infectious disease. The complex specification and integration of regional epidemiological-demographic models within a malaria-focussed macroeconomic Computable General Equilibrium model is fully described and documented, and ideas are outlined for future applications to investigate the interplay between macroeconomic and health disease burdens, to measure the health and economic impacts of economic growth and malaria interventions, and to study the importance (or lack thereof) of the general omission of proper epidemiological underpinnings and integration of economic incentive feedback effects in the existing literature on macroeconomic assessment of infectious disease
Will more of the same achieve malaria elimination? Results from an integrated macroeconomic epidemiological demographic model
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordThe data underlying the model framework are available
from the authors on request and selected parameters are also tabulated in the methods paper,22 and from the Malaria Atlas Project http://
www.map.ox.ac.uk/Historic levels of funding have reduced the global burden of malaria in recent years. Questions remain,
however, as to whether scaling up interventions, in parallel with economic growth, has made malaria elimination more
likely today than previously. The consequences of âtrying but failingâ to eliminate malaria are also uncertain. Reduced
malaria exposure decreases the acquisition of semi-immunity during childhood, a necessary phase of the immunological
transition that occurs on the pathway to malaria elimination. During this transitional period, the risk of malaria resurgence
increases as proportionately more individuals across all age-groups are less able to manage infections by immune
response alone. We developed a robust model that integrates the effects of malaria transmission, demography, and
macroeconomics in the context of Plasmodium falciparum malaria within a hyperendemic environment. We analyzed the
potential for existing interventions, alongside economic development, to achieve malaria elimination. Simulation results
indicate that a 2% increase in future economic growth will increase the US7.2 billion, although increasing regional insecticide-treated net coverage rates by 25% will lower
malaria reproduction numbers by just 9%, reduce population-wide morbidity by â0.1%, and reduce prevalence from 54%
to 46% by 2034. As scaling up current malaria control tools, combined with economic growth, will be insufficient to
interrupt malaria transmission in Ghana, high levels of malaria control should be maintained and investment in research
and development should be increased to maintain the gains of the past decade and to minimize the risk of resurgence, as
transmission dropsMedical Research Council (MRC
Reflections of physiotherapy students in the United Arab Emirates during their clinical placements: A qualitative study
BACKGROUND: Although Western models of education are being used to establish health professional programs in non-Western countries, little is known about how students in these countries perceive their learning experiences. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the reflections of physiotherapy students from a Middle East culture during their clinical placements and to compare them to reflections of physiotherapy students from a Western culture. METHODS: Subjects were six senior students (3 females, 3 males, mean age 22.6 years) and 15 junior, female students (mean age 20.1 years) in the baccalaureate physiotherapy program at a university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They wrote weekly entries in a journal while in their clinical placements. They described an event, their reaction to it, and how it might affect their future behavior. Two evaluators independently read and coded the content of all the journals, and then worked together to categorize the data and develop themes. A third evaluator, an UAE national, independently read the journals to validate the content analysis. A feedback session with students was used to further validate the data interpretation. The themes were compared to those derived from a similar study of Canadian physiotherapy students. RESULTS: The content of the students' reflections were grouped into 4 themes: professional behavior, awareness of learning, self-development and shift to a patient orientation, and identification and analysis of ethical issues. Although the events were different, students from the UAE considered many of the same issues reflected on by Canadian students. CONCLUSION: Physiotherapy students from a Middle East culture consider many of the same issues as students from a Western culture when asked to reflect on their clinical experience. They reflect on their personal growth, on how they learn in a clinical setting, and on the ethical and professional behaviors of themselves and others
Boundary Conditions and Unitarity: the Maxwell-Chern-Simons System in AdS_3/CFT_2
We consider the holography of the Abelian Maxwell-Chern-Simons (MCS) system
in Lorentzian three-dimensional asymptotically-AdS spacetimes, and discuss a
broad class of boundary conditions consistent with conservation of the
symplectic structure. As is well-known, the MCS theory contains a massive
sector dual to a vector operator in the boundary theory, and a topological
sector consisting of flat connections dual to U(1) chiral currents; the
boundary conditions we examine include double-trace deformations in these two
sectors, as well as a class of boundary conditions that mix the vector
operators with the chiral currents. We carefully study the symplectic product
of bulk modes and show that almost all such boundary conditions induce
instabilities and/or ghost excitations, consistent with violations of unitarity
bounds in the dual theory.Comment: 50+1 pages, 6 figures, PDFLaTeX; v2: added references, corrected
typo
Continuous Hawking-Page transitions in Einstein-scalar gravity
We investigate continuous Hawking-Page transitions in Einstein's gravity
coupled to a scalar field with an arbitrary potential in the weak gravity
limit. We show that this is only possible in a singular limit where the
black-hole horizon marginally traps a curvature singularity. Depending on the
subleading terms in the potential, a rich variety of continuous phase
transitions arise. Our examples include second and higher order, including the
Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type. In the case when the scalar is dilaton,
the condition for a continuous phase transition lead to (asymptotically)
linear-dilaton background. We obtain the scaling laws of thermodynamic
functions, as well as the viscosity coefficients near the transition. In the
limit of weak gravitational interactions, the bulk viscosity asymptotes to a
universal constant, independent of the details of the scalar potential. As a
byproduct of our analysis we obtain a one-parameter family of kink solutions in
arbitrary dimension d that interpolate between AdS near the boundary and
linear-dilaton background in the deep interior. The continuous Hawking-Page
transitions found here serve as holographic models for normal-to superfluid
transitions.Comment: 35 pages + appendice
Genetic variation for sensitivity to a thyme monoterpene in associated plant species
Recent studies have shown that plant allelochemicals can have profound effects on the performance of associated species, such that plants with a history of co-existence with âchemical neighbourâ plants perform better in their presence compared to naĂŻve plants. This has cast new light on the complexity of plantâplant interactions and plant communities and has led to debates on whether plant communities are more co-evolved than traditionally thought. In order to determine whether plants may indeed evolve in response to other plantsâ allelochemicals it is crucial to determine the presence of genetic variation for performance under the influence of specific allelochemicals and show that natural selection indeed operates on this variation. We studied the effect of the monoterpene carvacrolâa dominant compound in the essential oil of Thymus pulegioidesâon three associated plant species originating from sites where thyme is either present or absent. We found the presence of genetic variation in both naĂŻve and experienced populations for performance under the influence of the allelochemical but the response varied among naĂŻve and experienced plant. Plants from experienced populations performed better than naĂŻve plants on carvacrol soil and contained significantly more seed families with an adaptive response to carvacrol than naĂŻve populations. This suggests that the presence of T. pulegioides can act as a selective agent on associated species, by favouring genotypes which perform best in the presence of its allelochemicals. The response to the thyme allelochemical varied from negative to neutral to positive among the species. The different responses within a species suggest that plantâplant interactions can evolve; this has implications for community dynamics and stability
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