3,442 research outputs found
Enhanced Safety Surveillance of Influenza Vaccines in General Practice, Winter 2015-16: Feasibility Study
BACKGROUND: The European Medicines Agency (EMA) requires vaccine manufacturers to conduct enhanced real-time surveillance of seasonal influenza vaccination. The EMA has specified a list of adverse events of interest to be monitored. The EMA sets out 3 different ways to conduct such surveillance: (1) active surveillance, (2) enhanced passive surveillance, or (3) electronic health record data mining (EHR-DM). English general practice (GP) is a suitable setting to implement enhanced passive surveillance and EHR-DM.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to test the feasibility of conducting enhanced passive surveillance in GP using the yellow card scheme (adverse events of interest reporting cards) to determine if it has any advantages over EHR-DM alone.
METHODS: A total of 9 GPs in England participated, of which 3 tested the feasibility of enhanced passive surveillance and the other 6 EHR-DM alone. The 3 that tested EPS provided patients with yellow (adverse events) cards for patients to report any adverse events. Data were extracted from all 9 GPs' EHRs between weeks 35 and 49 (08/24/2015 to 12/06/2015), the main period of influenza vaccination. We conducted weekly analysis and end-of-study analyses.
RESULTS: Our GPs were largely distributed across England with a registered population of 81,040. In the week 49 report, 15,863/81,040 people (19.57% of the registered practice population) were vaccinated. In the EPS practices, staff managed to hand out the cards to 61.25% (4150/6776) of the vaccinees, and of these cards, 1.98% (82/4150) were returned to the GP offices. Adverse events of interests were reported by 113 /7223 people (1.56%) in the enhanced passive surveillance practices, compared with 322/8640 people (3.73%) in the EHR-DM practices.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we demonstrated that GPs EHR-DM was an appropriate method of enhanced surveillance. However, the use of yellow cards, in enhanced passive surveillance practices, did not enhance the collection of adverse events of interests as demonstrated in this study. Their return rate was poor, data entry from them was not straightforward, and there were issues with data reconciliation. We concluded that customized cards prespecifying the EMA's adverse events of interests, combined with EHR-DM, were needed to maximize data collection.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015469
Micro-Hall Magnetometry Studies of Thermally Assisted and Pure Quantum Tunneling in Single Molecule Magnet Mn12-Acetate
We have studied the crossover between thermally assisted and pure quantum
tunneling in single crystals of high spin (S=10) uniaxial single molecule
magnet Mn12-acetate using micro-Hall effect magnetometry. Magnetic hysteresis
experiments have been used toinvestigate the energy levels that determine the
magnetization reversal as a function of magnetic field and temperature. These
experiments demonstrate that the crossover occurs in a narrow (~0.1 K) or broad
(~1 K) temperature interval depending on the magnitude and direction of the
applied field. For low external fields applied parallel to the easy axis, the
energy levels that dominate the tunneling shift abruptly with temperature. In
the presence of a transverse field and/or large longitudinal field these energy
levels change with temperature more gradually. A comparison of our experimental
results with model calculations of this crossover suggest that there are
additional mechanisms that enhance the tunneling rate of low lying energy
levels and broaden the crossover for small transverse fields.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Effect of maternal Schistosoma mansoni infection and praziquantel treatment during pregnancy on Schistosoma mansoni infection and immune responsiveness among offspring at age five years.
INTRODUCTION: Offspring of Schistosoma mansoni-infected women in schistosomiasis-endemic areas may be sensitised in-utero. This may influence their immune responsiveness to schistosome infection and schistosomiasis-associated morbidity. Effects of praziquantel treatment of S. mansoni during pregnancy on risk of S. mansoni infection among offspring, and on their immune responsiveness when they become exposed to S. mansoni, are unknown. Here we examined effects of praziquantel treatment of S. mansoni during pregnancy on prevalence of S. mansoni and immune responsiveness among offspring at age five years. METHODS: In a trial in Uganda (ISRCTN32849447, http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN32849447/elliott), offspring of women treated with praziquantel or placebo during pregnancy were examined for S. mansoni infection and for cytokine and antibody responses to SWA and SEA, as well as for T cell expression of FoxP3, at age five years. RESULTS: Of the 1343 children examined, 32 (2.4%) had S. mansoni infection at age five years based on a single stool sample. Infection prevalence did not differ between children of treated or untreated mothers. Cytokine (IFNÎł, IL-5, IL-10 and IL-13) and antibody (IgG1, Ig4 and IgE) responses to SWA and SEA, and FoxP3 expression, were higher among infected than uninfected children. Praziquantel treatment of S. mansoni during pregnancy had no effect on immune responses, with the exception of IL-10 responses to SWA, which was higher in offspring of women that received praziquantel during pregnancy than those who did not. CONCLUSION: We found no evidence that maternal S. mansoni infection and its treatment during pregnancy influence prevalence and intensity of S. mansoni infection or effector immune response to S. mansoni infection among offspring at age five years, but the observed effects on IL-10 responses to SWA suggest that maternal S. mansoni and its treatment during pregnancy may affect immunoregulatory responsiveness in childhood schistosomiasis. This might have implications for pathogenesis of the disease
Chromosome studies in Orchidaceae from Argentina
The center of diversity of Argentinean orchids is in the northeast region of the country. Chromosome numbers and karyotype features of 43 species belonging to 28 genera are presented here. Five chromosome records are the first ones at the genus level; these taxa are Aspidogyne kuckzinskii (2n = 42), Eurystyles actinosophila (2n = 56), Skeptrostachys paraguayensis (2n = 46), Stigmatosema polyaden (2n = 40) and Zygostates alleniana (2n = 54). In addition, a chromosome number is presented for the first time for 15 species: Corymborkis flava (2n = 56), Cyclopogon callophyllus (2n = 28), C. oliganthus (2n = 64), Cyrtopodium hatschbachii (2n = 46), C. palmifrons (2n = 46), Galeandra beyrichii (2n = 54), Habenaria bractescens (2n = 44), Oncidium edwallii (2n = 42), O. fimbriatum (2n = 56), O. pubes (2n = 84), O. riograndense (2n = 56), Pelexia ekmanii (2n = 46), P. lindmanii (2n = 46) and Warrea warreana (2n = 48). For Oncidium longicornu (2n = 42), O. divaricatum (2n = 56) and Sarcoglottis fasciculata (2n = 46+1B?, 46+3B?), a new cytotype was found. Chromosome data support phylogenetic relationships proposed by previous cytological, morphologic and molecular analyses, and in all the cases cover some gaps in the South American literature on orchid chromosomes
Vacuolating cytotoxin and variants in Atg16L1 that disrupt autophagy promote Helicobacter pylori infection in humans
Peer reviewedPreprin
Neural Substrates of Mounting Temporal Expectation
A cognitive and neuroanatomical perspective on how timing and expectation are represented in the human brain
Book Reviews
With the observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, interest has risen in models of PeV-mass decaying dark matter particles to explain the observed flux. We present two dedicated experimental analyses to test this hypothesis. One analysis uses 6 years of IceCube data focusing on muon neutrino âtrackâ events from the Northern Hemisphere, while the second analysis uses 2 years of âcascadeâ events from the full sky. Known background components and the hypothetical flux from unstable dark matter are fitted to the experimental data. Since no significant excess is observed in either analysis, lower limits on the lifetime of dark matter particles are derived: we obtain the strongest constraint to date, excluding lifetimes shorter than s at 90% CL for dark matter masses above 10 TeV
Search for transient optical counterparts to high-energy IceCube neutrinos with Pan-STARRS1
In order to identify the sources of the observed diffuse high-energy neutrino
flux, it is crucial to discover their electromagnetic counterparts. IceCube
began releasing alerts for single high-energy ( TeV) neutrino
detections with sky localisation regions of order 1 deg radius in 2016. We used
Pan-STARRS1 to follow-up five of these alerts during 2016-2017 to search for
any optical transients that may be related to the neutrinos. Typically 10-20
faint ( mag) extragalactic transients are found within the
Pan-STARRS1 footprints and are generally consistent with being unrelated field
supernovae (SNe) and AGN. We looked for unusual properties of the detected
transients, such as temporal coincidence of explosion epoch with the IceCube
timestamp. We found only one transient that had properties worthy of a specific
follow-up. In the Pan-STARRS1 imaging for IceCube-160427A (probability to be of
astrophysical origin of 50 %), we found a SN PS16cgx, located at 10.0'
from the nominal IceCube direction. Spectroscopic observations of PS16cgx
showed that it was an H-poor SN at z = 0.2895. The spectra and light curve
resemble some high-energy Type Ic SNe, raising the possibility of a jet driven
SN with an explosion epoch temporally coincident with the neutrino detection.
However, distinguishing Type Ia and Type Ic SNe at this redshift is notoriously
difficult. Based on all available data we conclude that the transient is more
likely to be a Type Ia with relatively weak SiII absorption and a fairly normal
rest-frame r-band light curve. If, as predicted, there is no high-energy
neutrino emission from Type Ia SNe, then PS16cgx must be a random coincidence,
and unrelated to the IceCube-160427A. We find no other plausible optical
transient for any of the five IceCube events observed down to a 5
limiting magnitude of mag, between 1 day and 25 days after
detection.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, accepted to A&
Variation in Symbiodinium ITS2 Sequence Assemblages among Coral Colonies
Endosymbiotic dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium are
fundamentally important to the biology of scleractinian corals, as well as to a
variety of other marine organisms. The genus Symbiodinium is
genetically and functionally diverse and the taxonomic nature of the union
between Symbiodinium and corals is implicated as a key trait
determining the environmental tolerance of the symbiosis. Surprisingly, the
question of how Symbiodinium diversity partitions within a
species across spatial scales of meters to kilometers has received little
attention, but is important to understanding the intrinsic biological scope of a
given coral population and adaptations to the local environment. Here we address
this gap by describing the Symbiodinium ITS2 sequence
assemblages recovered from colonies of the reef building coral Montipora
capitata sampled across KÄne'ohe Bay, Hawai'i. A
total of 52 corals were sampled in a nested design of Coral Colony(Site(Region))
reflecting spatial scales of meters to kilometers. A diversity of
Symbiodinium ITS2 sequences was recovered with the majority
of variance partitioning at the level of the Coral Colony. To confirm this
result, the Symbiodinium ITS2 sequence diversity in six
M. capitata colonies were analyzed in much greater depth
with 35 to 55 clones per colony. The ITS2 sequences and quantitative composition
recovered from these colonies varied significantly, indicating that each coral
hosted a different assemblage of Symbiodinium. The diversity of
Symbiodinium ITS2 sequence assemblages retrieved from
individual colonies of M. capitata here highlights the problems
inherent in interpreting multi-copy and intra-genomically variable molecular
markers, and serves as a context for discussing the utility and biological
relevance of assigning species names based on Symbiodinium ITS2
genotyping
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