Within- and between-pen transmission of Classical Swine Fever Virus: a new method to estimate the basic reproduction ratio from transmission experiments

We present a method to estimate basic reproduction ratio R0 from transmission experiments. By using previously published data of experiments with Classical Swine Fever Virus more extensively, we obtained smaller confidence intervals than the martingale method used in the original papers. Moreover, our method allows simultaneous estimation of a reproduction ratio within pens R0w and a modified reproduction ratio between pens R'0b. Resulting estimates of R0w and R'0b for weaner pigs were 100 (95% CI 54.4-186) and 7.77 (4.68-12.9), respectively. For slaughter pigs they were 15.5 (6.20-38.7) and 3.39 (1.54-7.45), respectively. We believe, because of the smaller confidence intervals we were able to obtain, that the method presented here is better suited for use in future experiments

Nutzung von Pflanzenextrakten zur Kontrolle der Krautfäule (P. infestans) im ökologischen Kartoffelbau

Der Befall mit dem Erreger der Kraut- und Knollenfäule (P. infestans) hat durch frühzeitigen Verlust der Assimilationsfläche regelmäßig erhebliche Ertragsverluste im Ökologischen Kartoffelbau zur Folge. Neben einer Reihe von vorbeugenden Maßnahmen, inbesondere Wahl toleranter Sorten und Vorkeimen des Pflanzgutes (KARALUS 1995, MEINCK 1999), sind zur direkten effizienten Kontrolle derzeit nur Kupferverbindungen zugelassen. Ein weitgehend unerforschtes Potential zur Kontrolle dieses Oomyceten liegt in der Nutzung von Pflanzenextrakten, diese Wirkung wurde in Feldversuchen untersucht

Updated cost-effectiveness and risk-benefit analysis of two infant rotavirus vaccination strategies in a high-income, low-endemic setting.

Since 2013, a biennial rotavirus pattern has emerged in the Netherlands with alternating high and low endemic years and a nearly 50% reduction in rotavirus hospitalization rates overall, while infant rotavirus vaccination has remained below 1% throughout. As the rotavirus vaccination cost-effectiveness and risk-benefit ratio in high-income settings is highly influenced by the total rotavirus disease burden, we re-evaluated two infant vaccination strategies, taking into account this recent change in rotavirus epidemiology

Long-Term Performance of Epicardial versus Transvenous Left Ventricular Leads for Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Aims: to study the technical performance of epicardial left ventricular (LV) leads placed via video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), compared to transvenously placed leads for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).Methods: From 2001 until 2013, a total of 644 lead placement procedures were performed for CRT. In the case of unsuccessful transvenous LV lead placement, the patient received an epicardial LV lead. Study groups consist of 578 patients with a transvenous LV lead and 66 with an epicardial LV lead. The primary endpoint was LV-lead failure necessitating a replacement or deactivation. The secondary endpoint was energy consumption.Results: The mean follow up was 5.9 years (epicardial: 5.5 ± 3.1, transvenous: 5.9 ± 3.5). Transvenous leads failed significantly more frequently than epicardial leads with a total of 66 (11%) in the transvenous leads group vs. 2 (3%) in the epicardial lead group ( p = 0.037). Lead energy consumption was not significantly different between groups.Conclusions: Epicardial lead placement is feasible, safe and shows excellent long-term performance compared to transvenous leads. Epicardial lead placement should be considered when primary transvenous lead placement fails or as a primary lead placement strategy in challenging cases. </p

Creating access to SARS-CoV-2 screening and testing through community-based COVID-19 case-finding, observations from cross-sectional studies in Lesotho and Zambia

BACKGROUND: The health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic largely depends on the ability of the healthcare systems to develop effective and adaptable preparedness and mitigation strategies. A collaborative initiative (BRCCH-EDCTP COVID-19 Initiative) was set up between Lesotho and Zambia early on in the pandemic, to jointly conduct a project to investigate creating access to SARS-CoV-2 screening and testing through community-based COVID-19 case-finding. METHODS: Two different community case-finding strategies were deployed. In Lesotho, an approach was implemented whereby a community (village) health worker screened community members at their home or during community gatherings for COVID-19 signs and symptoms. All community members who screened positive were then offered SARS-CoV-2 testing. In Zambia, so-called community hubs, staffed by community health care workers, were set up at different locations in the community for people to walk in and get tested for SARS-CoV-2. Hubs changed location from week-to-week and targeted transmission hotspots. All persons visiting the hubs were offered testing for SARS-CoV-2 irrespective of self-reported signs and symptoms of COVID-19 though information was collected on occurrence of these. Testing in both approaches was done using SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests. RESULTS: Setting up testing in the community setting was feasible in both countries. In Lesotho in the village health worker approach, over a period of 46 weeks, 7221 persons were screened, and 49 (11.4%) SARS-COV-2 cases identified among 428 COVID-19 screen positive participants. In the community hubs among 3150 people tested, 166 (5.3%) SARS-CoV-2 cases were identified in a period of 26 weeks. From the community hubs approach, where all seen were offered COVID-19 testing it was learned that people screening positive for COVID-19 signs and symptoms were more likely to test SARS-COV-2 positive, especially those reporting classic COVID-19 symptoms like loss of sense/smell for a short period of time (1-3 days). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, in this project we learned that implementing COVID-19 screening and testing by lay health workers in the community is possible. Characteristics of the population screened, tested, and identified to have SARS-CoV-2 are described to help guide development of future testing strategies

Hybrid bronchoscopic and surgical resection of endotracheal angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma

BACKGROUND: Angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma (AFH) is a soft-tissue tumor that generally affects the extremities of children and young adults. AFH overlaps with primary pulmonary myxoid sarcoma (PPMS) and can occur in unusual locations. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case of a 22-year-old female with AFH in the distal trachea. In addition to describing the challenge in making a correct diagnosis of AFH, we describe the first case of successful hybrid bronchoscopic and surgical resection of endotracheal AFH. A staged removal procedure was required to quickly secure the airway, allowing a lower-risk elective distal tracheal resection through a cervical approach for complete resection. A more conventional, but more invasive, more painful and cosmetically less satisfying thoracotomy was avoided. CONCLUSIONS: A distal tracheal resection for AFH can be safely performed in young adults through a cervical approach with excellent follow-up results

Primary skin fibroblasts as a model of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder. While most cases occur sporadic mutations in a growing number of genes including Parkin (PARK2) and PINK1 (PARK6) have been associated with the disease. Different animal models and cell models like patient skin fibroblasts and recombinant cell lines can be used as model systems for Parkinson's disease. Skin fibroblasts present a system with defined mutations and the cumulative cellular damage of the patients. PINK1 and Parkin genes show relevant expression levels in human fibroblasts and since both genes participate in stress response pathways, we believe fibroblasts advantageous in order to assess, e.g. the effect of stressors. Furthermore, since a bioenergetic deficit underlies early stage Parkinson's disease, while atrophy underlies later stages, the use of primary cells seems preferable over the use of tumor cell lines. The new option to use fibroblast-derived induced pluripotent stem cells redifferentiated into dopaminergic neurons is an additional benefit. However, the use of fibroblast has also some drawbacks. We have investigated PARK6 fibroblasts and they mirror closely the respiratory alterations, the expression profiles, the mitochondrial dynamics pathology and the vulnerability to proteasomal stress that has been documented in other model systems. Fibroblasts from patients with PARK2, PARK6, idiopathic Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 demonstrated a distinct and unique mRNA expression pattern of key genes in neurodegeneration. Thus, primary skin fibroblasts are a useful Parkinson's disease model, able to serve as a complement to animal mutants, transformed cell lines and patient tissues

Detecting change via competence model

In real world applications, interested concepts are more likely to change rather than remain stable, which is known as concept drift. This situation causes problems on predictions for many learning algorithms including case-base reasoning (CBR). When learning under concept drift, a critical issue is to identify and determine "when" and "how" the concept changes. In this paper, we developed a competence-based empirical distance between case chunks and then proposed a change detection method based on it. As a main contribution of our work, the change detection method provides an approach to measure the distribution change of cases of an infinite domain through finite samples and requires no prior knowledge about the case distribution, which makes it more practical in real world applications. Also, different from many other change detection methods, we not only detect the change of concepts but also quantify and describe this change. © 2010 Springer-Verlag

Machine Learning in Automated Text Categorization

The automated categorization (or classification) of texts into predefined categories has witnessed a booming interest in the last ten years, due to the increased availability of documents in digital form and the ensuing need to organize them. In the research community the dominant approach to this problem is based on machine learning techniques: a general inductive process automatically builds a classifier by learning, from a set of preclassified documents, the characteristics of the categories. The advantages of this approach over the knowledge engineering approach (consisting in the manual definition of a classifier by domain experts) are a very good effectiveness, considerable savings in terms of expert manpower, and straightforward portability to different domains. This survey discusses the main approaches to text categorization that fall within the machine learning paradigm. We will discuss in detail issues pertaining to three different problems, namely document representation, classifier construction, and classifier evaluation.Comment: Accepted for publication on ACM Computing Survey

Proton pump inhibitors and risk of gastric cancer: a population-based cohort study

Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use leads to hypergastrinaemia, which has been associated with gastrointestinal neoplasia. We evaluated the association between PPI use and risk of gastric cancer using population-based health-care registers in North Jutland, Denmark, during 1990–2003. We compared incidence rates among new users of PPI (n=18 790) or histamine-2-antagonists (H2RAs) (n=17 478) and non-users of either drug. Poisson regression analysis was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) adjusted for multiple confounders. We incorporated a 1-year lag time to address potential reverse causation. We identified 109 gastric cancer cases among PPI users and 52 cases among H2RA users. After incorporating the 1-year lag time, we observed IRRs for gastric cancer of 1.2 (95% CI: 0.8–2.0) among PPI users and 1.2 (95% CI: 0.8–1.8) among H2RA users compared with non-users. These estimates are in contrast to significant overall IRRs of 9.0 and 2.8, respectively, without the lag time. In lag time analyses, increased IRRs were observed among PPI users with the largest number of prescriptions or the longest follow-up compared with H2RA users or non-users. Although our results point to a major influence of reverse causation and confounding by indication on the association between PPI use and gastric cancer incidence, the finding of increased incidence among PPI users with most prescriptions and longest follow-up warrants further investigation