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Reducing the Burden of Bacterial Meningitis in the African Meningitis Belt After MenAfriVac
The African meningitis belt - a semi-arid region stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia - experiences the highest incidence of bacterial meningitis in the world, characterised by seasonal fluctuations in endemic disease, localized outbreaks, and multiennial epidemics. MenAfriVac, a serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine, was introduced in mass campaigns in 2010 and has significantly reduced carriage and incidence of group A disease across the meningitis belt.
However, other meningococcal serogroups and Streptococcus pneumoniae continue to cause outbreaks of meningitis in the region. A new pentavalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine protecting against serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X is in development and promises to help eliminate outbreaks of meningococcal meningitis by 2030. However, questions remain as to how best to respond to outbreaks of pneumococcal meningitis and non-A meningococcal meningitis and how to use the pentavalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine when it becomes available. This thesis aims to evaluate the remaining challenges to control of bacterial meningitis in the African meningitis belt and assess the relative effectiveness and efficiency of various responses.
The first research chapter describes patterns in bacterial meningitis incidence before and after the introduction of MenAfriVac and compares outbreaks where NmA, NmC, NmW, and S. pneumoniae are predominant. The second chapter describes in detail an outbreak of pneumococcal meningitis in Ghana and models the potential impact of reactive vaccination using pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. In the third chapter I present a systematic review and meta-analysis of meningococcal carriage patterns by age and season in the African meningitis belt and propose ways in which it might inform the use of the pentavalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine. In the fourth chapter, I analyse the results of a longitudinal household study to identify behavioural and environmental risk factors for meningococcal carriage acquisition. The final chapter examines the spatio-temporal spread of the novel NmC strain which emerged in Nigeria in 2013, estimates the impact of reactive vaccination campaigns that occurred in the region between 2015 and 2017, and models the effects of alternative outbreak response strategies, including targeting neighbouring districts
Experimental generation of multi-photon Fock states
We experimentally demonstrate the generation of multi-photon Fock states with
up to three photons in well-defined spatial-temporal modes synchronized with a
classical clock. The states are characterized using quantum optical homodyne
tomography to ensure mode selectivity. The three-photon Fock states are
probabilistically generated by pulsed spontaneous parametric down conversion at
a rate of one per second, enabling complete characterization in 12 hours.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Employment Arbitration 2011: A Realist View
Labor and Employment Law Under the Obama Administration: A Time for Hope and Change? Symposium held November 12-13, 2010, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana
Discovery in Labor Arbitration
The mere statement of the topic, discovery in labor arbitration, suggests a paradox. Is not the essence of the arbitration process an effort to avoid the procedural complexities that make litigation comparatively slow and costly? More than forty years ago, Learned Hand admonished a litigant distressed with the procedural failings of an arbitration proceeding
A Research Guide to the Law of Private Sector Labor-Management Relations
The law of private sector labor management relations involves a technical subject matter and is further complicated by sometimes obscure jurisdictional standards. Researching the area is done most effectively using commercially published looseleaf services. Professor Cooper\u27s guide explores the differences between the two major services, discusses other primary and secondary sources for labor law research and offers a research strategy for labor issues
Teaching ADR in the Workplace Once and Again: A Pedagogical History
During the summer there was a conference in Ann Arbor, sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools, to address whether law schools could better prepare students to represent the interests of employees and employ- ers. The conference planners took care to include as participants notjust law school teachers, but also practitioners who could more accurately describe the role of attorneys in representing worker and employer interests and how students could best be educated to serve those roles. Conference participants concluded that current law school courses were inappropriately focused on the adversarial role of lawyers in litigation. They decided that courses should instead emphasize lawyers\u27 roles in more amicable means of conflict resolu- tion, such as arbitration and mediation. Teachers at the conference outlined innovative pedagogies that they had been employing successfully in their classrooms to teach these new roles, including simulated mediated negotia- tions and arbitrations. They debated the potential advantages and disadvan- tages of simulation-based pedagogy
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