Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa : the consortium for advanced research training in Africa (CARTA) model

Background: Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence that can generate a strong evidence base to address the region’s socio-economic and health problems. Objective and program overview: We describe the recently launched Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), which brings together a network of nine academic and four research institutions from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa, and select northern universities and training institutes. CARTA’s program of activities comprises two primary, interrelated, and mutually reinforcing objectives: to strengthen research infrastructure and capacity at African universities; and to support doctoral training through the creation of a collaborative doctoral training program in population and public health. The ultimate goal of CARTA is to build local research capacity to understand the determinants of population health and effectively intervene to improve health outcomes and health systems. Conclusions: CARTA’s focus on the local production of networked and high-skilled researchers committed to working in sub-Saharan Africa, and on the concomitant increase in local research and training capacity of African universities and research institutes addresses the inability of existing programs to create a critical mass of well-trained and networked researchers across the continent. The initiative’s goal of strengthening human resources and university-wide systems critical to the success and sustainability of research productivity in public and population health will rejuvenate institutional teaching, research, and administrative systems

Alpha-particle clustering in excited expanding self-conjugate nuclei

The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction 40Ca + 12C at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce alpha-emission sources. From a careful selection of these sources provided by a complete detection and from comparisons with models of sequential and simultaneous decays, strong indications in favour of $\alpha$-particle clustering in excited 16O, 20Ne and 24}Mg are reported.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 12th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus collisions (NN2015), 21-26 June 2015, Catania, Ital

Remembering the forgotten non-communicable diseases

The forthcoming post-Millennium Development Goals era will bring about new challenges in global health. Low- and middle-income countries will have to contend with a dual burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Some of these NCDs, such as neoplasms, COPD, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, cause much health loss worldwide and are already widely recognised as doing so. However, 55% of the global NCD burden arises from other NCDs, which tend to be ignored in terms of premature mortality and quality of life reduction. Here, experts in some of these 'forgotten NCDs' review the clinical impact of these diseases along with the consequences of their ignoring their medical importance, and discuss ways in which they can be given higher global health priority in order to decrease the growing burden of disease and disability.MerckUniv Melbourne, Sch Populat & Global Hlth, Melbourne, Vic 3053, AustraliaUniv London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, St Marys Hosp, Dept Med, London W2 1NY, EnglandKEMRI Wellcome Trust Res Programme, Kilifi, KenyaUniv British Columbia, St Pauls Hosp, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y8, CanadaVA Med Ctr, Med Serv, Birmingham, AL USAVA Med Ctr, Ctr Surg Med Acute Care Res & Transit, Birmingham, AL USAUniv Alabama Birmingham, Sch Med, Dept Med, Birmingham, AL 35294 USAUniv Alabama Birmingham, Sch Publ Hlth, Div Epidemiol, Birmingham, AL 35294 USAMayo Clin, Coll Med, Dept Orthoped Surg, Rochester, MN 55905 USAUniv London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Natl Heart & Lung Inst, London, EnglandCtr Addict & Mental Hlth, Toronto, ON, CanadaTech Univ Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, GermanyUniv Toronto, Dalla Lana Sch Publ Hlth, Toronto, ON, CanadaUniv Toronto, Dept Psychiat, Toronto, ON, CanadaUofT, Inst Med Sci, Toronto, ON, CanadaNIDA, NIH, Rockville, MD USANIAAA, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892 USAHosp Alemao Oswaldo Cruz, Inst Educ & Hlth Sci, BR-01323903 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Psychobiol, BR-04023062 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, Dept Psychobiol, BR-04023062 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Higher resources decrease fluctuating selection during host-parasite coevolution

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.We still know very little about how the environment influences coevolutionary dynamics. Here, we investigated both theoretically and empirically how nutrient availability affects the relative extent of escalation of resistance and infectivity (arms race dynamic; ARD) and fluctuating selection (fluctuating selection dynamic; FSD) in experimentally coevolving populations of bacteria and viruses. By comparing interactions between clones of bacteria and viruses both within- and between-time points, we show that increasing nutrient availability resulted in coevolution shifting from FSD, with fluctuations in average infectivity and resistance ranges over time, to ARD. Our model shows that range fluctuations with lower nutrient availability can be explained both by elevated costs of resistance (a direct effect of nutrient availability), and reduced benefits of resistance when population sizes of hosts and parasites are lower (an indirect effect). Nutrient availability can therefore predictably and generally affect qualitative coevolutionary dynamics by both direct and indirect (mediated through ecological feedbacks) effects on costs of resistance.This work was funded by NERC (UK). ABu was supported by the Royal Society and ABe by a the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship

Production of α\alpha-particle condensate states in heavy-ion collisions

The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction $^{40}Ca$ + $^{12}C$ at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce excited states candidates to $\alpha$-particle condensation. The experiment was performed at LNS-Catania using the CHIMERA multidetector. Accepting the emission simultaneity and equality among the $\alpha$-particle kinetic energies as experimental criteria for deciding in favor of the condensate nature of an excited state, we analyze the $0_2^+$ and $2_2^+$ states of $^{12}$C and the $0_6^+$ state of $^{16}$O. A sub-class of events corresponding to the direct 3-$\alpha$ decay of the Hoyle state is isolated.Comment: contribution to the 2nd Workshop on "State of the Art in Nuclear Cluster Physics" (SOTANCP2), Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), May 25-28, 2010, to be published in the International Journal of Modern Physics

Multiscale correlative tomography: an investigation of creep cavitation in 316 stainless steel

Creep cavitation in an ex-service nuclear steam header Type 316 stainless steel sample is investigated through a multiscale tomography workflow spanning eight orders of magnitude, combining X-ray computed tomography (CT), plasma focused ion beam (FIB) scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging and scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) tomography. Guided by microscale X-ray CT, nanoscale X-ray CT is used to investigate the size and morphology of cavities at a triple point of grain boundaries. In order to understand the factors affecting the extent of cavitation, the orientation and crystallographic misorientation of each boundary is characterised using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Additionally, in order to better understand boundary phase growth, the chemistry of a single boundary and its associated secondary phase precipitates is probed through STEM energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) tomography. The difference in cavitation of the three grain boundaries investigated suggests that the orientation of grain boundaries with respect to the direction of principal stress is important in the promotion of cavity formation

Training emergency services’ dispatchers to recognise stroke: an interrupted time-series analysis

Background: Stroke is a time-dependent medical emergency in which early presentation to specialist care reduces death and dependency. Up to 70% of all stroke patients obtain first medical contact from the Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Identifying ‘true stroke’ from an EMS call is challenging, with over 50% of strokes being misclassified. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the training package on the recognition of stroke by Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs). Methods: This study took place in an ambulance service and a hospital in England using an interrupted time-series design. Suspected stroke patients were identified in one week blocks, every three weeks over an 18 month period, during which time the training was implemented. Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of stroke (EMS or hospital). The effect of the intervention on the accuracy of dispatch diagnosis was investigated using binomial (grouped) logistic regression. Results: In the Pre-implementation period EMDs correctly identified 63% of stroke patients; this increased to 80% Post-implementation. This change was significant (p=0.003), reflecting an improvement in identifying stroke patients relative to the Pre-implementation period both the During-implementation (OR=4.10 [95% CI 1.58 to 10.66]) and Post-implementation (OR=2.30 [95% CI 1.07 to 4.92]) periods. For patients with a final diagnosis of stroke who had been dispatched as stroke there was a marginally non-significant 2.8 minutes (95% CI −0.2 to 5.9 minutes, p=0.068)reduction between Pre- and Post-implementation periods from call to arrival of the ambulance at scene. Conclusions: This is the first study to develop, implement and evaluate the impact of a training package for EMDs with the aim of improving the recognition of stroke. Training led to a significant increase in the proportion of stroke patients dispatched as such by EMDs; a small reduction in time from call to arrival at scene by the ambulance also appeared likely. The training package has been endorsed by the UK Stroke Forum Education and Training, and is free to access on-line

A database of microRNA expression patterns in Xenopus laevis

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding RNAs around 22 nucleotides long. They inhibit gene expression either by translational repression or by causing the degradation of the mRNAs they bind to. Many are highly conserved amongst diverse organisms and have restricted spatio-temporal expression patterns during embryonic development where they are thought to be involved in generating accuracy of developmental timing and in supporting cell fate decisions and tissue identity. We determined the expression patterns of 180 miRNAs in Xenopus laevis embryos using LNA oligonucleotides. In addition we carried out small RNA-seq on different stages of early Xenopus development, identified 44 miRNAs belonging to 29 new families and characterized the expression of 5 of these. Our analyses identified miRNA expression in many organs of the developing embryo. In particular a large number were expressed in neural tissue and in the somites. Surprisingly none of the miRNAs we have looked at show expression in the heart. Our results have been made freely available as a resource in both XenMARK and Xenbase

Analytical and numerical analyses of the micromechanics of soft fibrous connective tissues

State of the art research and treatment of biological tissues require accurate and efficient methods for describing their mechanical properties. Indeed, micromechanics motivated approaches provide a systematic method for elevating relevant data from the microscopic level to the macroscopic one. In this work the mechanical responses of hyperelastic tissues with one and two families of collagen fibers are analyzed by application of a new variational estimate accounting for their histology and the behaviors of their constituents. The resulting, close form expressions, are used to determine the overall response of the wall of a healthy human coronary artery. To demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method these predictions are compared with corresponding 3-D finite element simulations of a periodic unit cell of the tissue with two families of fibers. Throughout, the analytical predictions for the highly nonlinear and anisotropic tissue are in agreement with the numerical simulations