Sentinel surveillance for travellers' diarrhoea in primary care

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Travellers' diarrhoea is the most common health problem among international travellers and much of the burden falls on general practitioners. We assessed whether sentinel surveillance based in primary care could be used to monitor changes in the epidemiology of travellers' diarrhoea.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A sentinel surveillance scheme of 30 volunteer general practices distributed throughout Wales provides weekly reports of consultations for eight infectious diseases to the national Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre. Travellers' diarrhoea was introduced as a new reportable infection in July 2002.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Between 1 July 2002 and 31 March 2005 there were 90 reports of travellers' diarrhoea. The mean annual consultation rate was 15.2 per 100,000 population (95% confidence interval: 12.2–18.7), with the highest rates in summer, in people aged 15–24 years, and in travellers to Southern Europe. A higher proportion of travellers than expected had visited destinations outside Europe and North America when compared to the proportion of all United Kingdom travellers visiting these destinations (38% vs. 11%; Chi²= 53.3, p < 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Sentinel surveillance has the potential to monitor secular trends in travellers' diarrhoea and to help characterise population groups or travel destinations associated with higher risk.</p

Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?

A review of Garfield's journal impact factor and its specific implementation as the Thomson Reuters Impact Factor reveals several weaknesses in this commonly-used indicator of journal standing. Key limitations include the mismatch between citing and cited documents, the deceptive display of three decimals that belies the real precision, and the absence of confidence intervals. These are minor issues that are easily amended and should be corrected, but more substantive improvements are needed. There are indications that the scientific community seeks and needs better certification of journal procedures to improve the quality of published science. Comprehensive certification of editorial and review procedures could help ensure adequate procedures to detect duplicate and fraudulent submissions.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 6 table

Environmental and diagenetic controls on the morphology and calcification of the Ediacaran metazoan Cloudina

Abstract Cloudina is a globally distributed Ediacaran metazoan, with a tubular, funnel-in-funnel form built of thin laminae (ca. 1–10 μm). To what degree local environmental controlled morphology, and whether early diagenesis controlled the degree of calcification of Cloudina, is debated. Here we test these hypotheses by considering assemblages from four, coeval localities from the Upper Omkyk Member, Nama Group, Namibia, from inner ramp to mid-ramp reef across the Zaris Subbasin. We show that sinuosity of the Cloudina tube is variable between sites, as is the relative thickness of the tube wall, suggesting these features were environmentally controlled. Walls are thickest in high-energy reef settings, and thinnest in the low-energy, inner ramp. While local diagenesis controls preservation, all diagenetic expressions are consistent with the presence of weakly calcified, organic-rich laminae, and lamina thicknesses are broadly constant. Finally, internal ‘cements’ within Cloudina are found in all sites, and pre-date skeletal breakage, transport, as well as syn-sedimentary botryoidal cement precipitation. Best preservation shows these to be formed by fine, pseudomorphed aragonitic acicular crystals. Sr concentrations and Mg/Ca show no statistically significant differences between internal Cloudina cements and botryoidal cements, but we infer all internal cements to have precipitated when Cloudina was still in-situ and added considerable mechanical strength, but may have formed post-mortem or in abandoned parts of the skeleton

Distinct Visual Working Memory Systems for View-Dependent and View-Invariant Representation

Background: How do people sustain a visual representation of the environment? Currently, many researchers argue that a single visual working memory system sustains non-spatial object information such as colors and shapes. However, previous studies tested visual working memory for two-dimensional objects only. In consequence, the nature of visual working memory for three-dimensional (3D) object representation remains unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, I show that when sustaining information about 3D objects, visual working memory clearly divides into two separate, specialized memory systems, rather than one system, as was previously thought. One memory system gradually accumulates sensory information, forming an increasingly precise view-dependent representation of the scene over the course of several seconds. A second memory system sustains view-invariant representations of 3D objects. The view-dependent memory system has a storage capacity of 3–4 representations and the view-invariant memory system has a storage capacity of 1–2 representations. These systems can operate independently from one another and do not compete for working memory storage resources. Conclusions/Significance: These results provide evidence that visual working memory sustains object information in two separate, specialized memory systems. One memory system sustains view-dependent representations of the scene, akin to the view-specific representations that guide place recognition during navigation in humans, rodents and insects. Th

Patient and public involvement in designing and conducting doctoral research: the whys and the hows

YesPublic and patient involvement (PPI) has been shown to have a positive impact on health and social care research. However, adequate examples describing how to operationalise effective PPI, especially in doctoral studies, are lacking. Hence, doctoral researchers new to research, or those with limited experience, can be discouraged from facilitating PPI in their research. This paper aims to describe and discuss in detail the approaches used by four doctoral researchers to incorporate PPI at different stages of their research studies from study design to disseminating findings. We aim to inform other doctoral researchers about the challenges and limitations relating to PPI that we faced. Through these, we share pragmatic recommendations for facilitating PPI during doctoral studies. The description of four case studies demonstrated that PPI could be incorporated at various stages during doctoral research. This has had a beneficial impact on our research study progression, researcher self-esteem and lastly, helped alleviate researcher isolation during doctoral studies.Supported by Research Design Service Yorkshire and the Humber (RDSYH), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR Yorkshire and Humber PSTRC). This paper presents independent research funded by NIHR under its Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme (Grant Reference Number PB-PG-0317-20010).Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, July 2019

The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems

We review the formation and evolution of compact binary stars consisting of white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs), and black holes (BHs). Binary NSs and BHs are thought to be the primary astrophysical sources of gravitational waves (GWs) within the frequency band of ground-based detectors, while compact binaries of WDs are important sources of GWs at lower frequencies to be covered by space interferometers (LISA). Major uncertainties in the current understanding of properties of NSs and BHs most relevant to the GW studies are discussed, including the treatment of the natal kicks which compact stellar remnants acquire during the core collapse of massive stars and the common envelope phase of binary evolution. We discuss the coalescence rates of binary NSs and BHs and prospects for their detections, the formation and evolution of binary WDs and their observational manifestations. Special attention is given to AM CVn-stars -- compact binaries in which the Roche lobe is filled by another WD or a low-mass partially degenerate helium-star, as these stars are thought to be the best LISA verification binary GW sources.Comment: 105 pages, 18 figure

Irregular breakfast eating and health status among adolescents in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Regular breakfast eating (RBE) is an important contributor to a healthy lifestyle and health status. The aims of the present study were to evaluate the relationships among irregular breakfast eating (IRBE), health status, and health promoting behavior (HPB) for Taiwanese adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to investigate a cluster sample of 1609 (7(th )-12(th )grade) adolescents located in the metropolitan Tao-Yuan area during the 2005 academic year. The main variables comprised breakfast eating pattern, body weight, and health promoting behaviors. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 1609 participants were studied, 64.1% in junior high school and 35.9% in high school, boys (47.1%) and girls (52.9%) ranging in age from 12–20 years. Of the total participant population, 28.8% were overweight and nearly one quarter (23.6%) reported eating breakfast irregularly during schooldays. The findings indicated that adolescents with RBE had a lower risk of overweight (OR for IRBE vs. RBE = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.12, 2.04), and that the odds of becoming overweight were 51% greater for IRBE than for RBE even after controlling for demographical and HPB variables. IRBE also was a strong indicator for HPB. However, the profile of the high-risk IRBE group was predominantly junior high schoolchildren and/or children living without both parents. CONCLUSION: This study provides valuable information about irregular breakfast eating among adolescents, which is associated with being overweight and with a low frequency of health promoting behavior. School and family health promotion strategies should be used to encourage all adolescents to eat breakfast regularly

Firm-specific, country-specific and region-specific competitive advantages: the case of emerging economy MNEs - Thailand

Increasing levels of regional economic integration have created a new source of international competitiveness for MNEs from an emerging economy, Thailand, in the context of ASEAN economic integration. Building on the theoretical framework of firm-specific advantages (FSAs) and country-specific advantages (CSAs) grounded in internalization theory, we introduce region-specific advantages (RSAs) and advance a novel regional dual-double-diamond model to analyse regional competitiveness. Using both primary and secondary data we find that most Thai firms derive their international competitiveness from CSAs rather than FSAs, and will benefit from ASEAN RSAs. Our study significantly advances the literature on international competitiveness of emerging-economy MNEs