Incidence of maternal Toxoplasma infections in pregnancy in Upper Austria, 2000-2007

Sagel U, Krämer A, Mikolajczyk RT. Incidence of maternal Toxoplasma infections in pregnancy in Upper Austria, 2000-2007. BMC Infectious Diseases. 2011;11(1): 348.UNLABELLED: ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Despite three decades of prenatal screening program for toxoplasmosis in Austria, population-based estimates for the incidence of maternal infections with Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy are lacking. We studied the incidence of primary maternal infections during pregnancy in the Federal State of Upper Austria. METHODS: Screening tests for 63,416 women and over 90,000 pregnancies (more than 84.5% of pregnancies in the studied region) in the time period between 01.01.2000 and 31.12.2007 were analysed. The incidence of toxoplasmosis was estimated indirectly by binomial and directly by interval censored regression. RESULTS: During the studied period, 66 acute infections (risk of 0.07% per pregnancy) were detected, but only 29.8% of seronegative women were tested at least three times during their pregnancies. The seroprevalence of Toxoplasma antibodies among all tested women was 31%. Indirectly estimated incidence (from differences in prevalence by age) was 0.5% per pregnancy, while directly estimated incidence (interval censored regression) was 0.17% per pregnancy (95% confidence interval: 0.13-0.21%). CONCLUSIONS: Calculating incidence from observed infections results in severe underreporting due to many missed tests and potential diagnostic problems. Using statistical modelling, we estimated primary toxoplasmosis to occur in 0.17% (0.13-0.21%) of all pregnancies in Upper Austria

Metal organic framework nanosheets in polymer composite materials for gas separation

[EN] Composites incorporating two-dimensional nanostructures within polymeric matrices have potential as functional components for several technologies, including gas separation. Prospectively, employing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as versatile nanofillers would notably broaden the scope of functionalities. However, synthesizing MOFs in the form of freestanding nanosheets has proved challenging. We present a bottom-up synthesis strategy for dispersible copper 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate MOF lamellae of micrometre lateral dimensions and nanometre thickness. Incorporating MOF nanosheets into polymer matrices endows the resultant composites with outstanding CO2 separation performance from CO2/CH4 gas mixtures, together with an unusual and highly desired increase in the separation selectivity with pressure. As revealed by tomographic focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy, the unique separation behaviour stems from a superior occupation of the membrane cross-section by the MOF nanosheets as compared with isotropic crystals, which improves the efficiency of molecular discrimination and eliminates unselective permeation pathways. This approach opens the door to ultrathin MOF-polymer composites for various applications.The research leading to these results has received funding (J.G., B.S.) from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 335746, CrystEng-MOF-MMM. T.R. is grateful to TUDelft for funding. G.P. acknowledges the A. von Humboldt Foundation for a research grant. A.C., I.L. and F.X.L.i.X. thank Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (project MULTICAT) and the ‘Severo Ochoa’ programme for support. 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Exploring new physics frontiers through numerical relativity

The demand to obtain answers to highly complex problems within strong-field gravity has been met with significant progress in the numerical solution of Einstein's equations - along with some spectacular results - in various setups. We review techniques for solving Einstein's equations in generic spacetimes, focusing on fully nonlinear evolutions but also on how to benchmark those results with perturbative approaches. The results address problems in high-energy physics, holography, mathematical physics, fundamental physics, astrophysics and cosmology

Congenital toxoplasmosis: evaluation of serological methods for the detection of anti- Toxoplasma gondii IgM and IgA antibodies

A study was carried out to evaluate the presence of serological markers for the immunodiagnosis of the vertical transmission of toxoplasmosis. We tested the sensitivity, specificity and predictive values (positive and negative) of different serological methods for the early diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis. In a prospective longitudinal study, 50 infants with suspected congenital toxoplasmosis were followed up in the ambulatory care centre of Congenital Infections at University Hospital in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, from 1 January 2004-30 September 2005. Microparticle Enzyme Immunoassay (MEIA), Enzyme-Linked Fluorescent Assay (ELFA) and Immune-Fluorescent Antibody Technique (IFAT) were used to detect specific IgM anti- Toxoplasma gondii antibodies and a capture ELISA was used to detect specific IgA antibodies. The results showed that 28/50 infants were infected. During the neonatal period, IgM was detected in 39.3% (11/28) of those infected infants and IgA was detected in 21.4% (6/28). The sensitivity, specificity and predictive values (positive and negative) of each assay were, respectively: MEIA and ELFA: 60.9%, 100%, 100%, 55.0%; IFAT: 59.6%, 91.7%, 93.3%, 53.7%; IgA capture ELISA: 57.1%, 100%, 100%, 51.2%. The presence of specific IgM and IgA antibodies during the neonatal period was not frequent, although it was correlated with the most severe cases of congenital transmission. The results indicate that the absence of congenital disease markers (IgM and IgA) in newborns, even after confirming the absence with several techniques, does not constitute an exclusion criterion for toxoplasmosis

Components of compulsory service program for health professionals in low- and middle-income countries : a scoping review

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