Priorities in the implementation of partner services for HIV/STIs in high-income nations: a narrative review of evidence and recommendations

Partner notification (PN) remains a crucial prevention tool to reduce sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission and prevent STI-related morbidity. Although there have been a variety of different approaches taken to facilitate the notification, testing and management of sexual contacts of STIs and HIV, there is an increasing acknowledgement that these interventions are unscalable and have relatively little impact on disease transmission. At the same time, an expanding body of evidence supports a shift in the emphasis of STI outreach-related work from an exclusive focus on PN to an approach that incorporates epidemiologic data collection, case management, and PN, an approach that is sometimes called partner services (PS). In this review, we appraise the current evidence base for different PN interventions for STIs in high-income nations, make recommendations for best practices, present a schema for how public health programs might prioritise PS for different programs, and identify priority research questions related to PN

Response to pulmonary arterial hypertension drug therapies in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and cardiovascular risk factors.

The age at diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and the prevalence of cardiovascular (CV) risk factors are increasing. We sought to determine whether the response to drug therapy was influenced by CV risk factors in PAH patients. We studied consecutive incident PAH patients (n = 146) between January 1, 2008, and July 15, 2011. Patients were divided into two groups: the PAH-No CV group included patients with no CV risk factors (obesity, systemic hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, permanent atrial fibrillation, mitral and/or aortic valve disease, and coronary artery disease), and the PAH-CV group included patients with at least one. The response to PAH treatment was analyzed in all the patients who received PAH drug therapy. The PAH-No CV group included 43 patients, and the PAH-CV group included 69 patients. Patients in the PAH-No CV group were younger than those in the PAH-CV group (P < 0.0001). In the PAH-No CV group, 16 patients (37%) improved on treatment and 27 (63%) did not improve, compared with 11 (16%) and 58 (84%) in the PAH-CV group, respectively (P = 0.027 after adjustment for age). There was no difference in survival at 30 months (P = 0.218). In conclusion, in addition to older age, CV risk factors may predict a reduced response to PAH drug therapy in patients with PAH

Analysing Port Community System Network Evolution

Ports have played an important role in facilitating exchanges among countries since the day when inland transportation was poor. As ports become hubs for global supply chain, they have to maintain their competitiveness not only by reassuring their efficiency, reliability, accessibility to hinterland, and sustainability. In addition, there is a constant challenge from all operational parties of the port to acquire needed information or to trust information received, due to multiple legacy systems and platforms that do not integrate with each other, and to the lack of real time updates. There are differing agendas between parties and, sometimes, distrust within the multi-stakeholder ecosystem leads to working in silos. This jeopardises seamless data exchange and cooperation across the port value chain, resulting in significant inefficiencies. Port community system (PCS) can enhance communication and simplify administrative process resulting economic and environmental benefit for actors in the supply chain. The invisibility of the benefit, actors’ heterogeneity and significant investment to develop the system resulting a reluctance in implementing PCS. This chapter aims to study the evolution mechanism behind the process of PCS network development using lessons learned from industrial symbiosis network development and network trajectories theory. The PCS network development follows a serendipitous and goal-oriented process that can be categorised into three stages: pre-PCS network, PCS network emergence, and PCS network expansion. This chapter contributes to the exploration of network evolution and documents lesson learned to foster PCS implementation.© 2020 Springer. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Port Cities in Transition: Moving Towards More Sustainable Sea Transport Hubs. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36464-9_10fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Leveraging icebreaking tasks to facilitate uptake of voice communication in multiplayer games

Voice Communication (VC) is widely employed by developers as an essential component of online games. Typically, it is assumed that communications through this mechanism will be helpful and enjoyable, but existing literature suggests that the entry into VC can be problematic. In this paper, we present a study that attempts to mitigate player discomfort when first engaging with VC with strangers, through the use of traditional icebreaking tasks. We integrate these into the game RET, an online cooperative first person shooter which requires effective communication for players to succeed. An online user study with 18 participants suggests that icebreaking tasks can contribute to a positive VC experience, but their inclusion also creates further issues to be considered for successful integration

Conglobation in the Pill Bug, Armadillidium vulgare, as a Water Conservation Mechanism

Water balance of the terrestrial isopod, Armadillidium vulgare, was investigated during conglobation (rolling-up behavior). Water loss and metabolic rates were measured at 18 ± 1°C in dry air using flow-through respirometry. Water-loss rates decreased 34.8% when specimens were in their conglobated form, while CO2 release decreased by 37.1%. Water loss was also measured gravimetrically at humidities ranging from 6 to 75 %RH. Conglobation was associated with a decrease in water-loss rates up to 53 %RH, but no significant differences were observed at higher humidities. Our findings suggest that conglobation behavior may help to conserve water, in addition to its demonstrated role in protection from predation

Clinical Implication of Targeting of Cancer Stem Cells

The existence of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is receiving increasing interest particularly due to its potential ability to enter clinical routine. Rapid advances in the CSC field have provided evidence for the development of more reliable anticancer therapies in the future. CSCs typically only constitute a small fraction of the total tumor burden; however, they harbor self-renewal capacity and appear to be relatively resistant to conventional therapies. Recent therapeutic approaches aim to eliminate or differentiate CSCs or to disrupt the niches in which they reside. Better understanding of the biological characteristics of CSCs as well as improved preclinical and clinical trials targeting CSCs may revolutionize the treatment of many cancers. Copyright (c) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

A preliminary assessment of low level arsenic exposure and diabetes mellitus in Cyprus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A preliminary study was undertaken in a community of Cyprus where low-level arsenic (As) concentrations were recently detected in the groundwater that was chronically used to satisfy potable needs of the community. The main objective of the study was to assess the degree of association between orally-ingested As and self-reported type-2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in 317 adult (≥18 years old) volunteers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cumulative lifetime As exposure (CLAEX) (mg As) was calculated using the median As concentrations in water, individual reported daily water consumption rates, and lifetime exposure duration. Logistic regression models were used to model the probability of self-reported DM and calculate odds ratios (OR) in univariate and multivariate models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Significantly higher (p <it><</it> 0.02) CLAEX values were reported for the diabetics (median = 999 mg As) versus non-diabetics (median = 573 mg As), suggesting that As exposure could perhaps be related to the prevalence of DM in the study area, which was 6.6%. The OR for DM, comparing participants in the 80^th versus the 20^th percentiles of low-level As CLAEX index values, was 5.0 (1.03, 24.17), but after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, education, and fish consumption, the As exposure effect on DM was not significant.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Further research is needed to improve As exposure assessment for the entire Cypriot population while assessing the exact relationship between low-level As exposure and DM.</p

Comparison of embedded and added motor imagery training in patients after stroke: Study protocol of a randomised controlled pilot trial using a mixed methods approach

Copyright @ 2009 Schuster et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Two different approaches have been adopted when applying motor imagery (MI) to stroke patients. MI can be conducted either added to conventional physiotherapy or integrated within therapy sessions. The proposed study aims to compare the efficacy of embedded MI to an added MI intervention. Evidence from pilot studies reported in the literature suggests that both approaches can improve performance of a complex motor skill involving whole body movements, however, it remains to be demonstrated, which is the more effective one.Methods/Design: A single blinded, randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a pre-post intervention design will be carried out. The study design includes two experimental groups and a control group (CG). Both experimental groups (EG1, EG2) will receive physical practice of a clinical relevant motor task ('Going down, laying on the floor, and getting up again') over a two week intervention period: EG1 with embedded MI training, EG2 with MI training added after physiotherapy. The CG will receive standard physiotherapy intervention and an additional control intervention not related to MI.The primary study outcome is the time difference to perform the task from pre to post-intervention. Secondary outcomes include level of help needed, stages of motor task completion, degree of motor impairment, balance ability, fear of falling measure, motivation score, and motor imagery ability score. Four data collection points are proposed: twice during baseline phase, once following the intervention period, and once after a two week follow up. A nested qualitative part should add an important insight into patients' experience and attitudes towards MI. Semi-structured interviews of six to ten patients, who participate in the RCT, will be conducted to investigate patients' previous experience with MI and their expectations towards the MI intervention in the study. Patients will be interviewed prior and after the intervention period.Discussion: Results will determine whether embedded MI is superior to added MI. Findings of the semi-structured interviews will help to integrate patient's expectations of MI interventions in the design of research studies to improve practical applicability using MI as an adjunct therapy technique

'Riots engulfed the city':an experimental study investigating the legitimating effects of fire metaphors in discourses of disorder

In Cognitive Linguistic Critical Discourse Studies (CL-CDS), metaphor is identified as a key index of ideology and an important device in the legitimation of social action. From this perspective, metaphor is a cognitive-semiotic operation, invoked by metaphorical expressions in discourse, in which a source frame is mobilised to provide a template for sense-making inside a target frame, leading to particular framing effects. However, the extent to which metaphors in discourse genuinely activate an alternative frame and thereby achieve framing effects has recently been subject to question. Amid calls for more empirical forms of analysis in Critical Discourse Studies, the paper reports two experiments testing the legitimating framing effects of fire metaphors in discourses of disorder. Results show that images of fire and fire metaphors in the absence of competing images facilitate support for police use of water cannon in response to social unrest. The study not only justifies attention to metaphor in CL-CDS but similar effects across semiotic modalities are interpreted as evidence in support of simulation-based theories of metaphor