The 'who' and 'what' of #diabetes on Twitter

Social media are being increasingly used for health promotion, yet the landscape of users, messages and interactions in such fora is poorly understood. Studies of social media and diabetes have focused mostly on patients, or public agencies addressing it, but have not looked broadly at all the participants or the diversity of content they contribute. We study Twitter conversations about diabetes through the systematic analysis of 2.5 million tweets collected over 8 months and the interactions between their authors. We address three questions: (1) what themes arise in these tweets?, (2) who are the most influential users?, (3) which type of users contribute to which themes? We answer these questions using a mixed-methods approach, integrating techniques from anthropology, network science and information retrieval such as thematic coding, temporal network analysis, and community and topic detection. Diabetes-related tweets fall within broad thematic groups: health information, news, social interaction, and commercial. At the same time, humorous messages and references to popular culture appear consistently, more than any other type of tweet. We classify authors according to their temporal 'hub' and 'authority' scores. Whereas the hub landscape is diffuse and fluid over time, top authorities are highly persistent across time and comprise bloggers, advocacy groups and NGOs related to diabetes, as well as for-profit entities without specific diabetes expertise. Top authorities fall into seven interest communities as derived from their Twitter follower network. Our findings have implications for public health professionals and policy makers who seek to use social media as an engagement tool and to inform policy design.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, 7 tables. Supplemental spreadsheet available from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/2055207616688841, Digital Health, Vol 3, 201

Understanding the role of obsolescence in PPP/PFI

In 2013 the Guardian newspaper reported that the UK Government had acquired £300 billion worth of capital costs and unitary payments within the formally known Private Finance Initiatives – now Public Private Partnerships. This paper is not about the economics or moral debate upon the success and failures of PPP’s within the UK, but rather the untold story of the impact of obsolescence upon the integral asset systems which support the service delivery. Prisons require supportable and maintainable security systems, the same can be said for government/defence buildings, not to the mention the life critical systems within hospitals and clinics across the country. However, there is an untold story, which is impacting the through life or lifecycle costs to support and maintain key asset systems, driving additional lifecycle expenditures that may be unforeseen. This paper contains evidence of the scale of the financial impact of obsolescence through obsolescence driven investments, not least to mention the potential operational impacts if systems become unsupportable. This paper begins to create a foundation for future research focusing on obsolescence and how best to monitor and mitigate its effects

Identifying and Managing Asset Obsolescence within the Built Environment

Obsolescence in practice commonly occurs in two forms; the asset in question is no longer suitable for current demands, or is no longer available from manufacturers. Most research surrounding obsolescence has targeted short lifecycle components such as electronics or software (2-5 years). There is little consideration of low volume, long-life assets (20+ years) that are commonplace within the built environment (e.g. Uninterruptable Power Supply Systems, Building Management Systems and Fire Alarm Systems). This paper evidences the importance of identifying asset obsolescence within the built environment by observing 'lifecycle mismatches' within a live case study of a ten year old UK Private Finance Initiative (PFI). This paper develops and proposes an original assessment tool, identifying obsolescence within the built environment and empirically tests it within the case study. The methodology and results combine to evidence the importance of obsolescence and the contractual and financial risk it poses. The model is transferrable and scalable thus allowing larger portfolios to be considered. The levels of identifying obsolescence within long-life assets are increasing, whilst the lifecycles of certain component groups are decreasing; posing a growing problem for future Facility Managers

Efficiency of rumen microbial protein synthesis in cattle grazing tropical pastures as estimated by a novel technique

The efficiency of microbial protein synthesis (EMPS) in cattle grazing a range of tropical pasture types was examined using a new method of intra-jugular infusion of CrEDTA to estimate urinary excretion of purine derivatives (PD). Seven pasture types were studied in south-east Queensland, Australia, over a 13-month period. These included native tropical grass (C4) pasture (major species Heteropogon contortus and Bothriochloa bladhii) studied in the early wet, the wet/dry transition and the dry season; introduced tropical grass (C4) pasture (Bothriochloa insculpta) in the mid wet season; two introduced tropical legume species (C3), (Lablab purpureus and Clitoria ternatea); and the temperate grass (C3) pasture, ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). There was a large range in EMPS across pasture types: 26-209 g microbial crude protein (MCP)/kg digestible organic matter intake (DOMI). Estimated rumen degradable protein (RDP) supply (42-525 g/kg DOMI) was the major factor associated with EMPS across the range of pasture types studied. EMPS in steers grazing all tropical grass pastures was low (<130 g/kg DOMI) and limited by RDP supply. Negative linear relationships (P<0.05) between EMPS and both neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) concentrations in extrusa were evident. However, non-fibre carbohydrate in extrusa, total non-structural carbohydrate concentration in plucked pasture leaf, rumen fluid and particle dilution rate, protozoal concentration in rumen fluid and rumen fluid pH were not correlated with EMPS. It was concluded that EMPS was well below 130 g MCP/kg DOMI when cattle grazed unfertilised, tropical grass pastures in south-east Queensland and that RDP was the primary limiting nutrient. High EMPS was associated with very high RDP, vastly in excess of RDP requirements by microbe

The law of action and reaction for the effective force in a nonequilibrium colloidal system

We study a nonequilibrium Langevin many-body system containing two 'test' particles and many 'background' particles. The test particles are spatially confined by a harmonic potential, and the background particles are driven by an external driving force. Employing numerical simulations of the model, we formulate an effective description of the two test particles in a nonequilibrium steady state. In particular, we investigate several different definitions of the effective force acting between the test particles. We find that the law of action and reaction does not hold for the total mechanical force exerted by the background particles, but that it does hold for the thermodynamic force defined operationally on the basis of an idea used to extend the first law of thermodynamics to nonequilibrium steady states.Comment: 13 page

Assessing the Use of Molecular Barcoding and qPCR for Investigating the Ecology of Prorocentrum minimum (Dinophyceae), a Harmful Algal Species

Prorocentrum minimum is a species of marine dinoflagellate that occurs worldwide and can be responsible for harmful algal blooms (HABs). Some studies have reported it to produce tetrodotoxin; however, results have been inconsistent. qPCR and molecular barcoding (amplicon sequencing) using high-throughput sequencing have been increasingly applied to quantify HAB species for ecological analyses and monitoring. Here, we isolated a strain of P. minimum from eastern Australian waters, where it commonly occurs, and developed and validated a qPCR assay for this species based on a region of ITS rRNA in relation to abundance estimates from the cultured strain as determined using light microscopy. We used this tool to quantify and examine ecological drivers of P. minimum in Botany Bay, an estuary in southeast Australia, for over ~14 months in 2016-2017. We compared abundance estimates using qPCR with those obtained using molecular barcoding based on an 18S rRNA amplicon. There was a significant correlation between the abundance estimates from amplicon sequencing and qPCR, but the estimates from light microscopy were not significantly correlated, likely due to the counting method applied. Using amplicon sequencing, ~600 unique actual sequence variants (ASVs) were found, much larger than the known phytoplankton diversity from this region. P. minimum abundance in Botany Bay was found to be significantly associated with lower salinities and higher dissolved CO2 levels

2nd International Consensus Report on Gaps &amp; Opportunities for the Clinical Translation of Precision Diabetes Medicine

Precision medicine is part of the logical evolution of contemporary evidence-based medicine that seeks to reduce errors and optimize outcomes when making medical decisions and health recommendations. Diabetes affects hundreds of millions worldwide, many of whom will develop life-threatening complications and die prematurely. Precision medicine can potentially address this enormous problem by accounting for the heterogeneous etiology, clinical presentation, and pathogenesis of common forms of diabetes and risk of complications. This 2nd International Consensus Report on Precision Diabetes Medicine summarize the findings from a systematic evidence review across the key pillars of precision medicine (prevention, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis) in four recognized forms of diabetes (monogenic, gestational, type 1, type 2). These reviews address key questions about translation of precision medicine research into practice. Although not complete, owing to the vast literature on this topic, they revealed opportunities for the immediate or near-term clinical implementation of precision diabetes medicine; further, we expose important gaps in knowledge, focusing on the need to obtain new clinically relevant evidence. Gaps include the need for common standards for clinical readiness, including consideration of cost-effectiveness, health equity, predictive accuracy, liability, and accessibility. Key milestones are outlined for the broad clinical implementation of precision diabetes medicine

Segregation of an intruder in a heated granular dense gas

A recent segregation criterion [V. Garz\'o, Phys. Rev. E \textbf{78}, 020301(R) (2008)] based on the thermal diffusion factor $\Lambda$ of an intruder in a heated granular gas described by the inelastic Enskog equation is revisited. The sign of $\Lambda$ provides a criterion for the transition between the Brazil-nut effect (BNE) and the reverse Brazil-nut effect (RBNE). The present theory incorporates two extra ingredients not accounted for by the previous theoretical attempt. First, the theory is based upon the second Sonine approximation to the transport coefficients of the mass flux of intruder. Second, the dependence of the temperature ratio (intruder temperature over that of the host granular gas) on the solid volume fraction is taken into account in the first and second Sonine approximations. In order to check the accuracy of the Sonine approximation considered, the Enskog equation is also numerically solved by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method to get the kinetic diffusion coefficient $D_0$. The comparison between theory and simulation shows that the second Sonine approximation to $D_0$ yields an improvement over the first Sonine approximation when the intruder is lighter than the gas particles in the range of large inelasticity. With respect to the form of the phase diagrams for the BNE/RBNE transition, the kinetic theory results for the factor $\Lambda$ indicate that while the form of these diagrams depends sensitively on the order of the Sonine approximation considered when gravity is absent, no significant differences between both Sonine solutions appear in the opposite limit (gravity dominates the thermal gradient). In the former case (no gravity), the first Sonine approximation overestimates both the RBNE region and the influence of dissipation on thermal diffusion segregation.Comment: 9 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev.

Compte rendu de Drinking smoke: The tobacco syndemic in Oceania par Mac Marshall

In July 2013, Pacific Island Ministers for Health adopted a Tobacco Free Pacific 2025 target of less than 5% adult tobacco use for each Pacific Island country and territory. This goal represents a strikingly significant reduction, with tobacco currently being used by over 50% of people in some island nations and the proportion of people affected by passive smoking even higher (who wpro, 2013). This reflects the strong consensus about how devastatingly harmful tobacco is to people and communit..