Gaia22dkvLb: A Microlensing Planet Potentially Accessible to Radial-Velocity Characterization

We report discovering an exoplanet from following up a microlensing event alerted by Gaia. The event Gaia22dkv is toward a nearby disk source at ~2.5 kpc rather than the traditional bulge microlensing fields. Our primary analysis yields a Jovian planet with M_p = 0.50 +/- 0.05 M_J at a projected orbital separation r_perp = 1.63 +/- 0.17 AU. The host is a turnoff star with mass 1.24 +/- 0.06 M_sun and distance of 1.35 +/- 0.09 kpc, and at r'~14, it is far brighter than any previously discovered microlensing planet host, opening up the opportunity of testing the microlensing model with radial velocity (RV) observations. RV data can be used to measure the planet's orbital period and eccentricity, and they also enable searching for inner planets of the microlensing cold Jupiter, as expected from the "inner-outer correlation" inferred from Kepler and RV discoveries. Furthermore, we show that Gaia astrometric microlensing will not only allow precise measurements of its angular Einstein radius theta_E, but also directly measure the microlens parallax vector and unambiguously break a geometric light-curve degeneracy, leading to definitive characterization of the lens system

Rift Valley Fever – epidemiological update and risk of introduction into Europe

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a vector-borne disease transmitted by a broad spectrum of mosquito species, especially Aedes and Culex genus, to animals (domestic and wild ruminants and camels) and humans. Rift Valley fever is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Arabian Peninsula, with periodic epidemics characterised by 5–15 years of inter-epizootic periods. In the last two decades, RVF was notified in new African regions (e.g. Sahel), RVF epidemics occurred more frequently and low-level enzootic virus circulation has been demonstrated in livestock in various areas. Recent outbreaks in a French overseas department and some seropositive cases detected in Turkey, Tunisia and Libya raised the attention of the EU for a possible incursion into neighbouring countries. The movement of live animals is the most important pathway for RVF spread from the African endemic areas to North Africa and the Middle East. The movement of infected animals and infected vectors when shipped by flights, containers or road transport is considered as other plausible pathways of introduction into Europe. The overall risk of introduction of RVF into EU through the movement of infected animals is very low in all the EU regions and in all MSs (less than one epidemic every 500 years), given the strict EU animal import policy. The same level of risk of introduction in all the EU regions was estimated also considering the movement of infected vectors, with the highest level for Belgium, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands (one epidemic every 228–700 years), mainly linked to the number of connections by air and sea transports with African RVF infected countries. Although the EU territory does not seem to be directly exposed to an imminent risk of RVFV introduction, the risk of further spread into countries neighbouring the EU and the risks of possible introduction of infected vectors, suggest that EU authorities need to strengthen their surveillance and response capacities, as well as the collaboration with North African and Middle Eastern countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Linking household and facility data for better coverage measures in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health care:systematic review

BACKGROUND: Currently many measures of intervention coverage obtained from household surveys do not measure actual health intervention/service delivery, resulting in a need for linking reports of care-seeking with assessments of the service environment in order to improve measurements. This systematic review aims to identify evidence of different methods used to link household surveys and service provision assessments, with a focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health care, in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: Using pre-defined search terms, articles published in peer-reviewed journals and the grey literature after 1990 were identified, their reference lists scanned and linking methods synthesized. FINDINGS: A total of 59 articles and conference presentations were carefully reviewed and categorized into two groups based on the linking method used: 1) indirect/ecological linking that included studies in which health care-seeking behavior was linked to all or the nearest facilities or providers of certain types within a geographical area, and 2) direct linking/exact matching where individuals were linked with the exact provider or facility where they sought care. The former approach was employed in 51 of 59 included studies, and was particularly common among studies that were based on independent sources of household and facility data that were nationally representative. Only eight of the 59 reviewed studies employed direct linking methods, which were typically done at the sub-national level (eg, district level) and often in rural areas, where the number of providers was more limited compared to urban areas. CONCLUSIONS: Different linking methods have been reported in the literature, each category has its own set of advantages and limitations, in terms of both methodology and practicality for scale-up. Future studies that link household and provider/facility data should also take into account factors such as sources of data, the timing of surveys, the temporality of data points, the type of services and interventions, and the scale of the study in order to produce valid and reliable results

Clinical complexity and impact of the ABC (Atrial fibrillation Better Care) pathway in patients with atrial fibrillation: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF General Long-Term Registry

Background: Clinical complexity is increasingly prevalent among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The ‘Atrial fibrillation Better Care’ (ABC) pathway approach has been proposed to streamline a more holistic and integrated approach to AF care; however, there are limited data on its usefulness among clinically complex patients. We aim to determine the impact of ABC pathway in a contemporary cohort of clinically complex AF patients. Methods: From the ESC-EHRA EORP-AF General Long-Term Registry, we analysed clinically complex AF patients, defined as the presence of frailty, multimorbidity and/or polypharmacy. A K-medoids cluster analysis was performed to identify different groups of clinical complexity. The impact of an ABC-adherent approach on major outcomes was analysed through Cox-regression analyses and delay of event (DoE) analyses. Results: Among 9966 AF patients included, 8289 (83.1%) were clinically complex. Adherence to the ABC pathway in the clinically complex group reduced the risk of all-cause death (adjusted HR [aHR]: 0.72, 95%CI 0.58–0.91), major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs; aHR: 0.68, 95%CI 0.52–0.87) and composite outcome (aHR: 0.70, 95%CI: 0.58–0.85). Adherence to the ABC pathway was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of death (aHR: 0.74, 95%CI 0.56–0.98) and composite outcome (aHR: 0.76, 95%CI 0.60–0.96) also in the high-complexity cluster; similar trends were observed for MACEs. In DoE analyses, an ABC-adherent approach resulted in significant gains in event-free survival for all the outcomes investigated in clinically complex patients. Based on absolute risk reduction at 1 year of follow-up, the number needed to treat for ABC pathway adherence was 24 for all-cause death, 31 for MACEs and 20 for the composite outcome. Conclusions: An ABC-adherent approach reduces the risk of major outcomes in clinically complex AF patients. Ensuring adherence to the ABC pathway is essential to improve clinical outcomes among clinically complex AF patients

Seroprevalence of Rift Valley fever virus in livestock during inter-epidemic period in Egypt, 2014/15

Abstract Background Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) caused several outbreaks throughout the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula posing significant threat to human and animal health. In Egypt the first and most important Rift Valley fever epidemic occurred during 1977/78 with a multitude of infected humans and huge economic losses in livestock. After this major outbreak, RVF epidemics re-occurred in irregular intervals between 1993 and 2003. Seroprevalence of anti-RVFV antibodies in livestock during inter-epidemic periods can be used for supporting the evaluation of the present risk exposure for animal and public health. A serosurvey was conducted during 2014/2015 in non-vaccinated livestock including camels, sheep, goats and buffalos in different areas of the Nile River Delta as well as the furthermost southeast of Egypt to investigate the presence of anti-RVFV antibodies for further evaluating of the risk exposure for animal and human health. All animals integrated in this study were born after the last Egyptian RVF epidemic in 2003 and sampled buffalos and small ruminants were not imported from other endemic countries. Results A total of 873 serum samples from apparently healthy animals from different host species (camels: n = 221; sheep: n = 438; goats: n = 26; buffalo: n = 188) were tested serologically using RVFV competition ELISA, virus neutralization test and/or an indirect immunofluorescence assay, depending on available serum volume. Sera were assessed positive when virus neutralization test alone or least two assays produced consistent positive results. The overall seroprevalence was 2.29% (95%CI: 1.51–3.07) ranging from 0% in goats, 0.46% in sheep (95%CI: 0.41–0.5), and 3.17% in camels (95%CI: 0.86–5.48) up to 5.85% in buffalos (95%CI: 2.75–8.95). Conclusion Our findings assume currently low level of circulating virus in the investigated areas and suggest minor indication for a new RVF epidemic. Further the results may indicate that during long inter-epidemic periods, maintenance of the virus occur in vectors and also most probably in buffaloes within cryptic cycle where sporadic, small and local epidemics may occur. Therefore, comprehensive and well-designed surveillance activities are urgently needed to detect first evidence for transition from endemic to epidemic cycle

CCDC 881945: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.,Related Article: A.N.Carolan, A.E.Mroz, M.E.Ojaimi, D.G.VanDerveer, R.P.Thummel, R.D.Hancock|2012|Inorg.Chem.|51|3007|doi:10.1021/ic202337