Influenza vaccination uptake among people aged over 85 years: an audit of primary care practice in the UK

Public health research and national guidelines have advocated for seasonal influenza vaccination in the elderly. General practice has established itself as an ideal setting for the safe administration and monitoring of vaccines.1 Due to waning immune systems and high levels of co-morbidities, the elderly are especially vulnerable to the acquisition of infectious diseases.2 Influenza in the elderly results in increased levels of hospitalisation, morbidity and mortality. This section of society clearly benefits from annual vaccination against circulating seasonal strains of influenza virus.3 Since a major policy change in 2000 from riskrelated vaccine administration to age-related vaccine administration, vaccine uptake on average has increased.1 Little is known about the vaccine uptake patterns in the elderly population aged 85 years and over. The primary objective was to audit the influenza vaccination uptake in Amherst Medical Practice among individuals aged over 85 years. Secondary objectives were: to determine the proportion of recurrent non-uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination in the primary care setting, to identify the underlying factors associated with recurrent non-uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination, and provide baseline information to target and improve vaccine uptake among patients aged over 85 years

Bone-eating Osedax worms lived on Mesozoic marine reptile deadfalls.

We report fossil traces of Osedax, a genus of siboglinid annelids that consume the skeletons of sunken vertebrates on the ocean floor, from early-Late Cretaceous (approx. 100 Myr) plesiosaur and sea turtle bones. Although plesiosaurs went extinct at the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (66 Myr), chelonioids survived the event and diversified, and thus provided sustenance for Osedax in the 20 Myr gap preceding the radiation of cetaceans, their main modern food source. This finding shows that marine reptile carcasses, before whales, played a key role in the evolution and dispersal of Osedax and confirms that its generalist ability of colonizing different vertebrate substrates, like fishes and marine birds, besides whale bones, is an ancestral trait. A Cretaceous age for unequivocal Osedax trace fossils also dates back to the Mesozoic the origin of the entire siboglinid family, which includes chemosynthetic tubeworms living at hydrothermal vents and seeps, contrary to phylogenetic estimations of a Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic origin (approx. 50-100 Myr)

Phreatic seepage flow through an earth dam with an impeding strip

New mathematical models are developed and corresponding boundary value problems are analytically and numerically solved for Darcian flows in earth (rock)–filled dams, which have a vertical impermeable barrier on the downstream slope. For saturated flow, a 2-D potential model considers a free boundary problem to Laplace’s equation with a traveling-wave phreatic line generated by a linear drawup of a water level in the dam reservoir. The barrier re-directs seepage from purely horizontal (a seepage face outlet) to purely vertical (a no-flow boundary). An alternative model is also used for a hydraulic approximation of a 3-D steady flow when the barrier is only a partial obstruction to seepage. The Poisson equation is solved with respect to Strack’s potential, which predicts the position of the phreatic surface and hydraulic gradient in the dam body. Simulations with HYDRUS, a FEM-code for solving Richards’ PDE, i.e., saturated-unsaturated flows without free boundaries, are carried out for both 2-D and 3-D regimes in rectangular and hexagonal domains. The Barenblatt and Kalashnikov closed-form analytical solutions in non-capillarity soils are compared with the HYDRUS results. Analytical and numerical solutions match well when soil capillarity is minor. The found distributions of the Darcian velocity, the pore pressure, and total hydraulic heads in the vicinity of the barrier corroborate serious concerns about a high risk to the structural stability of the dam due to seepage. The modeling results are related to a “forensic” review of the recent collapse of the spillway of the Oroville Dam, CA, USA

Chromosome breakpoint distribution of damage induced in peripheral blood lymphocytes by densely ionising radiation

Purpose: To assess the chromosomal breakpoint distribution in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) after exposure to a low dose of high linear energy transfer (LET) α-particles using the technique of multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridisation (m-FISH). Materials and methods: Separated PBL were exposed in G0 to 0.5 Gy 238 Pu α-particles, stimulated to divide and harvested ~48-50 hours after exposure. Metaphase cells were assayed by m-FISH and chromosome breaks identified. The observed distribution of breaks were then compared with expected distributions of breaks, calculated on the assumption that the distribution of breaks is random with regard to either chromosome volume or chromosome surface area. Results: More breaks than expected were observed on chromosomes 2 and 11, however no particular region of either chromosome was identified as significantly contributing to this over-representation. The identification of hot or cold chromosome regions (pter,p,cen,q,qter) varied depending on whether the data were compared according to chromosome volume or surface area. Conclusions: A deviation from randomness in chromosome breakpoint distribution was observed, and this was greatest when data were compared according to the relative surface area of each individual chromosome (or region). The identification of breaks by m-FISH (i.e. more efficient observation of interchanges than intrachanges) and importance of territorial boundaries on interchange formation are thought to contribute to these differences. The significance of the observed non-random distribution of breaks on chromosomes 2 and 11 in relation to chromatin organisation is unclear

Learning from the experts: exploring playground experience and activities using a write and draw technique.

BACKGROUND: Qualitative research into the effect of school recess on children's physical activity is currently limited. This study used a write and draw technique to explore children's perceptions of physical activity opportunities during recess. METHODS: 299 children age 7-11 years from 3 primary schools were enlisted. Children were grouped into Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6 and completed a write and draw task focusing on likes and dislikes. Pen profiles were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Results indicated 'likes' focused on play, positive social interaction, and games across both age groups but showed an increasing dominance of games with an appreciation for being outdoors with age. 'Dislikes' focused on dysfunctional interactions linked with bullying, membership, equipment, and conflict for playground space. Football was a dominant feature across both age groups and 'likes/dislikes' that caused conflict and dominated the physically active games undertaken. CONCLUSION: Recess was important for the development of conflict management and social skills and contributed to physical activity engagement. The findings contradict suggestions that time spent in recess should be reduced because of behavioral issues

The Top Triangle Moose

We introduce a deconstructed model that incorporates both Higgsless and top-color mechanisms. The model alleviates the typical tension in Higgsless models between obtaining the correct top quark mass and keeping delta-rho small. It does so by singling out the top quark mass generation as arising from a Yukawa coupling to an effective top-Higgs which develops a small vacuum expectation value, while electroweak symmetry breaking results largely from a Higgsless mechanism. As a result, the heavy partners of the SM fermions can be light enough to be seen at the LHC

Efficient spiking neural network model of pattern motion selectivity in visual cortex

Simulating large-scale models of biological motion perception is challenging, due to the required memory to store the network structure and the computational power needed to quickly solve the neuronal dynamics. A low-cost yet high-performance approach to simulating large-scale neural network models in real-time is to leverage the parallel processing capability of graphics processing units (GPUs). Based on this approach, we present a two-stage model of visual area MT that we believe to be the first large-scale spiking network to demonstrate pattern direction selectivity. In this model, component-direction- selective (CDS) cells in MT linearly combine inputs from V1 cells that have spatiotemporal receptive fields according to the motion energy model of Simoncelli and Heeger. Pattern-direction-selective (PDS) cells in MT are constructed by pooling over MT CDS cells with a wide range of preferred directions. Responses of our model neurons are comparable to electrophysiological results for grating and plaid stimuli as well as speed tuning. The behavioral response of the network in a motion discrimination task is in agreement with psychophysical data. Moreover, our implementation outperforms a previous implementation of the motion energy model by orders of magnitude in terms of computational speed and memory usage. The full network, which comprises 153,216 neurons and approximately 40 million synapses, processes 20 frames per second of a 40∈×∈40 input video in real-time using a single off-the-shelf GPU. To promote the use of this algorithm among neuroscientists and computer vision researchers, the source code for the simulator, the network, and analysis scripts are publicly available. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

CAPITAL MARKET INTEGRATION IN JAPAN

We construct new quarterly estimates of lending rates for 47 Japanese prefectures for the period 1886-1922, and test the extent to which regional capital markets integrated during this period. We analyze whether the capital market was efficient, estimate the speed of convergence among the rates, and assess the degree to which different regions were integrated with the main financial centers of Japan. Interest-rate differentials between the financial centers of Japan and other regions do not follow a random walk, and hence are suggestive of market efficiency ? in the sense that arbitrage opportunities did not persist. Results from cointegration tests suggest that the integration in Japan is characterized by multiple stochastic elements. We find the existence of four long-run cointegrating relationships. We also find evidence that shocks occurring in a financial center, such as the Kanto region, were transmitted to outlying regions and had permanent, but small effects on their rates.Financial Market Development, Capital Market Integration, Economic Integration, Japanese Banks

Integration and Growth in East Asia

This paper empirically analyzes the experience of East Asiafs economic growth with data both at aggregate-economy and micro-firm levels, focusing on the role of international integration through trade and direct investment. The analysis within a framework of cross-country panel regression shows that trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows have a positive effect on gross domestic product (GDP) growth? particularly in the 1970 and 1980s?while FDI outflows appear to have a negative effect on GDP growth. Micro-level evidence based on manufacturing data in the Republic of Korea (Korea) confirms the positive effect of trade and investment integration on plant-level productivity growth. It also suggests the relationship between FDI outflows and productivity growth depends on the characteristics of a recipient economy. We find that FDI to the Peoplefs Republic of China tends to reduce productivity growth of firms in Korea while FDI to the United States or Japan works in favor of productivity growth.integration, growth, trade, foreign direct investment, East Asia