Introduction of Aedes albopictus into a La Crosse virus--enzootic site in Illinois.

In late summer and fall 1997, Aedes albopictus mosquitoes were found in Peoria, Illinois, a long recognized focus of La Crosse virus transmission. Larvae were found in tires and other artificial containers, biting adults were recovered, and eggs were collected in oviposition traps within a 25-ha area. One chipmunk trapped < 0.25 km from the infested area tested positive for neutralizing antibodies against La Crosse virus

Assessing Risk in Focal Arboviral Infections: Are We Missing the Big or Little Picture?

Focal arboviral infections affecting a subset of the overall population present an often overlooked set of challenges in the assessment and reporting of risk and the detection of spatial patterns. Our objective was to assess the variation in risk when using different at-risk populations and geographic scales for the calculation of incidence risk and the detection of geographic hot-spots of infection. We explored these variations using a pediatric arbovirus, La Crosse virus (LACV), as our model.Descriptive and cluster analyses were performed on probable and confirmed cases of LACV infections reported to the Tennessee Department of Health from 1997 to 2006, using three at-risk populations (the total population, the population 18 years and younger, and the population 15 years and younger) and at two geographic levels (county and census tract) to assess the variation in incidence risk and to investigate evidence of clustering using both global and local spatial statistics. We determined that the most appropriate at-risk population to calculate incidence risk and to assess the evidence of clustering was the population 15 years and younger. Based on our findings, the most appropriate geographical level to conduct spatial analyses and report incidence risk is the census tract level. The incidence risk in the population 15 years and younger at the county level ranged from 0 to 226.5 per 100,000 persons (median 41.5) in those counties reporting cases (n = 14) and at the census tract level it ranged from 50.9 to 673.9 per 100,000 persons (median 126.7) in those census tracts reporting cases (n = 51). To our knowledge, this is the highest reported incidence risk for this population at the county level for Tennessee and at the census tract level nationally.The results of this study indicate the possibility of missing disease clusters resulting from performing incidence risk investigations of focal diseases using inappropriate at-risk populations and/or at large geographic scales. Improved disease surveillance and health planning will result through the use of well defined at-risk populations and the use of appropriate geographic scales for the analysis and reporting of diseases. The finding of a high incidence risk of LACV infections in eastern Tennessee demonstrates that the vast majority of these infections continue to be under-diagnosed and/or underreported in this region. Persistent prevention and surveillance efforts will be required to reduce exposure to infectious vectors and to detect new cases of infection in this region. Application of this study's observations in future investigations will enhance the quantification of incidence risk and the identification of high-risk groups within the population

Curriculum factors influencing knowledge of communication skills among medical students

Background Communication training builds on the assumption that understanding of the concepts related to professional communication facilitates the training. We know little about whether students' knowledge of clinical communication skills is affected by their attendance of communication training courses, or to what degree other elements of the clinical training or curriculum design also play a role. The aim of this study was to determine which elements of the curriculum influence acquisition of knowledge regarding clinical communication skills by medical students. Methods The study design was a cross-sectional survey performed in the four Norwegian medical schools with different curricula, spring 2003. A self-administered questionnaire regarding knowledge of communication skills (an abridged version of van Dalen's paper-and-pencil test) was sent to all students attending the four medical schools. A total of 1801 (59%) students responded with complete questionnaires. Results At the end of the 1st year of study, the score on the knowledge test was higher in students at the two schools running communication courses and providing early patient contact (mean 81%) than in the other two medical schools (mean 69–75%, P ≤ 0.001), with students studying a traditional curriculum scoring the lowest. Their scores increased sharply towards the end of the 3rd year, during which they had been subjected to extensive patient contact and had participated in an intensive communication course (77% vs. 72% the previous year, P ≤ 0.01). All students scored generally lower in academic years in which there was no communication training. However, at the end of the final year the difference between the schools was only 5% (81% vs. 86%, P ≤ 0.001). Conclusion The acquisition of knowledge regarding communication skills by medical students may be optimised when the training is given together with extensive supervised patient contact, especially if this teaching takes place in the initial years of the curriculum

Observed communication skills: how do they relate to the consultation content? A nation-wide study of graduate medical students seeing a standardized patient for a first-time consultation in a general practice setting

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In this study, we wanted to investigate the relationship between background variables, communication skills, and the bio-psychosocial content of a medical consultation in a general practice setting with a standardized patient.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Final-year medical school students (N = 111) carried out a consultation with an actor playing the role of a patient with a specific somatic complaint, psychosocial stressors, and concerns about cancer. Based on videotapes, communication skills and consultation content were scored separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean level of overall communication skills had a significant impact upon the counts of psychosocial issues, the patient's concerns about cancer, and the information and planning parts of the consultation content being addressed. Gender and age had no influence upon the relationship between communication skills and consultation content.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Communication skills seem to be important for final-year students' competence in addressing sensitive psychosocial issues and patients' concerns as well as informing and planning with patients being representative for a fairly complex case in general practice. This result should be considered in the design and incorporation of communication skills training as part of the curriculum of medical schools.</p

A multidisciplinary program of preparation for childbirth and motherhood: maternal anxiety and perinatal outcomes

Background: To study maternal anxiety and perinatal outcomes in pregnant women submitted to a Multidisciplinary Program for Childbirth and Motherhood Preparation (MPCM).Methods: This is a not randomized controlled trial on 67 nulliparous pregnant women divided into two groups according to participation (MPCM Group; n = 38) or not (Control Group; n = 29) in MPCM. the program consisted of 10 meetings (between the 18th and the 38th gestational week) during which educational, physiotherapeutic and interaction activities were developed. Anxiety was quantified at the beginning and at the end of the gestational period by the Trace-State Anxiety Inventory (STAI).Results: Initial maternal anxiety was equivalent between the groups. At the end of the gestational period, it was observed that anxiety levels increased in the Control Group and were maintained in the MPCM Group. A higher occurrence of vaginal deliveries (83.8%) and hospital discharge of three-day-older newborns (81.6%) as a result of MPCM was also significant. Levels of state-anxiety at the end of pregnancy showed a negative correlation with vaginal delivery, gestational age, birth weight and Apgar index at the first minute and positive correlation with the hospital period remaining of the newborns.Conclusion: in the study conditions, MPCM was associated with lower levels of maternal anxiety, a larger number of vaginal deliveries and shorter hospitalization time of newborns. It was not related to adverse perinatal outcomes.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Univ Estadual Paulista, Botucatu Sch Med, Dept Neurol Psychol & Psychiat, Botucatu, SP, BrazilUniv Estadual Paulista, Botucatu Sch Med, Dept Gynecol & Obstet, Botucatu, SP, BrazilUniv Sagrado Coracao, Dept Hlth Sci, Physiotherapy Sch, Bauru, BrazilSão Paulo Fed Univ Unifesp, Dept Hlth Sci, Phys Therapy Program, Santos, BrazilSão Paulo Fed Univ Unifesp, Dept Hlth Sci, Phys Therapy Program, Santos, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Georges Perec’s experimental fieldwork; Perecquian fieldwork

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis paper traces key themes in contemporary experimental fieldwork – explorations of ordinary places by artists, writers, activists, enthusiasts, students and researchers – to the works of Georges Perec. Preoccupations of this work – including playfulness, attention to the ordinary, and writing as a fieldwork practice – are all anticipated and elaborated in Perec’s oeuvre, where they converge around an ‘essayistic’ approach. Exhibiting these traits, some contemporary fieldwork is more convincingly Perecquian than psychogeographical or Situationist, despite the tendency to identify it with the latter. Through Perec, it is therefore possible to bring contemporary experimental fieldwork into focus, identifying a coherence and sense of project within it, while speaking to the question of what it means and could mean to conduct fieldwork experimentally. Particular attention is paid in this paper to Perec’s most accomplished and sustained field texts, both of which have been translated into English: An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (2010, from 1975 original in French) and Species of Spaces (1999/1974)

Human Probing Behavior of Aedes aegypti when Infected with a Life-Shortening Strain of Wolbachia

Mosquitoes transmit diseases when they are actively searching for a source of blood. This so called probing behavior comprises the “searching” time, the beginning of the feeding process until the first sign of blood can be seen within the insect body. The manipulation of this behavior can have important consequences for the mosquito's ability to transmit pathogens, such as dengue virus or Plasmodium. In this study we examined the probing behavior of the main vector of dengue viruses, Aedes aegypti, when infected with an intracellular bacterium, Wolbachia pipientis. This bacterium alters the probing behavior of older mosquitoes such that they take longer to find a feeding site and longer to imbibe blood, which may make them more susceptible to human defense responses. The bacterium appears to reduce mosquito feeding success by preventing the mosquito from successfully inserting its stylet into human skin. The old age onset of reduced mosquito feeding success due to Wolbachia could selectively promote a reduction in dengue transmission

The Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors Predictive for Populations at High-Risk for La Crosse Virus Infection in West Virginia

Although a large body of literature exists for the environmental risk factors for La Crosse virus (LACV) transmission, the demographic and socioeconomic risk factors for developing LACV infection have not been investigated. Therefore, this study investigated the demographic and socioeconomic risk factors for LACV infection in West Virginia from 2003 to 2007, using two forward stepwise discriminant analyses. The discriminant analyses were used to evaluate a number of demographic and socioeconomic factors for their ability to predict: 1) those census tracts with at least one reported case of LACV infection versus those census tracts with no reported cases of LACV infection and 2) to evaluate significantly high-risk clusters for LACV infection versus significantly low-risk clusters for LACV infection. In the first model, a high school education diploma or a general education diploma or less and a lower housing densit

The matter power spectrum in redshift space using effective field theory

The use of Eulerian 'standard perturbation theory' to describe mass assembly in the early universe has traditionally been limited to modes with k <= 0.1 h/Mpc at z=0. At larger k the SPT power spectrum deviates from measurements made using N-body simulations. Recently, there has been progress in extending the reach of perturbation theory to larger k using ideas borrowed from effective field theory. We revisit the computation of the redshift-space matter power spectrum within this framework, including for the first time for the full one-loop time dependence. We use a resummation scheme proposed by Vlah et al. to account for damping of the baryonic acoustic oscillations due to large-scale random motions and show that this has a significant effect on the multipole power spectra. We renormalize by comparison to a suite of custom N-body simulations matching the MultiDark MDR1 cosmology. At z=0 and for scales k <~ 0.4 h/Mpc we find that the EFT furnishes a description of the real-space power spectrum up to ~ 2%, for the ell=0 mode up to ~ 5% and for the ell = 2, 4 modes up to ~ 25%. We argue that, in the MDR1 cosmology, positivity of the ell = 0 mode gives a firm upper limit of k ~ 0.74 h/Mpc for the validity of the one-loop EFT prediction in redshift space using only the lowest-order counterterm. We show that replacing the one-loop growth factors by their Einstein-de Sitter counterparts is a good approximation for the ell = 0 mode, but can induce deviations as large as 2% for the ell = 2, 4 modes. An accompanying software bundle, distributed under open source licenses, includes Mathematica notebooks describing the calculation, together with parallel pipelines capable of computing both the necessary one-loop SPT integrals and the effective field theory counterterms

Dengue Virus Infection of the Aedes aegypti Salivary Gland and Chemosensory Apparatus Induces Genes that Modulate Infection and Blood-Feeding Behavior

The female Aedes aegypti salivary gland plays a pivotal role in bloodmeal acquisition and reproduction, and thereby dengue virus (DENV) transmission. It produces numerous immune factors, as well as immune-modulatory, vasodilatory, and anti-coagulant molecules that facilitate blood-feeding. To assess the impact of DENV infection on salivary gland physiology and function, we performed a comparative genome-wide microarray analysis of the naïve and DENV infection-responsive A. aegypti salivary gland transcriptomes. DENV infection resulted in the regulation of 147 transcripts that represented a variety of functional classes, including several that are essential for virus transmission, such as immunity, blood-feeding, and host-seeking. RNAi-mediated gene silencing of three DENV infection-responsive genes - a cathepsin B, a putative cystatin, and a hypothetical ankyrin repeat-containing protein - significantly modulated DENV replication in the salivary gland. Furthermore, silencing of two DENV infection-responsive odorant-binding protein genes (OBPs) resulted in an overall compromise in blood acquisition from a single host by increasing the time for initiation of probing and the probing time before a successful bloodmeal. We also show that DENV established an extensive infection in the mosquito's main olfactory organs, the antennae, which resulted in changes of the transcript abundance of key host-seeking genes. DENV infection, however, did not significantly impact probing initiation or probing times in our laboratory infection system. Here we show for the first time that the mosquito salivary gland mounts responses to suppress DENV which, in turn, modulates the expression of chemosensory-related genes that regulate feeding behavior. These reciprocal interactions may have the potential to affect DENV transmission between humans