Peanut allergy – no longer a life sentence

In this review we provide an overview on the latest knowledge in the prevention and active management of peanut allergy. The rise in incidence of food allergy has generated new challenges in the management of affected individuals. Strategies to counteract the increase in prevalence of peanut allergy can be considered as a pyramid, beginning with primary prevention of those at riskthrough earlier introduction of peanut into the infant diet, to secondary prevention of peanut-sensitised childrenthroughimprovements in the correct diagnosis of peanut allergy and finally to thetreatment of children with proven peanut allergy.Conclusion: With theparadigm shift towards an active management, peanut allergy should no longer be seen as a life sentence

Resampling methods for homogeneity tests of covariance matrices

Testing hypotheses on covariance matrices has long been of interest in statistics. The test of homogeneity is very often a preliminary step in discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, MANOVA, etc. In this article we propose nonparametric tests which are based on the eigenvalues of the differences among the sample covariance matrices after a common rescaling. Three resampling techniques for calculating p-values are shown to be asymptotically valid: Boot-strap, random symmetrization and permutation. Monte Carlo simulations show that the bootstrap performs less satisfactorily than the others in adhering to the nominal level of significance. Some theoretic ground for this phenomenon is given. The simulation results also suggest that the homogeneity tests proposed in this article performs better than the bootstrap version of Bartlett's test.published_or_final_versio

Exploring the relationship between cyberbullying and unnatural child death: an ecological study of twenty-four European countries

Background Internet risk has been recognized as a child safety problem, but evidence is insufficient to conclude that a child's online risk exposure can lead to physical harm. This study aims to explore the ecological relationship between Internet risk exposure and unnatural child death. Methods Multiple secondary data sources were used: online exposure to content about self-harm, cyberbullying, and Internet addiction data (EU Kids Online survey, 2010); and mortality data (European Detailed Mortality Database, 2010 or the latest year if not available) of 24 European countries. Correlations were found using quasi-Poisson regression. Countries' prevalence rates of psychiatric problems (European Social Survey Round 3 and 6, 2006 and 2012) were used to test for possible spuriousness. Results This study finds that countries with higher rates of cyberbullying were more likely to have a higher incidence of unnatural child death. A 1 percent rise in the prevalence of cyberbullying translated into a 28% increase in risk of unnatural child death (95% CI: 2%-57%). No evidence was found to substantiate confounding effect of the national prevalence of depressive symptoms or traditional bullying. Conclusions Explanations are given for the findings. We conclude that intervention programs designed to serve as precautionary measures for risk minimisation should be considered.published_or_final_versio

Relative importance of predatory versus non-predatory mortality for dominant copepod species in the northern Chilean (23°S) Humboldt Current System

Using detailed data of live/dead compositions, stage durations and molting rates, we derived for the first time both predatory and non-predatory mortality rates of the three main copepod species, Paracalanus cf. indicus, Acartia tonsa and Calanus chilensis, within the Humboldt Current System (HCS), and examined their relations with environmental factors. Predatory mortality rates of all three species increased with developmental stages (hence body sizes), indicating top-down control by predators that prefer larger prey. Intrusion of oxygen-poor water via upwelling and low chlorophyll a concentration correlated with increased non-predatory mortality rates of P. cf. indicus and A. tonsa, whereas non-predatory mortality rate of C. chilensis increased with water temperature. Overall, non-predatory mortality accounted for 34.8 to 46.3 % of the total mortality among the three species. Changes in upwelling intensity due to climate change may alter the intensities of predatory and non-predatory mortalities in the HCS copepod communities

Quantum statistics of interacting dimer spin systems

The compound TlCuCl3 represents a model system of dimerized quantum spins with strong interdimer interactions. We investigate the triplet dispersion as a function of temperature by inelastic neutron scattering experiments on single crystals. By comparison with a number of theoretical approaches we demonstrate that the description of Troyer, Tsunetsugu, and Wurtz [Phys. Rev. B 50, 13 515 (1994)] provides an appropriate quantum statistical model for dimer spin systems at finite temperatures, where many-body correlations become particularly important

Electrical bending actuation of gold-films with nanotextured surfaces

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Dynamical studies of macroscopic superposition states: Phase engineering of controlled entangled number states of Bose-Einstein condensate in multiple wells

We provide a scheme for the generation of entangled number states of Bose-Einstein condensates in multiple wells with cyclic pairwise connectivity. The condensate ground state in a multiple well trap can self-evolve, when phase engineered with specific initial phase differences between the neighboring wells, to a macroscopic superposition state with controllable entanglement -- to multiple well generalization of double well NOON states. We demonstrate through numerical simulations the creation of entangled states in three and four wells and then explore the creation of "larger" entangled states where there are either a larger number of particles in each well or a larger number of wells. The type of entanglement produced as the particle numbers, or interaction strength, increases changes in a novel and initially unexpected manner.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure

Where do we go from here? An assessment of navigation performance using a compass versus a GPS unit

The Global Positioning System (GPS) looks set to replace the traditional map and compass for navigation tasks in military and civil domains. However, we may ask whether GPS has a real performance advantage over traditional methods. We present an exploratory study using a waypoint plotting task to compare the standard magnetic compass against a military GPS unit, for both expert and non-expert navigators. Whilst performance times were generally longer in setting up the GPS unit, once navigation was underway the GPS was more efficient than the compass. For mediumto long-term missions, this means that GPS could offer significant performance benefits, although the compass remains superior for shorter missions. Notwithstanding the performance times, significantly more errors, and more serious errors, occurred when using the compass. Overall, then, the GPS offers some clear advantages, especially for non-expert users. Nonetheless, concerns over the development of cognitive maps remain when using GPS technologies

Spatially and genetically distinct African trypanosome virulence variants defined by host interferon-g response

We describe 2 spatially distinct foci of human African trypansomiasis in eastern Uganda. The Tororo and Soroti foci of <i>Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense</i> infection were genetically distinct as characterized by 6 microsatellite and 1 minisatellite polymorphic markers and were characterized by differences in disease progression and host-immune response. In particular, infections with the Tororo genotype exhibited an increased frequency of progression to and severity of the meningoencephalitic stage and higher plasma interferon (IFN)–γ concentration, compared with those with the Soroti genotype. We propose that the magnitude of the systemic IFN-γ response determines the time at which infected individuals develop central nervous system infection and that this is consistent with the recently described role of IFN-γ in facilitating blood-brain barrier transmigration of trypanosomes in an experimental model of infection. The identification of trypanosome isolates with differing disease progression phenotypes provides the first field-based genetic evidence for virulence variants in T. <i>brucei rhodesiense</i>