Pentalogy of Cantrell : the first Maltese case with successful outcome

Pentalogy of Cantrell is a rare disorder which was first described by Cantrell and his colleagues in 1958. It is comprised of congenital heart disease and midline defects. Surgical treatment is possible with internalisation of the heart, repair of associated intracardiac anomalies and repair of the thoraco-abdominal defect. In this article the authors describe the first Maltese case, with a successful outcome.peer-reviewe

Incentivization matters: a meta-perspective on dictator games

Dictator game experiments come in three flavors: plain vanilla with strictly dichotomous separation of dictator and recipient roles, an interactive alternative whereby every subject acts in both roles, and a variant thereof with role uncertainty. We add information regarding which of these three protocols was used to data from the leading meta-study by Engel (Exp Econ 14(4):583–610, 2011) and investigate how these variations matter. Our meta-regressions suggest that interactive protocols with role duality compared with standard protocols, in addition to being relevant as a control for other effects, render subjects’ giving less generous but more efficiency-oriented. Our results help organize existing findings in the field and indicate sources of confounds

The excitation spectrum for weakly interacting bosons in a trap

We investigate the low-energy excitation spectrum of a Bose gas confined in a trap, with weak long-range repulsive interactions. In particular, we prove that the spectrum can be described in terms of the eigenvalues of an effective one-particle operator, as predicted by the Bogoliubov approximation.Comment: LaTeX, 32 page

Intelligent life-oriented design solution space selection

Consideration of design specifications is a vital part of the product design process. When design specifications are met, not only is customer satisfaction increased, but product development times and costs are reduced through less iteration. Product quality is also likely to be higher if these specifications are systematically addressed. However, focusing on the functionality specifications of the product is not enough. For the product to be really successful, design engineers have to take into account the specifications for the whole product life cycle, not only those for the use phase. This means that fabrication and assembly specifications, product servicing, product retirement and other specifications of the product from conception to grave should also be taken into account. Traditional CAD tools tend to provide support for the solution phase of the design process, with the design specifications being overlooked. This is a major limitation of these tools given the vital importance of considering design specifications during the design process. Due to this, specifications management is still very paper-based and is kept separate from the actual solution generation as there is no way for the designer to know, via traditional CAD tools, whether a given specification is satisfied in the solution being developed unless it is manually checked each time the question arises. What engineering designers do in practice is they start off with reading the design specifications from the Product Design Specification (PDS), then move on to generate a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) chart to convert the customer ‘wants’ into technical specifications, then start to take decisions based on what has been stored in their memories from the PDS and QFD [Grech 2009]. Hence, in practice, it is quite difficult to trace whether the design solution satisfies the design specifications or not. [Excerpt]peer-reviewe

Whatever the Weather: Ambient Temperature Does Not Influence the Proportion of Males Born in New Zealand

BACKGROUND: The proportion of male births has been shown to be over 50% in temperate climates around the world. Given that fluctuations in ambient temperature have previously been shown to affect sex allocation in humans, we examined the hypothesis that ambient temperature predicts fluctuations in the proportion of male births in New Zealand. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We tested three main hypotheses using time series analyses. Firstly, we used historical annual data in New Zealand spanning 1876-2009 to test for a positive effect of ambient temperature on the proportion of male births. The proportion of males born ranged by 3.17%, from 0.504 to 0.520, but no significant relationship was observed between male birth rates and mean annual temperature in the concurrent or previous years. Secondly, we examined whether changes in annual ambient temperature were negatively related to the proportion of male stillbirths from 1929-2009 and whether the proportion of male stillbirths negatively affected the proportion of male live births. We found no evidence that fewer male stillbirths occurred during warmer concurrent or previous years, though a declining trend in the proportion of male stillbirths was observed throughout the data. Thirdly, we tested whether seasonal ambient temperatures, or deviations from those seasonal patterns, were positively related to the proportion of male births using monthly data from 1980-2009. Patterns of male and female births are seasonal, but very similar throughout the year, resulting in a non-seasonal proportion of male births. However, no cross correlations between proportion of male births and lags of temperature were significant. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed, across all hypotheses under examination, that ambient temperatures were not related to the proportion of male births or the proportion of male stillbirths in New Zealand. While there is evidence that temperature may influence human sex allocation elsewhere, such effects of temperature are not universal

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London

Linkage Group Selection: Towards Identifying Genes Controlling Strain Specific Protective Immunity in Malaria

Protective immunity against blood infections of malaria is partly specific to the genotype, or strain, of the parasites. The target antigens of Strain Specific Protective Immunity are expected, therefore, to be antigenically and genetically distinct in different lines of parasite. Here we describe the use of a genetic approach, Linkage Group Selection, to locate the target(s) of Strain Specific Protective Immunity in the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi chabaudi. In a previous such analysis using the progeny of a genetic cross between P. c. chabaudi lines AS-pyr1 and CB, a location on P. c. chabaudi chromosome 8 containing the gene for merozoite surface protein-1, a known candidate antigen for Strain Specific Protective Immunity, was strongly selected. P. c. chabaudi apical membrane antigen-1, another candidate for Strain Specific Protective Immunity, could not have been evaluated in this cross as AS-pyr1 and CB are identical within the cell surface domain of this protein. Here we use Linkage Group Selection analysis of Strain Specific Protective Immunity in a cross between P. c. chabaudi lines CB-pyr10 and AJ, in which merozoite surface protein-1 and apical membrane antigen-1 are both genetically distinct. In this analysis strain specific immune selection acted strongly on the region of P. c. chabaudi chromosome 8 encoding merozoite surface protein-1 and, less strongly, on the P. c. chabaudi chromosome 9 region encoding apical membrane antigen-1. The evidence from these two independent studies indicates that Strain Specific Protective Immunity in P. c. chabaudi in mice is mainly determined by a narrow region of the P. c. chabaudi genome containing the gene for the P. c. chabaudi merozoite surface protein-1 protein. Other regions, including that containing the gene for P. c. chabaudi apical membrane antigen-1, may be more weakly associated with Strain Specific Protective Immunity in these parasites