The digital divide and ICT learning in rural communities:examples of good practice service delivery

This article aims to gain a greater understanding of relevant and successful methods of stimulating an ICT culture and skills development in rural areas. The paper distils good practice activities, utilizing criteria derived from a review of the rural dimensions of ICT learning, from a range of relevant initiatives and programmes. These good practice activities cover: community resource centres providing opportunities for ‘tasting’ ICTs; video games and Internet Cafe´s as tools removing ‘entry barriers’; emphasis on ‘user management’ as a means of creating ownership; service delivery beyond fixed locations; use of ICT capacities in the delivery of general services; and selected use of financial support

Regional Business Cycles in New Zealand: Do they exist? What Might Drive Them?

We use National Bank of New Zealand Regional Economic Activity data, to identify and characterise classical business cycle turning points, for New Zealand’s 14 regions and aggregate New Zealand activity. Using Concordance statistic measures, logistic model and GMM estimation methods, meaningful regional business cycles have been identified and a number of significant associations established. All regions exhibit cyclical asymmetry for both durations and amplitudes, and synchronisations between aggregate NZ activity and each region are contemporaneous. The regional cycles rarely die of old age but are terminated by particular events. The regions most highly synchronised with the NZ activity cycle are Auckland, Canterbury, and Nelson-Marlborough; those least so are Gisborne and Southland. Noticeably strong co-movements are evident for certain regions. Geographical proximity matters, and unusually dry conditions can be associated with cyclical downturns in certain regions. There is no discernable evidence of association with net immigration movements, and no significant evidence of regional cycle movements being associated with real house price cycles. The agriculture-based nature of the New Zealand economy is highlighted by the strong influence of external economic shocks on rural economic performance. In particular, there is considerable evidence of certain regional cycles being associated with movements in New Zealand’s aggregate terms of trade, real prices of milksolids, real dairy land prices and total rural land prices. JEL Classification: C22, E32, R11, R12, R15 Keywords: Classical business cycle; Turning Points; Regional business cycles; Concordance statistics; New Zealan

Invasive Mold Infections Following Hurricane Harvey-Houston, Texas

BACKGROUND: Characterizing invasive mold infection (IMI) epidemiology in the context of large flooding events is important for public health planning and clinical decision making. METHODS: We assessed IMI incidence (per 10 000 healthcare encounters) 1 year before and after Hurricane Harvey at 4 hospitals in Houston, Texas. Potential IMI cases were assigned as proven or probable cases using established definitions, and surveillance cases using a novel definition. We used rate ratios to describe IMI incidence and multivariable logistic regression to examine patient characteristics associated with IMI case status. RESULTS: IMI incidence was significantly higher posthurricane (3.69 cases) than prehurricane (2.50 cases) (rate ratio, 1.48 [95% confidence interval, 1.10-2.00]), largely driven by surveillance IMI cases. CONCLUSIONS: IMI incidence likely increased following Hurricane Harvey and outcomes for IMI patients were severe. Patient and clinician education on IMI prevention and identification is warranted, particularly as the frequency of extreme weather events increases due to climate change

Extreme Feedback and the Epoch of Reionization: Clues in the Local Universe

The source responsible for reionizing the universe at z > 6 remains uncertain. While an energetically adequate population of star-forming galaxies may be in place, it is unknown whether a large enough fraction of their ionizing radiation can escape into the intergalactic medium. Attempts to measure this escape-fraction in intensely star-forming galaxies at lower redshifts have largely yielded upper limits. In this paper we present new HST COS and archival FUSE far-UV spectroscopy of a sample of eleven Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs), a rare population of local galaxies that strongly resemble the high-z Lyman Break galaxies. We combine these data with SDSS optical spectra and Spitzer photometry. We also analyze archival FUSE observations of fifteen typical UV-bright local starbursts. We find evidence of small covering factors for optically-thick neutral gas in 3 cases. This is based on two independent pieces of evidence: a significant residual intensity in the cores of the strongest interstellar absorption-lines tracing neutral gas and a small ratio of extinction-corrected H-alpha to UV plus far-IR luminosities. These objects represent three of the four LBAs that contain a young, very compact (~100pc), and highly massive (~10^9 Mo) dominant central object (DCO). These three objects also differ from the other galaxies in showing a significant amount of blueshifted Ly-alpha emission, which may be related to the low covering factor of neutral gas. All four LBAs with DCOs in our sample show extremely high velocity outflows of interstellar gas, with line centroids blueshifted by about 700km/s and maximum outflow velocities reaching at least 1500km/s. We show that these properties are consistent with an outflow driven by a powerful starburst that is exceptionally compact. We speculate that such extreme feedback may be required to enable the escape of ionizing radiation from star forming galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Monoallelic variants resulting in substitutions of MAB21L1 Arg51 Cause Aniridia and microphthalmia

Classical aniridia is a congenital and progressive panocular disorder almost exclusively caused by heterozygous loss-of-function variants at the PAX6 locus. We report nine individuals from five families with severe aniridia and/or microphthalmia (with no detectable PAX6 mutation) with ultrarare monoallelic missense variants altering the Arg51 codon of MAB21L1. These mutations occurred de novo in 3/5 families, with the remaining families being compatible with autosomal dominant inheritance. Mice engineered to carry the p.Arg51Leu change showed a highly-penetrant optic disc anomaly in heterozygous animals with severe microphthalmia in homozygotes. Substitutions of the same codon (Arg51) in MAB21L2, a close homolog of MAB21L1, cause severe ocular and skeletal malformations in humans and mice. The predicted nucleotidyltransferase function of MAB21L1 could not be demonstrated using purified protein with a variety of nucleotide substrates and oligonucleotide activators. Induced expression of GFP-tagged wildtype and mutant MAB21L1 in human cells caused only modest transcriptional changes. Mass spectrometry of immunoprecipitated protein revealed that both mutant and wildtype MAB21L1 associate with transcription factors that are known regulators of PAX6 (MEIS1, MEIS2 and PBX1) and with poly(A) RNA binding proteins. Arg51 substitutions reduce the association of wild-type MAB21L1 with TBL1XR1, a component of the NCoR complex. We found limited evidence for mutation-specific interactions with MSI2/Musashi-2, an RNA-binding proteins with effects on many different developmental pathways. Given that biallelic loss-of-function variants in MAB21L1 result in a milder eye phenotype we suggest that Arg51-altering monoallelic variants most plausibly perturb eye development via a gain-of-function mechanism

The extraordinary evolutionary history of the reticuloendotheliosis viruses

The reticuloendotheliosis viruses (REVs) comprise several closely related amphotropic retroviruses isolated from birds. These viruses exhibit several highly unusual characteristics that have not so far been adequately explained, including their extremely close relationship to mammalian retroviruses, and their presence as endogenous sequences within the genomes of certain large DNA viruses. We present evidence for an iatrogenic origin of REVs that accounts for these phenomena. Firstly, we identify endogenous retroviral fossils in mammalian genomes that share a unique recombinant structure with REVs—unequivocally demonstrating that REVs derive directly from mammalian retroviruses. Secondly, through sequencing of archived REV isolates, we confirm that contaminated Plasmodium lophurae stocks have been the source of multiple REV outbreaks in experimentally infected birds. Finally, we show that both phylogenetic and historical evidence support a scenario wherein REVs originated as mammalian retroviruses that were accidentally introduced into avian hosts in the late 1930s, during experimental studies of P. lophurae, and subsequently integrated into the fowlpox virus (FWPV) and gallid herpesvirus type 2 (GHV-2) genomes, generating recombinant DNA viruses that now circulate in wild birds and poultry. Our findings provide a novel perspective on the origin and evolution of REV, and indicate that horizontal gene transfer between virus families can expand the impact of iatrogenic transmission events

Do people with risky behaviours participate in biomedical cohort studies?

BACKGROUND: Analysis was undertaken on data from randomly selected participants of a bio-medical cohort study to assess representativeness. The research hypotheses was that there was no difference in participation and non-participations in terms of health-related indicators (smoking, alcohol use, body mass index, physical activity, blood pressure and cholesterol readings and overall health status) and selected socio-demographics (age, sex, area of residence, education level, marital status and work status). METHODS: Randomly selected adults were recruited into a bio-medical representative cohort study based in the north western suburbs of the capital of South Australia – Adealide. Comparison data was obtained from cross-sectional surveys of randomly selected adults in the same age range and in the same region. The cohort participants were 4060 randomly selected adults (18+ years). RESULTS: There were no major differences between study participants and the comparison population in terms of current smoking status, body mass index, physical activity, overall health status and proportions with current high blood pressure and cholesterol readings. Significantly more people who reported a medium to very high alcohol risk participated in the study. There were some demographic differences with study participants more likely to be in the middle level of household income and education level. CONCLUSION: People with risky behaviours participated in this health study in the same proportions as people without these risk factors

Diarrhoea in a large prospective cohort of European travellers to resource-limited destinations

BACKGROUND: Incidence rates of travellers' diarrhoea (TD) need to be updated and risk factors are insufficiently known. METHODS: Between July 2006 and January 2008 adult customers of our Centre for Travel Health travelling to a resource-limited country for the duration of 1 to 8 weeks were invited to participate in a prospective cohort study. They received one questionnaire pre-travel and a second one immediately post-travel. First two-week incidence rates were calculated for TD episodes and a risk assessment was made including demographic and travel-related variables, medical history and behavioural factors. RESULTS: Among the 3100 persons recruited, 2800 could be investigated, resulting in a participation rate of 89.2%. The first two-weeks incidence for classic TD was 26.2% (95%CI 24.5-27.8). The highest rates were found for Central Africa (29.6%, 95% CI 12.4-46.8), the Indian subcontinent (26.3%, 95%CI 2.3-30.2) and West Africa (21.5%, 95%CI 14.9-28.1). Median TD duration was 2 days (range 1-90). The majority treated TD with loperamide (57.6%), while a small proportion used probiotics (23.0%) and antibiotics (6.8%). Multiple logistic regression analysis on any TD to determine risk factors showed that a resolved diarrhoeal episode experienced in the 4 months pre-travel (OR 2.03, 95%CI 1.59-2.54), antidepressive comedication (OR 2.11, 95%CI 1.17-3.80), allergic asthma (OR 1.67, 95%CI 1.10-2.54), and reporting TD-independent fever (OR 6.56, 95%CI 3.06-14.04) were the most prominent risk factors of TD. CONCLUSIONS: TD remains a frequent travel disease, but there is a decreasing trend in the incidence rate. Patients with a history of allergic asthma, pre-travel diarrhoea, or of TD-independent fever were more likely to develop TD while abroad