Circle Hooks In Commercial, Recreational, And Artisanal Fisheries: Research Status And Needs For Improved Conservation And Management

The intent of convening the International Symposium on Circle Hooks in Research, Management, and Conservation was to yield a contemporary, science-based assessment of the management and conservation utility of circle hooks in commercial, recreational, and artisanal fisheries around the globe. The symposium objective was to provide a forum for individuals, organizations, and agencies to share relevant research results and perspectives. Based on the presentations, an examination of the literature, and the collective experience and knowledge of the authors, we provide a brief overview of the current status of circle hook research along with a list of research needs, with a particular focus on science that has the potential to inform managers and stakeholders. Progress was made on the definition of a true circle hook. There was strong recognition that circle hooks represent just one of the tools available to managers for reducing bycatch and release mortality. Also defined was the need for an integrative approach that considers strategies that complement the use of circle hooks. Some of the research needs identified include a greater emphasis on human dimension studies to identify those factors that may impede adoption of circle hook technology by stakeholders and comparative studies of circle hook performance relative to mouth morphology, dentition, and feeding behavior. While the literature on effective use of circle hooks is growing, there remains a number of unanswered questions that will require study before circle hooks are more widely adopted for conservation and management of aquatic living resources

DeepCare: A Deep Dynamic Memory Model for Predictive Medicine

Personalized predictive medicine necessitates the modeling of patient illness and care processes, which inherently have long-term temporal dependencies. Healthcare observations, recorded in electronic medical records, are episodic and irregular in time. We introduce DeepCare, an end-to-end deep dynamic neural network that reads medical records, stores previous illness history, infers current illness states and predicts future medical outcomes. At the data level, DeepCare represents care episodes as vectors in space, models patient health state trajectories through explicit memory of historical records. Built on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), DeepCare introduces time parameterizations to handle irregular timed events by moderating the forgetting and consolidation of memory cells. DeepCare also incorporates medical interventions that change the course of illness and shape future medical risk. Moving up to the health state level, historical and present health states are then aggregated through multiscale temporal pooling, before passing through a neural network that estimates future outcomes. We demonstrate the efficacy of DeepCare for disease progression modeling, intervention recommendation, and future risk prediction. On two important cohorts with heavy social and economic burden -- diabetes and mental health -- the results show improved modeling and risk prediction accuracy.Comment: Accepted at JBI under the new name: "Predicting healthcare trajectories from medical records: A deep learning approach

Comparative chromosome painting discloses homologous Segments in distantly related mammals

Comparative chromosome painting, termed ZOO-FISH, using DNA libraries from flow sorted human chromosomes 1,16,17 and X, and mouse chromosome 11 discloses the presence of syntenic groups in distantly related mammalian Orders ranging from primates (Homo sapiens), rodents (Mus musculus), even-toed ungulates (Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis and Muntiacus reevesi) and whales (Balaenoptera physalus). These mammalian Orders have evolved separately for 55-80 million years (Myr). We conclude that ZOO-FISH can be used to generate comparative chromosome maps of a large number of mammalian species

Using an e-Health Intervention to Reduce Prolonged Sitting in UK Office Workers: A Randomised Acceptability and Feasibility Study

Low-cost workplace interventions are required to reduce prolonged sitting in office workers as this may improve employees’ health and well-being. This study aimed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of an e-health intervention to reduce prolonged sitting among sedentary UK-based office workers. Secondary aims were to describe preliminary changes in employee health, mood and work productivity after using an e-health intervention. Healthy, university office workers (n = 14) completed this study. An 8 week randomised crossover design was used, consisting of two trials: Intervention (computer-based prompts) and Control. Eligibility and retention rates were recorded to assess the feasibility of the trial and interviews were conducted following the intervention to explore its acceptability. Sitting, standing and stepping were objectively assessed prior to and during week 8 of each trial. Before and after each trial, measurements of vascular function, cerebrovascular function, mood and work productivity were obtained. This study had eligibility and retention rates of 54.5% and 77.8%, respectively. Participants expressed a lack of autonomy and disruption to their workflow when using the e-health intervention, raising concerns over its acceptability and long-term implementation. Preliminary data indicate that the intervention may improve the patterning of activity accrued during work hours, with increases in the number of standing and stepping bouts completed, in addition to improving vascular function. This e-health intervention is feasible to deliver in a cohort of university office workers. However, adaptations to its implementation, such as personalised settings, are needed to increase acceptability before larger trials can be conducted

Declining Burden of Malaria Over two Decades in a Rural Community of Muheza District, North-Eastern Tanzania.

The recently reported declining burden of malaria in some African countries has been attributed to scaling-up of different interventions although in some areas, these changes started before implementation of major interventions. This study assessed the long-term trends of malaria burden for 20 years (1992--2012) in Magoda and for 15 years in Mpapayu village of Muheza district, north-eastern Tanzania, in relation to different interventions as well as changing national malaria control policies.\ud Repeated cross-sectional surveys recruited individuals aged 0 -- 19 years from the two villages whereby blood smears were collected for detection of malaria parasites by microscopy. Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infections and other indices of malaria burden (prevalence of anaemia, splenomegaly and gametocytes) were compared across the years and between the study villages. Major interventions deployed including mobile clinic, bed nets and other research activities, and changes in national malaria control policies were also marked. In Magoda, the prevalence of P. falciparum infections initially decreased between 1992 and 1996 (from 83.5 to 62.0%), stabilized between 1996 and 1997, and further declined to 34.4% in 2004. A temporary increase between 2004 and 2008 was followed by a progressive decline to 7.2% in 2012, which is more than 10-fold decrease since 1992. In Mpapayu (from 1998), the highest prevalence was 81.5% in 1999 and it decreased to 25% in 2004. After a slight increase in 2008, a steady decline followed, reaching <5% from 2011 onwards. Bed net usage was high in both villages from 1999 to 2004 (>=88%) but it decreased between 2008 and 2012 (range, 28% - 68%). After adjusting for the effects of bed nets, age, fever and year of study, the risk of P. falciparum infections decreased significantly by >=97% in both villages between 1999 and 2012 (p < 0.001). The prevalence of splenomegaly (>40% to <1%) and gametocytes (23% to <1%) also decreased in both villages.Discussion and conclusionsA remarkable decline in the burden of malaria occurred between 1992 and 2012 and the initial decline (1992 -- 2004) was most likely due to deployment of interventions, such as bed nets, and better services through research activities. Apart from changes of drug policies, the steady decline observed from 2008 occurred when bed net coverage was low suggesting that other factors contributed to the most recent pattern. These results suggest that continued monitoring is required to determine causes of the changing malaria epidemiology and also to monitor the progress towards maintaining low malaria transmission and reaching related millennium development goals

A cluster randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Intermediate Care Clinics for Diabetes (ICCD) : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background World-wide healthcare systems are faced with an epidemic of type 2 diabetes. In the United Kingdom, clinical care is primarily provided by general practitioners (GPs) rather than hospital specialists. Intermediate care clinics for diabetes (ICCD) potentially provide a model for supporting GPs in their care of people with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes and in their management of cardiovascular risk factors. This study aims to (1) compare patients with type 2 diabetes registered with practices that have access to an ICCD service with those that have access only to usual hospital care; (2) assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention; and (3) explore the views and experiences of patients, health professionals and other stakeholders. Methods/Design This two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial (with integral economic evaluation and qualitative study) is set in general practices in three UK Primary Care Trusts. Practices are randomized to one of two groups with patients referred to either an ICCD (intervention) or to hospital care (control). Intervention group: GP practices in the intervention arm have the opportunity to refer patients to an ICCD - a multidisciplinary team led by a specialist nurse and a diabetologist. Patients are reviewed and managed in the ICCD for a short period with a goal of improving diabetes and cardiovascular risk factor control and are then referred back to practice. or Control group: Standard GP care, with referral to secondary care as required, but no access to ICCD. Participants are adults aged 18 years or older who have type 2 diabetes that is difficult for their GPs to control. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants reaching three risk factor targets: HbA1c (≤7.0%); blood pressure (<140/80); and cholesterol (<4 mmol/l), at the end of the 18-month intervention period. The main secondary outcomes are the proportion of participants reaching individual risk factor targets and the overall 10-year risks for coronary heart disease(CHD) and stroke assessed by the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) risk engine. Other secondary outcomes include body mass index and waist circumference, use of medication, reported smoking, emotional adjustment, patient satisfaction and views on continuity, costs and health related quality of life. We aimed to randomize 50 practices and recruit 2,555 patients

Individual calibration of accelerometers in children and their health-related implications

This study compared children’s physical activity (PA) levels, the prevalence of children meeting current guidelines of ≥60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), and PA-health associations using individually calibrated (IC) and empirical accelerometer cutpoints. Data from 75 (n = 32 boys) 10-12 year old children were included in this study. Clustered cardiometabolic (CM) risk, directly measured cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), anthropometric and 7 day accelerometer data were included within analysis. PA data were classified using Froude anchored IC, Evenson et al., 2008 (Ev) and Mackintosh et al., 2012 (Mack) cutpoints. The proportion of the cohort meeting ≥60mins MVPA/day ranged from 37%-56% depending on the cutpoints used. Reported PA differed significantly across the cutpoint sets. IC LPA and MPA were predictors of CRF (LPA: standardised β = 0.32, p = 0.002, MPA: standardised β = 0.27 p = 0.013). IC MPA also predicted BMI Z-score (standardised β = -0.35, p = 0.004). Ev VPA was a predictor of BMI Z-score (standardised β = -0.33, p = 0.012). Cutpoint choice has a substantial impact on reported PA levels though no significant associations with CM risk were observed. Froude IC cut points represent a promising approach towards classifying children’s PA data

Genetic Background Can Result in a Marked or Minimal Effect of Gene Knockout (GPR55 and CB2 Receptor) in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Models of Multiple Sclerosis

PMCID: PMC379391

Platypus globin genes and flanking loci suggest a new insertional model for beta-globin evolution in birds and mammals

Background: Vertebrate alpha (α)- and beta (β)-globin gene families exemplify the way in which genomes evolve to produce functional complexity. From tandem duplication of a single globin locus, the α- and β-globin clusters expanded, and then were separated onto different chromosomes. The previous finding of a fossil β-globin gene (ω) in the marsupial α-cluster, however, suggested that duplication of the α-β cluster onto two chromosomes, followed by lineage-specific gene loss and duplication, produced paralogous α- and β-globin clusters in birds and mammals. Here we analyse genomic data from an egg-laying monotreme mammal, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), to explore haemoglobin evolution at the stem of the mammalian radiation. Results: The platypus α-globin cluster (chromosome 21) contains embryonic and adult α- globin genes, a β-like ω-globin gene, and the GBY globin gene with homology to cytoglobin, arranged as 5'-ζ-ζ'-αD-α3-α2-α1-ω-GBY-3'. The platypus β-globin cluster (chromosome 2) contains single embryonic and adult globin genes arranged as 5'-ε-β-3'. Surprisingly, all of these globin genes were expressed in some adult tissues. Comparison of flanking sequences revealed that all jawed vertebrate α-globin clusters are flanked by MPG-C16orf35 and LUC7L, whereas all bird and mammal β-globin clusters are embedded in olfactory genes. Thus, the mammalian α- and β-globin clusters are orthologous to the bird α- and β-globin clusters respectively. Conclusion: We propose that α- and β-globin clusters evolved from an ancient MPG-C16orf35-α-β-GBY-LUC7L arrangement 410 million years ago. A copy of the original β (represented by ω in marsupials and monotremes) was inserted into an array of olfactory genes before the amniote radiation (&gt;315 million years ago), then duplicated and diverged to form orthologous clusters of β-globin genes with different expression profiles in different lineages.Vidushi S. Patel, Steven J.B. Cooper, Janine E. Deakin, Bob Fulton, Tina Graves, Wesley C. Warren, Richard K. Wilson and Jennifer A.M. Grave

Variation in hospital cleaning practice and process in Australian hospitals: A structured mapping exercise

Background The purpose of this paper is to highlight the range of cleaning practices and processes in 11 Australian hospitals and to discuss the challenges this variation poses to the implementation of clinical trials or changes to hospital cleaning practices. Methods A cross-sectional study design was used to determine cleaning practices and processes in hospitals participating in the ‘Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals’ (REACH) study. A standardised template and approach was used to collect information. Data collection activities included structured on-site discussions, a review of hospital practices and a document review of policy and procedural documents related to cleaning. Results Variations in the auditing process used to evaluate environmental cleanliness, cleaning practices, product use, training and communication pathways available to cleaning staff were identified. There was also variation in workforce structure and responsibilities for cleaning. Conclusion This paper is the first to describe the differences in cleaning practices between Australian hospitals. The variations identified present a number of challenges for the conduct of research and have important implications for both monitoring of and standards for cleanliness. These challenges include implementing a practice change or cleaning study where hospitals have different processes, practices and structures