‘Boil it Cook it, Peel it or Forget it': Does this Rule Prevent Travellers‘ Diarrhoea?

Kozicki M (Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine of the University, Gloriastrasse 30, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland), Steffen R and Schär M. ‘Boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it: Does this rule prevent travellers' diarrhoea? International Journal of Epidemiology 1985. 14: 169‐172. A total of 688 out of 2240 air charter passengers in flight to Kenya, West Africa or Sri Lanka/Maldives volunteered to participate in a follow-up study investigating the influence of various food and beverage items on the incidence of travellers' diarrhoea. Within the first three days of their stay abroad, 98% accepted food or beverages whose avoidance is traditionally recommended. The incidence of diarrhoea, which was 19.5%, was proportionate to the number of dietary mistakes committed. The most dangerous items were those whose avoidance was traditionally recommende

PV installations based on vertically mounted bifacial modules evaluation of energy yield and shading effects

Bifacial solar modules promise an increased energy yield, compared to systems with standard, monofacial panels, and also offer new opportunities with regard to the installation. One particular approach is the vertical mounting of PV modules, which is reported to be an effective measure to avoid soiling or dust deposition and is an option to obtain a broadened energy generation profile. In spite of the general interest in this type of installation, the amount of published data is very limited, especially with regard to arrays, for which pronounced shading effects can be expected. In this work we present an analysis of the energy yield and the respective losses for arrays of vertically mounted bifacial solar modules with varied installation conditions

Development of a World Health Organization International Reference Panel for different genotypes of hepatitis E virus for nucleic acid amplification testing.

Globally, hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major cause of acute viral hepatitis. Epidemiology and clinical presentation of hepatitis E vary greatly by location and are affected by the HEV genotype. Nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays are important for the detection of acute HEV infection as well for monitoring chronic cases of hepatitis E. The aim of the study was to evaluate a panel of samples containing different genotypes of HEV for use in nucleic NAT-based assays. The panel of samples comprises eleven different members including HEV genotype 1a (2 strains), 1e, 2a, 3b, 3c, 3e, 3f, 4c, 4g as well as a human isolate related to rabbit HEV. Each laboratory assayed the panel members directly against the 1 World Health Organization (WHO) International Standard (IS) for HEV RNA (6329/10) which is based upon a genotype 3 a strain. The samples for evaluation were distributed to 24 laboratories from 14 different countries and assayed on three separate days. Of these, 23 participating laboratories returned a total of 32 sets of data; 17 from quantitative assays and 15 from qualitative assays. The assays used consisted of a mixture of in-house developed and commercially available assays. The results showed that all samples were detected consistently by the majority of participants, although in some cases, some samples were detected less efficiently. Based on the results of the collaborative study the panel (code number 8578/13) was established as the "1st International Reference Panel (IRP) for all HEV genotypes for NAT-based assays" by the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization. This IRP will be important for assay validation and ensuring adequate detection of different genotypes and clinically important sub-genotypes of HEV

Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020

We show the distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three genomic nomenclature systems to all sequence data from the World Health Organization European Region available until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation, compare the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2

‘Boil it Cook it, Peel it or Forget it’: Does this Rule Prevent Travellers‘ Diarrhoea?

Kozicki M (Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine of the University, Gloriastrasse 30, CH-8006 Zurich, Switzerland), Steffen R and Schär M. ‘Boil it, cook it, peel it or forget it: Does this rule prevent travellers' diarrhoea? International Journal of Epidemiology 1985. 14: 169‐172. A total of 688 out of 2240 air charter passengers in flight to Kenya, West Africa or Sri Lanka/Maldives volunteered to participate in a follow-up study investigating the influence of various food and beverage items on the incidence of travellers' diarrhoea. Within the first three days of their stay abroad, 98% accepted food or beverages whose avoidance is traditionally recommended. The incidence of diarrhoea, which was 19.5%, was proportionate to the number of dietary mistakes committed. The most dangerous items were those whose avoidance was traditionally recommende

Emotionale und kardiovaskuläre Reaktionen von Paaren während einer paartherapeutischen Intervention

Theoretischer Hintergrund: Die Wirksamkeit von Paartherapien und präventiven Interventionsprogrammen für Paare gilt als gut dokumentiert. Das Wissen wie diese Veränderungen zustande kommen ist jedoch defizitär. Aus diesem Grund wurde gefordert, neben dem Therapieoutcome auch die Wirkungsweise der Interventionen zu erforschen. Fragestellung: Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es zu untersuchen, wie Paare auf eine bewältigungsorientierte paartherapeutische Intervention, die 3-Phasen-Methode von Bodenmann (2004), emotional und physiologisch reagieren. Methode: Während eines therapeutisch angeleiteten Gesprächs über ein paarexternes Stressereignis wurden bei den Paaren (N = 18) die Herzrate und das emotionale Befinden erfasst. Ergebnisse: Frauen wiesen gegenüber Männern stärkere emotionale und kardiovaskuläre Reaktionen auf und reagierten empathischer. Die Erfahrung von Unterstützung durch den Partner (dyadisches Coping) war mit einer emotionalen und physiologischen Entlastung assoziiert. Schlussfolgerung: Die Resultate unterstreichen unter anderem die Wichtigkeit des dyadischen Copings für emotionale und physiologische Prozesse während Paarinterventionen. Background: The efficacy of marital therapy and distress prevention training for couples is regarded as being well documented. However, only little is known about the mechanisms of change and how couples experience these interventions. Objective: We explored the emotional and physiological reactions of couples in the context of the 3-phases-method of Bodenmann (2004), which trains emotion-centered communication skills and exchange of dyadic coping in couples. Methods: During a conversation about a relationship external stressor, emotions and heart rate were measured. Results: Results reveal higher emotional and physiological reactions and more empathetic in reactions in women than in to men. Furthermore the results show that dyadic coping is associated with emotional and physiological discharge. Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of dyadic coping for physiological and emotional processes during couple interventions

Measurement of Outpatient Rehabilitation Outcomes with EQ-5D

Reinders S, Rasch A, Haupts M, Greiner W. Measurement of Outpatient Rehabilitation Outcomes with EQ-5D. In: Value in Health. Value in Health. Vol 12. Elsevier BV; 2009: A396

Biomechanical comparison of two biplanar and one monoplanar reconstruction techniques of the acromioclavicular joint.

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this proof-of-concept study was to investigate the biomechanical performance of two surgical techniques, namely (1) the double Tight-Rope fixation with an additional acromioclavicular FiberTape fixation (DTRC) and (2) the fixation of the clavicle to the acromion and coracoid in a bipodal manner (Bipod) using a Poly-Tape and FiberTape. Both techniques intend to address vertical and horizontal instability after acromioclavicular dislocation. They were compared with the commonly used (3) double Tight-Rope (DTR) technique, which only stabilizes the clavicle to the coracoid. MATERIALS AND METHODS The acromioclavicular joint (ACJ) of 18 composite Sawbone shoulder specimens (6 per reconstruction group) were tested for posterosuperior elongation (70N cyclical load, 1500 cycles), load-to-failure and stiffness. RESULTS After 1500 cycles, the DTRC, Bipod and DTR group showed an elongation of 0.45 mm (SD 0.14 mm), 1.19 mm (SD 0.54 mm), and 0.46 mm (SD 0.15 mm), respectively. Although the elongation of the Bipod group was increased when compared to the other two groups (Bipod versus DTRC p = 0.008; Bipod versus DTR p = 0.006), the difference was less than 0.7 mm. The DTRC showed a higher load-to-failure of 656.1N (SD 58.1 N) compared to the Bipod [531.1 N (SD 108.2N) (p = 0.039)] and DTR group [522.8 N (SD 32.8 N) (p = 0.033)]. CONCLUSION The DTRC and the DTR group resulted in similar low elongation, while the elongation in the Bipod technique was slightly higher. Even though this difference of 0.7 mm shows statistical significance, it most likely has no clinical relevance. When testing in posterosuperior direction, which is the clinically relevant load vector, an additional fixation of the clavicle to the acromion did not reduce elongation in this study. It is, furthermore, questionable if the benefit of an increased load-to-failure in combination with no improvement in elongation and stiffness as seen in the DTRC group outweighs the possible risks and increased costs coming with the DTRC refixation