Productivity costs from a dengue episode in Asia: a systematic literature review

Background Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection which has been estimated to cause a global economic burden of US$8.9 billion per year. 40 Method We searched PubMed and Web of Knowledge without date and language restrictions using terms related to dengue and cost and economics burden. The titles and abstracts of publications related to Asia were screened to identify relevant studies. The reported productivity losses and costs of non-fatal and fatal dengue episodes were then described and compared. Costs were adjusted for inflation to 2017 prices. Results We reviewed 33 relevant articles, of which 20 studies reported the productivity losses, and 31 studies reported productivity costs. The productivity costs varied between US$6.7–1445.9 and US$3.8–1332 for hospitalized and outpatient non-fatal episodes, respectively. The productivity cost associated with fatal dengue episodes varied between US$12,035-1,453,237. A large degree of this variation was due to the range of different countries being investigated and their corresponding economic status. However, estimates for a given country still showed notable variation. Conclusion We found that the estimated productivity costs associated with dengue episodes in Asia are notable. However, owing to the significant variation in methodology and approaches applied, the reported productivity costs of dengue episodes were often not directly comparable across studies. More consistent and transparent methodology regarding the estimation of productivity costs would help the estimates of the economic burden of dengue be more accurate and comparable across studies

Towards an Understanding of the Interactions between Freshwater Inflows and Phytoplankton Communities in a Subtropical Estuary in the Gulf of Mexico

Subtropical estuaries worldwide face increased pressure on their ecosystem health and services due to increasing human population growth and associated land use/land cover changes, expansion of ports, and climate change. We investigated freshwater inflows (river discharge) and the physico-chemical characteristics of Galveston Bay (Texas, USA) as mechanisms driving variability in phytoplankton biomass and community composition between February 2008 and December 2009. Results of multivariate analyses (hierarchical cluster analysis, PERMANOVA, Mantel test, and nMDS ordination coupled to environmental vector fitting) revealed that temporal and spatial differences in phytoplankton community structure correlate to differences in hydrographic and water quality parameters. Spatially, phytoplankton biomass and community composition responded to nutrient loading from the San Jacinto River in the northwest region of the bay (consistent with nutrient limitation) while hydraulic displacement (and perhaps other processes) resulted in overall lower biomass in the Trinity River delta (northeast region). The influence of inflows on phytoplankton diminished along a north to south gradient in the bay. Temporally, temperature and variables associated with freshwater inflow (discharge volume, salinity, inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations) were major influences on phytoplankton dynamics. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen: phosphorus (DIN:DIP) ratios suggest that phytoplankton communities will be predominately nitrogen limited. Diatoms dominated during periods of moderate to high freshwater inflows in winter/spring and were more abundant in the upper bay while cyanobacteria dominated during summer/fall when inflow was low. Given the differential influences of freshwater inflow on the phytoplankton communities of Galveston Bay, alterations upstream (magnitude, timing, frequency) will likely have a profound effect on downstream ecological processes and corresponding ecosystem services

Genetic contributions to visuospatial cognition in Williams syndrome: insights from two contrasting partial deletion patients

Background Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder arising from a hemizygotic deletion of approximately 27 genes on chromosome 7, at locus 7q11.23. WS is characterised by an uneven cognitive profile, with serious deficits in visuospatial tasks in comparison to relatively proficient performance in some other cognitive domains such as language and face processing. Individuals with partial genetic deletions within the WS critical region (WSCR) have provided insights into the contribution of specific genes to this complex phenotype. However, the combinatorial effects of different genes remain elusive. Methods We report on visuospatial cognition in two individuals with contrasting partial deletions in the WSCR: one female (HR), aged 11 years 9 months, with haploinsufficiency for 24 of the WS genes (up to GTF2IRD1), and one male (JB), aged 14 years 2 months, with the three most telomeric genes within the WSCR deleted, or partially deleted. Results Our in-depth phenotyping of the visuospatial domain from table-top psychometric, and small- and large-scale experimental tasks reveal a profile in HR in line with typically developing controls, albeit with some atypical features. These data are contrasted with patient JB’s atypical profile of strengths and weaknesses across the visuospatial domain, as well as with more substantial visuospatial deficits in individuals with the full WS deletion. Conclusions Our findings point to the contribution of specific genes to spatial processing difficulties associated with WS, highlighting the multifaceted nature of spatial cognition and the divergent effects of genetic deletions within the WSCR on different components of visuospatial ability. The importance of general transcription factors at the telomeric end of the WSCR, and their combinatorial effects on the WS visuospatial phenotype are also discussed

Multi-disciplinary efforts to evaluate the therapeutic potential of CDK11, a novel transcription associated cyclin dependent kinase.

View full abstracthttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/leading-edge/1043/thumbnail.jp

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Data from: Give the machine a hand: a Boolean time-based decision-tree template for rapidly finding animal behaviours in multi-sensor data

1. The development of multi-sensor animal-attached tags, recording data at high frequencies, has enormous potential in allowing us to define animal behaviour. 2. The high volumes of data, are pushing us towards machine-learning as a powerful option for distilling out behaviours. However, with increasing parallel lines of data, systems become more likely to become processor limited and thereby take appreciable amounts of time to resolve behaviours. 3. We suggest a Boolean approach whereby critical changes in recorded parameters are used as sequential templates with defined flexibility (in both time and degree) to determine individual behavioural elements within a behavioural sequence that, together, makes up a single, defined behaviour. 4. We tested this approach, and compared it to a suite of other behavioural identification methods, on a number of behaviours from tag-equipped animals; sheep grazing, penguins walking, cheetah stalking prey and condors thermalling. 5. Overall behaviour recognition using our new approach was better than most other methods due to; (i) its ability to deal with behavioural variation and (ii) the speed with which the task was completed because extraneous data are avoided in the process. 6. We suggest that this approach is a promising way forward in an increasingly data-rich environment and that workers sharing algorithms can provide a powerful library for the benefit of all involved in such work

Spearman’s correlation among environmental distances and (A) pigment concentration and (B) relative pigment abundance dissimilarity matrices.

<p>Environmental distances represent Euclidean distance, and pigment dissimilarity was calculated using the Bray-Curtis index. Correlation and significance of correlation among matrices was assessed using the Mantel test.</p