Towards the Development of an Early Warning/Response Network

This article outlines a proposal put forth by the Prevention/Early Warning Unit at the Centrefor Refugee Studies, York University. The article describes the problems with early warning and how an early warning network (EWNET) can address these existing difficulties. This EWNET is described as an academic- NGO-policy consortium that over a period of a few years will become self-sufficient through the involvement of business. Utilizing the Internet, EWNET will collect information from all over the world, analyze and disseminate such information. The link to policy makers and the importance of properly communicating alerts are discussed. While a central management team oversees EWNET, there are several units working on administration, sales and research. Furthermore, the research unit is broken down into indicator, communication, response and area study research; the latter being linked to twenty crises area nodes. This structure assures that EWNET will comprise a broad resource network as well as the links necessary for sending uniform early warning signals.Rédigé sous l'égide de l'Unité pour la détection et la prévention des conflits du Centre d'études sur les Réfugies de l'Université York, cet article fait état des principaux problèmes existant en matière d'alerte préventive et propose la création d'un consortium réunissant des experts oeuvrant dans le domine de la recherche et au sein d'organisations non-gouvernementales afin de faire face à ces difficultés. Etabli sur Internet, le Réseau EWNET, destiné à être autonome sur le plan financier d'ici quelques années grâce à l'apport de capitaux privés, doit rassembler, analyser et disséminer des informations en provenance de toutes les parties du monde en matière d'alerte rapide et de prévention des conflits. Structuré autour d'une équipe principale de supervision, EWNET est constitué de plusieurs sous-unités fonctionnelles travaillant sur les aspects de l'administration, du financement et de la recherche d'indicateurs, la communication de l'information, la formulation de réponses aux problèmes rencontré et l'étude de situations régionales dans une vingtaine de régions conflictuelles. Cette structure vise à assurer au réseau une capacité d'action globale tout en lui garantissant la cohésion nécessaire à l'envoi effectif de signaux d'alerte. Les problèmes rencontrés dans la réalisation de cette tâche ainsi que la question des liens à établir et du travail de sensibilisation à effectuer auprès des décideurs politiques sont aussi évoqués

Synergy in Early Warning Conterence: Background

This article has information on the conference Synergy in Early Warning organized recently by the Prevention/ Early Warning Unit in Toronto, Canada. Included are: background on the issues, a brief outline with the abstracts of the papers delivered and the contact addresses of the authors.Cet article fournit des informations sur le colloque Synergie en Alerte Préventive organisé récemment par l'Unité Prévention/Alerte Préventive de Toronto, Canada. Y figurent: l'historique des problèmes, un synopsis du colloque incluant les résumés des communications présentées, et les adresses permettant de contacter les auteurs

Building young children’s emotional competence and self- regulation from birth : the begin to... ECSEL approach

Neuroscientific advances and child development studies show 0-6 years represents a sensitive period for the development of emotional competence—the ability to identify, understand, express and regulate emotion, all foundational to self-regulation. Research suggests optimum teaching of emotional competence and self-regulation skills from birth is through interventions emphasizing co-regulation. This study aimed to examine begin to...ECSEL, an emotional cognitive and social early learning approach that promotes emotional competence and self-regulation by teaching emotion knowledge and emotion regulation through causal talk and causal talk in the emotional experience. The study collected data over three years from 100 students, aged 2-6, receiving begin to...ECSEL. Study goals were to: (1) examine growth over one academic year among students receiving begin to...ECSEL on measures of attachment/relationship, initiative, self- regulation, emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and related constructs involving empathy, prosocial skills, positive reactions to frustration, negative emotions and aggressive behaviours; (2) examine differences between these students and national normative samples on measures of attachment/relationship, initiative, and self- regulation; and (3) explore differences between these students and normative samples on all the aforementioned constructs. Results demonstrated students significantly improved over time in these constructs and outperformed normative samples on emotionally regulated/prosocial skills, empathy, self-regulation, attachment and initiative.peer-reviewe

Analysis Of Grapevine Gene Expression Data Using Node-based Resilience Clustering

Powdery mildew is the most economically important disease of cultivated grapevines worldwide. In the agricultural community, there is a great need for better understanding of the complex genetic basis of powdery mildew (PM) resistance by delineating possible gene biomarkers associated with the plants\u27 defense mechanisms. Machine learning techniques can be applied to analysis of gene expression data to aid knowledge discovery of disease fighting genes. In this work, we apply a data-driven computational model, utilizing a graph-based clustering algorithm - Node-Based Resilience Clustering (NBRClust), to analyze grapevine gene expression data to identify possible gene biomarkers associated with powdery mildew disease defense mechanisms. We investigated two graph representations (geometric and kNN) on the mean differences of PM inoculated vs. mock inoculated gene expression values of Cabernet and Norton (PM disease resistant) species across 6 time points. By applying the contrarian approach, we hypothesized that smaller sized clusters will contain genes that do not follow general patterns, hence, could display distinct expression patterns of PMinduced transcripts across the time points that may insinuate biological relevance. We compared the smaller clusters obtained in Norton in contrast with the ones from Cabernet in terms of the genes that clustered in common between both (intersection of sets) as well as the differences of the sets. The results obtained demonstrate the usefulness of the geometric graphs for this domain application in contrast to the kNN graphs. Some genes that belong to biologically relevant pathways were identified that displayed differences in patterns across the time points between Norton and Cabernet species

Menstrual hygiene management among adolescent girls in India: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives To assess the status of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) among adolescent girls in India to determine unmet needs. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched PubMed, The Global Health Database, Google Scholar and references for studies published from 2000 to September 2015 on girls’ MHM. Setting India. Participants Adolescent girls. Outcome measures Information on menarche awareness, type of absorbent used, disposal, hygiene, restrictions and school absenteeism was extracted from eligible materials; a quality score was applied. Meta-analysis was used to estimate pooled prevalence (PP), and meta-regression to examine the effect of setting, region and time. Results Data from 138 studies involving 193 subpopulations and 97 070 girls were extracted. In 88 studies, half of the girls reported being informed prior to menarche (PP 48%, 95% CI 43% to 53%, I2 98.6%). Commercial pad use was more common among urban (PP 67%, 57% to 76%, I2 99.3%, n=38) than rural girls (PP 32%, 25% to 38%, I2 98.6%, n=56, p<0.0001), with use increasing over time (p<0.0001). Inappropriate disposal was common (PP 23%, 16% to 31%, I2 99.0%, n=34). Menstruating girls experienced many restrictions, especially for religious activities (PP 0.77, 0.71 to 0.83, I2 99.1%, n=67). A quarter (PP 24%, 19% to 30%, I2 98.5%, n=64) reported missing school during periods. A lower prevalence of absenteeism was associated with higher commercial pad use in univariate (p=0.023) but not in multivariate analysis when adjusted for region (p=0.232, n=53). Approximately a third of girls changed their absorbents in school facilities (PP 37%, 29% to 46%, I2 97.8%, n=17). Half of the girls’ homes had a toilet (PP 51%, 36% to 67%, I2 99.4%, n=21). The quality of studies imposed limitations on analyses and the interpretation of results (mean score 3 on a scale of 0–7). Conclusions Strengthening of MHM programmes in India is needed. Education on awareness, access to hygienic absorbents and disposal of MHM items need to be addressed

Comparing alternating pressure mattresses and high-specification foam mattresses to prevent pressure ulcers in high-risk patients: the PRESSURE 2 RCT

Background: Pressure ulcers (PUs) are a burden to patients, carers and health-care providers. Specialist mattresses minimise the intensity and duration of pressure on vulnerable skin sites in at-risk patients. Primary objective: Time to developing a new PU of category ≥ 2 in patients using an alternating pressure mattress (APM) compared with a high-specification foam mattress (HSFM). Design: A multicentre, Phase III, open, prospective, planned as an adaptive double-triangular group sequential, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial with an a priori sample size of 2954 participants. Randomisation used minimisation (incorporating a random element). Setting: The trial was set in 42 secondary and community inpatient facilities in the UK. Participants: Adult inpatients with evidence of acute illness and at a high risk of PU development. Interventions and follow-up: APM or HSFM – the treatment phase lasted a maximum of 60 days; the final 30 days were post-treatment follow-up. Main outcome measures: Time to event. Results: From August 2013 to November 2016, 2029 participants were randomised to receive either APM (n = 1016) or HSFM (n = 1013). Primary end point – 30-day final follow-up: of the 2029 participants in the intention-to-treat population, 160 (7.9%) developed a new PU of category ≥ 2. There was insufficient evidence of a difference between groups for time to new PU of category ≥ 2 [Fine and Gray model HR 0.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.56 to 1.04; exact p-value of 0.0890 and 2% absolute difference]. Treatment phase sensitivity analysis: 132 (6.5%) participants developed a new PU of category ≥ 2 between randomisation and end of treatment phase. There was a statistically significant difference in the treatment phase time-to-event sensitivity analysis (Fine and Gray model HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.93; p = 0.0176 and 2.6% absolute difference). Secondary end points – 30-day final follow-up: new PUs of category ≥ 1 developed in 350 (17.2%) participants, with no evidence of a difference between mattress groups in time to PU development, (Fine and Gray model HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.67 to 1.02; p-value = 0.0733 and absolute difference 3.1%). New PUs of category ≥ 3 developed in 32 (1.6%) participants with insufficient evidence of a difference between mattress groups in time to PU development (Fine and Gray model HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.62; p = 0.5530 and absolute difference 0.4%). Of the 145 pre-existing PUs of category 2, 89 (61.4%) healed – there was insufficient evidence of a difference in time to healing (Fine and Gray model HR 1.12, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.68; p = 0.6122 and absolute difference 2.9%). Health economics – the within-trial and long-term analysis showed APM to be cost-effective compared with HSFM; however, the difference in costs models are small and the quality-adjusted life-year gains are very small. There were no safety concerns. Blinded photography substudy – the reliability of central blinded review compared with clinical assessment for PUs of category ≥ 2 was ‘very good’ (kappa statistic 0.82, prevalence- and bias-adjusted kappa 0.82). Quality-of-life substudy – the Pressure Ulcer Quality of Life – Prevention (PU-QoL-P) instrument meets the established criteria for reliability, construct validity and responsiveness. Limitations: A lower than anticipated event rate. Conclusions: In acutely ill inpatients who are bedfast/chairfast and/or have a category 1 PU and/or localised skin pain, APMs confer a small treatment phase benefit that is diminished over time. Overall, the APM patient compliance, very low PU incidence rate observed and small differences between mattresses indicate the need for improved indicators for targeting of APMs and individualised decision-making. Decisions should take into account skin status, patient preferences (movement ability and rehabilitation needs) and the presence of factors that may be potentially modifiable through APM allocation, including being completely immobile, having nutritional deficits, lacking capacity and/or having altered skin/category 1 PU. Future work: Explore the relationship between mental capacity, levels of independent movement, repositioning and PU development. Explore ‘what works for whom and in what circumstances’. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN01151335. Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 23, No. 52. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

Construction and biological characterization of an HB-GAM/FGF-1 chimera for vascular tissue engineering

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Mitochondria are physiologically maintained at close to 50 degrees C

In endothermic species, heat released as a product of metabolism ensures stable internal temperature throughout the organism, despite varying environmental conditions. Mitochondria are major actors in this thermogenic process. Part of the energy released by the oxidation of respiratory substrates drives ATP synthesis and metabolite transport, but a substantial proportion is released as heat. Using a temperature-sensitive fluorescent probe targeted to mitochondria, we measured mitochondrial temperature in situ under different physiological conditions. At a constant external temperature of 38 degrees C, mitochondria were more than 10 degrees C warmer when the respiratory chain (RC) was fully functional, both in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells and primary skin fibroblasts. This differential was abolished in cells depleted of mitochondrial DNA or treated with respiratory inhibitors but preserved or enhanced by expressing thermogenic enzymes, such as the alternative oxidase or the uncoupling protein 1. The activity of various RC enzymes was maximal at or slightly above 50 degrees C. In view of their potential consequences, these observations need to be further validated and explored by independent methods. Our study prompts a critical re-examination of the literature on mitochondria.Peer reviewe

Affective enhancement of working memory is maintained in depression.

We currently know little about how performance on assessments of working memory capacity (WMC) that are designed to mirror the concurrent task demands of daily life are impacted by the presence of affective information, nor how those effects may be modulated by depression-a syndrome where sufferers report global difficulties with executive processing. Across 3 experiments, we investigated WMC for sets of neutral words in the context of processing either neutral or affective (depressogenic) sentences, which had to be judged on semantic accuracy (Experiments 1 and 2) or self-reference (Experiment 3). Overall, WMC was significantly better in the context of depressogenic compared with neutral sentences. However, there was no support for this effect being modulated by symptoms of depression (Experiment 1) or the presence of recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD; Experiments 2 and 3). Implications of these findings for cognitive theories of the role of WM in depression are discussed in the context of a growing body of research showing no support for a differential impact of depressogenic compared with neutral information on WM accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Recor