UK parents' attitudes towards meningococcal group B (MenB) vaccination: a qualitative analysis

OBJECTIVES: (1) To explore existing knowledge of, and attitudes, to group B meningococcal disease and serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) vaccine among parents of young children. (2) To seek views on their information needs. DESIGN: Cross-sectional qualitative study using individual and group interviews conducted in February and March 2015, prior to the introduction of MenB vaccine (Bexsero) into the UK childhood immunisation schedule. SETTING: Community centres, mother and toddler groups, parents’ homes and workplaces in London and Yorkshire. PARTICIPANTS: 60 parents of children under 2 years of age recruited via mother and baby groups and via an advert posted to a midwife-led Facebook group. RESULTS: Although recognising the severity of meningitis and septicaemia, parents’ knowledge of group B meningococcal disease and MenB vaccine was poor. While nervous about fever, most said they would take their child for MenB vaccination despite its link to fever. Most parents had liquid paracetamol at home. Many were willing to administer it after MenB vaccination as a preventive measure, although some had concerns. There were mixed views on the acceptability of four vaccinations at the 12-month booster visit; some preferred one visit, while others favoured spreading the vaccines over two visits. Parents were clear on the information they required before attending the immunisation appointment. CONCLUSIONS: The successful implementation of the MenB vaccination programme depends on its acceptance by parents. In view of parents’ recognition of the severity of meningitis and septicaemia, and successful introduction of other vaccines to prevent bacterial meningitis and septicaemia, the MenB vaccination programme is likely to be successful. However, the need for additional injections, the likelihood of post-immunisation fever and its management are issues about which parents will need information and reassurance from healthcare professionals. Public Health England has developed written information for parents, informed by these findings

Introduction to Focus Section: The Geographies of Crime and Policing in the Global Countryside

This focus section aims to identify, conceptualize, and understand the emerging geographies of rural crime, in particularthose of globalized rural crime, and evaluate their impact on different rural places. Contributions to this focus sectionreflect an interdisciplinary array of fields from geography, economy, and criminology to rural studies, fully engaged withpertinent theories and state-of-the-art literature. The focus section also critically examines how security and policing ofrural areas is delivered by existing and emerging agencies, drawing from evidence from different country contexts inBrazil, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.QC 20220117</p

Healthcare access for refugees in Greece: Challenges and opportunities

The arrival of more than one million refugees and migrants in Europe in 2015, most of whom transited through Greece, has placed significant strains on local health systems and demonstrated the need for preparedness to meet the immediate and longer-term health needs of arrivals in EU countries. Population movements will continue to occur and the need for cost effective, appropriate provision of both primary and secondary health services to meet these needs is key. The Global Compact on Migration was ratified in 2018 and forms an overarching, international agreement to address safe, orderly and regular migration which benefits refugees and migrants as well as host communities; however, it did not give due emphasis to health. In this manuscript, we explore the evolution of the health response for refugees in Greece over the last three years, the challenges faced at different times of the response and the efforts to integrate refugees into Greece’s health system

Probe-dependent negative allosteric modulators of the long-chain free fatty acid receptor FFA4

High-affinity and selective antagonists that are able to block the actions of both endogenous and synthetic agonists of G protein–coupled receptors are integral to analysis of receptor function and to support suggestions of therapeutic potential. Although there is great interest in the potential of free fatty acid receptor 4 (FFA4) as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of type II diabetes, the broad distribution pattern of this receptor suggests it may play a range of roles beyond glucose homeostasis in different cells and tissues. To date, a single molecule, 4-methyl-N-9H-xanthen-9-yl-benzenesulfonamide (AH-7614), has been described as an FFA4 antagonist; however, its mechanism of antagonism remains unknown. We synthesized AH-7614 and a chemical derivative and demonstrated these to be negative allosteric modulators (NAMs) of FFA4. Although these NAMs did inhibit FFA4 signaling induced by a range of endogenous and synthetic agonists, clear agonist probe dependence in the nature of allosteric modulation was apparent. Although AH-7614 did not antagonize the second long-chain free fatty acid receptor, free fatty acid receptor 1, the simple chemical structure of AH-7614 containing features found in many anticancer drugs suggests that a novel close chemical analog of AH-7614 devoid of FFA4 activity, 4-methyl-N-(9H-xanthen-9-yl)benzamide (TUG-1387), will also provide a useful control compound for future studies assessing FFA4 function. Using TUG-1387 alongside AH-7614, we show that endogenous activation of FFA4 expressed by murine C3H10T1/2 mesenchymal stem cells is required for induced differentiation of these cells toward a more mature, adipocyte-like phenotype

Strengthening HPV vaccination delivery: findings from a qualitative service evaluation of the adolescent girls' HPV vaccination programme in England.

BACKGROUND: In 2014, the number of HPV vaccine doses given to adolescent girls as part of the English school-based immunization programme was reduced from three to two. This was based on evidence that a two-dose schedule provides long-lasting protection against HPV infection. In 2015/16 a small decline in HPV vaccination coverage in adolescent girls was noted; from 86.7% for the three-dose schedule in 2013/14 to 85.1% for the two-dose schedule. This evaluation examined whether service-related factors contributed to this decline. METHODS: In May-August 2017, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 39 participants responsible for commissioning or delivering immunization programmes in six local authorities in the South West, North Central Midlands and South Central Midlands, England. RESULTS: Effective planning and data management were key for successful service provision of HPV vaccination, as well as close collaboration between commissioners, service providers and data system managers, a team skill mix with experienced staff, pro-active engagement with schools and service providers equipped to respond to parental concerns. CONCLUSIONS: To maintain and improve the high HPV adolescent girls' vaccine coverage rates achieved in England, in the context of an expanding school-based immunization programme, it is essential to strengthen the organizational capacity of the delivery system

Nanotopography controls cell cycle changes involved with skeletal stem cell self-renewal and multipotency

In culture isolated bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (more precisely termed skeletal stem cells, SSCs) spontaneously differentiate into fibroblasts, preventing the growth of large numbers of multipotent SSCs for use in regenerative medicine. However, the mechanisms that regulate the expansion of SSCs, while maintaining multipotency and preventing fibroblastic differentiation are poorly understood. Major hurdles to understanding how the maintenance of SSCs is regulated are (a) SSCs isolated from bone marrow are heterogeneous populations with different proliferative characteristics and (b) a lack of tools to investigate SSC number expansion and multipotency. Here, a nanotopographical surface is used as a tool that permits SSC proliferation while maintaining multipotency. It is demonstrated that retention of SSC phenotype in culture requires adjustments to the cell cycle that are linked to changes in the activation of the mitogen activated protein kinases. This demonstrates that biomaterials can offer cross-SSC culture tools and that the biological processes that determine whether SSCs retain multipotency or differentiate into fibroblasts are subtle, in terms of biochemical control, but are profound in terms of determining cell fat

Community perspectives on the benefits and risks of technologically enhanced communicable disease surveillance systems: a report on four community juries

BACKGROUND:Outbreaks of infectious disease cause serious and costly health and social problems. Two new technologies - pathogen whole genome sequencing (WGS) and Big Data analytics - promise to improve our capacity to detect and control outbreaks earlier, saving lives and resources. However, routinely using these technologies to capture more detailed and specific personal information could be perceived as intrusive and a threat to privacy. METHOD:Four community juries were convened in two demographically different Sydney municipalities and two regional cities in New South Wales, Australia (western Sydney, Wollongong, Tamworth, eastern Sydney) to elicit the views of well-informed community members on the acceptability and legitimacy of: making pathogen WGS and linked administrative data available for public health researchusing this information in concert with data linkage and machine learning to enhance communicable disease surveillance systems Fifty participants of diverse backgrounds, mixed genders and ages were recruited by random-digit-dialling and topic-blinded social-media advertising. Each jury was presented with balanced factual evidence supporting different expert perspectives on the potential benefits and costs of technologically enhanced public health research and communicable disease surveillance and given the opportunity to question experts. RESULTS:Almost all jurors supported data linkage and WGS on routinely collected patient isolates for the purposes of public health research, provided standard de-identification practices were applied. However, allowing this information to be operationalised as a syndromic surveillance system was highly contentious with three juries voting in favour, and one against by narrow margins. For those in favour, support depended on several conditions related to system oversight and security being met. Those against were concerned about loss of privacy and did not trust Australian governments to run secure and effective systems. CONCLUSIONS:Participants across all four events strongly supported the introduction of data linkage and pathogenomics to public health research under current research governance structures. Combining pathogen WGS with event-based data surveillance systems, however, is likely to be controversial because of a lack of public trust, even when the potential public health benefits are clear. Any suggestion of private sector involvement or commercialisation of WGS or surveillance data was unanimously rejected.Chris Degeling, Stacy M. Carter, Antoine M. van Oijen, Jeremy McAnulty, Vitali Sintchenko, Annette Braunack-Mayer ... et al

Előzetes eredmények városi talajok lebontó hatásfokának vizsgálatáról (GLUSEEN-Projekt, Budapest)

A „Global Urban Soil Ecology and Education” hálózat előkészítő kutatása második éve folyik – a világ 4 régiójának 5 helyszínén –, Magyarország részvételével. A kutatás célja az ún. „konvergencia hipotézis” tesztelése különböző minőségű/zavartságú városi talajok szerves anyag lebontási hatásfokán keresztül. A konvergencia hipotézis szerint a természetes ökoszisztémák az urbanizáció hatására hasonló irányú változást mutatnak globális szinten. A cél mind tudományos igényű kutatások, mind az érdeklődő lakosság bevonására alkalmas egyszerű, könnyen kivitelezhető, költséghatékony módszerek kidolgozása, tesztelése. A kutatás során 4 élőhelytípust (5–5 ismétlésben) jelöltünk ki: 1) erősen zavart (ruderális), 2) városi gyep, 3) az urbanizáció eredményeként fragmentálódott erdőfoltok és 4) referenciaként szolgáló természetközeli erdők területei. A szervesanyag bomlásának mértékét 2013-ban leásott teafilterekkel vizsgáltuk, amelyeket 4, 6, 10, 12 hónap után gyűjtöttünk vissza. Eredményeink szerint a 6. hónaptól szignifikáns különbség mutatkozott az élőhelytípusok között a lebontási sebességben (F = 11,238; p < 0,0001), ami a városi gyepeken és ruderális élőhelyeken volt a legnagyobb. Ez összhangban van a többi 4 városban kapott eredménnyel, ami alátámasztja a konvergencia hipotézist: a különböző éghajlatú, alapkőzetű talajok kémhatása és humusztartalma az erősen zavart és városi gyep élőhelyek esetén azonos irányú változást mutatnak világszerte

Evaluating the capability of regional-scale air quality models to cature the vertical distribution of pollutants

This study is conducted in the framework of the Air Quality Modelling Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) and aims at the operational evaluation of an ensemble of 12 regional-scale chemical transport models used to predict air quality over the North American (NA) and European (EU) continents for 2006. The modelled concentrations of ozone and CO, along with the meteorological fields of wind speed (WS) and direction (WD), temperature (T), and relative humidity (RH), are compared against high-quality in-flight measurements collected by instrumented commercial aircraft as part of the Measurements of OZone, water vapour, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides by Airbus In-service airCraft (MOZAIC) programme. The evaluation is carried out for five model domains positioned around four major airports in NA (Portland, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Dallas) and one in Europe (Frankfurt), from the surface to 8.5 km. We compare mean vertical profiles of modelled and measured variables for all airports to compute error and variability statistics, perform analysis of altitudinal error correlation, and examine the seasonal error distribution for ozone, including an estimation of the bias introduced by the lateral boundary conditions (BCs). The results indicate that model performance is highly dependent on the variable, location, season, and height (e.g. surface, planetary boundary layer (PBL) or free troposphere) being analysed. While model performance for T is satisfactory at all sites (correlation coefficient in excess of 0.90 and fractional bias ≤ 0.01 K), WS is not replicated as well within the PBL (exhibiting a positive bias in the first 100 m and also underestimating observed variability), while above 1000 m, the model performance improves (correlation coefficient often above 0.9). The WD at NA airports is found to be biased in the PBL, primarily due to an overestimation of westerly winds. RH is modelled well within the PBL, but in the free troposphere large discrepancies among models are observed, especially in EU. CO mixing ratios show the largest range of modelled-to-observed standard deviations of all the examined species at all heights and for all airports. Correlation coefficients for CO are typically below 0.6 for all sites and heights, and large errors are present at all heights, particularly in the first 250 m. Model performance for ozone in the PBL is generally good, with both bias and error within 20%. Profiles of ozone mixing ratios depend strongly on surface processes, revealed by the sharp gradient in the first 2 km (10 to 20 ppb km−1). Modelled ozone in winter is biased low at all locations in the NA, primarily due to an underestimation of ozone from the BCs. Most of the model error in the PBL is due to surface processes (emissions, transport, photochemistry), while errors originating aloft appear to have relatively limited impact on model performance at the surface. Suggestions for future work include interpretation of the model-to-model variability and common sources of model bias, and linking CO and ozone bias to the bias in the meteorological fields. Based on the results from this study, we suggest possible in-depth, process-oriented and diagnostic investigations to be carried out next

A novel metabolomic approach used for the comparison of Staphylococcus aureus planktonic cells and biofilm samples

Introduction: Bacterial cell characteristics change significantly during differentiation between planktonic and biofilm states. While established methods exist to detect and identify transcriptional and proteomic changes, metabolic fluctuations that distinguish these developmental stages have been less amenable to investigation. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to develop a robust reproducible sample preparation methodology for high throughput biofilm analysis and to determine differences between Staphylococcus aureus in planktonic and biofilm states. Methods: The method uses bead beating in a chloroform/methanol/water extraction solvent to both disrupt cells and quench metabolism. Verification of the method was performed using liquid-chromatography-mass spectrometry. Raw mass-spectrometry data was analysed using an in-house bioinformatics pipe-line incorporating XCMS, MzMatch and in-house R-scripts, with identifications matched to internal standards and metabolite data-base entries. Results: We have demonstrated a novel mechanical bead beating method that has been optimised for the extraction of the metabolome from cells of a clinical Staphylococcus aureus strain existing in a planktonic or biofilm state. This high-throughput method is fast and reproducible, allowing for direct comparison between different bacterial growth states. Significant changes in arginine biosynthesis were identified between the two cell populations. Conclusions: The method described herein represents a valuable tool in studying microbial biochemistry at a molecular level. While the methodology is generally applicable to the lysis and extraction of metabolites from Gram positive bacteria, it is particularly applicable to biofilms. Bacteria that exist as a biofilm are shown to be highly distinct metabolically from their ‘free living’ counterparts, thus highlighting the need to study microbes in different growth states. Metabolomics can successfully distinguish between a planktonic and biofilm growth state. Importantly, this study design, incorporating metabolomics, could be optimised for studying the effects of antimicrobials and drug modes of action, potentially providing explanations and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and to help devise new antimicrobials