Evaluation of an Esperanto-Based Interlingua Multilingual Survey Form Machine Translation Mechanism Incorporating a Sublanguage Translation Methodolgy

Translation costs restrict the preparation of medical survey and other questionnaires for migrant communities in Western Australia. This restriction is compounded by a lack of affordable and accurate machine translation mechanisms. This research investigated and evaluated combined strategies intended to provide an efficacious and affordable machine translator by: • using an interlingua or pivot-language that requires less resources for its construction than contemporary systems and has the additional benefit of significant error reduction; and • defining smaller lexical environments to restrict data, thereby reducing the complexity of translation rules and enhancing correct semantic transfer between natural languages. This research focussed on producing a prototype machine translation mechanism that would accept questionnaire texts as discrete questions and suggested answers from which a respondent may select. The prototype was designed to accept non-ambiguous English as the source language, translate it to a pivot-language or interlingua, Esperanto, and thence to a selected target language, French. Subsequently, a reverse path of translation from the target language back to the source language enabled validation of minimal or zero change in both syntax and semantics of the original input. Jade, an object-oriented (00) database application, hosting the relationship between the natural languages and the interlingua, was used to facilitate the accurate transfer of meaning between the natural languages. Translation, interpretation and validation of sample texts was undertaken by linguists qualified in English, French and Esperanto. Translation output from the prototype model was compared, again with assistance from linguists, with a \u27control\u27 model, the SYSTRAN On-Line Translator, a more traditional transfer translation product. Successful completion of this research constitutes a step towards an increased availability of low cost machine translation to assist in the development of reliable and efficient survey translation systems for use in specific user environments. These environments include, but arc not exclusive to, medical, hospital and Australian indigenous-contact environments

Pandora’s Email Box? An Exploratory Study of Web-Based Email Forgery Detection and Validation.

Web based email systems may be a source of pristine digital evidence because of the perceived difficulty of client tampering with messages stored inside the email account. We demonstrate that such assumption is wrong in the case of Windows Live Hotmail®1 . Windows Live Mail®1 synchronises message on client-side computers with the Hotmail® server, benefiting users wishing to synchronise their email accounts and personal devices. However, this synchronisation opens an exploit for wrongdoers to tamper with existing email messages and attachments as well as facilitating the insertion of fabricated messages. The exploit process enables persistent storage of tampered and fabricated messages on the Hotmail®1 server. The exploitation favours both account owners and wrongdoers who gain unauthorised access of others’ accounts. Even if tampering were suspected, we anticipate some difficulties in validating messages to determine their reliability and relevance. We predict, with trepidation, that the exploit process will become commonplace and pose greater challenges to the cyber forensics examiner and legal practitioner during investigations and legal proceedings. Regrettably, the exploit complements the existing arsenal of tools for email forgery. More ominously, it provides opportunity for traceless injection of illicit material/malware onto any machine synchronised with the Hotmail® account

Exploiting routinely collected severe case data to monitor and predict influenza outbreaks

Abstract Background Influenza remains a significant burden on health systems. Effective responses rely on the timely understanding of the magnitude and the evolution of an outbreak. For monitoring purposes, data on severe cases of influenza in England are reported weekly to Public Health England. These data are both readily available and have the potential to provide valuable information to estimate and predict the key transmission features of seasonal and pandemic influenza. Methods We propose an epidemic model that links the underlying unobserved influenza transmission process to data on severe influenza cases. Within a Bayesian framework, we infer retrospectively the parameters of the epidemic model for each seasonal outbreak from 2012 to 2015, including: the effective reproduction number; the initial susceptibility; the probability of admission to intensive care given infection; and the effect of school closure on transmission. The model is also implemented in real time to assess whether early forecasting of the number of admissions to intensive care is possible. Results Our model of admissions data allows reconstruction of the underlying transmission dynamics revealing: increased transmission during the season 2013/14 and a noticeable effect of the Christmas school holiday on disease spread during seasons 2012/13 and 2014/15. When information on the initial immunity of the population is available, forecasts of the number of admissions to intensive care can be substantially improved. Conclusion Readily available severe case data can be effectively used to estimate epidemiological characteristics and to predict the evolution of an epidemic, crucially allowing real-time monitoring of the transmission and severity of the outbreak

Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccination in Preventing Hospitalization Due to Influenza in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

This systematic review assesses the literature for estimates of influenza vaccine effectiveness (IVE) against laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalization in children. Studies of any design to June 8, 2020, were included if the outcome was hospitalization, participants were 17 years or younger and influenza infection was laboratory-confirmed. A random-effects meta-analysis of 37 studies that used a test-negative design gave a pooled seasonal IVE against hospitalization of 53.3% (47.2-58.8) for any influenza. IVE was higher against influenza A/H1N1pdm09 (68.7%, 56.9-77.2) and lowest against influenza A/H3N2 (35.8%, 23.4-46.3). Estimates by vaccine type ranged from 44.3% (30.1-55.7) for live-attenuated influenza vaccines to 68.9% (53.6-79.2) for inactivated vaccines. IVE estimates were higher in seasons when the circulating influenza strains were antigenically matched to vaccine strains (59.3%, 48.3-68.0). Influenza vaccination gives moderate overall protection against influenza-associated hospitalization in children supporting annual vaccination. IVE varies by influenza subtype and vaccine type

Live-attenuated influenza vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization in children aged 2-6 years, the first three seasons of the childhood influenza vaccination program in England, 2013/14-2015/16.

INTRODUCTION: In 2013, the United Kingdom began to roll-out a universal annual influenza vaccination program for children. An important component of any new vaccination program is measuring its effectiveness. Live-attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) have since shown mixed results with vaccine effectiveness (VE) varying across seasons and countries elsewhere. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of influenza vaccination in children against severe disease during the first three seasons of the LAIV program in England. METHODS: Using the screening method, LAIV vaccination coverage in children hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza infection was compared with vaccination coverage in 2-6-year-olds in the general population to estimate VE in 2013/14-2015/16. RESULTS: The overall LAIV VE, adjusted for age group, week/month and geographical area, for all influenza types pooled over the three influenza seasons was 50.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 31.2, 63.8). By age, there was evidence of protection against hospitalization from influenza vaccination in both the pre-school (2-4-year-olds) (48.1%, 95% CI 27.2, 63.1) and school-aged children (5-6-year-olds) (62.6%, 95% CI 2.6, 85.6) over the three seasons. CONCLUSION: LAIV vaccination in children provided moderate annual protection against laboratory-confirmed influenza-related hospitalization in England over the three influenza seasons. This study contributes further to the limited literature to date on influenza VE against severe disease in children

Severe respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus, in a patient transferred to the United Kingdom from the Middle East, September 2012

Coronaviruses have the potential to cause severe transmissible human disease, as demonstrated by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003. We describe here the clinical and virological features of a novel coronavirus infection causing severe respiratory illness in a patient transferred to London, United Kingdom, from the Gulf region of the Middle East

An intercountry comparison of the impact of the paediatric live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) programme across the UK and the Republic of Ireland (ROI), 2010 to 2017

Background The universal paediatric live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) programme commenced in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2013/2014. Since 2014/2015, all pre-school and primary school children in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been offered the vaccine. England and Wales incrementally introduced the programme with additional school age cohorts being vaccinated each season. The Republic of Ireland (ROI) had no universal paediatric programme before 2017. We evaluated the potential population impact of vaccinating primary school-aged children across the five countries up to the 2016/2017 influenza season. Methods We compared rates of primary care influenza-like illness (ILI) consultations, confirmed influenza intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and all-cause excess mortality using standardised methods. To further quantify the impact, a scoring system was developed where each weekly rate/z-score was scored and summed across each influenza season according to the weekly respective threshold experienced in each country. Results Results highlight ILI consultation rates in the four seasons' post-programme, breached baseline thresholds once or not at all in Scotland and Northern Ireland; in three out of the four seasons in England and Wales; and in all four seasons in ROI. No differences were observed in the seasons' post-programme introduction between countries in rates of ICU and excess mortality, although reductions in influenza-related mortality were seen. The scoring system also reflected similar results overall. Conclusions Findings of this study suggest that LAIV vaccination of primary school age children is associated with population-level benefits, particularly in reducing infection incidence in primary care

Uptake and impact of vaccinating primary school-age children against influenza: experiences of a live attenuated influenza vaccine programme, England, 2015/16.

The 2015/16 influenza season was the third season of the introduction of an intra-nasally administered live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) for children in England. All children aged 2‒6 years were offered LAIV, and in addition, a series of geographically discrete areas piloted vaccinating school-age children 7‒11 years old. Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 was the dominant circulating strain during 2015/16 followed by influenza B. We measured influenza vaccine uptake and the overall and indirect effect of vaccinating children of primary school -age, by comparing cumulative disease incidence in targeted and non-targeted age groups in vaccine pilot and non-pilot areas in England. Uptake of 57.9% (range: 43.6-72.0) was achieved in the five pilot areas for children aged 5‒11 years. In pilot areas, cumulative emergency department respiratory attendances, influenza-confirmed hospitalisations and intensive care unit admissions were consistently lower, albeit mostly non-significantly, in targeted and non-targeted age groups compared with non-pilot areas. Effect sizes were less for adults and more severe endpoints. Vaccination of healthy primary school-age children with LAIV at moderately high levels continues to be associated with population-level reductions in influenza-related respiratory illness. Further work to evaluate the population-level impact of the programme is required