Screening for Infectious diseases among newly arrived migrants. experiences and practices in non-EU countries of the Mediterranean basin and Black Sea

Changing migration dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea and differences in infectious diseases (ID) burden between the countries of origin have raised questions whether public health actions are needed to avoid the transmission of ID. Screening newly arrived migrants for ID is one health monitoring option, offering opportunities for prevention, early detection and treatment. The authors conducted a survey among country experts in non-European Union countries of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, in order to explore current ID screening practices and policies for newly arrived migrants. The association between the existence of guidelines and the proportion of refugees in the population was also estimated. Eighteen country experts responded (90%) out of the 20 invited. Eleven countries (61%) implemented screening programmes and six (38%) had national guidelines. Screening was performed most often for tuberculosis at the holding level. A higher proportion of refugees in the population was associated with the existence of guidelines for screening (p = 0.05). Fourteen experts (88%) considered screening among migrants useful. The results show that screening for ID in newly arrived migrants is relevant for non-EU countries of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Common guidelines could be promoted focusing on both individual and public health benefits of screening programmesChanging migration dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea and differences in infectious diseases (ID) burden between the countries of origin have raised questions whether public health actions are needed to avoid the transmission of ID. Screening newly arrived migrants for ID is one health monitoring option, offering opportunities for prevention, early detection and treatment. The authors conducted a survey among country experts in non-European Union countries of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, in order to explore current ID screening practices and policies for newly arrived migrants. The association between the existence of guidelines and the proportion of refugees in the population was also estimated. Eighteen country experts responded (90%) out of the 20 invited. Eleven countries (61%) implemented screening programmes and six (38%) had national guidelines. Screening was performed most often for tuberculosis at the holding level. A higher proportion of refugees in the population was associated with the existence of guidelines for screening (p = 0.05). Fourteen experts (88%) considered screening among migrants useful. The results show that screening for ID in newly arrived migrants is relevant for non-EU countries of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Common guidelines could be promoted focusing on both individual and public health benefits of screening programmes

Torque Ripple Minimization in a Switched Reluctance Drive by Neuro-Fuzzy Compensation

Simple power electronic drive circuit and fault tolerance of converter are specific advantages of SRM drives, but excessive torque ripple has limited its use to special applications. It is well known that controlling the current shape adequately can minimize the torque ripple. This paper presents a new method for shaping the motor currents to minimize the torque ripple, using a neuro-fuzzy compensator. In the proposed method, a compensating signal is added to the output of a PI controller, in a current-regulated speed control loop. Numerical results are presented in this paper, with an analysis of the effects of changing the form of the membership function of the neuro-fuzzy compensator.Comment: To be published in IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, 200

Measures and metrics for automatic emotion classification via FACET

For dynamic emotions to be modelled in a natural and convincing way, systems must rely on accurate affective analysis of facial expressions in the first place. The present work introduces two measures for evaluating automatic emotion classification performance. It further provides a systematic comparison between 14 databases of dynamic expressions. Machine analysis was conducted using the FACET system, with an algorithm calculating recognition sensitivity and confidence. Results revealed the proportion of facial stimuli that could be recognised by the machine algorithm above threshold evidence, showing significant differences in recognition performance between the databases

Integrated early warning surveillance. Achilles′ heel of one health?

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and zoonoses indicate the importance of the One Health (OH) approach for early warning. At present, even when surveillance data are available, they are infrequently timeously shared between the health sectors. In the context of the MediLabSecure (MLS) Project, we investigated the collection of a set of surveillance indicators able to provide data for the implementation of integrated early warning systems in the 22 MLS countries of the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Sahel regions. We used an online questionnaire (covering vector, human, and animal sectors), focusing on seven relevant arboviruses, that was submitted to 110 officially appointed experts. Results showed that West Nile virus was perceived as the most relevant zoonotic pathogen, while Dengue virus was the most relevant non-zoonotic pathogen in the study area. Data collection of early warning indicators is in place at a different level for all the investigated pathogens and in almost all the MLS Countries. Further assessments on the reliability of the collection in place and on the feasibility of piloting an integrated early warning system for arbovirus could verify if integrated early warning really represents the Achilles’ heel of OH