Engaging currently available tested and proven strategies to tackle hepatitis B viral epidemic: the HBV-4-pronged approach (HBV4PA)

Hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection is a major world problem and is a key contributing factor to the worldwide incidence of hepatocelullar carcinoma, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, although hepatitis B treatment is available and effective, it is out of the reach of the common person. Many have, because of cost of treatment, succumbed to the chronic effects of HBV infection, such as liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. In this article, we make a case for the provision of free antiviral drugs to chronically-infected HBV patients by expanding the current HIV services to HBV-infected individuals using the PMTCT model. This, when implemented, will save lives, prevent unnecessary and escalating health expenditure and ensure sustainable development

Precautionary labelling of foods for allergen content: are we ready for a global framework?

© 2014 Allen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Food allergy appears to be on the rise with the current mainstay of treatment centred on allergen avoidance. Mandatory allergen labelling has improved the safety of food for allergic consumers. However an additional form of voluntary labelling (termed precautionary allergen labelling) has evolved on a wide range of packaged goods, in a bid by manufacturers to minimise risk to customers, and the negative impact on business that might result from exposure to trace amounts of food allergen present during cross-contamination during production. This has resulted in near ubiquitous utilisation of a multitude of different precautionary allergen labels with subsequent confusion amongst many consumers as to their significance. The global nature of food production and manufacturing makes harmonisation of allergen labelling regulations across the world a matter of increasing importance. Addressing inconsistencies across countries with regards to labelling legislation, as well as improvement or even banning of precautionary allergy labelling are both likely to be significant steps forward in improved food safety for allergic families. This article outlines the current status of allergen labelling legislation around the world and reviews the value of current existing precautionary allergen labelling for the allergic consumer. We strongly urge for an international framework to be considered to help roadmap a solution to the weaknesses of the current systems, and discuss the role of legislation in facilitating this

Mathematical models of magnetospheric convection and its coupling to the ionosphere

Mathematical models of magnetospheric convection and its coupling to ionospher

Analysis of notch effect on the fracture behaviour of granite and limestone: An approach from the Theory of Critical Distances

This paper presents the analysis of the notch effect on granite and limestone fracture specimens. The research is based on the results obtained in an experimental programme composed of 84 fracture specimens, combining the two materials and 7 different notch radii varying from 0.15 mm up to 10 mm. The notch effect is analysed through the evolution of the apparent fracture toughness and the application of the Theory of the Critical Distances. The results reveal a significant notch effect in the limestone, whereas the notch effect in the granite is negligible for the range of notch radii analysed. Both observations are justified by the corresponding critical distance of the material

Weather, climate and the nature of predictability

The prediction and simulation of future weather and climate is a key ingredient in good weather risk management. This chapter briefly reviews the nature and underlying sources of predictability on timescales from hours-ahead to centuries-ahead. The traditional distinction between ‘weather’ and ‘climate’ predictions is described, and the role of recent scientific developments in driving a convergence of these two classic problems is highlighted. The chapter concludes by outlining and comparing the two main strategies used for creating weather and climate predictions, and discussing the challenges of using predictions in quantitative applications

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): trends in galaxy colours, morphology, and stellar populations with large-scale structure, group, and pair environments

We explore trends in galaxy properties with Mpc-scale structures using catalogues of environment and large scale structure from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Existing GAMA catalogues of large scale structure, group and pair membership allow us to construct galaxy stellar mass functions for different environmental types. To avoid simply extracting the known underlying correlations between galaxy properties and stellar mass, we create a mass matched sample of galaxies with stellar masses between 9.5≤logM∗/h−2M⊙≤11 for each environmental population. Using these samples, we show that mass normalised galaxies in different large scale environments have similar energy outputs, u−r colours, luminosities, and morphologies. Extending our analysis to group and pair environments, we show galaxies that are not in groups or pairs exhibit similar characteristics to each other regardless of broader environment. For our mass controlled sample, we fail to see a strong dependence of S\'{e}rsic index or galaxy luminosity on halo mass, but do find that it correlates very strongly with colour. Repeating our analysis for galaxies that have not been mass controlled introduces and amplifies trends in the properties of galaxies in pairs, groups, and large scale structure, indicating that stellar mass is the most important predictor of the galaxy properties we examine, as opposed to environmental classifications

Testing KiDS cross-correlation redshifts with simulations

Measuring cosmic shear in wide-field imaging surveys requires accurate knowledge of the redshift distribution of all sources. The clustering-redshift technique exploits the angular cross-correlation of a target galaxy sample with unknown redshifts and a reference sample with known redshifts. It represents an attractive alternative to colour-based methods of redshift calibration. Here we test the performance of such clustering redshift measurements using mock catalogues that resemble the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS). These mocks are created from the MICE simulation and closely mimic the properties of the KiDS source sample and the overlapping spectroscopic reference samples. We quantify the performance of the clustering redshifts by comparing the cross-correlation results with the true redshift distributions in each of the five KiDS photometric redshift bins. Such a comparison to an informative model is necessary due to the incompleteness of the reference samples at high redshifts. Clustering mean redshifts are unbiased at |Δz|< 0.006 under these conditions. The redshift evolution of the galaxy bias of the reference and target samples represents one of the most important systematic errors when estimating clustering redshifts. It can be reliably mitigated at this level of precision using auto-correlation measurements and self-consistency relations, and will not become a dominant source of systematic error until the arrival of Stage-IV cosmic shear surveys. Using redshift distributions from a direct colour-based estimate instead of the true redshift distributions as a model for comparison with the clustering redshifts increases the biases in the mean to up to |Δz|∼0.04. This indicates that the interpretation of clustering redshifts in real-world applications will require more sophisticated (parameterised) models of the redshift distribution in the future. If such better models are available, the clustering-redshift technique promises to be a highly complementary alternative to other methods of redshift calibration

Generation of Ultrastable Microwaves via Optical Frequency Division

There has been increased interest in the use and manipulation of optical fields to address challenging problems that have traditionally been approached with microwave electronics. Some examples that benefit from the low transmission loss, agile modulation and large bandwidths accessible with coherent optical systems include signal distribution, arbitrary waveform generation, and novel imaging. We extend these advantages to demonstrate a microwave generator based on a high-Q optical resonator and a frequency comb functioning as an optical-to-microwave divider. This provides a 10 GHz electrical signal with fractional frequency instability <8e-16 at 1 s, a value comparable to that produced by the best microwave oscillators, but without the need for cryogenic temperatures. Such a low-noise source can benefit radar systems, improve the bandwidth and resolution of communications and digital sampling systems, and be valuable for large baseline interferometry, precision spectroscopy and the realization of atomic time

Biological measurement beyond the quantum limit

Quantum noise places a fundamental limit on the per photon sensitivity attainable in optical measurements. This limit is of particular importance in biological measurements, where the optical power must be constrained to avoid damage to the specimen. By using non-classically correlated light, we demonstrated that the quantum limit can be surpassed in biological measurements. Quantum enhanced microrheology was performed within yeast cells by tracking naturally occurring lipid granules with sensitivity 2.4 dB beyond the quantum noise limit. The viscoelastic properties of the cytoplasm could thereby be determined with a 64% improved measurement rate. This demonstration paves the way to apply quantum resources broadly in a biological context