Eulerian quasisymmetric functions and cyclic sieving

It is shown that a refined version of a q-analogue of the Eulerian numbers together with the action, by conjugation, of the subgroup of the symmetric group $S_n$ generated by the $n$-cycle $(1,2,...,n)$ on the set of permutations of fixed cycle type and fixed number of excedances provides an instance of the cyclic sieving phenonmenon of Reiner, Stanton and White. The main tool is a class of symmetric functions recently introduced in work of two of the authors.Comment: 30 page

A Regional Approach to Improving Teacher Policy: Lessons from Latin America

In Latin America, as in other regions of the world, the expansion of education coverage has led to concern about safeguarding the quality of instruction. In particular, the selection, training, and professional certification of teachers and the support they receive via continuous professional development remain key policy challenges. Target 4.c of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which prioritizes the need for a well-trained and qualified teaching force, provides a call to action and an international commitment to strengthening teacher quality. Reaching this target by 2030 will require collective action across countries and sectors within the education field. In this paper, we offer an overview of the current state of teacher policies in Latin America, propose a set of policy priorities to improve teacher quality in the region, and argue for a regional and collaborative approach to strengthening teacher policies

Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health 2010

Now that the world’s attention is focused on climate variability and climate change adaptation, it is essential, not only for public health communities, but also for planners in central government, to understand the role climate plays in driving disease burden and impacting economic growth. Public health emerges as the final common pathway for all impacts of climate variability and climate change on individuals as well as societies

Mobile Technology for Empowering Health Workers in Underserved Communities: New Approaches to Facilitate the Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

BACKGROUND As global mobile phone penetration increases, direct health information communication from hard-to-reach communities is becoming commonplace. Mobile health (mHealth) tools that enable disease control programs to benefit from this information, while simultaneously empowering community members to take control of their own health, are vital to the goal of universal health care. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to highlight the development of the Liverpool mHealth Suite (LMS), which has been designed to address this need and improve health services for neglected tropical diseases being targeted for global elimination, such as lymphatic filariasis. METHODS The LMS has two main communication approaches-short message service and mobile phone apps-to facilitate real-time mass drug administration (MDA) coverage, reporting patient numbers, managing stock levels of treatment supplies, and exchanging health information to improve the quality of care of those affected. RESULTS The LMS includes the MeasureSMS-MDA tool to improve drug supplies and MDA coverage rates in real-time (currently being trialed in urban Tanzania); the MeasureSMS-Morbidity tool to map morbidity, including lymphedema and hydrocele cases (initially piloted in rural Malawi and Ghana, then extended to Ethiopia, and scaled up to large urban areas in Bangladesh and Tanzania); the LyMSS-lymphedema management supply system app to improve distribution of treatments (trialed for 6 months in Malawi with positive impacts on health workers and patients); and the HealthFront app to improve education and training (in development with field trials planned). CONCLUSIONS The current success and scale-up of the LMS by many community health workers in rural and urban settings across Africa and Asia highlights the value of this simple and practical suite of tools that empowers local health care workers to contribute to local, national, and global elimination of disease

The Utilitarian Virtual Self - Using Embodied Personalized Avatars to Investigate Moral Decision-Making in Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Dilemmas

Embodied personalized avatars are a promising new tool to investigate moral decision-making by transposing the user into the &amp;#x201C;middle of the action&amp;#x201D; in moral dilemmas. Here, we tested whether avatar personalization and motor control could impact moral decision-making, physiological reactions and reaction times, as well as embodiment, presence and avatar perception. Seventeen participants, who had their personalized avatars created in a previous study, took part in a range of incongruent (i.e., harmful action led to better overall outcomes) and congruent (i.e., harmful action led to trivial outcomes) moral dilemmas as the drivers of a semi-autonomous car. They embodied four different avatars (counterbalanced - personalized motor control, personalized no motor control, generic motor control, generic no motor control). Overall, participants took a utilitarian approach by performing harmful actions only to maximize outcomes. We found increased physiological arousal (SCRs and heart rate) for personalized avatars compared to generic avatars, and increased SCRs in motor control conditions compared to no motor control. Participants had slower reaction times when they had motor control over their avatars, possibly hinting at more elaborate decision-making processes. Presence was also higher in motor control compared to no motor control conditions. Embodiment ratings were higher for personalized avatars, and generally, personalization and motor control were perceptually positive features. These findings highlight the utility of personalized avatars and open up a range of future research possibilities that could benefit from the affordances of this technology and simulate, more closely than ever, real-life action.</p

Monitoring and simulating landscape changes: How do long-term changes in land use and long-term average climate affect regional biophysical conditions in southern Malawi?

We set out to reveal the effects of long-term changes in land use and long-term average climate on the regional biophysical environment in southern Malawi. Object oriented supervised image classification was performed on Landsat 5 and 8 satellite images from 1990 to 2020 to identify and quantify past and present land use-land cover changes using a Support Vector Machine classifier. Subsequently, using 2000 and 2010 land use-land cover in an artificial neural network, land use-land cover for 2020 driven by elevation, slope, precipitation and temperature, population density, poverty, distance to major roads and distance to villages data was simulated. Between 1990-2020, area of land cover increased in built-up (209%), bare land (10%) and cropland (10%) and decreased in forest (30%), herbaceous (4%), shrubland (20%) and water area (20%). Overall, the findings reveal that southern Malawi is dominantly an agro-mosaic landscape shaped by the combined effects of urban and agricultural expansions and climate. The findings also suggest the need to enhance the machine learning algorithms to improve capacity for landscape modelling and ultimately, prevention, preparedness and response to environmental risks

Meningococcal disease in children in Merseyside, England:a 31 year descriptive study

Meningococcal disease (MCD) is the leading infectious cause of death in early childhood in the United Kingdom, making it a public health priority. MCD most commonly presents as meningococcal meningitis (MM), septicaemia (MS), or as a combination of the two syndromes (MM/MS). We describe the changing epidemiology and clinical presentation of MCD, and explore associations with socioeconomic status and other risk factors. A hospital-based study of children admitted to a tertiary children's centre, Alder Hey Children's Foundation Trust, with MCD, was undertaken between 1977 to 2007 (n = 1157). Demographics, clinical presentations, microbiological confirmation and measures of deprivation were described. The majority of cases occurred in the 1-4 year age group and there was a dramatic fall in serogroup C cases observed with the introduction of the meningococcal C conjugate (MCC) vaccine. The proportion of MS cases increased over the study period, from 11% in the first quarter to 35% in the final quarter. Presentation with MS (compared to MM) and serogroup C disease (compared to serogroup B) were demonstrated to be independent risk factors for mortality, with odds ratios of 3.5 (95% CI 1.18 to 10.08) and 2.18 (95% CI 1.26 to 3.80) respectively. Cases admitted to Alder Hey were from a relatively more deprived population (mean Townsend score 1.25, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.41) than the Merseyside reference population. Our findings represent one of the largest single-centre studies of MCD. The presentation of MS is confirmed to be a risk factor of mortality from MCD. Our study supports the association between social deprivation and MCD

Intestinal schistosomiasis in Uganda at high altitude (>1400 m): malacological and epidemiological surveys on Mount Elgon and in Fort Portal crater lakes reveal extra preventive chemotherapy needs

Background Intestinal schistosomiasis is of public health importance in Uganda but communities living above 1400 m are not targeted for control as natural transmission is thought unlikely. To assess altitudinal boundaries and at-risk populations, conjoint malacological and epidemiological surveys were undertaken on Mount Elgon (1139 m–3937 m), in Fort Portal crater lakes and in the Rwenzori Mountains (1123 m–4050 m). Methods Seventy freshwater habitats [Mount Elgon (37), Fort Portal crater lakes (23), Rwenzori Mountains (8) and Lake Albert (2)] were inspected for Biomphalaria species. Water temperature, pH and conductivity were recorded. A parasitological examination of 756 schoolchildren [Mount Elgon (300), Fort Portal crater lakes (456)] by faecal microscopy of duplicate Kato-Katz smears from two consecutive stool samples was bolstered by antigen (urine-CCA dipstick) and antibody (SEA-ELISA) diagnostic assays. Results Biomphalaria spp. was found up to 1951 m on Mount Elgon and 1567 m in the Fort Portal crater lakes. Although no snail from Mount Elgon shed cercariae, molecular analysis judged 7.1% of snails sampled at altitudes above 1400 m as having DNA of Schistosoma mansoni; in Fort Portal crater lakes three snails shed schistosome cercariae. Prevalence of intestinal schistosomiasis as measured in schoolchildren by Kato-Katz (Mount Elgon = 5.3% v. Fort Portal crater lakes = 10.7%), CCA urine-dipsticks (18.3% v. 34.4%) and SEA-ELISA (42.3% v. 63.7%) showed negative associations with increasing altitude with some evidence of infection up to 2000 m. Conclusions Contrary to expectations, these surveys clearly show that natural transmission of intestinal schistosomiasis occurs above 1400 m, possibly extending up to 2000 m. Using spatial epidemiological predictions, this now places some extra six million people at-risk, denoting an expansion of preventive chemotherapy needs in Uganda

The application of drones for mosquito larval habitat identification in rural environments: a practical approach for malaria control?

Background Spatio-temporal trends in mosquito-borne diseases are driven by the locations and seasonality of larval habitat. One method of disease control is to decrease the mosquito population by modifying larval habitat, known as larval source management (LSM). In malaria control, LSM is currently considered impractical in rural areas due to perceived difficulties in identifying target areas. High resolution drone mapping is being considered as a practical solution to address this barrier. In this paper, the authors’ experiences of drone-led larval habitat identification in Malawi were used to assess the feasibility of this approach. Methods Drone mapping and larval surveys were conducted in Kasungu district, Malawi between 2018 and 2020. Water bodies and aquatic vegetation were identified in the imagery using manual methods and geographical object-based image analysis (GeoOBIA) and the performances of the classifications were compared. Further, observations were documented on the practical aspects of capturing drone imagery for informing malaria control including cost, time, computing, and skills requirements. Larval sampling sites were characterized by biotic factors visible in drone imagery and generalized linear mixed models were used to determine their association with larval presence. Results Imagery covering an area of 8.9 km2 across eight sites was captured. Larval habitat characteristics were successfully identified using GeoOBIA on images captured by a standard camera (median accuracy = 98%) with no notable improvement observed after incorporating data from a near-infrared sensor. This approach however required greater processing time and technical skills compared to manual identification. Larval samples captured from 326 sites confirmed that drone-captured characteristics, including aquatic vegetation presence and type, were significantly associated with larval presence. Conclusions This study demonstrates the potential for drone-acquired imagery to support mosquito larval habitat identification in rural, malaria-endemic areas, although technical challenges were identified which may hinder the scale up of this approach. Potential solutions have however been identified, including strengthening linkages with the flourishing drone industry in countries such as Malawi. Further consultations are therefore needed between experts in the fields of drones, image analysis and vector control are needed to develop more detailed guidance on how this technology can be most effectively exploited in malaria control