title: Effects of Response Cost and Socially-Assisted Interventions on Hand-Hygiene Behavior of University Students

text: A field study was conducted to examine the effect of interventions to increase hand-hygiene behavior of university students. Student patrons of a university cafeteria were observed during lunch. Across several phases, researchers observed and recorded the number of students (a) entering the restroom to wash hands and (b) using a hand-sanitizer gel. Interventions included an informational poster, hand-sanitizer dispenser, and change agent to increase hand-hygiene behavior. Results showed that the presence of a strategically placed hand-sanitizer dispenser was effective in increasing hand-hygiene behavior from 1.52% to over 60% (average n = 208 students per day). Participants were particularly responsive to the hand-sanitizer dispenser when combined with a change agent. Meanwhile, the tested interventions were ineffective in increasing the number of students entering a restroom to hand wash. The results are discussed regarding response cost and socially-mediated consequences of change agents.


title: Human neutralizing mAbs against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

text: Human neutralizing mAbs against MERS-CoV could aid the development of new therapeutics to treat or prevent infection.


title: Activity of catechins and their applications

text: BACKGROUND: Catechins, which are polyphenol compounds found in many plants and are an important component of tea leaves, are strong anti-oxidants. RESEARCH: Many studies seek to enhance the effects of catechins on the human body and boost their protective power against UV radiation. There are many examples of the positive anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergenic, and anti-cancer effects of catechins. Catechins increase the penetration and absorption of healthy functional foods and bio cosmetics into the body and the skin, thus improving their utility. High value-added anti-oxidant substances have been extracted from food and plant sludge, and experiments have shown that catechins are safe when applied to the human body. The stability of catechins is very important for their absorption into the human body and the effectiveness of their anti-oxidant properties. CONCLUSION: Continued research on the strong anti-oxidant effects of catechins is expected to result in many advances in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries.


title: Giving RSV some POP(G)

text: National Jewish Health researchers have shown that a low-cost pulmonary surfactant inhibits binding of respiratory syncytial virus to lung epithelial surfaces. Although issues related to both prophylactic and treatment applications need to be worked out, the researchers believe the path to human trials could be relatively short.


title: Coronavirus NSP6 protein (nsp6)

text: Cell culture studies suggest targeting nsp6 could help treat coronavirus infection.


title: Reproduction of East-African bats may guide risk mitigation for coronavirus spillover

text: BACKGROUND: Bats provide important ecosystem services; however, current evidence supports that they host several zoonotic viruses, including species of the Coronaviridae family. If bats in close interaction with humans host and shed coronaviruses with zoonotic potential, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, spillover may occur. Therefore, strategies aiming to mitigate potential spillover and disease emergence, while supporting the conservation of bats and their important ecological roles are needed. Past research suggests that coronavirus shedding in bats varies seasonally following their reproductive cycle; however, shedding dynamics have been assessed in only a few species, which does not allow for generalization of findings across bat taxa and geographic regions. METHODS: To assess the generalizability of coronavirus shedding seasonality, we sampled hundreds of bats belonging to several species with different life history traits across East Africa at different times of the year. We assessed, via Bayesian modeling, the hypothesis that chiropterans, across species and spatial domains, experience seasonal trends in coronavirus shedding as a function of the reproductive cycle. RESULTS: We found that, beyond spatial, taxonomic, and life history differences, coronavirus shedding is more expected when pups are becoming independent from the dam and that juvenile bats are prone to shed these viruses. CONCLUSIONS: These findings could guide policy aimed at the prevention of spillover in limited-resource settings, where longitudinal surveillance is not feasible, by identifying high-risk periods for coronavirus shedding. In these periods, contact with bats should be avoided (for example, by impeding or forbidding people access to caves). Our proposed strategy provides an alternative to culling – an ethically questionable practice that may result in higher pathogen levels – and supports the conservation of bats and the delivery of their key ecosystem services.


Welcome to One Health Outlook


title: Eritoran insight for influenza treatment

text: A University of Maryland team has used a toll-like receptor 4 antagonist to treat influenza in mice. The results provide a repurposing opportunity for Eisai's TLR4 blocker Eritoran, originally developed for sepsis and could extend to treating respiratory infections beyond the flu.


title: Inhibiting influenza's immunopathology

text: Although a host of companies are pursuing sphingosine 1-phosphate as a target in cancer and autoimmune diseases, researchers at Scripps may have found new therapeutic real estate for S1P's receptor: lowering cytokine-related pulmonary tissue damage in influenza.


title: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4; CD26)

text: Cell culture studies identified DDP-4 as the receptor of human coronavirus–Erasmus Medical Center (hCoV-EMC) and suggest that blocking the protein could help treat infection.


title: Antimicrobial resistance: preventive approaches to the rescue? Professional expertise and business model of French “industrial” veterinarians

text: This article focuses on the development of veterinary medicine in the industrial pig and poultry production sector. In the current context of controversies over the public problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the veterinary profession is tending to promote a model of preventive medicine that is supposed to reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock farming. However, veterinarians specializing in pig and poultry production (“industrial vets”) have in fact been adopting such approaches to animal health for several decades. Based on 28 interviews with pig and poultry veterinarians practicing or having practiced in western France between the 1970s and the 2010s, the article aims to understand how such a form of professional expertise has developed, and the business model that underpins it. Contrary to public discourses which promote preventive approaches as a way to diversify professional expertise and to disconnect veterinary incomes from drug sales, it is indeed this economic model that has allowed the development of such approaches within industrial livestock farming. Modern strategies for reducing antibiotic use should therefore seek less to renew the professional expertise of veterinarians than to find new ways to valorize it economically.


Ruxolitinib: Viral respiratory infections: case report


title: China’s Rise and Its Discursive Power Strategy

text: It is increasingly evident that China has attached more attention to discursive power in foreign policy since the early 21st century. Both top leaders and government agencies have been active in advocating for a new discourse on various international occasions. Previously, China has been reluctant to join the debate in international affairs, and been instead preoccupied with domestic affairs since the late 1970s. The situation has changed since 2009 because of China’s rapid rise to become the world’s second largest economy. With regard to the motivations behind the Chinese government’s support for discursive power, the dominant explanation is based on the “rise of China” argument. However, this argument does not explain the causal relationship between China’s rise and its discursive power strategy. So, this paper aims to clarify the motivation behind China’s discursive power strategy through document reviews and interviews with mainstream scholars. It concludes that a discursive power strategy has been the fundamental principle of the Communist Party of China since its establishment in 1921. Since China’s adoption of an opening-up policy in 1978, this tradition has been suppressed but not eliminated entirely by top leaders. As China continues to rise on the world stage, the principle will drive China to create a new political model rather than be a mere follower of the established political order.


title: Animal health, welfare and production problems in organic weaner pigs

text: This paper reviews the available information on the different health and animal welfare issues in organic pigs in relation to weaning. It addresses the most relevant health and welfare problems and reviews their potential hazards and associated risk factors. Regarding health, problems related to post weaning diarrhoea, cold stress, skin lesions, endoparasites and post weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome are described. Reasons for distress and frustration in weaned piglets are identified as mainly separation from the mother, a new environment, mixing and fear of humans. Finally, hazards and risk factors for health and welfare in organic weaners are related to animal characteristics, housing systems, feed/nutrition and management. Generally, it is concluded that diseases around weaning are multifactorial in nature, with several factors contributing simultaneously as stressors at the time of weaning. In order to solve problems around weaning, the complexity and the individuality of farm systems need to be taken into account.


title: Initiation de la ventilation non invasive aux urgences pédiatriques dans les bronchiolites sévères du nourrisson

text: INTRODUCTION: Nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) in infants with acute severe bronchiolitis has rapidly developed both in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) and during medicalized transport, since 2003. This study aims to verify the indications of nCPAP used in the paediatric emergency department (PED) at the Ambroise Paré Hospital compared to those used in the PICU and to evaluate the efficiency of nCPAP to stabilize the respiratory function of infants with acute severe bronchiolitis before medicalized transport to the PICU. PROCEDURE: A retrospective French study was conducted on infants with severe bronchiolitis ventilated by nCPAP in the PED at the Ambroise Paré Hospital, from winter 2009 to winter 2011. RESULTS: Out of the 31 infants, 16% were formerly prematurely born with otherwise no significant medical history. Postnatal age was 2 months. The rate of nCPAP performed for apneas (single indication of nCPAP for severe bronchiolitis according to the 2006 French medical consensus) was 17%. At least two indications of nCPAP used in the PICU were found for every patient. Babies were transferred within 2 h of nCPAP to the PICU. Clinical improvement was already observed with significantly slower respiratory rate and normalization of capnia and pH (P < 0.001) and without any complication at the PED. NCPAP was pursued in the PICU in 84% of the cases. The average duration of nCPAP was of 2.7 days, with the duration of hospitalization in the PICU of 4.2 days. CONCLUSION: The nCPAP is a useful respiratory support technique which is easy to implement in the PED.


title: microRNAs in viral acute respiratory infections: immune regulation, biomarkers, therapy, and vaccines

text: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded RNAs of 17–24 nt. These molecules regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and are differentially expressed in viral acute respiratory infections (ARIs), which are responsible for high morbidity and mortality around the world. In recent years, miRNAs have been studied in order to discover anti-viral ARI drug targets as well as biomarkers for diagnosis, severity, and prognosis. This review presents an analysis of the regulatory response to viral ARIs of miRNAs, including their participation in the innate immune response, their utility as biomarkers, and their potential for future therapies and vaccine development.


title: The international politics of disease reporting: Towards post-Westphalianism?

text: Since the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, there has been much discussion about whether the international community has moved into a new post-Westphalian era, where states increasingly recognize certain shared norms that guide what they ought to do in responding to infectious disease outbreaks. In this article I identify this new obligation as the ‘duty to report’, and examine competing accounts on the degree to which states appreciate this new obligation are considered by examining state behaviour during the H5N1 human infectious outbreaks in East Asia (since 2004). The article examines reporting behaviour for H5N1 human infectious cases in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam from 2004 to 2010. The findings lend strong support to the claim that East Asian states have come to accept and comply with the duty to report infectious disease outbreaks and that the assertions of sovereignty in response to global health governance frameworks have not systematically inhibited reporting compliance.


title: Institutional rules for framing healthcare policy issues in national, financial, and specialized newspapers

text: By considering the role of institutional rules for news making, this study examines news frames embedded in 1162 stories from national, financial, and specialized newspapers with respect to four healthcare policy issues: “the decrease in pharmaceutical prices,” “the comprehensive medical payment system,” “swine flu,” and “humidifier-related lung disease.” Conflict, economy, crisis, and policy execution are dominant frames in stories about the policy issues, and these four frames are also major frames used by the newspapers. This phenomenon is understood as “concentration of healthcare frames.” We conducted in-depth interviews with 19 news reporters to identify institutional rules that might influence the formation of news frames. In-depth interviews revealed that similar types of frames resulted from institutional rules (e.g., journalist’s autonomy, news value, newspaper’s mission statement, and characteristics of readers). The findings suggest that health journalists follow institutional rules that govern the creation of news frames. To provide diverse perspectives on healthcare policy issues, newspapers need to reconsider their institutional rules.


IFN alfacon-1 may be valuable in the treatment of SARS


Rationale of receptor-based antivirals against SARS


title: Global stability analysis of an SVEIR epidemic model with general incidence rate

text: In this paper, a susceptible-vaccinated-exposed-infectious-recovered (SVEIR) epidemic model for an infectious disease that spreads in the host population through horizontal transmission is investigated, assuming that the horizontal transmission is governed by an unspecified function [Formula: see text] . The role that temporary immunity (vaccinated-induced) and treatment of infected people play in the spread of disease, is incorporated in the model. The basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] is found, under certain conditions on the incidence rate and treatment function. It is shown that the model exhibits two equilibria, namely, the disease-free equilibrium and the endemic equilibrium. By constructing a suitable Lyapunov function, it is observed that the global asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium depends on [Formula: see text] as well as on the treatment rate. If [Formula: see text] , then the endemic equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable with the help of the Li and Muldowney geometric approach applied to four dimensional systems. Numerical simulations are also presented to illustrate our main results.


title: Global stability of a diffusive and delayed virus infection model with general incidence function and adaptive immune response

text: In this paper, the dynamical behaviors for a five-dimensional virus infection model with diffusion and two delays which describes the interactions of antibody, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) immune responses and a general incidence function are investigated. The reproduction numbers for virus infection, antibody immune response, CTL immune response, CTL immune competition and antibody immune competition, respectively, are calculated. By using the Lyapunov functionals and linearization methods, the threshold conditions on the global stability of the equilibria for infection-free, immune-free, antibody response, CTL response and antibody and CTL responses, respectively, are established if the space is assumed as homogeneous. When the space is inhomogeneous, the effects of diffusion, intracellular delay and production delay are obtained by the numerical simulations.


Glycyrrhizin: antiviral activity against SARS coronavirus


Influenza virus vaccine: Sequential influenza-A (H3N2) infection secondary to vaccine failure: case report


title: Globalization and Livestock Biosecurity

text: Globalization has resulted in enhanced trade in livestock and livestock products leading to increased risk of diseases to livestock and human beings. The emergence of highly contagious viral diseases of livestock and poultry such as foot-and-mouth disease, peste des petits ruminants, African swine fever (ASF), Newcastle disease, avian influenza and zoonotic diseases caused by viruses like Ebola, West Nile, Nipah, Hendra and swine influenza (H1N1) have necessitated the formulation of policies and regulatory frameworks for preventing ingress of exotic diseases and controlling dissemination of endemic diseases within the country. Biosecurity measures are important to maintain and improve animal health and reduce the risks. In this review, the risks of introduction of infections through livestock and livestock products, routes of transmission and general biosecurity measures to reduce these risks have been discussed.


Ribavirin: Bradycardia: 3 case reports


Immunosuppressants: Various toxicities: 7 case reports


title: The new informatics of pandemic response: humanitarian technology, efficiency, and the subtle retreat of national agency

text: Digital communication technologies play an increasingly prominent role in humanitarian operations and in response to international pandemics specifically. A burgeoning body of scholarship on the topic displays high expectations for such tools to increase the efficiency of pandemic response. This article reviews empirical uses of communications technology in humanitarian and pandemic response, and the 2014 Ebola response in particular, in order to propose a three-part conceptual model for the new informatics of pandemic response. This model distinguishes between the use of digital communication tools for diagnostic, risk communication, and coordination activities and highlights how the influx of novel actors and tendencies towards digital and operational convergence risks focusing humanitarian action and decision-making outside national authorities’ spheres of influence in pandemic response. This risk exacerbates a fundamental tension between the humanitarian promise of new technologies and the fundamental norm that international humanitarian response should complement and give primacy to the role of national authorities when possible. The article closes with recommendations for ensuring the inclusion of roles and agency for national authorities in technology-supported communication processes for pandemic response.


High-speed Ebola vaccine protects monkeys


Antineoplastics: Various toxicities: 3 case reports


title: Comparison of E-commerce Regulations in Chinese and American FTAs: Converging Approaches, Diverging Contents, and Polycentric Directions?

text: Insufficient WTO regulation of cross-border e-commerce confronts China and the US with three legal challenges: ambiguous classification of digital products, inadequate consumer and privacy protection, and weak protection of cross-border flow of information. China and the US have adopted converging approaches to address these challenges: inserting e-commerce chapters into their FTAs. However, the substance of these chapters is diverging. Firstly, US FTAs categorise digital products separately from goods and services and provide national treatment and most favoured nation treatment to products and their suppliers. China’s FTAs still offer no solutions to the classification of digital products and their treatment. Secondly, although China’s FTAs still provide weak protection for consumers and privacy, Chinese domestic law has converged towards US FTAs to provide better protection. Thirdly, US and China FTAs are significantly divergent in their regulation of the free flow of information. In the post-TPP era, a polycentric direction will emerge in the regulation of the free flow of information between China and the US.


title: China’s Rise and its Discursive Power Strategy


Antineoplastics: Secondary immunodeficiencies: 5 case report


NIAID offers `SARS chip' free to researchers


Immunotherapy could be answer to treating novel coronavirus


Four vaccine manufacturers have been asked by the US HHS to test their vaccines against coronavirus,


Fluorouracil/oxaliplatin: Coronary vasospasm and neutropenia: case report


Can we meet the challenge of SARS?


Antineoplastics: Middle east respiratory syndrome-coronavirus infection and associated complications: case report


title: Through thick and thin: the romance of the species in the anthropocene

text: The emerging field of animal studies has a curious relationship with environmentalism. Instead of fitting comfortably in the latter’s capacious tent, animal studies has chafed at environmentalists’ commitment to holistic communitarianism best represented by Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic.” The land ethic approaches the biotic community as a pyramidal ecological system that turns on the relations between producers and consumers and between predators and prey rather than as an egalitarian moral community. Animal rights activists have thus repeatedly clashed with conservationists in an internecine fight poignantly dramatized in T.C. Boyle’s novel When the Killing’s Done (2011). In this paper, I argue that environmental justice cannot be secured solely from the third-person perspective of the deontological argument underlying animal rights or the utilitarian argument often used to justify the land ethic. Instead, we might draw on the pragmatist traditions East and West and view justice as a larger loyalty achieved as much by the moral imagination of the particular from the first- and second-person perspectives as by rational deliberation on the universal. Using a French novel (The Roots of Heaven, 1958), a Chinese novel (The Disappearance of Lao Hai, 2001), and a Chinese film (Monster Hunt, 2015) as my examples, I demonstrate how literature’s thick narratives can engender an ethics of care by bringing particular instances of non-human distress into aesthetic, affective, and moral proximity with us.


Ribavirin: Jaundice, hyperbilirubinaemia and renal failure: case report


siRNAs: in vitro activity against SARS virus


Antineoplastics: Severe combined immmune dysfunction: case report


Corporate Activity — Mergers and Acquisitions


Adenoviral SARS vaccine induces immune responses in monkeys


title: Applications of isothermal titration calorimetry in protein folding and molecular recognition

text: During the past decade, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) has developed from a specialist method to a major, commercially available tool in the arsenal directed at understanding molecular interactions. At present, ITC is used to study all types of binding reactions, including protein-protein, protein-ligand, DNA-drug, DNA-protein, receptor-target, and enzyme kinetics, and it is becoming the method of choice for the determination of the thermodynamic parameters associated with the structure transformation of one molecule or non-covalent interaction of two (or more) molecules. Here, the new applications of ITC in protein folding/unfolding and misfolding, as well as its traditional application in molecular interaction/recognition are reviewed, providing an overview of what can be achieved in these fields using this method and what developments are likely to occur in the near future.


WHO assists Middle East authorities with coronavirus investigation


title: An interdisciplinary study: disseminating information on dengue prevention and control in the world-famous travel destination, Bali, Indonesia

text: Infectious disease outbreaks at travel destinations often result in cancellation of travel plans. It is important for the management at such destinations to prepare for, and respond to, health- and life-threatening infectious diseases, to mitigate any negative impact on local economy and society. Mosquito-borne infections, such as dengue, are rapidly spreading globally, including in Bali, Indonesia. However, travellers tend to be unaware of the health threats resulting from mosquito bites. Increased dengue incidence amongst travellers could also result in exposure of the local people to the infection. Traversing the disciplines of Travel Medicine, Entomology and Business Administration, we carried out a study comprising fieldwork and literature analyses, to address the proposed empowerment of hotels to disseminate information on dengue prevention and control to international travellers. The fieldwork included an outreach workshop and questionnaire, conducted by partnering the local health authorities and hotel association. Additionally, we carried out site visits to several hotels. The questionnaire revealed that only 67% of the participating hotel personnel know that dengue is mosquito-borne. Eighty-three percent of the facilities reported mosquito nuisance problems, and fogging was the most utilised control measure of choice. Our analyses indicate that there is a role for the hotel sector in promoting anti-dengue awareness and activities in Bali. Such an initiative could assist Bali to work towards the good health and well-being for the sustainable development goals. Our follow-up studies will include capacity building for risk communication to international travellers, and for mosquito control at hotels.


Bevacizumab: Diffuse alveolar haemorrhage: case report


title: Science diplomacy and transnational governance impact

text: Science diplomacy is coming to the fore as a formidable dimension of interstate power relations. As the challenges of the world increasingly transcend borders, so too have researchers and innovators forged international coalitions to resolve global pathologies. In doing so, new channels of influence and opportunity have opened up for states alongside the ‘traditional’ modes of foreign diplomacy. Understanding how these channels influence global socio-economic outcomes is thereby crucial for scholars interested in the still-ambiguous structure and processes of global governance. This article advances understanding of the domains of science diplomacy by drawing attention to the ‘political intercostalities’ of state actors, scientific communities and other transnational actors within the new architectures of global governance. Here we trace the growing array of informal international associations alongside transgovernmental policy networks and ‘global public-policy partnerships’ that deal with highly specialised and technical matters of international policy and how they are drawn into science diplomacy. This article thus presents a research agenda for a particular mode of ‘impact’ in politics and international studies.


Article Abstracts


Ribavirin: Thrombocytopenia and decrease in haemoglobin: case report


Antineoplastics: Various infections: 5 case reports


Methylprednisolone life-saving in SARS?


Everolimus/prednisone/tacrolimus: Primary lung adenocarcinoma and lymphangitic carcinomatosis: case report


Dasatinib: Chylothorax and right pleural effusion: case report


Coronavirus vaccine promising in SARS prevention


Carnitine/cyclophosphamide/lactulose: Various toxicities: case report


Scientific and Educational Exhibits


Es ist Frühling (und keiner geht mehr hin …)


Mediziner hilft Mitarbeitern bei Gesundheitsfragen


Schadenprisma Februar 2020: Coronavirus bringt die Weltwirtschaft zum Stillstand


title: Results of a randomised controlled study on the efficacy of a combination of saline irrigation and Sinupret syrup phytopreparation in the treatment of acute viral rhinosinusitis in children aged 6 to 11 years

text: BACKGROUND: This study was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the complex herbal medicine Sinupret® syrup in the treatment of acute viral rhinosinusitis in children. METHODS: Patients aged 6 to 11 years were included in a randomised controlled study with two parallel groups. Both groups received standard treatment including Weber’s douche and symptomatic medicine on therapeutic grounds. Isotonic sea salt solution was applied four times daily for 10 days. The intervention group received Sinupret® syrup three times daily as add-on therapy. Using a five-point scale (0–4 points) the physicians evaluated the following symptomatic parameters within four successive visits (Day 0, 5, 7, and 10): nasal congestion, nasal discharge, post-nasal drip, headache, and facial pain. Using a 11 -point scale (0–10 points), each patient gave a daily self-assessment of the following parameters from Day 1 to Day 10: rhinorrhoea, headache, and facial pain. RESULTS: In total, 184 patients (mean age 8.1 years) were included. In accordance with physicians’ assessment compared to saline irrigation alone, significant improvements were detected in three out of five symptomatic parameters under combined treatment including Sinupret® syrup as assessed by the physicians. The between-group differences in the severity of facial pain and headache were insignificant. The Sinupret® group also showed a trend to an antibiotic-sparing effect (2.17% in the Sinupret® group vs. 5.26% in the control group). Further, the frequency of the transition of viral rhinosinusitis to the post-viral phase tended to decrease (1.08% in the Sinupret® group vs. 5.26% in the control group). No adverse reactions to the herbal medicine occurred during the study period. CONCLUSION: The complex herbal medicine Sinupret® syrup alleviates effectively the symptoms of acute viral rhinosinusitis in children. Furthermore, the prescription of antibiotics was also reduced.


Dexamethasone/prednisone/sodium chloride: Nosocomial legionellosis and invasive aspergillosis: case report


title: PULLPRU: a practical approach to estimate phylogenies from single nucleotide polymorphism haplotypes under the maximum parsimony criterion

text: Phylogeny estimation has been the subject of several researches due to its significant importance and numerous applications. The aim of this research is to study the phylogeny estimation from Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) haplotypes under the maximum parsimony criterion (MPPEP-SNP). Previous exact methods have modeled the mentioned problem as a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) problem. Since the problem, in general, proved to be NP-hard which causes MIP models to take long runtime for solving large-scale instances, the need for non-exact methods is obvious. In this paper, the authors propose a heuristic algorithm that attempts to find the MPPEP-SNP solution in several stages by solving a specific MIP model in each stage. Created based on network flows formulation, MIP models appearing in each stage are very small; therefore, their exact solutions could be found practically very fast. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, it has been tested on both simulated and real instances and compared with Pars and Flow-RM as two of the best known methods. Our numerical experiments show that the proposed method can compete with the previous methods in terms of accuracy, runtime, and specially the largeness of the solved instances.


Aminopeptidase N inhibition: potential SARS therapy


Bevacizumab/temozolomide/unspecified steroids: Epstein-Barr virus-associated haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis: case report


Flu vaccine associated with nine deaths in Japan this year


Views from the Secretary-General’s Office: An oral history of the United Nations: Interview with Kofi Annan


Multiple drugs: Coronavirus encephalitis: case report


Structure of SARS virus protease enzyme released to the public


Destructive landscapes – (Re)framing elements of risk?


title: Analysis of an influenza A (H1N1) epidemic model with vaccination

text: A nonlinear mathematical model for the spread of influenza A (H1N1) infectious diseases including the role of vaccination is proposed and analyzed. It is assumed that the susceptibles become infected by direct contact with infectives and exposed population. We take under consideration that only a susceptible person can be vaccinated and that the vaccine is not 100% efficient. The model is analyzed using stability theory of differential equations and numerical simulation. We have found a threshold condition, in terms of vaccination reproduction number [Formula: see text] which is, if less than one, the disease dies out provided the vaccine efficacy is high enough, and otherwise the infection is maintained in the population. It is also shown that the spread of an infectious disease increases as the infective rate increases.


title: A ground-up “Quaternary” innovation strategy for South Korea using entrepreneurial ecosystem platforms

text: This paper offers an account of the recent economic slowdown in the growth trajectory formerly enjoyed by South Korea as one of the first “Asian Tigers”. Indicators are provided that, unlike the others, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan that have continued their upward profile, South Korea has stagnated. It is argued that the others and some more recent Asian growth economies have moved upwards to higher value, high skill and high profitability levels and deindustrialising as they did so. This even applies to recent breakthrough economies like China and Vietnam. In each case, “financialization” has been an important element in the growth of the Quaternary economy, even in such relative newcomers as Vietnam, where privatization of services has attracted private equity and other foreign direct investment financiers. Thus manufacturing is less pronounced than it was. Meanwhile, South Korea has a weak international presence of banks and other financial sectors because of the domestic focus in its indigenous growth model. Other weaknesses of closed versus open innovation and “cronyism” at the behest of the Chaebol system can be laid at the door of South Korea’s traditional conglomerates. A different model of “thin globalisation” led by knowledge-intensive high-tech, biotech and cleantech with prodigious financialization is characteristic of the new fast-growth regions and countries elsewhere, notably Israel, Silicon Valley and Cambridge. Here flattened hierarchies, reliable networking, and “crossover” innovation are pronounced and from which South Korean industrialists and policymakers could usefully learn to recover past growth performance.


Immunosuppressants: Various toxicities: 13 case reports


IFN-Β-1b: potent antiviral activity against SARS coronavirus


Angiotensin II receptor antagonists a potential therapy for SARS


SARS testing underway


title: Emerging coordination and knowledge transfer process during disease outbreak

text: When multiple agencies respond to a disease outbreak (i.e., H1N1 and SARS), the coordination of actions is complex and evolves over time. There has not been any systematic empirical study of the dynamics of emerging coordination behaviour and knowledge transfer process during a disease outbreak. In this paper, we first introduce our approach for the analysis of multi-agency intervention during a disease outbreak using the study of social networks. Using social networks and its analytic framework, we explore questions such as: How does the multi-agency coordination emerge for supporting the complex knowledge transfer process during different phases of disease outbreak? How effective are these formal and informal coordination mechanisms in achieving a robust outcome in response coordination through effective knowledge transfer process during the outbreak? What are the key lessons learned by studying the emerging coordination and knowledge transfer process during past disease outbreak in improving the multi-agency preparedness for dealing with future outbreaks? The discussion is supported by a qualitative study of the implementation of the results of the analysis. We reveal that profound understanding of social network behaviour and emerging coordination concepts are pivotal to the optimisation of knowledge transfer process which is a prerequisite for successful outbreak intervention. We look qualitatively at how Hunter New England Area Health Services applied these concepts to lead a successful coordination plan during an H1N109 endemic.


Pandemic: lessons for today and tomorrow?


Samenwerking en solidariteit


Prednisone: Pulmonary histoplasmosis: case report


Development of clinical grade vaccine against SARS to begin


title: Microbial Exchange via Fomites and Implications for Human Health

text: PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Fomites are inanimate objects that become colonized with microbes and serve as potential intermediaries for transmission to/from humans. This review summarizes recent literature on fomite contamination and microbial survival in the built environment, transmission between fomites and humans, and implications for human health. RECENT FINDINGS: Applications of molecular sequencing techniques to analyze microbial samples have increased our understanding of the microbial diversity that exists in the built environment. This growing body of research has established that microbial communities on surfaces include substantial diversity, with considerable dynamics. While many microbial taxa likely die or lay dormant, some organisms survive, including those that are potentially beneficial, benign, or pathogenic. Surface characteristics also influence microbial survival and rates of transfer to and from humans. Recent research has combined experimental data, mechanistic modeling, and epidemiological approaches to shed light on the likely contributors to microbial exchange between fomites and humans and their contributions to adverse (and even potentially beneficial) human health outcomes. SUMMARY: In addition to concerns for fomite transmission of potential pathogens, new analytical tools have uncovered other microbial matters that can be transmitted indirectly via fomites, including entire microbial communities and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Mathematical models and epidemiological approaches can provide insight on human health implications. However, both are subject to limitations associated with study design, and there is a need to better understand appropriate input model parameters. Fomites remain an important mechanism of transmission of many microbes, along with direct contact and short- and long-range aerosols.


title: Modulares Luftgütesystem: Für den Innenraumkomfort

text: Die mit der Verkehrsdichte steigenden Belastungen der Autofahrer wecken das Bedürfnis nach einer entspannenden, erholsamen Atmosphäre im Fahrzeug. Mit dem fünfstufigen Luftgütesystem von Behr können diese Anforderungen voll erfüllt werden, bis hin zur Erzeugung einer echten, fühlbaren Wellness-Atmosphäre im Innenraum von Pkw und Lkw, einschließlich ionisierter Luft und individuell wählbarer Düfte.


Multiple drugs: Various toxicities: 5 case reports


' Wij overbruggen de kloof naar de markt'


INTERFERON: FOR THE COLD AND CANCER?


title: Antibacterials and Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Bronchitis: Issues for Formulary Decision Makers

text: The utility of antibacterials in the management of acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis (AECB) and the related lung pathology, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), has been debated for decades. Data presented in this article document that more expensive antimicrobials may be favored in AECB treatment to prevent adverse outcomes to patients, namely antimicrobial failure and hospitalization. Identified patient-specific variables that may lead to treatment failure include right- or left-sided heart failure and ≥4 exacerbations/year. Risk factors for hospitalization include age ≥65 years and severe pulmonary and nonpulmonary dysfunction. However, these risk factors have never been formally validated in a prospective, randomized trial. Drug-resistant organisms have not been documented to cause antimicrobial failure or hospitalization, however, more data are needed in this growing area.


title: Die Bedeutung der aviären Influenza für das Gesundheitssystem

text: Avian influenza is a viral transmitted disease that mainly occurs in birds. First described in 1878 in Italy the disease can be found worldwide. The causing agent belongs to the family of orthomyxoviridae. Since its enormous spread among poultry in 2003, the influenza virus H5N1 is heralded as a possible agent of a new pandemic. H5N1 is pathogen to humans with a mortality rate of over 60%. The main reason that this virus has not caused a pandemic yet is its lack to propagate freely between humans. The current review explores the impact of avian influenza on the health system.


Reliable SARS diagnostic only weeks away, says US CDC


Hydromorphone/lorazepam/morphine overdose: Coma: case report


Aus der Branche


Interfering with Colds


title: 70 Jahre WHO — eine Geschichte mit Höhen und Tiefen

text: Seit nunmehr sieben Dekaden setzt sich die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) mit ihren 194 Mitgliedstaaten dafür ein, dass allen Menschen das höchstmögliche Gesundheitsniveau zuteil wird. Der wohl größte Erfolg in diesen Jahren ist die Ausrottung der Pocken. Als nächstes Ziel soll die Welt poliofrei werden.


title: A systematic review of RFID applications and diffusion: key areas and public policy issues

text: RFID applicants called as e-ID, smart tag, and contactless smart card are being applied to numerous areas in our daily life, including tracking manufactured goods, currency, and patients to payments systems. To review these various applications of RFID is important to exploring not only ongoing e-governance issues such as digital identification, delivery process, and governance but also business oriented application areas like supply chain. Through a systematic review methodology from 111 previous studies about RFID technology for public sector, we found six key areas of RFID applications: defense and security, identification, environmental applications, transportation, healthcare and welfare, and agriculture-livestock. We also suggest that the diffusion and applications of RFID can involve unexpected disadvantages including technological deficiency, uncertain benefits, dubious transparency, uncomfortable privacy issue, and unequal distribution of digital power and literacy. Further research on RFID impact includes not only various theoretical issues of but also legal and managerial problems. Rigorous research is required to explore what factors are critical to adopt and implement new RFID applications in terms of technology governance and digital literacy. Massive data driven research is also expected to identify RFID performance in government agencies and various industry sectors.


Interfering with Common Colds


Welche Produkte sich lohnen


First microarray based on SARS coronavirus genome


title: Asthma comes in from the cold

text: Infection with viruses, such as those responsible for the common cold, may be linked to exacerbation of asthma. As the link becomes clearer, it may provide pharmaceutical companies with a new target for developing anti-asthma drugs. At the joint 15th International Congress of Allergology and Clinical Immunology and the Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology [ Stockholm, Sweden; June/July 1994 ], Professor Stephen Holgate from Southampton, UK, described how his group has used an elegant combination of epidemiology, clinical medicine and in vitro immunohistochemistry to investigate this relationship.


Corporate Activity — Mergers and Acquisition


Szene


Corona-Infektion und Psoriasis: BVDD warnt vor Panik


title: Fieber nach Tropenaufenthalt

text: Bei Fieber nach einem Tropenaufenthalt kommen viele mögliche Erkrankungen infrage. Anhand der Anamnese und einfacher Basisuntersuchungen können Sie rasch die Schwere und Bedeutung der Erkrankung — ob lebensbedrohlich oder ansteckend — feststellen.


title: Modular air quality system for interior comfort

text: As traffic volumes and the associated burdens on drivers increase, the need for a relaxing, rejuvenating atmosphere in the vehicle becomes ever greater. The five-stage air quality system from Behr can meet these requirements in full, right down to generating a truly experienceable atmosphere of wellbeing in the vehicle interior of passenger car and truck, with ionized air and a selection of fragrances for every preference.


title: ‘Riskscapes’ and risk management – Review and synthesis of an actor-network theory approach

text: In a perspective derived from actor-network theory (ANT), ‘risk’ can be considered as a specific assemblage of heterogeneous entities as well as a proliferation of hybrids. The concept and ideas of ANT offer a meaningful approach to addressing the hybridity and heterogeneity of complex assemblages of risk. Furthermore, the theory provides a theoretical vocabulary to analyse settings of risk and disasters. Especially for ex post analysis of disasters, ANT is able to identify errors in process chains and management practice. In this regard, it deals with questions of stability/instability in management and organisations within the broader context of risk governance. The article discusses the following questions from an ANT perspective: What is ‘risk’ and how can it be managed? What are the general implications and benefits of an ANT approach to disaster risk management? In what ways does an ANT approach challenge some of the conventional wisdoms in the field of disaster risk management? The article shows the potential of ANT as an analytical tool in disaster risk management and as a tool for planning, design and decision-making.


title: Anything left for animal disease insurance? A choice experiment approach

text: Animal disease insurance plays only a minor role in public activities related to animal diseases in animal production in Europe, and the current situation is likely to persist as long as producers place strong faith on public compensation schemes. In this study, we undertook a farm survey in Finland employing a choice experiment to study the willingness to pay for animal disease insurance products. We found that producers’ willingness to pay for animal disease insurance is relatively low, even if consequential losses are covered. However, attributes of the insurance products which increased the likelihood of the producer wishing to purchase the product in a statistically significant manner were identified. The most important attribute was a low deductible. Using latent class analysis, four classes of producers were identified, those who were (1) not interested, (2) weakly interested or (3) strongly interested in insurance, and additionally, (4) a group who emphasised biosecurity measures but was not willing to purchase insurance. Those primarily interested in insurance were typically young, well-educated producers from large farms, and they already had a good level of biosecurity on their farms. However, the majority of the respondents preferred not to purchase insurance. The analysis suggests that commercial production animal disease insurance may need to be subsidised or otherwise made more attractive to producers, and even so, many producers might consider it unnecessary.


SARS: seeking a real-time solution


Serge Morand and Muriel Figuié (eds), 2016, Emergence de maladies infectieuses. Risques et enjeux de société (The emergence of infectious diseases. Societal risks and stakes): Paris, Quae, 136 p


eHealth - ein spannendes Forschungsfeld


Schadenprisma Januar 2019: Abgeschossene Boeing ist ein Fall für die Kriegsversicherer


Early Treatment with Ribavirin may be Considered


Interferon alpha: recently approved in a number of countries for use in hairy cell leukaemia and/or Kaposi's sarcoma


title: The role of Tumor necrosis factor alpha −308 G>A promoter polymorphism in pediatric community acquired pneumonia

text: BACKGROUND: Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) −308 G>A promoter polymorphism might be associated with excessive production of the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α, modulating host response to pulmonary infections. Our objective was to evaluate the association of TNF-α gene −308 G>A polymorphism with susceptibility to, and severity of, community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). RESULTS: This was a cross-sectional study including 45 Egyptian children hospitalized for CAP in addition to 45 healthy children who served as a control group. Pneumonia severity was assessed on admission by the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines; Pediatric Respiratory Severity Score (PRESS) score; Predisposition, Infection, Response and Organ failure (PIROm) score; and Respiratory Index of Severity in Children (RISC) score. Genotyping of TNF-α polymorphism was performed to all individuals by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Patients were monitored till hospital discharge. Frequency of AG genotype was lower among patients compared with control [odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.13 (0.03–0.63); p = 0.012]. Prevalence of genotypes AA+AG was lower among patients compared with controls [OR and 95% CI = 0.34 (0.12–0.99); p = 0,048]. The “A” allele prevalence was higher among controls, but no significant association was found with CAP [OR and 95% CI = 0.58 (0.25–1.35); p = 0.21]. When PRESS score was used to classify patients into “severe pneumonia” and “non-severe pneumonia,” no significant association of any of the alleles or genotypes with CAP severity was found. CONCLUSION: TNF-α −308 G>A polymorphism confers protection from pediatric CAP but is not associated with indicators of CAP severity. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings in pediatric patients from different ethnicities.


Understanding Global Health Governance: A Review of Jeremy Youde’s Book


Antiviral Agents are Beneficial in Some Infections


title: Social networks and the spread of epidemics

text: In addition to the modern web-based “social networks”, where contacts are only virtual, there is a more traditional network of physical contacts among individuals, which is ultimately responsible for the transmission of all types of diseases. In this paper, we introduce the basic models of networks used to describe the social contacts within a population. Then we study how to transfer the traditional epidemic models, based on the “homogeneous mixing” assumption, to the new framework. We will see that, moving from the classical to the network modelling approach, results become more complex and somehow unexpected, as the structure of the social network plays a fundamental role.


Coronavirus vaccine protects against SARS


title: 70 Jahre WHO — Kampf mit Höhen und Tiefen

text: Seit nunmehr sieben Dekaden setzt sich die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) mit ihren 194 Mitgliedstaaten dafür ein, dass allen Menschen das höchstmögliche Gesundheitsniveau zuteil wird. Der wohl größte Erfolg in diesen Jahren ist die Ausrottung der Pocken. Als nächstes Ziel soll die Welt Polio-frei werden.


Ribavirin: Mild elevation of bilirubin and AST/ALT: case report


Immunosuppressants: various toxicities: case report


Hygiene im Bodden – Deutsche Seuchenforschung mit neuer Abwasserbehandlung


Kongress-Abstracts: Jahrestagung der DGPI/DGI


Respiratory distress syndrome: recent research


PEG interferon-α-2b/ribavirin: Interstitial pneumonitis and adult respiratory distress syndrome: case report


title: Comprendre le poumon agressé. Actes du séminaire de recherche translationnelle de la Société de Réanimation de Langue Française (6 décembre 2016)

text: The 2016 translational research meeting of the French Intensive Care Society was focused on lung defense and repair. The lung represents a crucial interface between the host and the environment, and is therefore constantly prone to various insults. The development of critical care medicine was largely linked to the management of acute respiratory failure. Beyond etiological treatments and ventilatory support, the potentially harmful effects of unleashed pulmonary inflammation in critically ill patients led researchers to assess the benefits of adjuvant immunomodulatory therapies. The development of such innovative treatments not only depends on a better understanding of the pathophysiology of acute lung injury, but also required the validation of dynamic assessment tools to be used at the bedside.


Disseminated intravascular coagulation: Present and future perspective


People + Companies


Personen + Unternehmen


title: Lung surfactant: The indispensable component of respiratory mechanics

text: Lung surfactant, a lipo-protein complex, is a highly surface-active material found in the fluid lining the air-liquid interface of the alveolar surface. Surfactant plays a dual function of preventing alveolar collapse during breathing cycle and protection of the lungs from injuries and infections caused by foreign bodies and pathogens. Varying degrees of structure-function abnormalities of surfactant have been associated with obstructive lung diseases, respiratory infections, respiratory distress syndromes, interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, cardiopulmonary bypass surgery and smoking. For some pulmonary conditions, especially respiratory distress syndrome, surfactant therapy is on the horizon.


Tkm-ebola: Fever, rigours and deterioration Ebola virus disease: 2 case reports


Oseltamivir/zanamivir: Lack of efficacy leading to fatal influenza A (H1N1) infection: case report


Dexamethasone: Acute respiratory distress syndrome secondary to Strongyloides stercoralis infection: case report


Yellow fever vaccine: Yellow fever vaccine-related viscerotropic disease: 5 case reports


title: Chemotherapy-induced pulmonary toxicity in lung cancer management

text: Chemotherapy is the cornerstone of therapy in many stages of lung cancer. Many diagnostic options have to be taken into account when a patient suffering from lung cancer presents with nonspecific, respiratory, clinical manifestations. A multidisciplinary diagnostic approach is then warranted. The top priority is to rule out those life-threatening causes, such as lung infection, that could be properly treated if a right diagnosis is early. To reach a definite diagnosis frequently requires that one or more diagnostic, pneumologic techniques are performed. Regarding to drug-induced pulmonary disease, prevention is mandatory. In this review we have tried to highlight the risk and characteristics of cytostatic-induced pulmonary toxicity caused by those agents that have been commonly employed to treat lung cancer for the last decades. When treating lung cancer patients, a high clinical suspicion of chemotherapy-induced lung toxicity should be kept in mind since an early withdrawal of the offending drug is the most efficacious therapy.


Van VVE naar basisstelsel


Antineoplastics: Various toxicities: case report


Gemtuzumab ozogamicin: Various toxicities: 2 case reports


title: Severe refractory TAFRO syndrome requiring continuous renal replacement therapy complicated with Trichosporon asahii infection in the lungs and myocardial infarction: an autopsy case report and literature review

text: BACKGROUND: TAFRO (thrombocytopenia, anasarca, fever, reticulin myelofibrosis/renal failure, and organomegaly) syndrome is a systemic inflammatory disorder and unique clinicopathological variant of idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease that was proposed in Japan. Prompt diagnosis is critical because TAFRO syndrome is a progressive and life threating disease. Some cases are refractory to immunosuppressive treatments. Renal impairment is frequently observed in patients with TAFRO syndrome, and some severe cases require hemodialysis. Histological evaluation is important to understand the pathophysiology of TAFRO syndrome. However, systemic histopathological evaluation through autopsy in TAFRO syndrome has been rarely reported previously. CASE PRESENTATION: A 46-year-old Japanese man with chief complaints of fever and abdominal distension was diagnosed with TAFRO syndrome through imaging studies, laboratory findings, and pathological findings on cervical lymph node and bone marrow biopsies. Interleukin (IL)-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels were remarkably elevated in both blood and ascites. Methylprednisolone (mPSL) pulse therapy was initiated on day 10, followed by combination therapy with PSL and cyclosporine A. However, the amount of ascites did not respond to the treatment. The patient became anuric, and continuous renal replacement therapy was initiated from day 50. However, the patient suddenly experienced cardiac arrest associated with myocardial infarction (MI) on the same day. Although the emergent percutaneous coronary intervention was successfully performed, the patient died on day 52, despite intensive care. Autopsy was performed to ascertain the cause of MI and to identify the histopathological characteristics of TAFRO syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Bacterial peritonitis, systemic cytomegalovirus infection, and Trichosporon asahii infection in the lungs were observed on autopsy. In addition, sepsis-related myocardial calcification was suspected. Management of infectious diseases is critical to reduce mortality in patients with TAFRO syndrome. Although the exact cause of MI could not be identified on autopsy, we considered embolization by fungal hyphae as a possible cause. Endothelial injury possibly caused by excessive secretion of IL-6 and VEGF contributed to renal impairment. Fibrotic changes in anterior mediastinal fat tissue could be a characteristic pathological finding in patients with TAFRO syndrome.


Hydroxychloroquine/tacrolimus: Peripheral T-cell lymphoma unspecified and acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure: case report


Leve de achtbaan!


HIV infection


COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-19): Traditionelle Chinesische Medizin einschließlich Akupunktur zur Linderung — Ein Bericht aus Wuhan, Hubei Provinz in China


Mycophenolate mofetil/prednisone: Disseminated herpes simplex virus-1 and varicella zoster virus co-infection and associated complications: case report


Bibliographie Über Biologische Bekämpfung


Kongress-Abstracts: 59. Jahrestagung der NDGKJ


Hydrochlorothiazide: Refractory hypokalaemia and hypomagnesaemia in an elderly patient: case report


Vincristine: Various toxicities: case report


Ciclosporin/steroids: Pandemic (H1N1)-associated ARDS: case report


Ciclosporin/cyclophosphamide/mycophenolate mofetil: Bacterial, viral and fungal infections: 71 case reports


Mary F. Hill & Martin Thrupp (eds): The Professional Practice of Teaching in New Zealand (6th Edition): Cengage Learning Australia, Melbourne, 2020, ISBN 9780170416771, Edition 6, 352 pages


ECR 2005 – Scientific Programme – Abstracts


ESGAR 2008 - Book of Abstracts


Branche


Hinweise zur Anwendung von MS-Immuntherapeutika


Methylprednisolone: Aspergillus fumigatus infection and pulmonary aspergillosis leading to constrictive Aspergillus pericarditis: case report


"Zeichen der Hilflosigkeit"


title: Herausforderungen in der Seuchenkontrolle und der jetzigen Pandemie durch verzerrte Verteilungen

text: BACKGROUND: The pandemic phase 3—mitigation—by the SARS-Coronavirus‑2 is currently taking on speed in Germany. Skewed distributions of key epidemiological parameters of the virus and patient care are a challenge for the control of the outbreak as well as keeping the system functional. METHODS: The skewed parameters—pre-patency period, incubation period, duration of viral shedding and time to admission to hospital—are analyzed in regard to their impact and possible countermeasures. RESULTS: The skewed distributions are exclusively time related variables. They are a handicap for outbreak control as well patient management. Optimization between residual open flanks and the efforts to close them is difficult. The main stakeholders are the local health departments, the diagnostic laboratories, the health care infrastructure and finally the citizens in regard to the burden due to non-pharmaceutical interventions including quarantine and isolation. The duration of quarantine and isolation should urgently be shortened for health care workers (HCW) as well as people in critical infrastructure by ready (re-) testing. Calculated risks have to be taken within a phase 3 of a pandemic to keep a system going. CONCLUSIONS: The skewed distributions are a special challenge for infectious disease control. In the case of ending quarantine and isolation in phase 3 of the pandemic, they should be judged specifically in regard to the client/patient. Cumulative distribution functions are very helpful in this regard.


Entschädigung für Praxisschließung wegen Coronavirus


title: Corona

text: Dit nummer was al klaar en vormgegeven toen de pleuris uitbrak rondom het coronavirus en alle scholen en kinderopvang moesten sluiten. Gelukkig kon ik nog net dit bericht aan jullie in een laatste ronde plaatsen.


title: Assessing the threat of lone-actor terrorism: the reliability and validity of the TRAP-18

text: Terrorism, especially lone-actor terrorism, is considered a major national security threat in both North America and Europe. The threat of terrorism has many faces and violence can arise from all ideological extremes. The authors present the theoretical model and current empirical validation of the Terrorist Radicalization Assessment Protocol (TRAP-18), a structured professional judgment instrument for those engaged in risk assessment of persons of concern for acts of terrorist violence. It can be used independently of a particular ideology. The TRAP-18 consists of 8 proximal warning behaviors and 10 distal characteristics, and has been designed to help prioritize the imminency of risk in specific cases, and therefore determine the intensity of monitoring and active management a case requires. Research has demonstrated excellent interrater reliability, and promising content, criterion, discriminant, and predictive validity. More research is in progress. The TRAP-18 is currently used by counterterrorism experts in North America and Europe. It offers a useful approach for professionals who may be assessing and treating individuals of national security concern.


Lungenkarzinom: Resistenzen überwinden und interdisziplinär arbeiten


Coronavirus: Serviceleistungen und Informationen


Veranstaltungen


Infection control since HIV


BDA Indemnity supports members with immediate cost reductions of up to 80%


An open letter to members


In de greep


journaal


Empfehlungen zur intensivmedizinischen Therapie von Patienten mit COVID-19*


Regulatory agencies issue advice on use of NSAIDs for COVID-19


COVID-19 bei Krebspatienten: Achtsamkeit und Abwägung sind erforderlich!


kurz notiert


Was Krebspatienten jetzt wissen wollen


Global operation targets rise in counterfeit COVID-related medical items


COVID-19-Pandemie: Wie können sich onkologische Kliniken wappnen?*


Die Digitalisierung verändert Praxen und Kliniken signifikant!


COVID-19: Risikoabschätzung und Planungsgrundlagen für unsere Praxen


Auswirkungen auf nervenärztliche, neurologische, psychiatrische Praxen


Competing perspectives on energy transitions: a global comparison


Gute Planung entscheidet über den Vertriebserfolg


Den richtigen Start erwischen


title: Corona

text: Het is al heel veel besproken, maar toch wil ik het ook nog even hebben over het coronavirus. Wat een paniek is er dan direct wereldwijd. Je ziet de gekste dingen. Er wordt van alles afgelast, de economie heeft er ook direct last van en de beurzen zakken. Er wordt mensen geadviseerd, als ze zich ziek voelen, om thuis te blijven en alle gezinsleden moeten dan ook thuisblijven. Liters handdesinfectans inkopen en ook nog vreselijk veel mondkapjes aanschaffen. Eigenlijk zijn er een paar dingen belangrijk waar wij, pedicures, dagelijks in onze praktijk ook mee te maken hebben.


title: Welke maatregelen zijn er voor pedicures: Ondersteuning tijdens de coronacrisis

text: Sinds 16 maart adviseert brancheorganisatie ProVoet om, op enkele uitzonderingssituaties na, de pedicurepraktijken te sluiten in verband met het coronavirus. Dat betekent dat je als pedicure (bijna) geen inkomsten vanuit je praktijk hebt. Daarmee wordt de pedicurebranche hard getroffen. Datzelfde geldt voor vele andere sectoren. De overheid heeft daarom extra ondersteuningsmaatregelen aangekondigd. Van welke maatregelen zou je gebruik kunnen maken?


title: Kan het helpen, of kan het ook schaden?

text: Pedicures die zijn bijgeschoold op het gebied van voeding kunnen hun cliënten breder adviseren. Ze kunnen hen bijvoorbeeld ook voedingssupplementen aanraden. Maar waarop baseer je zo’n advies? En mag je dat zomaar geven, als pedicure? Zijn er ook risico’s aan verbonden? Een verkenning van de mogelijkheden en valkuilen.


title: Vaknieuws

text: Vanwege de maatregelen rondom het coronavirus heeft de beursorganisatie de datum van de Vakbeurs Totale Voetverzorging verschoven naar zaterdag 20 en zondag 21 juni 2020.


title: Pandemic data challenges

text: The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 has led to great tragedy and poses unprecedented challenges for countries’ healthcare systems. Data has become an important instrument in the global fight against the unprecedented spread of the virus. But how will we ensure a return to previous forms of data privacy once the pandemic subsides?


The Downside of Globalization


Diseases of the Brain and Cranial Nerves


Disturbances of Free Water, Electrolytes, Acid-Base Balance, and Oncotic Pressure


Global Surveillance for Emerging Infectious Diseases


Neurological Infections


Respiratory Tract Infection in a Traveler Returning from the Hajj


title: Ethical Issues in Public Health

text: The field of public health includes a wide scope of activities and professional disciplines, ranging from sanitation, health protection, epidemiology, environmental health, financing, health promotion, including supervision, or the provision of clinical care. Each of these disciplines works in systems that face ethical dilemmas, making it important that public health workers have motivation to understand and practice within the ethical guidelines of their profession, thus making ethics an important component of training and practice. The dangers of ethical lapses are overwhelmingly apparent in the case of the Eugenics movement of the early 20(th) century which metamorphosed from forced sterilizations in many liberal democratic countries into mass murder of physically and mentally handicapped children and adults in Nazi Germany. Between 1939 and 1941, 180 thousand psychiatric patients along with an equivalent number of handicapped children and adults were killed in an organized extermination program in Germany by lethal gassing. This method was then applied to the industrialized murder or Holocaust of six million Jews and millions of other “untermenschen” (sub human) in the greatest genocide in human history. Shortly after World War II ended the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals were conducted including medical doctors, and some were executed for crimes against humanity. This was followed by the 1948 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and by the World Medical Association’s Helsinki Declaration. Both are widely accepted as cornerstone documents—the latter specifically governing ethical standards related to human experimentation—and are revised regularly since being issued in 1964. But genocide has not disappeared, nor has unscrupulous experimentation such as the Tuskegee experiment on black Americans infected with syphilis and left untreated even after the availability of a cure, penicillin. Ethical standards are now required by “Helsinki Committees”—ethical review boards—in most medical facilities worldwide. Ethical frameworks have evolved in part due to bitter experience of ethical failures later recognized and affecting public health standards of practice. Future generations of public health leaders and staff will face many ethical issues such as mandatory immunization of health workers and school children, and assisted death of terminally ill patients.


Noninfluenza Respiratory Viruses


Emergency Response in Simulated Terrorist Attacks: Usability Lessons Learned


Gastrointestinal, Pancreatic, and Hepatic Disorders


title: Mechanisms of Disease Production: Acute Infections

text: This chapter discusses the ways in which viral replication damages tissues and organs and the ways in which the body's own responses may cause damage. It presents examples illustrating the pathogenesis of four basic kinds of acute viral infection: respiratory, intestinal, generalized, and neurological. As the immune system plays a key role in protection against infections, viral damage to its components can exacerbate the severity of disease or predispose to superinfection with other viral or nonviral agents. Both specific acquired immunodeficiency and generalized immunosuppression can occur in viral infections. The immune response to viral infection may itself frequently contribute to the pathology of the disease. Inflammation with accompanying cellular infiltration is a regular feature of viral infection. Such common signs as erythema, edema, and enlargement of lymph nodes have an immunological basis. There are viral diseases in which the cardinal manifestations are caused by the body's immune response. Immunopathological (hypersensitivity) reactions are traditionally classified into types 1, 2, 3, and 4. For most viral infections, it is not known whether immunopathological effects make a significant contribution to disease and if so then as to which of the four classical hypersensitivity reactions is implicated. It is instructive to speculate about the possible involvement of different kinds of hypersensitivity reactions in viral diseases.


EYE INFECTIONS


Virus Morphology, Replication, and Assembly


Immunology of Human Milk and Host Immunity


Management of Breeding in Small Poultry Production Units


Order of Presentation of Virus Taxonomic Descriptions


Overview of Viruses and Virus Infection


Galliformes


title: The Macrosecuritization of Antimicrobial Resistance in China

text: The global spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an existential threat to humanity, one that has generated a macrosecuritizing response by states and international organizations. Since the turn of the century, China has been a source of numerous infectious disease outbreaks. It is also the origin of the MCR-1 gene, which confers resistance to colistin, a “last-line” antibiotic deployed against multidrug-resistant infections. With the largest population in the world, coupled with its status as a major supplier of agricultural produce, evaluating Chinese responses to AMR is critical to understanding the efficacy of the global response. Drawing on knowledge of both Chinese politics and health security, this article analyzes how Chinese actors have responded to the threat in the public and animal health sectors as well as the domestic and international implications of these responses. Based on interviews with key Chinese and international officials, scientists, and public health specialists, as well as farmers and consumers, we argue that the securitization of AMR in China is currently more concerned with domestic policy and resource competition than with addressing the existential health threat. Without a greater alignment of AMR strategies within China, macrosecuritizing efforts to address the threat globally cannot succeed.


Urocyon littoralis


title: Canis aureus (Carnivore: Canidae)

text: Canis aureus (Linnaeus, 1758), the golden jackal, is a medium-sized, wide spread, terrestrial carnivore. It is 1 of 7 species found in the genus Canis. It ranges from Africa to Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Due to its tolerance of dry habitats and its omnivorous diet, C. aureus can live in a wide variety of habitats. It normally lives in open grassland habitat but also occurs in deserts, woodlands, mangroves, and agricultural and rural habitats in India and Bangladesh. It ranges from sea level in Eritrea to 3,500 m in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia and 2,000 m in India. C. aureus is listed as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List of Threatened Species version 2016.1.


title: Felis margarita (Carnivora: Felidae)

text: Felis margarita Loche, 1858 is a felid commonly called the sand cat. It is 1 of 6 species in the genus Felis. One of the smallest of the wild cats, Felis margarita, is adapted behaviorally and morphologically to live in desert environments. Prey includes rodents, birds, reptiles, and arthropods. This species has a wide, but disjunct distribution through northern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and southwest and central Asia. F. margarita occurs at low densities throughout its range and is listed as “Near Threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources due to habitat degradation and its low and potentially declining population. F. margarita is bred in zoos in North America and Europe.


title: Lynx canadensis (Carnivora: Felidae)

text: Lynx canadensis Kerr, 1792, commonly called the Canada lynx, is a medium size felid and is the second largest of the four species in the genus Lynx. It is distributed throughout the boreal forest of most of Canada and Alaska and across portions of the northern United States. It prefers dense, regenerating coniferous forests with moderate canopy and understory cover. L. canadensis is a snowshoe hare specialist, and its ecology, morphology, and behavior closely reflect that of its main prey. It is listed as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, is on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and its population size trend is considered stable. However, the status of United States subpopulations, being largely peripheral to the Canadian population, is more tenuous and the species is protected.


title: Riding the Shi: From Infection Barriers to the Microbial City

text: How can a microbial approach to global health security protect life? Contemporary infection control mechanisms set the human and the pathogenic microbe against each other, as the victim versus the menace. This biomedical polarization persistently runs through the contemporary dominant mode of thinking about public health and infectious disease governance. Taking its cue from the currently accepted germ theory of disease, such mechanisms render a global city like Hong Kong not only pervasively “on alert” and under threat of unpredictable and pathogenic viruses and other microbes, it also gives rise to a hygiene and antimicrobial politics that is never entirely able to control pathogenic circulation. The article draws on recent advances in medical microbiology, which depart from germ theory, to invoke an ecological understanding of the human-microbe relation. Here, while a small number of viruses are pathogenic, the majority are benign; some are even essential to human life. Disease is not just the outcome of a pathogenic microbe infecting a human host but emerges from socioeconomic relations, which exacerbate human-animal-microbial interactions. In a final step, the article draws on Daoist thought to reflect on the ways that such a microbial understanding translates into life and city dwelling.


title: Panthera pardus (Carnivora: Felidae)

text: Panthera pardus (leopard; Linnaeus, 1758) is the smallest of the 4 large felids in the genus Panthera. A solitary and adaptable species, P. pardus is the widest ranging of all wild felids, inhabiting rain forests, mountains, semiarid environments, and suburban areas throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia to the Russian Far East. Despite this distribution, P. pardus is listed as “Near Threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and several Asian subspecies are listed as endangered. P. pardus primarily feeds on small to medium-sized ungulates, but has a varied diet including fish, reptiles, birds, and small mammals.


title: Leopardus braccatus (Carnivora: Felidae)

text: Leopardus braccatus (Cope, 1889) is a small felid—not much larger than a domestic house cat—commonly called the Pantanal cat. No comprehensive surveys have been conducted to determine how many L. braccatus exist in the wild. It is found in humid, warm grasslands and wooded areas of extreme northwestern Argentina, southwestern and south- and north-central (newly reported ranges) Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Habitat loss and degradation are considered major threats throughout most of its range. It is uncommon in captivity and museum collections, listed with all Felidae under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and considered “Near Threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in the pampas cat group ( = L. colocolo).


title: Does the discovery of the mimivirus call into question attempts to define life?

text: Despite biology being ‘The study of living organisms’ (Proffitt, 2017), there is no consensus between biologists on the definition of life (Bedau, 2010). Defining life has challenged and divided biologists and philosophers alike ever since Aristotle proposed the first definition. Emerging fields like synthetic biology and exobiology have rekindled attempts at establishing a definition of life for practical purposes. The question presents many challenges with each attempt thus far leading to unintended implications and strong counterexamples. It is an inherently multidisciplinary challenge with each approach giving wildly varying and often irreconcilable definitions. The given definitions of life are numerous with over 300 definitions published in books and journals. The unique characteristics of the mimivirus, discovered in 2003, and later giant viruses, rekindled the discussion in defining life, indicating other complications in a definition.


title: From International Sanitary Conventions to Global Health Security: The New International Health Regulations

text: In May 2005, the World Health Organization adopted the new International Health Regulations (IHR), which constitute one of the most radical and far-reaching changes to international law on public health since the beginning of international health co-operation in the mid-nineteenth century. This article comprehensively analyses the new IHR by examining the history of international law on infectious disease control, the IHR revision process, the substantive changes contained in the new IHR and concerns regarding the future of the new IHR. The article demonstrates why the new IHR constitute a seminal event in the relationship between international law and public health and send messages about how human societies should govern their vulnerabilities to serious, acute disease events in the twenty-first century.


title: Concealing Disease: Trade and Travel Barriers and the Timeliness of Outbreak Reporting

text: Slow outbreak reporting by states is a key challenge to effectively responding to global health emergencies like Zika, Ebola, and H1N1. Current policy focuses on improving domestic outbreak surveillance capacity globally in order to reduce reporting lags. However, governments also face economic and political incentives to conceal outbreaks, and these incentives largely are ignored in policy discussions. In spite of the policy implications for outbreak response, the “capacity” and “will” explanations have not been systematically examined. Analysis of a dataset coding the timeliness of outbreak reporting from 1996–2014 finds evidence that states’ unwillingness to report—rather than just their inability—leads to delayed reporting. The findings suggest that though building surveillance capacity is critical, doing so may not be sufficient to reduce reporting lags. Policy aimed at encouraging rapid reporting must also mitigate the associated economic and political costs.


title: Chinese Practice in Public International Law: 2012(*)

text: This Survey covers materials reflecting Chinese practice in 2012 relating to: I. Fundamental principles of international law; II. Rule of law at the national and international levels; III. Sources of international law (provisional application of treaties; formation and evidence of customary international law); IV. Recognition of new States and governments (Palestine; Kosovo; the new Libyan government); V. Jurisdiction and immunity (Supreme People's Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment to the 1979 Criminal Procedural Code; Case concerning the 5 October Massacre in Mekong River committed by Sai Naw Kham, Hsang Kham, Yi Lai, Zha Xika, Zha Bo and Zha Tuobo); VI. China's territorial integrity (Taiwan; Tibet; China–India agreement on the establishment of a working mechanism for consultation and co-ordination on India–China border affairs; Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands; Huangyan Island; Xisha Islands; Nansha Islands; Establishment of Sansha Municipality); VII. Polar regions (Arctic Council); VIII. International Law of the Sea (Baselines of the territorial sea adjacent to Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands; Selection, defininition and protection of the Protection Scope of Territorial Sea Base Points; Submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in part of the East China Sea; Revised Regulations on Administration of Coastal Border Security of Hainan Province; Suyan Rock; Okinotori Reef; Marine environment; Marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction; Sustainable fisheries; Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf; International Seabed Authority; International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; Fight against piracy); IX. International law on outer space (Militarization of and arms race in outer space; Space debris; International co-operation in peaceful uses of outer space); X. Aliens (Act on Administration of Exit and Entry; 72-hour visa-free travel to Beijing and Shanghai; Draft articles on expulsion of aliens; Refugees); XI. International human rights law (Human rights and the principle of non-interference of internal affairs; Human rights, politicization and double Standards; Human rights and national conditions; Right to survival and right to development; Human security; Discrimination and racism; Right to self-determination; Rights of indigenous peoples; Initial report under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; The Second Amendment to the 1979 Criminal Procedural Code; Act on Administration of Exit and Entry; Work of UN Secretariat in human rights; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Human Rights Treaty bodies and their reform); XII. International humanitarian law (protection of civilians in armed conflicts; Fourth Annual Session of Chinese National Committee of International Humanitarian Law; Litigation of Chinese victims against Japan before a court in Chongqing; Legal advisers in Chinese armed forces); XIII. International law on disasters (Strengthening of the co-ordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the UN, including special economic assistance); XIV. International law on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation (Nuclear disarmament; Mongolia's nuclear-weapons-free status; Chemical Weapons Convention; Biological Weapons Convention; Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW); Ottawa Convention; Anti-vehicle landmines; International humanitarian de-mining assistance; Protocol V to the CCW (ERW); China–Laos Memorandum of Understanding on the Provision of Assistance of China to the Laotian Victims of Cluster Munitions; Arms Trade Treaty; Cyber weapons; Conference on Disarmament); XV. International Criminal Law (International Criminal Court; ICTY and ICTR; Scope and application of universal jurisdiction; UN Comprehensive Convention against Terrorism; UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; UN Convention against Corruption; Cyber crime; Trafficking in cultural property); XVI. International environmental law (Joint Declaration of the Moscow Meeting on Inclusion of International Civil Aviation in the EU-ETS; Directive on Prohibition from Participating in EU Carbon Emission System; Protection of atmosphere; Effects of atomic radiation; Use of water resources of cross-border rivers); XVII. Law on diplomatic and consular relations (Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations; The CHEN Guangcheng incident; The WANG Lijun case); XVIII. International law on international organizations (The reform of the UNSC; Sanctions imposed by the UNSC; The working methods of the UNSC; UN Peacekeeping operations; Regulation on Participation of People's Liberation Army in UN Peacekeeping Operations (Provisional Application); Inter-mission co-operation of UN peacekeeping operations; Scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the UN); XIX. International law on settlement of disputes (International Court of Justice; Unilateral sanctions imposed by a State against another State).


title: Development of a United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme (UK NEQAS) for HIV point of care testing

text: The use of HIV point of care tests (POCTs) is increasing rapidly in both laboratory and other settings. These tests are often performed by non-laboratory trained staff. At the present time there are no external quality assessment (EQA) providers in the UK offering proficiency testing schemes for HIV point of care testing. The aim of this study is to develop such an EQA scheme. Firstly, a selection of the most widely used POCTs was selected and their performance assessed using existing HIV-positive serology EQA specimens. All assays produced the correct results however intensity of results observed for the same specimen differed greatly between POCT devices. In addition the effect of various sub-groups of HIV-1 serum samples on the HIV POCT assays was investigated and no difference between the results on the POCTs was observed. Ultimately four serum specimens, two HIV-1 and one HIV-2 positive, one HIV negative, were chosen and sent to NHS laboratories and sexual health clinics for testing as part of a pilot EQA scheme for HIV POCT. Results were excellent with 97% of participants reporting correct results (n= 20). The study highlighted a lack of awareness of EQA particularly in non-laboratory settings, although recommendations (ISO 22870:2006) are in place for the users of such devices. In conclusion, the need for EQA for providers of point of care testing is an integral part of ensuring reliability of results and quality of care for the patient.


title: Public Health Law II: Contemporary Threats

text: In this chapter, we will explore how the legal system is responding to the biggest public health threats of the moment. “Of the moment” may be the key phrase here. We have seen in the previous chapter how disease became associated in the public mind with threats from “outsiders,” which led to medically unwarranted quarantines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After those fears subsided and the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 ran its course, the field of public health settled into a sleepy backwater of the law, and the strategy for suppression of disease came to depend more on scientific discoveries such as penicillin and the polio vaccine.


title: Viral Quasispecies: Dynamics, Interactions, and Pathogenesis

text: Quasispecies theory is providing a solid, evolving conceptual framework for insights into virus population dynamics, adaptive potential, and response to lethal mutagenesis. The complexity of mutant spectra can influence disease progression and viral pathogenesis, as demonstrated using virus variants selected for increased replicative fidelity. Complementation and interference exerted among components of a viral quasispecies can either reinforce or limit the replicative capacity and disease potential of the ensemble. In particular, a progressive enrichment of a replicating mutant spectrum with interfering mutant genomes prompted by enhanced mutagenesis may be a key event in the sharp transition of virus populations into error catastrophe that leads to virus extinction. Fitness variations are influenced by the passage regimes to which viral populations are subjected, notably average fitness decreases upon repeated bottleneck events and fitness gains upon competitive optimization of large viral populations. Evolving viral quasispecies respond to selective constraints by replication of subpopulations of variant genomes that display higher fitness than the parental population in the presence of the selective constraint. This has been profusely documented with fitness effects of mutations associated with resistance of pathogenic viruses to antiviral agents. In particular, selection of HIV-1 mutants resistant to one or multiple antiretroviral inhibitors, and the compensatory effect of mutations in the same genome, offers a compendium of the molecular intricacies that a virus can exploit for its survival. This chapter reviews the basic principles of quasispecies dynamics as they can serve to explain the behavior of viruses.


OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH | Autopsy


title: Polymerases of Coronaviruses: Structure, Function, and Inhibitors

text: Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a major group of viruses known to be responsible for wide spectrum of diseases in multiple species. The CoVs affecting human population are referred to as human coronaviruses (HCoVs). They lead to multiple respiratory diseases, such as common cold, pneumonia, bronchitis, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Middle East respiratory syndrome. CoVs are RNA viruses that require RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) for various steps in their life cycle. Action of RdRP is needed in several steps in the life cycle of CoVs and thus RdRPs constitute potential targets for drugs and other therapeutic interventions for the treatment of diseases caused by CoVs. The chapter therefore presents a detailed discussion on the structure and functions of CoV polymerases and the development of their potential inhibitors.


Blood Transfusion and Blood Substitutes


Cell Structure and Function in Virus Infections


title: Viruses

text: In the past, viruses were considered nonliving infectious particles, little more than genetic material wrapped in a protein capsid. Today, virologists are beginning to think of viruses as living organisms that can be classified phylogenetically into defined species, much like any other living organism. The primary reasons for this shift in attitude can be partially attributed to the discovery of giant viruses, having large genomes and complex regulatory systems. Aside from that, it has become obvious that viruses lead complex lives; they evolve, speciate, and participate in the evolution of all classes of living organisms. In this chapter, we will discuss the early attempts to classify viruses, and review the biologic properties of the classes of virus that contain human pathogens.


Pleural Effusion


title: Mustelids

text: This chapter presents a synopsis of mustelid pathology. The depth of disease knowledge varies widely across species. It is greatest for mustelids with the strongest connections to humans (ferrets, mink, and otters). Similar conditions may occur in other mustelids, but have been missed due to limited examination by pathologists, providing ample opportunity for scientific discovery and improved clinical care. Globally mustelids are highly valued by humans as companions and commercial purposes, as the focus of conservation efforts, and as providers of beneficial ecosystem services, such as structuring their environment to optimize habitat for sympatric species. Although skunks and stink-badgers are no longer classified within the Mustelidae, they are included here for the sake of comparison and completeness. Members range from 25 g to 45 kg, occupy marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats, and exploit fully aquatic, arboreal, and fossorial lifestyles.


title: Overcoming regulatory gaps in biological materials oversight by enhancing IBC protocol review

text: In the United States, several regulations and federal policies govern the use of potentially biohazardous materials in research and industry. Part of this oversight is assigned by mandate to Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBCs). However, most research entities give additional responsibilities to their IBC to take advantage of a standing body with significant expertise in review and oversight of biohazardous research. Two case studies are provided to highlight functions of the IBC which are not mandated, yet are critical for safe and responsible research. There are also types of biohazardous work that are currently unregulated and receive no review from an IBC or other group of subject matter experts, leaving a gap in safety oversight. To mitigate the hazard of working with potentially hazardous unregulated biological material, the necessity of performing a risk assessment and of performing a hazard review by subject matter experts, such as those on an IBC, is of paramount importance.


EXPRESSION OF RECOMBINANT PROTEINS IN THE MILK OF TRANSGENIC ANIMALS


title: Viruses, Antibodies, and Vaccines

text: Humans have been fighting disease since the dawn of civilization and will probably do so till its end. Every century has had its medical revolution. But the last century was special: we started to uncover the most fundamental biological mechanisms designed to keeps us healthy every second of our lives. The discoveries of these mechanisms, collectively referred to as the immune system, have had an unprecedented positive impact on human health. Understanding the nature of infectious diseases, the discovery of antibiotics and vaccination campaigns have already saved hundreds of millions of lives. And this is just the beginning.


title: Biological Hazards and Select Agents

text: The development of early guidance documents for safe work with biological hazards was driven in part by the efforts of the life sciences community itself and in part by federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. However, developments in the late 1990s through the present day have prompted a dramatic expansion in the generation of specific federal regulations, with the most obvious example being the Federal Select Agent Regulations. This chapter focuses on identifying the most widely accepted guidance documents and key regulations pertaining to research with biological hazards, including guidance on proper containment and handling of biological hazards, importation of biological agents, and safe work with bloodborne pathogens, recombinant and synthetic nucleic acids, and select agents and toxins.


Lambing Management and Neonatal Care


Natural Language Processing for Biosurveillance


Seizure Disorders and Treatment Options


SUDDEN NATURAL DEATH | Infectious Diseases


The Perfect Storm: Climate, Ecosystems and Infectious Diseases


GENETICS OF ANIMAL VIRUSES


New Diagnostic Tools for Infectious Disease


Respiratory Viruses and Atypical Bacteria


Astroviruses, Enteric Adenoviruses, and Other Gastroenteritis Viral Infections


title: The Chinese Real Estate Bubble: Is It an Opportunity for Short Selling?

text: This chapter evaluates the arguments on the emergence of the China real estate bubble and the accompanying opportunity for short selling. The lack of reliable data and the short operating history of China as a semicapitalist country make firm conclusions difficult. However, overall the evidence points to further problems in the Chinese banking and real estate sectors. If this is true, then it is not too late to short Chinese banks and property stocks. Some investors predict that China's real estate bubble will soon burst as the property prices in China are relatively high with respect to GDP per capita and as the Chinese government took actions in April 2010 to regulate real estate prices. However, economic activities in China are controlled by central and municipal governments, sizable state-owned banks, and enterprises to a great extent. In 2010, the magnitude of bank lending has been reduced greatly following the change in monetary policy. This is expected to cool down the transaction volume of the real estate market. Even with the drop of property prices, the Chinese central government is taking measures to curb current real estate prices. A decline of 30% or more in real estate prices is widely accepted by the central government, but it is not certain that commercial banks can assume such big declines. Possibly a decline of over 50% in real estate prices is expected to induce a new wave of financial crisis in China. Therefore, a rapid drop in real estate prices is hazardous to the banking system and the government expects a slow decline. The Chinese government has recognized that a bubble currently exists and has opted to contain real estate prices to maintain a “harmonious society.”


Cardiovascular and Lymphoproliferative Diseases


title: What Lies Ahead?: Scientists Look into Their Crystal Balls

text: Viral pathogenesis is a field in rapid evolution, reflecting the dynamic development of systems biology and the continuing introduction of new or improved methodologies. Therefore, this final chapter is dedicated to “futurism,” a look at what lies ahead for this field. We have recruited a number of scientists to write short pieces where they are free to speculate on future developments in their respective areas of expertise.


Infection Prevention and Control, and Antimicrobial Stewardship


Recreational Infections


Behavior of Single Cats and Groups in the Home


Viruses of Fungi and Protozoans: Is Everyone Sick?