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Policy brief: Outta trust? (Post)-pandemic trust and democratic resilience in the Western Balkans
No full textIn the Western Balkans, issues linking trust and democracy acquire particular
importance and urgency in the wake of the Covid crisis. Based on a large-scale
public opinion poll carried out in the six countries of the Western Balkans,
this brief shows that the pandemic has exacerbated the region’s issues with
trust in public institutions even further. The study finds that the reticence of
publics to undergo vaccination is directly linked with mistrust in governments,
corroborating earlier research by BiEPAG that warned about the wide diffusion
of coronavirus-related conspiracy theories in the region and their relation with
vaccine scepticism. The brief also points to the profiling of a trend termed
‘authoritarian production of trust’ in the largest country of the region, Serbia.
Yet, it also identifies a ‘constituency of change’ with similar characteristics
across the region: a picture that opens space to invest trust in new actors able to
advance genuine progressive causes in South East Europe, beyond and instead
of captured institutions and the respective party establishments
Research data supporting "A fibre-optic strain measurement system to monitor the impact of tunnelling on nearby heritage masonry buildings"
No full textThis dataset features .fig files which feature the data presented in the paper
Common evaluation pitfalls in touch-based authentication systems
No full textThis dataset contains the data collected and used in the paper “Common Evaluation Pitfalls in Touch-Based Authentication Systems”.
The dataset consists of touchscreen interactions and accelerometer + gyroscope data gathered from iPhone devices. The data was collected remotely through Amazon Mechanical Turk and participants were required to do multiple repetitions of two tasks every day for up to 31 days. In the paper, we use this data to outline evaluation pitfalls in touch-based authentication systems. In total, we collected data from 470 users amounting to 6,017 unique sessions and 1,166,092 unique swipes. All participants included gave consent for sharing their data.
The “table.zip” folder contains .csv files with information about the participants such as age, gender, location, etc. Furthermore, it provides details about when the experiments were performed and their resulting filenames.
The “data_files.zip” folder contains all the interaction, accelerometer, and gyroscope data in an organized folder structure. Top-level folders represent unique user IDs and contain a list of folders for each daily session. Each daily session folder has a “scroll” (social media task) and “swipe” (image gallery task) folders which contain each repetition done by the user. Each repetition folder, then, hosts the accelerometer, gyroscope, and touch data.
The “features.zip” folder contains a single .csv file with extracted features from the data in “data_files.zip” and can be immediately used for touch-based authentication experiments
Cauda equina syndrome – a practical guide to definition and classification
No full textPurpose
International uniformity of definition and classification are crucial for diagnosis and management of cauda equina syndrome (CES). They are also useful for clinicians when discussing CES with patients and relatives, and for medicolegal purposes.
Methods
We reviewed published literature using PubMed on definition and classification of cauda equina syndrome since 2000 (21 years). Using the search terms ‘cauda equina’ and ‘definition’ or ‘classification’, we found and reviewed 212 papers.
Results
There were 17 different definitions of CES used in the literature. There were three well-defined methods of classification of CES. The two-stage system of incomplete CES (CESI) versus CES with retention (CESR) is the most commonly used classification, and has prognostic value although the details of this continue to be debated.
Conclusion
We used the existing literature to propose a clear definition of CES. We also drew on peer-reviewed published literature that has helped to amplify and expand the CESI/CESR dichotomy, adding categories that are both less severe than CESI, and more severe than CESR, and we propose clear definitions in a table form to assist current and future discussion and management of CES
Clustering of malaria in households in the Greater Mekong Subregion: operational implications for reactive case detection
No full textBackground
Malaria reactive case detection is the testing and, if positive, treatment of close contacts of index cases. It is included in national malaria control programmes of countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion to accelerate malaria elimination. Yet the value of reactive case detection in the control and elimination of malaria remains controversial because of the low yield, limited evidence for impact, and high demands on resources.
Methods
Data from the epidemiological assessments of large mass drug administration (MDA) studies in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were analysed to explore malaria infection clustering in households. The proportion of malaria positive cases among contacts screened in a hypothetical reactive case detection programme was then determined. The parasite density thresholds for rapid diagnostic test (RDT) detection was assumed to be > 50/µL (50,000/mL), for dried-blood-spot (DBS) based PCR > 5/µL (5000/mL), and for ultrasensitive PCR (uPCR) with a validated limit of detection at 0.0022/µL (22/mL).
Results
At baseline, before MDA, 1223 Plasmodium infections were detected by uPCR in 693 households. There was clustering of Plasmodium infections. In 637 households with asymptomatic infections 44% (278/637) had more than one member with Plasmodium infections. In the 132 households with symptomatic infections, 65% (86/132) had more than one member with Plasmodium infections. At baseline 4% of households had more than one Plasmodium falciparum infection, but three months after MDA no household had more than one P. falciparum infected member. Reactive case detection using DBS PCR would have detected ten additional cases in six households, and an RDT screen would have detected five additional cases in three households among the 169 households with at least one RDT positive case. This translates to 19 and 9 additional cases identified per 1000 people screened, respectively. Overall, assuming all febrile RDT positive patients would seek treatment and provoke reactive case detection using RDTs, then 1047 of 1052 (99.5%) Plasmodium infections in these communities would have remained undetected.
Conclusion
Reactive case detection in the Greater Mekong subregion is predicted to have a negligible impact on the malaria burden, but it has substantial costs in terms of human and financial resources
Global and regional estimates for subtype-specific therapeutic and prophylactic HIV-1 vaccines: a modelling study
No full textGlobal HIV-1 genetic diversity forms a major obstacle to the development of an HIV vaccine. It may be necessary to employ subtype-specific HIV-1 vaccines in individual countries according to their HIV-1 subtype distribution. We estimated the global and regional need for subtype-specific HIV-1 vaccines. We took into account the proportions of different HIV-1 variants circulating in each country, the genetic composition of HIV-1 recombinants, and the different genome segments (gag, pol, env) that may be incorporated into vaccines. We modeled different scenarios according to whether countries would employ subtype-specific HIV-1 vaccines against (1) the most common subtype; (2) subtypes contributing more than 5% of HIV infections; or (3) all circulating subtypes. For therapeutic vaccines targeting the most common HIV-1 subtype in each country, 16.5 million doses of subtype C vaccine were estimated globally, followed by subtypes A (14.3 million) and B (4.2 million). A vaccine based on env required 2.6 million subtype E doses, and a vaccine based on pol required 4.8 million subtype G doses. For prophylactic vaccines targeting the most common HIV-1 subtype in each country, 1.9 billion doses of subtype A vaccine were estimated globally, followed by subtype C (1.1 billion) and subtype B (1.0 billion). A vaccine based on env required 1.2 billion subtype E doses, and a vaccine based on pol required 0.3 billion subtype G doses. If subtype-specific HIV-1 vaccines are also directed against less common subtypes in each country, vaccines targeting subtypes D, F, H, and K are also needed and would require up to five times more vaccine doses in total. We conclude that to provide global coverage, subtype-specific HIV-1 vaccines need to be directed against subtypes A, B, and C. Vaccines targeting env also need to include subtype E and those targeting pol need to include subtype G
Geographical distribution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in soil in Myanmar
No full textBackground
Burkholderia pseudomallei is a Gram-negative bacterium found in soil and water in many tropical countries. It causes melioidosis, a potentially fatal infection first described in 1911 in Myanmar. Melioidosis is a common cause of sepsis and death in South and South-east Asia, but it is rarely diagnosed in Myanmar. We conducted a nationwide soil study to identify areas where B. pseudomallei is present.
Methodology/Principal findings
We collected soil samples from 387 locations in all 15 states and regions of Myanmar between September 2017 and June 2019. At each site, three samples were taken at each of three different depths (30, 60 and 90 cm) and were cultured for B. pseudomallei separately, along with a pooled sample from each site (i.e. 10 cultures per site). We used a negative binomial regression model to assess associations between isolation of B. pseudomallei and environmental factors (season, soil depth, soil type, land use and climate zones). B. pseudomallei was isolated in 7 of 15 states and regions. Of the 387 sites, 31 (8%) had one or more positive samples and of the 3,870 samples cultured, 103 (2.7%) tested positive for B. pseudomallei. B. pseudomallei was isolated more frequently during the monsoon season [RR-2.28 (95% CI: 0.70–7.38)] and less in the hot dry season [RR-0.70 (95% CI: 0.19–2.56)] compared to the cool dry season, and in the tropical monsoon climate zone [RR-2.26; 95% CI (0.21–6.21)] compared to the tropical dry winter climate zone. However, these associations were not statistically significant. B. pseudomallei was detected at all three depths and from various soil types (clay, silt and sand). Isolation was higher in agricultural land (2.2%), pasture land (8.5%) and disused land (5.8%) than in residential land (0.4%), but these differences were also not significant.
Conclusion/Significance
This study confirms a widespread distribution of B. pseudomallei in Myanmar. Clinical studies should follow to obtain a better picture of the burden of melioidosis in Myanmar
Nonrandom segregation of sister chromosomes by Escherichia coli MukBEF
No full textStructural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) complexes contribute to chromosome organization in all domains of life. In Escherichia coli, MukBEF, the functional SMC homolog, promotes spatiotemporal chromosome organization and faithful chromosome segregation. Here, we address the relative contributions of MukBEF and the replication terminus (ter) binding protein, MatP, to chromosome organization–segregation. We show that MukBEF, but not MatP, is required for the normal localization of the origin of replication to midcell and for the establishment of translational symmetry between newly replicated sister chromosomes. Overall, chromosome orientation is normally maintained through division from one generation to the next. Analysis of loci flanking the replication termination region (ter), which demark the ends of the linearly organized portion of the nucleoid, demonstrates that MatP is required for maintenance of chromosome orientation. We show that DNA-bound β2-processivity clamps, which mark the lagging strands at DNA replication forks, localize to the cell center, independent of replisome location but dependent on MukBEF action, and consistent with translational symmetry of sister chromosomes. Finally, we directly show that the older (“immortal”) template DNA strand, propagated from previous generations, is preferentially inherited by the cell forming at the old pole, dependent on MukBEF and MatP. The work further implicates MukBEF and MatP as central players in chromosome organization, segregation, and nonrandom inheritance of genetic material and suggests a general framework for understanding how chromosome conformation and dynamics shape subcellular organization
