163 research outputs found
LSHTM - April 2013 Podcast - Malaria Centre, bowel cancer survival, and zombie outbreak
No full textThe April 2013 podcast from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Includes Dr Chris Drakeley from the School's Malaria Centre, Camille Maringe on her recent research into bowel cancer survival, and research student Conall Watson discussing the science of zombies.
Look out for extended video interviews on the School website
alxsrobert/evd-transmission-trees
No full textThis repository contains the code to reproduce the analysis presented in the paper: Alexis Robert, Joseph Tsui Lok Hei, Conall H Watson et al, Quantifying the added value of viral genomics to infer who infected whom in the 2014-16 Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea. The main script of the repository (src/main_script.R) is used to generate simulated transmission trees (using the functions contained in src/function_generate_outbreaks.R), and analyse them using Outbreaker2. Finally, the main script generates the different figures included in the paper (using the functions contained in src/function_figures)
Emerg Infect Dis
No full textUsing an Ebola virus disease transmission model, we found that addition of ring vaccination at the outset of the West Africa epidemic might not have led to containment of this disease. However, in later stages of the epidemic or in outbreaks with less intense transmission or more effective control, this strategy could help eliminate the disease
The Design Research Society in the 1980s and 1990s: a memoir
No full textThis paper records some experiences of the author as a Council member and Officer of the Design Research Society during the 1980s and 1990s. This included a precarious period when the Society\u27s very existence was in question and it was in danger of being wound up. During this time we managed to get the Society back on to a firm footing and broke new ground, firstly embracing the internet which massively improved communications between members, and secondly we began to co-operate with the Design Societies of East Asia. We re-established DRS as a learned society with a truly international reach
A review of typhoid fever transmission dynamic models and economic evaluations of vaccination.
No full textDespite a recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) that typhoid vaccines be considered for the control of endemic disease and outbreaks, programmatic use remains limited. Transmission models and economic evaluation may be informative in decision making about vaccine programme introductions and their role alongside other control measures. A literature search found few typhoid transmission models or economic evaluations relative to analyses of other infectious diseases of similar or lower health burden. Modelling suggests vaccines alone are unlikely to eliminate endemic disease in the short to medium term without measures to reduce transmission from asymptomatic carriage. The single identified data-fitted transmission model of typhoid vaccination suggests vaccines can reduce disease burden substantially when introduced programmatically but that indirect protection depends on the relative contribution of carriage to transmission in a given setting. This is an important source of epidemiological uncertainty, alongside the extent and nature of natural immunity. Economic evaluations suggest that typhoid vaccination can be cost-saving to health services if incidence is extremely high and cost-effective in other high-incidence situations, when compared to WHO norms. Targeting vaccination to the highest incidence age-groups is likely to improve cost-effectiveness substantially. Economic perspective and vaccine costs substantially affect estimates, with disease incidence, case-fatality rates, and vaccine efficacy over time also important determinants of cost-effectiveness and sources of uncertainty. Static economic models may under-estimate benefits of typhoid vaccination by omitting indirect protection. Typhoid fever transmission models currently require per-setting epidemiological parameterisation to inform their use in economic evaluation, which may limit their generalisability. We found no economic evaluation based on transmission dynamic modelling, and no economic evaluation of typhoid vaccination against interventions such as improvements in sanitation or hygiene
The individual voice in a collective court: Insights from judicial lectures
No full textIn 2012, Rackley wrote ‘once we accept that who the judge is matters, then it matters who our judges are’.1 Indeed, this is central to the call for increased diversity in the UK Supreme Court (UKSC). Diversity in this context typically centres on overt diversity, but there is increasing recognition of the importance of cognitive diversity which is central to high quality decision making. Social identity theory suggests that recruitment of diverse candidate to the bench requires an institution to display both. The UKSC espouses a commitment to diversity, yet we know very little about the diversity of the individuals who populate the bench. It is characterised as a collegiate court and the practices of the Court have resulted in a consistent decline in the number of single author judgments, as such increasingly judicial individuality is slipping from view. In this context, the judicial public lecture offers one of the few opportunities to hear an individual judicial voice in this collective court. This chapter draws on a dataset of 80 public lectures delivered by the UK Supreme Court Justices in the first four years of the presidency of Lord Reed (July 2020 and January 2025). The analysis provides an opportunity to reflect on how the court displays overt diversity, through who represents the court and the audience they choose. Within the constraints of the judicial office, the content of the lectures provides an insight into the individual Justices and offers an opportunity to reflect on the individual within the institution and evidence cognitive differences including the norms, values, and experiences of the decision makers. Despite the limited overt diversity on the UKSC bench, analysis of the content of the lectures provides evidence of differences, but also the presence of dominant narratives, principles and values. It is argued that the significant turn away from the individual to focus on the collective court, may embed the dominant norms, values and experiences and in doing so, mask and silence difference and thus limit the potential for diversity on the bench
Using paired serology and surveillance data to quantify dengue transmission and control during a large outbreak in Fiji
No full textDengue is a major health burden, but it can be challenging to examine transmission and evaluate control measures because outbreaks depend on multiple factors, including human population structure, prior immunity and climate. We combined population-representative paired sera collected before and after the 2013/14 dengue-3 outbreak in Fiji with surveillance data to determine how such factors influence transmission and control in island settings. Our results suggested the 10–19 year-old age group had the highest risk of infection, but we did not find strong evidence that other demographic or environmental risk factors were linked to seroconversion. A mathematical model jointly fitted to surveillance and serological data suggested that herd immunity and seasonally varying transmission could not explain observed dynamics. However, the model showed evidence of an additional reduction in transmission coinciding with a vector clean-up campaign, which may have contributed to the decline in cases in the later stages of the outbreak.Medical Research Council (MR/K021524/1)
Adam J Kucharski
Wellcome Trust (206250/Z/17/Z)
Adam J Kucharski
Royal Society (206250/Z/17/Z)
Adam J Kucharski
Embassy of France in the Republic of Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu
Mike Kama
French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Pacific Funds N°12115-02/09/15)
Mike Kama
Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau
French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Pacific Funds N°03016-20/05/16)
Mike Kama
Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau
Medical Research Council (MR/J003999/1)
Conall H Watson
Commissariat Général à l'Investissement (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID)
Jessica Vanhomwegen
Jean-Claude Manuguerra
National Health and Medical Research Council (1109035)
Colleen L Lau
French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Pacific Funds N°06314-09/04/14)
Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau
Janssen Research and Development (Janssen Sciences Ireland UC)
Stéphane Hué
Martin L Hibber
The formation of inflation expectations: an empirical analysis for the UK
No full textThis paper uses micro-data from three surveys for the UK to consider how individuals form inflation expectations. Generally, we find significant non-response bias in all surveys, with non-respondents especially likely to be young, female, less educated and with lower incomes. A number of demographic generalizations can be made based on the surveys. Inflation expectations rise with age, but the more highly educated and home owners tend to have lower inflation expectations. These groups are also more likely to be accurate in their estimates of official inflation twelve months ahead, and have less backward-looking expectations.
- …
