The impact and cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal immunisation strategies for the elderly in England.

Pneumococcal disease, presenting as invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) or community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is an important cause of illness and hospitalisation in the elderly. To reduce pneumococcal burden, since 2003, 65-year-olds in England have been offered a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23). This study compares the impact and cost-effectiveness (CE) of vaccination with the existing PPV23 vaccine to the new 15-and 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV15 and PCV20), targeting adults aged 65 or 75 years old.

Mineral and biological ice-nucleating particles above the South East of the British Isles.

A small fraction of aerosol particles known as Ice-Nucleating Particles (INPs) have the potential to trigger ice formation in cloud droplets at higher temperatures than homogeneous freezing. INPs can strongly reduce the water content and albedo of shallow mixed-phase clouds and also influence the development of convective clouds. Therefore, it is important to understand which aerosol types serve as INPs and how effectively they nucleate ice.

Iceland is an episodic source of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles relevant for mixed-phase clouds.

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) have the potential to remove much of the liquid water in climatically important mid- to high-latitude shallow supercooled clouds, markedly reducing their albedo. The INP sources at these latitudes are very poorly defined, but it is known that there are substantial dust sources across the high latitudes, such as Iceland. Here, we show that Icelandic dust emissions are sporadically an important source of INPs at mid to high latitudes by combining ice-nucleating active site density measurements of aircraft-collected Icelandic dust samples with a global aerosol model.

Contributions of biogenic material to the atmospheric ice-nucleating particle population in North Western Europe.

A minute fraction of atmospheric particles exert a disproportionate effect on the phase of mixed-phase clouds by acting as ice-nucleating particles (INPs). To understand the effects of these particles on weather and climate, both now and into the future, we must first develop a quantitative understanding of the major INP sources worldwide. Previous work has demonstrated that aerosols such as desert dusts are globally important INPs, but the role of biogenic INPs is unclear, with conflicting evidence for their importance.

Chemical and nutritional evaluation of two amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus)-based infant formulas.

The objective of this study was to calculate, prepare and evaluate the Protein Efficiency Ratio (P.E.R.