Findings and lessons from establishing Zika virus surveillance in southern Viet Nam, 2016.

Objective: To document the evolution and optimization of the Zika virus (ZIKV) disease surveillance system in southern Viet Nam in 2016 and to describe the characteristics of the identified ZIKV-positive cases.

Methods: We established a sentinel surveillance system to monitor ZIKV transmission in eight sites in eight provinces and expanded the system to 71 sites in 20 provinces in southern Viet Nam in 2016. Blood and urine samples from patients who met the case definition at the sentinel sites were tested for ZIKV using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction at the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City (PI-HCMC).

Identification of pathways that regulate circadian rhythms using a larval zebrafish small molecule screen.

The circadian clock ensures that behavioral and physiological processes occur at appropriate times during the 24-hour day/night cycle, and is regulated at both the cellular and organismal levels. To identify pathways acting on intact animals, we performed a small molecule screen using a luminescent reporter of molecular circadian rhythms in zebrafish larvae. We identified both known and novel pathways that affect circadian period, amplitude and phase.

Trends and Characteristics of Security Incidents Involving Aid Workers in Health Care Settings: A 20-Year Review.

Introduction: In recent years, several high-profile attacks on hospitals providing medical aid in conflict settings have raised international concern. The International Humanitarian Law prohibits the deliberate targeting of health care settings. Violation of this law is considered a war crime and impacts both those delivering and receiving medical aid.

Iron Oxide Surface Chemistry: Effect of Chemical Structure on Binding in Benzoic Acid and Catechol Derivatives.

The excellent performance of functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) in nanomaterial and biomedical applications often relies on achieving the attachment of ligands to the iron oxide surface both in sufficient number and with proper orientation. Toward this end, we determine relationships between the ligand chemical structure and surface binding on magnetic IONPs for a series of related benzoic acid and catechol derivatives. Ligand exchange was used to introduce the model ligands, and the resultant nanoparticles were characterized using Fourier transform infrared-attenuated internal reflectance spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and nanoparticle solubility behavior.

Trends in the incidence of acute watery diarrhoea in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, 2009-2013.

Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under age 5 worldwide, with rotavirus being the main etiology. In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) was introduced as one of the national notifiable diseases in 2004. We retrospectively reviewed the aggregate ( = 117 277) and case-based ( = 67 755) AWD surveillance data from 2009 to 2013 reported weekly from 1115 health facilities nationwide.

Hidden varicella outbreak, Luang Prabang Province, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, December 2014 to January 2015.

Background: In January 2015, the Lao People's Democratic Republic Ministry of Health received a report of 34 cases of fever and rash with one laboratory-confirmed measles case in Houitone village, Pakseng District of Luang Prabang Province. Between 21 and 27 January, we conducted a field investigation to determine the etiology, magnitude and severity of this outbreak.

Methods: We conducted active case findings in Houitone and neighbouring villages and collected information on age, location, date of rash onset, symptoms and measles vaccination status.

SURVEILLANCE OF A CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE OF UNIDENTIFIED CAUSE IN A RURAL SETTING OF ETHIOPIA: A CASE STUDY.

Background: An outbreak of a chronic liver disease of unidentified cause, known as "Unidentified Liver Disease (ULD)" by local communities was first observed in a rural village in Tigray, northern-Ethiopia in 2001. Little was known about the geographical extent, trend, and epidemiology of the disease.

Methods: The Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) by then Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and Tigray Regional Health Bureaue established the ULD surveillance system in 2009 to characterize and monitor trends for this emerging disease and to identify cases for treatment and follow up.

A Zebrafish Genetic Screen Identifies Neuromedin U as a Regulator of Sleep/Wake States.

Neuromodulation of arousal states ensures that an animal appropriately responds to its environment and engages in behaviors necessary for survival. However, the molecular and circuit properties underlying neuromodulation of arousal states such as sleep and wakefulness remain unclear. To tackle this challenge in a systematic and unbiased manner, we performed a genetic overexpression screen to identify genes that affect larval zebrafish arousal.

QRFP and Its Receptors Regulate Locomotor Activity and Sleep in Zebrafish.

Unlabelled: The hypothalamus plays an important role in regulating sleep, but few hypothalamic sleep-promoting signaling pathways have been identified. Here we demonstrate a role for the neuropeptide QRFP (also known as P518 and 26RFa) and its receptors in regulating sleep in zebrafish, a diurnal vertebrate. We show that QRFP is expressed in ∼10 hypothalamic neurons in zebrafish larvae, which project to the hypothalamus, hindbrain, and spinal cord, including regions that express the two zebrafish QRFP receptor paralogs.

Geothermal Gases--Community Experiences, Perceptions, and Exposures in Northern California.

Lake County, California, is in a high geothermal-activity area. Over the past 30 years, the city of Clearlake has reported health effects and building evacuations related to geothermal venting. Previous investigations in Clearlake revealed hydrogen sulfide at levels known to cause health effects and methane at levels that can cause explosion risks.

TRP channel mediated neuronal activation and ablation in freely behaving zebrafish.

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a useful vertebrate model system in which to study neural circuits and behavior, but tools to modulate neurons in freely behaving animals are limited. As poikilotherms that live in water, zebrafish are amenable to thermal and pharmacological perturbations. We exploit these properties by using transient receptor potential (TRP) channels to activate or ablate specific neuronal populations using the chemical and thermal agonists of heterologously expressed TRPV1, TRPM8 and TRPA1.

The Effect of Paternal Age on Relapse in First-Episode Schizophrenia.

Objective: Multiple etiological and prognostic factors have been implied in schizophrenia and its outcome. Advanced paternal age has been reported as a risk factor in schizophrenia. Whether this may affect schizophrenia outcome was not previously studied.

Evolutionarily conserved regulation of hypocretin neuron specification by Lhx9.

Loss of neurons that express the neuropeptide hypocretin (Hcrt) has been implicated in narcolepsy, a debilitating disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy. Cell replacement therapy, using Hcrt-expressing neurons generated in vitro, is a potentially useful therapeutic approach, but factors sufficient to specify Hcrt neurons are unknown. Using zebrafish as a high-throughput system to screen for factors that can specify Hcrt neurons in vivo, we identified the LIM homeobox transcription factor Lhx9 as necessary and sufficient to specify Hcrt neurons.

Histone deacetylase inhibition reduces pulmonary vein arrhythmogenesis through calcium regulation.

Pulmonary veins (PVs) play a critical role in the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation (AF). Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are vital to calcium homeostasis and AF genesis. However, the electrophysiological effects of HDAC inhibition were unclear.

MRI predicts remission at 1 year in first-episode schizophrenia in females with larger striato-thalamic volumes.

Background/aims: The Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group has defined remission as 'a low-mild symptom intensity level, maintained for a minimum of 6 months, where such symptoms do not affect an individual's behaviour' [Andreasen et al.: Am J Psychiatry 2005;162:441-449]. Since brain morphology relates to symptomatology, treatment and illness progression, MRI may assist in predicting remission.

Evaluation of the National Weather Service Extreme Cold Warning Experiment in North Dakota.

Dangerously cold weather threatens life and property. During periods of extreme cold due to wind chill, the National Weather Service (NWS) issues wind chill warnings to prompt the public to take action to mitigate risks. Wind chill warnings are based on ambient temperatures and wind speeds.

Predicting 1-year risk for relapse in patients who have discontinued or continued quetiapine after remission from first-episode psychosis.

Objective: Relapse is common among patients with psychotic disorders. Identification of relapse predictors is important for decision regarding maintenance medication. Naturalistic studies often identify medication non-adherence as a dominant predictor.

Mortality from a tornado outbreak, Alabama, April 27, 2011.

Objectives: We describe the demographics of the decedents from the tornado outbreak in Alabama on April 27, 2011; examine the circumstances of death surrounding these fatalities; and identify measures to prevent future tornado-related fatalities.

Methods: We collected information about the decedents from death certificates, disaster-related mortality surveillance, and interview data collected by American Red Cross volunteers from the decedent's families. We describe demographic characteristics, circumstances and causes of death, and sheltering behaviors before death.

Regulation of zebrafish sleep and arousal states: current and prospective approaches.

Every day, we shift among various states of sleep and arousal to meet the many demands of our bodies and environment. A central puzzle in neurobiology is how the brain controls these behavioral states, which are essential to an animal's well-being and survival. Mammalian models have predominated sleep and arousal research, although in the past decade, invertebrate models have made significant contributions to our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of behavioral states.

A large-scale in vivo analysis reveals that TALENs are significantly more mutagenic than ZFNs generated using context-dependent assembly.

Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) and TAL effector nucleases (TALENs) have been shown to induce targeted mutations, but they have not been extensively tested in any animal model. Here, we describe a large-scale comparison of ZFN and TALEN mutagenicity in zebrafish. Using deep sequencing, we found that TALENs are significantly more likely to be mutagenic and induce an average of 10-fold more mutations than ZFNs.

Duration of untreated psychosis: relationship with baseline characteristics and three-year outcome in first-episode psychosis.

Duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) has been considered as one of the few potentially malleable prognostic factors in psychotic illness. The literature demonstrated that prolonged DUP predicted the level of positive symptoms, but its relationships with negative symptoms and functional outcome were less clear-cut. Thus far, most first-episode studies have been conducted in western countries.

Prediction of remission and recovery in young people presenting with first-episode psychosis in Hong Kong: a 3-year follow-up study.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to investigate the rates and predictors of symptomatic remission and recovery in patients presenting with first-episode psychosis 3 years after treatment initiation.

Methods: Seven hundred participants aged 15-25 years consecutively enrolled in a territory-wide early intervention programme in Hong Kong from July 2001 to August 2003 fulfilled study inclusion criteria, with 539 completing 3-year follow-up. Baseline and follow-up variables were collected via systematic medical file review.

Clinical and cognitive correlates of insight in first-episode schizophrenia.

This study aims to explore the relationship between clinical symptoms and cognitive functions with different insight dimensions in patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Seventy-nine patients were assessed following six months of treatment. Insight was assessed using the abridged version of Scale of Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD).