Public health interventions reduce infection risk, while imposing significant costs on both individuals and the society. Interventions can also lead to behavioral changes, as individuals weigh the cost and benefits of avoiding infection. Aggregate epidemiological models typically focus on the population-level consequences of interventions, often not incorporating the mechanisms driving behavioral adaptations associated with interventions compliance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContaining infectious disease outbreaks is a complex challenge that usually requires the deployment of multiple intervention strategies. While mathematical modeling of infectious diseases is a widely accepted tool to evaluate intervention strategies, most models and studies overlook the interdependence between individuals' reactions to simultaneously implemented interventions. Intervention modeling efforts typically assume that individual adherence decisions are independent of each other.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIo experiences tidal deformation due to its eccentric orbit around Jupiter, which provides a primary energy source for Io's ongoing volcanic activity and infrared emission. The amount of tidal energy dissipated within Io is enormous and has been hypothesized to support the large-scale melting of Io's interior and the formation of a global subsurface magma ocean. If Io has a shallow global magma ocean, its tidal deformation would be much larger than in the case of a more rigid, mostly solid interior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is widely appreciated that double stranded DNA (dsDNA) is subjected to strong and dynamic mechanical forces in cells. Under increasing tension B-DNA, the most stable double-stranded (ds) form of DNA, undergoes cooperative elongation into a mixture of S-DNA and single stranded DNA (ssDNA). Despite significant effort, the structure, energetics, kinetics and the biological role of S-DNA remains obscure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCharacterizing the epidemiology of circulating respiratory pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic could clarify the burden of acute respiratory infections and monitor outbreaks of public health and military relevance. The US Department of Defense supported 2 regions for influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections surveillance, one in the Middle East through US Naval Medical Research Unit EURAFCENT, and another in Latin America through US Naval Medical Research Unit SOUTH. During 2020‒2022, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected a total of 16,146 nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples from sentinel sites in Jordan (n = 11,305) and Latin America (n = 4,841).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Accuracy in the interpretation of data, and publication of studies regardless of outcomes are vital to the development of the scientific literature.
Objective: To determine the proportion of studies in the spine literature that report positive results.
Study Design: Review article of studies published in nine major spine, pain, and physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) journals from January 1, 2018-December 31, 2022.
The multiple immunity responses exhibited in the population and co-circulating variants documented during pandemics show a high potential to generate diverse long-term epidemiological scenarios. Transmission variability, immune uncertainties and human behaviour are crucial features for the predictability and implementation of effective mitigation strategies. Nonetheless, the effects of individual health incentives on disease dynamics are not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConcerns have been raised regarding misconceptions about attachment theory in child protection settings, but the application of attachment concepts in judicial child protection decisions has not been systematically explored. This study therefore examined the perception and application of attachment concepts in Swedish judicial decision protocols concerning involuntary removals of children (aged 0-2 years) where emotional neglect was a notable concern (n=28). Attachment concepts were frequently misunderstood, and imprecisely articulated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Physiol
September 2024
Recognizing that conventional understanding of animal and human locomotion is based on a dated and reductionist machine modeling of organisms, we set out to create a theory of locomotion by reasoning from first principles. We center on the constraints necessitated by 1) the 2nd law of thermodynamics, 2) the theory of evolution, 3) a systems science view of organisms, and 4) the laws of motion, but we also look for compatibility these constraints might find in emerging areas of scientific inquiry (ecological psychology, processual biology, soft matter, biotensegrity), and in the wisdom embedded in various movement traditions and ancient philosophy. Applying and synthesizing these, we propose an updated "bouncing bones" (BB) model for walking and running, which corresponds with maximum efficiency and conservation of energy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeason length and its associated variables can influence the expression of social behaviours, including the occurrence of eusociality in insects. Eusociality can vary widely across environmental gradients, both within and between different species. Numerous theoretical models have been developed to examine the life history traits that underlie the emergence and maintenance of eusociality, yet the impact of seasonality on this process is largely uncharacterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransformational change is possible, but design and implementation must seek to avoid lock-in.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA long-standing question in biology is whether there are common principles that characterize the development of ecological systems (the appearance of a group of taxa), regardless of organismal diversity and environmental context. Classic ecological theory holds that these systems develop following a sequenced, orderly process that generally proceeds from fast-growing to slow-growing taxa and depends on life-history trade-offs. However, it is also possible that this developmental order is simply the path with the least environmental resistance for survival of the component species and hence favored by probability alone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychopharmacology (Berl)
September 2024
Aim: Quantitative faecal haemoglobin (fHb) measurement by faecal immunochemical test (FIT) is a powerful biomarker for colorectal cancer (CRC) and is incorporated in referral, prioritisation and triage protocols for symptomatic cases in other countries. We report our use of FIT to prioritise new patient symptomatic cases referred for colorectal investigation.
Method: Cases referred for investigation of new colorectal symptoms who were aged ≥50 years (≥40 years Māori/Pacific peoples), who would otherwise be triaged to non-urgent colonoscopy, were asked to provide a stool sample for FIT.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has generated a considerable number of infections and associated morbidity and mortality across the world. Recovery from these infections, combined with the onset of large-scale vaccination, have led to rapidly-changing population-level immunological landscapes. In turn, these complexities have highlighted a number of important unknowns related to the breadth and strength of immunity following recovery or vaccination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFListeria cerebritis is a rare yet serious central nervous system infection, which can present with leptomeningeal enhancement, abscess, and seizures. An adult patient with a history of metastatic melanoma presented with left-sided weakness, later identified as postictal Todd's paralysis due to focal motor seizures. Further diagnostic workup revealed a leptomeningeal abscess in the setting of listeria cerebritis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper, we examine how different governance types impact prosocial behaviors in a heterogenous society. We construct a general theoretical framework to examine a game-theoretic model to assess the ease of achieving a cooperative outcome. We then build a dynamic agent-based model to examine three distinct governance types in a heterogenous population: monitoring one's neighbors, despotic leadership, and influencing one's neighbors to adapt strategies that lead to better fitness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeason length and its associated variables can influence the expression of social behaviors, including the occurrence of eusociality in insects. Eusociality can vary widely across environmental gradients, both within and between different species. Numerous theoretical models have been developed to examine the life history traits that underlie the emergence and maintenance of eusociality, yet the impact of seasonality on this process is largely uncharacterized.
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