A systematic review of risk of HIV transmission through biting or spitting: implications for policy.

OBJECTIVES: The perceived threat of HIV transmission through spitting and biting is evidenced by the increasing use of "spit hoods" by Police Forces in the UK. In addition, a draft parliamentary bill has called for increased penalties for assaults on emergency workers, citing the risk of communicable disease transmission as one justification. We aimed to review literature relating to the risk of HIV transmission through biting or spitting. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted using Medline, Embase and Northern Lights databases and conference websites using search terms relating to HIV, AIDS, bite, spit and saliva. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to identified citations. We classified plausibility of HIV transmission as low, medium, high or confirmed based on pre-specified criteria. RESULTS: A total of 742 abstracts were reviewed, yielding 32 articles for full-text review and 13 case reports/series after inclusion and exclusion criteria had been applied. There were no reported cases of HIV transmission related to spitting and nine cases identified following a bite, in which the majority occurred between family (six of nine), in fights involving serious wounds (three of nine), or to untrained first-aiders placing fingers in the mouth of someone having a seizure (two of nine). Only four cases were classified as highly plausible or confirmed transmission. None related to emergency workers and none were in the UK. CONCLUSIONS: There is no risk of transmitting HIV through spitting, and the risk through biting is negligible. Post-exposure prophylaxis is not indicated after a bite in all but exceptional circumstances. Policies to protect emergency workers should be developed with this evidence in mind

Applying the 3C Model to FLOSS communities

Publicado em "Collaboration and technology: 22nd International Conference, CRIWG 2016, Kanazawa, Japan, September 14-16, 2016, proceedings". ISBN 978-3-319-44798-8How learning occurs within Free/Libre Open Source (FLOSS) communities and what is the dynamics such projects (e.g. the life cycle of such projects) are very relevant questions when considering the use of FLOSS projects in a formal education setting. This paper introduces an approach based on the 3C collaboration model (communication, coordination and cooperation) to represent the collaborative learning dynamics within FLOSS communities. To explore the collaborative learning potential of FLOSS communities a number of questionnaires and interviews to selected FLOSS contributors were run. From this study a 3C collaborative model applicable to FLOSS communities was designed and discussed.Programa Operacional da Região Norte, NORTE2020, in the context of project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000037FCT under grant SFRH/BSAB/113890/201

CP Violation in Supersymmetry with Effective Minimal Flavour Violation

We analyze CP violation in supersymmetry with Effective Minimal Flavour Violation, as recently proposed in arXiv:1011.0730. Unlike the case of standard Minimal Flavour Violation, we show that all the phases allowed by the flavour symmetry can be sizable without violating existing Electric Dipole Moment constraints, thus solving the SUSY CP problem. The EDMs at one and two loops are precisely analyzed as well as their correlations with the expected CP asymmetries in B physics.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures. v2: Discussion in section 2 extended, conclusions unchanged. Matches published versio

Business process modelling and visualisation to support e-government decision making: Business/IS alignment

© 2017 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57487-5_4.Alignment between business and information systems plays a vital role in the formation of dependent relationships between different departments in a government organization and the process of alignment can be improved by developing an information system (IS) according to the stakeholders’ expectations. However, establishing strong alignment in the context of the eGovernment environment can be difficult. It is widely accepted that business processes in the government environment plays a pivotal role in capturing the details of IS requirements. This paper presents a method of business process modelling through UML which can help to visualise and capture the IS requirements for the system development. A series of UML models have been developed and discussed. A case study on patient visits to a healthcare clinic in the context of eGovernment has been used to validate the models

Detecting temporal and spatial effects of epithelial cancers with Raman spectroscopy.

PublishedJournal ArticleResearch Support, N.I.H., ExtramuralResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tThis is the final version of the article. Available from Hindawi Publishing Corporation via the DOI in this record.Epithelial cancers, including those of the skin and cervix, are the most common type of cancers in humans. Many recent studies have attempted to use Raman spectroscopy to diagnose these cancers. In this paper, Raman spectral markers related to the temporal and spatial effects of cervical and skin cancers are examined through four separate but related studies. Results from a clinical cervix study show that previous disease has a significant effect on the Raman signatures of the cervix, which allow for near 100% classification for discriminating previous disease versus a true normal. A Raman microspectroscopy study showed that Raman can detect changes due to adjacent regions of dysplasia or HPV that cannot be detected histologically, while a clinical skin study showed that Raman spectra may be detecting malignancy associated changes in tissues surrounding nonmelanoma skin cancers. Finally, results of an organotypic raft culture study provided support for both the skin and the in vitro cervix results. These studies add to the growing body of evidence that optical spectroscopy, in this case Raman spectral markers, can be used to detect subtle temporal and spatial effects in tissue near cancerous sites that go otherwise undetected by conventional histology.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the NCI/NIH (R01-CA95405 and R21-CA95995), as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (pre-doctoral fellowship for MK). We would also like to thank the doctors and staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Tri-state Women’s Health for all their assistance

Holographic metastability

We show how supersymmetric QCD in a slice of AdS can naturally acquire metastable vacua. The formulation closely follows that of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS), with an "electric" sector on the UV brane and a "magnetic" sector on the IR brane. However the 't Hooft anomaly matching that constrains the Seiberg duality central to ISS is replaced by anomaly inflow and cancellation, and the source of strong coupling is the CFT to which the theory couples rather than the gauge groups. The theory contains an anomaly free R-symmetry that, when broken by UV effects, leads to an O'Raifeartaigh model on the IR brane. In contrast to ISS, the R-symmetry breaking in the UV can be maximal, and yet the R-symmetry breaking in the IR theory remains under strict control: there is no need for retrofitting of small parameters.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Evaluating the successful implementation of evidence into practice using the PARiHS framework : theoretical and practical challenges

Background The PARiHS framework (Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services) has proved to be a useful practical and conceptual heuristic for many researchers and practitioners in framing their research or knowledge translation endeavours. However, as a conceptual framework it still remains untested and therefore its contribution to the overall development and testing of theory in the field of implementation science is largely unquantified. Discussion This being the case, the paper provides an integrated summary of our conceptual and theoretical thinking so far and introduces a typology (derived from social policy analysis) used to distinguish between the terms conceptual framework, theory and model – important definitional and conceptual issues in trying to refine theoretical and methodological approaches to knowledge translation. Secondly, the paper describes the next phase of our work, in particular concentrating on the conceptual thinking and mapping that has led to the generation of the hypothesis that the PARiHS framework is best utilised as a two-stage process: as a preliminary (diagnostic and evaluative) measure of the elements and sub-elements of evidence (E) and context (C), and then using the aggregated data from these measures to determine the most appropriate facilitation method. The exact nature of the intervention is thus determined by the specific actors in the specific context at a specific time and place. In the process of refining this next phase of our work, we have had to consider the wider issues around the use of theories to inform and shape our research activity; the ongoing challenges of developing robust and sensitive measures; facilitation as an intervention for getting research into practice; and finally to note how the current debates around evidence into practice are adopting wider notions that fit innovations more generally. Summary The paper concludes by suggesting that the future direction of the work on the PARiHS framework is to develop a two-stage diagnostic and evaluative approach, where the intervention is shaped and moulded by the information gathered about the specific situation and from participating stakeholders. In order to expedite the generation of new evidence and testing of emerging theories, we suggest the formation of an international research implementation science collaborative that can systematically collect and analyse experiences of using and testing the PARiHS framework and similar conceptual and theoretical approaches. We also recommend further refinement of the definitions around conceptual framework, theory, and model, suggesting a wider discussion that embraces multiple epistemological and ontological perspectives

CP violation in sbottom decays

We study CP asymmetries in two-body decays of bottom squarks into charginos and tops. These asymmetries probe the SUSY CP phases of the sbottom and the chargino sector in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We identify the MSSM parameter space where the CP asymmetries are sizeable, and analyze the feasibility of their observation at the LHC. As a result, potentially detectable CP asymmetries in sbottom decays are found, which motivates further detailed experimental studies for probing the SUSY CP phases.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure

The future of enterprise groupware applications

This paper provides a review of groupware technology and products. The purpose of this review is to investigate the appropriateness of current groupware technology as the basis for future enterprise systems and evaluate its role in realising, the currently emerging, Virtual Enterprise model for business organisation. It also identifies in which way current technological phenomena will transform groupware technology and will drive the development of the enterprise systems of the future

Removal of ecotoxicity of 17α-ethinylestradiol using TAML/peroxide water treatment

17α -ethinylestradiol (EE2), a synthetic oestrogen in oral contraceptives, is one of many pharmaceuticals found in inland waterways worldwide as a result of human consumption and excretion into wastewater treatment systems. At low parts per trillion (ppt), EE2 induces feminisation of male fish, diminishing reproductive success and causing fish population collapse. Intended water quality standards for EE2 set a much needed global precedent. Ozone and activated carbon provide effective wastewater treatments, but their energy intensities and capital/operating costs are formidable barriers to adoption. Here we describe the technical and environmental performance of a fast- developing contender for mitigation of EE2 contamination of wastewater based upon smallmolecule, full-functional peroxidase enzyme replicas called “TAML activators”. From neutral to basic pH, TAML activators with H2O2 efficiently degrade EE2 in pure lab water, municipal effluents and EE2-spiked synthetic urine. TAML/H2O2 treatment curtails estrogenicity in vitro and substantially diminishes fish feminization in vivo. Our results provide a starting point for a future process in which tens of thousands of tonnes of wastewater could be treated per kilogram of catalyst. We suggest TAML/H2O2 is a worthy candidate for exploration as an environmentally compatible, versatile, method for removing EE2 and other pharmaceuticals from municipal wastewaters.Heinz Endowments, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Steinbrenner Institute for a Steinbrenner Doctoral Fellowship. NMR instrumentation at CMU was partially supported by NSF (CHE-0130903 and CHE-1039870)