Modelling testing and response strategies for COVID-19 outbreaks in remote Australian Aboriginal communities

Background: Remote Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have potential to be severely impacted by COVID-19, with multiple factors predisposing to increased transmission and disease severity. Our modelling aims to inform optimal public health responses. Methods: An individual-based simulation model represented SARS-CoV2 transmission in communities ranging from 100 to 3500 people, comprised of large, interconnected households. A range of strategies for case finding, quarantining of contacts, testing, and lockdown were examined, following the silent introduction of a case. Results: Multiple secondary infections are likely present by the time the first case is identified. Quarantine of close contacts, defined by extended household membership, can reduce peak infection prevalence from 60 to 70% to around 10%, but subsequent waves may occur when community mixing resumes. Exit testing significantly reduces ongoing transmission. Concurrent lockdown of non-quarantined households for 14 days is highly effective for epidemic control and reduces overall testing requirements; peak prevalence of the initial outbreak can be constrained to less than 5%, and the final community attack rate to less than 10% in modelled scenarios. Lockdown also mitigates the effect of a delay in the initial response. Compliance with lockdown must be at least 80–90%, however, or epidemic control will be lost. Conclusions: A SARS-CoV-2 outbreak will spread rapidly in remote communities. Prompt case detection with quarantining of extended-household contacts and a 14 day lockdown for all other residents, combined with exit testing for all, is the most effective strategy for rapid containment. Compliance is crucial, underscoring the need for community supported, culturally sensitive responses

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Measurement of the t¯tZ and t¯tW cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the associated production of a top-quark pair (t¯t) with a vector boson (W, Z) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented, using 36.1  fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in channels with two same- or opposite-sign leptons (electrons or muons), three leptons or four leptons, and each channel is further divided into multiple regions to maximize the sensitivity of the measurement. The t¯tZ and t¯tW production cross sections are simultaneously measured using a combined fit to all regions. The best-fit values of the production cross sections are σt¯tZ=0.95±0.08stat±0.10syst pb and σt¯tW=0.87±0.13stat±0.14syst pb in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. The measurement of the t¯tZ cross section is used to set constraints on effective field theory operators which modify the t¯tZ vertex

Why Is Evolution Important in Cancer and What Mathematics Should Be Used to Treat Cancer? Focus on Drug Resistance

International audienceThe clinical question of drug resistance in cancer, our initial motivation to studycontinuous models of adaptive cell population dynamics, leads naturally and moregenerally to consider the cancer disease itself from an evolutionary biology view-point, a consideration without which even the best targeted therapies will likelymost often eventually fail. Among the challenging questions to mathematicianswho tackle the task of understanding this disease and optimising its treatmentare the representation of phenotypic heterogeneity of cancer cell populations andof their plasticity in response to anticancer drug insults. Such representation canbe obtained using phenotype-structured models of healthy and cancer cell popula-tions, and optimal control methods to optimise drug effects, with the perspectiveto implement them in the therapeutics of cancer, aiming at both avoiding theemergence of drug resistance in tumours and taking into account a constraint oflimiting unwanted adverse effects to healthy tissues

Plasticity in Cancer Cell Populations: Biology, Mathematics and Philosophy of Cancer

International audienc

Acute wound management: revisiting the approach to assessment, irrigation, and closure considerations

Abstract Background As millions of emergency department (ED) visits each year include wound care, emergency care providers must remain experts in acute wound management. The variety of acute wounds presenting to the ED challenge the physician to select the most appropriate management to facilitate healing. A complete wound history along with anatomic and specific medical considerations for each patient provides the basis of decision making for wound management. It is essential to apply an evidence‐based approach and consider each wound individually in order to create the optimal conditions for wound healing. Aims A comprehensive evidence‐based approach to acute wound management is an essential skill set for any emergency physician or acute care practitioner. This review provides an overview of current evidence and addresses frequent pitfalls. Methods A systematic review of the literature for acute wound management was performed. Results A structured MEDLINE search was performed regarding acute wound management including established wound care guidelines. The data obtained provided the framework for evidence‐based recommendations and current best practices for wound care. Conclusion Acute wound management varies based on the wound location and characteristics. No single approach can be applied to all wounds; however, a systematic approach to acute wound care integrated with current best practices provides the framework for exceptional wound management

The Carboxy-Terminal Domain of Dictyostelium C-Module-Binding Factor Is an Independent Gene Regulatory Entity

The C-module-binding factor (CbfA) is a multidomain protein that belongs to the family of jumonji-type (JmjC) transcription regulators. In the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, CbfA regulates gene expression during the unicellular growth phase and multicellular development. CbfA and a related D. discoideum CbfA-like protein, CbfB, share a paralogous domain arrangement that includes the JmjC domain, presumably a chromatin-remodeling activity, and two zinc finger-like (ZF) motifs. On the other hand, the CbfA and CbfB proteins have completely different carboxy-terminal domains, suggesting that the plasticity of such domains may have contributed to the adaptation of the CbfA-like transcription factors to the rapid genome evolution in the dictyostelid clade. To support this hypothesis we performed DNA microarray and real-time RT-PCR measurements and found that CbfA regulates at least 160 genes during the vegetative growth of D. discoideum cells. Functional annotation of these genes revealed that CbfA predominantly controls the expression of gene products involved in housekeeping functions, such as carbohydrate, purine nucleoside/nucleotide, and amino acid metabolism. The CbfA protein displays two different mechanisms of gene regulation. The expression of one set of CbfA-dependent genes requires at least the JmjC/ZF domain of the CbfA protein and thus may depend on chromatin modulation. Regulation of the larger group of genes, however, does not depend on the entire CbfA protein and requires only the carboxy-terminal domain of CbfA (CbfA-CTD). An AT-hook motif located in CbfA-CTD, which is known to mediate DNA binding to A+T-rich sequences in vitro, contributed to CbfA-CTD-dependent gene regulatory functions in vivo