A systematic review of the economic impact of rapid diagnostic tests for dengue.

BACKGROUND: Dengue fever is rapidly expanding geographically, with about half of the world's population now at risk. Among the various diagnostic options, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are convenient and prompt, but limited in terms of accuracy and availability. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted of published data on the use of RDTs for dengue with respect to their economic impact. The search was conducted with combinations of key search terms, including "((Dengue[Title]) AND cost/economic)" and "rapid diagnostic test/assay (or point-of-care)". Articles with insufficient report on cost/economic aspect of dengue RDTs, usually on comparison of different RDTs or assessment of novel rapid diagnostic tools, were excluded. This review has been registered in the PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews (registry #: CRD42015017775). RESULTS: Eleven articles were found through advanced search on Pubmed. From Embase and Web of Science, two and 14 articles were obtained, respectively. After removal of duplicate items, title screening was done on 21 published works and 12 titles, including 2 meeting abstracts, were selected for abstract review. For full-text review, by two independent reviewers, 5 articles and 1 meeting abstract were selected. Among these, the abstract was referring to the same study results as one of the articles. After full text review, two studies (two articles and one abstract) were found to report on cost-wise or economic benefits of dengue RDTs and were selected for data extraction. One study found satisfactory performance of IgM-based Panbio RDT, concluding that it would be cost-effective in endemic settings. The second study was a modeling analysis and showed that a dengue RDT would not be advantageous in terms of cost and effectiveness compared to current practice of antibiotics prescription for acute febrile illness. CONCLUSIONS: Despite growing use of RDTs in research and clinical settings, there were limited data to demonstrate an economic impact. The available two studies reached different conclusions on the cost-effectiveness of dengue RDTs, although only one of the two studies reported outcomes from cost-effectiveness analysis of dengue and the other was considering febrile illness more generally. Evidence of such an impact would require further quantitative economic studies

Asymmetric spin-wave dispersion due to Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in an ultrathin Pt/CoFeB film

Employing Brillouin spectroscopy, strong interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions have been observed in an ultrathin Pt/CoFeB film. Our micromagnetic simulations show that spin-wave nonreciprocity due to asymmetric surface pinning is insignificant for the 0.8nmthick CoFeB film studied. The observed high asymmetry of the monotonic spin wave dispersion relation is thus ascribed to strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions present at the Pt/CoFeB interface. Our findings should further enhance the significance of CoFeB as an important material for magnonic, spintronic and skyrmionic applications.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

EChO Payload electronics architecture and SW design

EChO is a three-modules (VNIR, SWIR, MWIR), highly integrated spectrometer, covering the wavelength range from 0.55 $\mu$m, to 11.0 $\mu$m. The baseline design includes the goal wavelength extension to 0.4 $\mu$m while an optional LWIR module extends the range to the goal wavelength of 16.0 $\mu$m. An Instrument Control Unit (ICU) is foreseen as the main electronic subsystem interfacing the spacecraft and collecting data from all the payload spectrometers modules. ICU is in charge of two main tasks: the overall payload control (Instrument Control Function) and the housekeepings and scientific data digital processing (Data Processing Function), including the lossless compression prior to store the science data to the Solid State Mass Memory of the Spacecraft. These two main tasks are accomplished thanks to the Payload On Board Software (P-OBSW) running on the ICU CPUs.Comment: Experimental Astronomy - EChO Special Issue 201

eulerForce: Force-directed Layout for Euler Diagrams

Euler diagrams use closed curves to represent sets and their relationships. They facilitate set analysis, as humans tend to perceive distinct regions when closed curves are drawn on a plane. However, current automatic methods often produce diagrams with irregular, non-smooth curves that are not easily distinguishable. Other methods restrict the shape of the curve to for instance a circle, but such methods cannot draw an Euler diagram with exactly the required curve intersections for any set relations. In this paper, we present eulerForce, as the first method to adopt a force-directed approach to improve the layout and the curves of Euler diagrams generated by current methods. The layouts are improved in quick time. Our evaluation of eulerForce indicates the benefits of a force-directed approach to generate comprehensible Euler diagrams for any set relations in relatively fast time

Paraoxonase 2 protein is spatially expressed in the human placenta and selectively reduced in labour

Humans parturition involves interaction of hormonal, neurological, mechanical stretch and inflammatory pathways and the placenta plays a crucial role. The paraoxonases (PONs 1–3) protect against oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation, modulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress and regulation of apoptosis. Nothing is known about the role of PON2 in the placenta and labour. Since PON2 plays a role in oxidative stress and inflammation, both features of labour, we hypothesised that placental PON2 expression would alter during labour. PON2 was examined in placentas obtained from women who delivered by cesarean section and were not in labour and compared to the equivalent zone of placentas obtained from women who delivered vaginally following an uncomplicated labour. Samples were obtained from 12 sites within each placenta: 4 equally spaced apart pieces were sampled from the inner, middle and outer placental regions. PON2 expression was investigated by Western blotting and real time PCR. Two PON2 forms, one at 62 kDa and one at 43 kDa were found in all samples. No difference in protein expression of either isoform was found between the three sites in either the labour or non-labour group. At the middle site there was a highly significant decrease in PON2 expression in the labour group when compared to the non-labour group for both the 62 kDa form (p = 0.02) and the 43 kDa form (p = 0.006). No spatial differences were found within placentas at the mRNA level in either labour or non-labour. There was, paradoxically, an increase in PON2 mRNA in the labour group at the middle site only. This is the first report to describe changes in PON2 in the placenta in labour. The physiological and pathological significance of these remains to be elucidated but since PON2 is anti-inflammatory further studies are warranted to understand its role

<i>In situ</i> observation of strain and phase transformation in plastically deformed 301 austenitic stainless steel

To inform the design of superior transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) steels, it is important to understand what happens at the microstructural length scales. In this study, strain-induced martensitic transformation is studied by in situ digital image correlation (DIC) in a scanning electron microscope. Digital image correlation at submicron length scales enables mapping of transformation strains with high confidence. These are correlated with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) prior to and post deformation process to get a comprehensive understanding of the strain-induced transformation mechanism. The results are compared with mathematical models for enhanced prediction of strain-induced martensitic phase transformation