Première for Lövsta experiments with growing and finishing pigs. Inclusion of mussel meal in pig diets

In mid September the very first experiment with growing/finishing pigs at Lövsta Livestock Research Centre will start. This will be a double première event – the first growing/finishing pig experiment at the new research centre and – to our knowledge - the first experiment with mussel meal in pig diets. This mussel meal is produced from mussel meat only, ie no shells are included. Mussel meal has proved to be an excellent feed ingredient for poultry – what about pigs

Space Weather and Power Grids: Findings and Outlook. An event co-organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Centre 29-30 October, 2013, Ispra, Italy

The impact of space weather on the power grid is a tangible and recurring threat with potentially serious consequences on society. Of particular concern is the long-distance high-voltage power grid, which is vulnerable to the effects of geomagnetic storms that can damage or destroy equipment or lead to grid collapse. In order to launch a dialogue on the topic and encourage authorities, regulators and operators in Europe and North America to learn from each other, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Centre, with the contribution of the UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat, jointly organised a workshop on the impact of extreme space weather on the power grid on 29-30 October 2013. Topics addressed were space-weather phenomena and the dynamics of their impact on the grid, experiences with prediction and now-casting in the USA and in Europe, risk assessment and preparedness, as well as policy implications arising from increased awareness of the space-weather hazard. The “Space Weather and Power Grids” workshop was attended by 50 representatives from European and North American power-grid operators, regulators, emergency-response organisers, space-weather experts, academia, the European Space Agency and the European Commission. The main workshop conclusions are: • There is increasing awareness of the risk of space-weather impact among power-grid operators and regulators and some countries consider it a priority risk to be addressed. • The predictability of space-weather phenomena is still limited and relies, in part, on data from ageing satellites. NOAA is working with NASA to launch the DSCOVR solar-wind spacecraft, the replacement for the ACE satellite, in early 2015. • In some countries, models and tools for GIC prediction and grid impact assessment have been developed in collaboration with national power grids but equipment vulnerability models are scarce. • Some countries have successfully hardened their transmission grids to space-weather impact and sustained relatively little or no damage due to currents induced by past moderate space-weather events. • While there is preparedness in industry against moderate space weather, the vulnerability of the power grid with respect to Carrington-type events is less conclusive and needs to be assessed. • The assessment of space-weather impact on society needs to consider possible interdependencies between critical infrastructures. These interdependencies are not routinely assessed. • Effective risk communication is required to bridge the gap between science and policy and to convey the significance of scientific results to decision makers. • Emergency-response planning for a severe space-weather event needs to consider the full range of potential impacts on critical infrastructure. • For a severe geomagnetic storm inter-institutional and probably international emergency planning efforts are required as response capabilities of individual countries might be overloaded. • In the USA work is in progress to augment the existing regulatory requirements for power-grid operations by introducing new standards to better meet the challenges posed by space-weather risk.JRC.G.6 - Security technology assessmen

Prevention for those who have freedom of choice – or among the choice-disabled: confronting equity in the AIDS epidemic

With the exception of post-exposure prophylaxis for reported rape, no preventive strategy addresses the choice disabled – those who might like to benefit from AIDS prevention but who are unable to do so because they do not have the power to make and to act on prevention decisions. In southern African countries, where one in every three has been forced to have sex by the age of 18 years, a very large proportion of the population is choice disabled. This group is at higher risk of HIV infection and unable to respond to AIDS prevention programmes; they represent a reservoir of infection. Reduction of sexual violence would probably decrease HIV transmission directly, but also indirectly as more people can respond to existing AIDS prevention programmes

Uncertainties in gender violence epidemiology

This thesis contains 11 papers published in peer reviewed journals between 2006 and 2012. The papers focused on gender violence research methods, the prevalence of risk factors for gender violence, and its association with HIV and maternal morbidity. The accompanying commentary addresses three uncertainties that affect gender violence epidemiology. These are missing data, clustering and unrecognised causal relationships. In this thesis I ask: Can we reduce these three uncertainties in gender violence epidemiology? A systematic review of the intimate partner violence literature over the last decade found that few epidemiological studies manage missing data in gender violence questionnaires in a satisfactory way. Focus groups in Zambia, Nigeria and Pakistan confirmed that missing data lead to underestimation of gender violence prevalence. A partial solution to this problem was to place greater emphasis on interviewer training. In a reanalysis of the data from the published papers I compared different approaches to dealing with clustering in gender violence epidemiology. Generalised linear mixed models and other methods found that clustering potentially plays a causal role. This can be important in interventions that target a community at large, and act throughout the cluster. In a reanalysis of several datasets I show how a history of gender violence influences measurement of many associations related to HIV, possibly due to an unanticipated role of gender violence in the causal pathway with HIV. In conclusion, it is possible to reduce the uncertainties associated with missing data, clustering, and unrecognised causality in gender violence epidemiology

Kasner and Mixmaster behavior in universes with equation of state w \ge 1

We consider cosmological models with a scalar field with equation of state $w\ge 1$ that contract towards a big crunch singularity, as in recent cyclic and ekpyrotic scenarios. We show that chaotic mixmaster oscillations due to anisotropy and curvature are suppressed, and the contraction is described by a homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann equation if $w>1$. We generalize the results to theories where the scalar field couples to p-forms and show that there exists a finite value of $w$, depending on the p-forms, such that chaotic oscillations are suppressed. We show that $Z_2$ orbifold compactification also contributes to suppressing chaotic behavior. In particular, chaos is avoided in contracting heterotic M-theory models if $w>1$ at the crunch.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, references adde

Initiation rites at menarche and self-reported dysmenorrhoea among indigenous women of the Colombian Amazon: A cross-sectional study

Objectives: To investigate the association between self-reported dysmenorrhoea and patterns of female initiation rites at menarche among Amazonian indigenous peoples of Vaupés in Colombia. Design: A cross-sectional study of all women in seven indigenous communities. Questionnaire administered in local language documented female initiation rites and experience of dysmenorrhoea. Analysis examined 10 initiation components separately, then together, comparing women who underwent all rites, some rites and no rites. Settings: Seven indigenous communities belonging to the Tukano language group in the Great Eastern Reservation of Vaupés (Colombia) in 2008. Participants: All women over the age of 13 years living in the seven communities in Vaupés, who had experienced at least two menstruations (n=185), aged 13-88 years (mean 32.5; SD 15.6). Primary and secondary outcome measures: The analysis rested on pelvic pain to define dysmenorrhoea as the main outcome. Women were also asked about other disorders present during menstruation or the precedent days, and about the interval between two menstruations and duration of each one. Results: Only 17.3% (32/185) completed all initiation rites and 52.4% (97/185) reported dysmenorrhoea. Women not completing the rites were more likely to report dysmenorrhoea than those who did so (p=0.01 Fisher exact), taking into account age, education, community, parity and use of family planning. Women who completed less than the full complement of rites had higher risk than those who completed all rites. Those who did not complete all rites reported increased severity of dysmenorrhoea (p=0.00014). Conclusions: Our results are compatible with an association between traditional practices and women's health. We could exclude indirect associations with age, education, parity and use of family planning as explanations for the association. The study indicates feasibility, possible utility and limits of intercultural epidemiology in small groups

Epidemiological geomatics in evaluation of mine risk education in Afghanistan: introducing population weighted raster maps

Evaluation of mine risk education in Afghanistan used population weighted raster maps as an evaluation tool to assess mine education performance, coverage and costs. A stratified last-stage random cluster sample produced representative data on mine risk and exposure to education. Clusters were weighted by the population they represented, rather than the land area. A "friction surface" hooked the population weight into interpolation of cluster-specific indicators. The resulting population weighted raster contours offer a model of the population effects of landmine risks and risk education. Five indicator levels ordered the evidence from simple description of the population-weighted indicators (level 0), through risk analysis (levels 1–3) to modelling programme investment and local variations (level 4). Using graphic overlay techniques, it was possible to metamorphose the map, portraying the prediction of what might happen over time, based on the causality models developed in the epidemiological analysis. Based on a lattice of local site-specific predictions, each cluster being a small universe, the "average" prediction was immediately interpretable without losing the spatial complexity

Male circumcision, attitudes to HIV prevention and HIV status: A cross-sectional study in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland

In efficacy trials male circumcision (MC) protected men against HIV infection. Planners need information relevant to MC programmes in practice. In 2008, we interviewed 2915 men and 4549 women aged 15–29 years in representative cluster samples in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland, asking about socio-economic characteristics, knowledge and attitudes about HIV and MC and MC history. We tested finger prick blood samples for HIV. We calculated weighted frequencies of MC knowledge and attitudes, and MC history and HIV status. Multivariate analysis examined associations between MC and other variables and HIV status. In Botswana, 11% of young men reported MC, 28% in Namibia and 8% in Swaziland; mostly (75% in Botswana, 94% – mostly Herero – in Namibia and 68% in Swaziland) as infants or children. Overall, 6.5% were HIV positive (8.3% Botswana, 2.6% Namibia and 9.1% Swaziland). Taking other variables into account, circumcised men were as likely as uncircumcised men to be HIV positive. Nearly half of the uncircumcised young men planned to be circumcised; two-thirds of young men and women planned to have their sons circumcised. Some respondents had inaccurate beliefs and unhelpful views about MC and HIV, with variation between countries. Between 9 and 15% believed a circumcised man is fully protected against HIV; 20–26% believed men need not be tested for HIV before MC; 14–26% believed HIV-positive men who are circumcised cannot transmit the virus; and 8–34% thought it was “okay for a circumcised man to expect sex without a condom”. Inaccurate perceptions about protection from MC could lead to risk compensation and reduce women's ability to negotiate safer sex. More efforts are needed to raise awareness about the limitations of MC protection, especially for women, and to study the interactions between MC roll out programmes and primary HIV prevention programmes

History and biology of the reassigned Ruvu Weaver Ploceus holoxanthus

Ploceus holoxanthus was formally described by Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub in 1891, based on specimens collected by Friedrich  Bohndorff, from Mtoni on the Kingani (now Ruvu) River, Tanzania. Reichenow (1904, p 91) and Zedlitz (1916) synonymized this taxon with African Golden Weaver P. subaureus, although Shelley (1905) and Hartert (1907) had recognized it as a new species. Sclater (1930) and other subsequent authors simply considered P. holoxanthus as a synonym of African Golden Weaver, and eventually it was not even listed as a synonym. In recent years, birds resembling P. holoxanthus have been increasingly photographed. Thus, this taxon was included in a recent phylogeny of the Ploceidae, which recognized P. holoxanthus as a valid species. This paper reviews the history of this taxon, lists all specimens, published references and photographs, and measurements. The nest and eggs are described for the first time. Keywords: Ploceus holoxanthus, Ploceus subaureus, Ruvu River, Mtoni, Bagamoyo, Zedlitz, Tanzani