Health information on firefighter websites: Structured analysis

© Mostin A Hu, Joy C MacDermid, Shannon Killip, Margaret Lomotan, FIREWELL. Background: Owing to the fact that firefighters have unique health risks, access to firefighter-specific internet-based health information is a potential mechanism for achieving better health and work outcomes. Objective: The objective of our study was to identify the amount and nature of health information resources available on Canadian firefighter-specific websites and the extent to which resources are consistent across websites as a surrogate indicator of diffusion of information. Methods: A search of health resources on firefighter websites (union and employer) for all Canadian provinces, major cities and a subset of smaller cities, and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) website was conducted on Google (July 2017). Content was identified and classified based on the type of resource, health focus, and location. The quantity and nature of the resources were summarized using descriptive statistics. Results: Among all (N=313) websites reviewed, 41 websites had health information with a cumulative total of 128 resources that addressed firefighter mental (59/128, 46.1%), physical (43/128, 33.6%), and work health (26/128, 20.3%). The highest density of information was found on international and national websites (13 resources per website) and the least on local websites (1 resource per 7 websites). Three provinces (Ontario, Québec, and British Columbia) hosted 81% (65/80) of the provincial, territorial and local resources. General mental health (20/59, 34%), posttraumatic stress disorder (14/59, 24%), and suicide (14/59, 24%) were the most prevalent topics within the mental health resources, whereas half (21/43, 49%) of all physical health resources were on cancer. No resources from Northern Canada were found. Musculoskeletal health was not mentioned in any of the resources identified. There was minimal cross-linking of resources across sites (only 4 resources were duplicated across sites), and there was no clear indication of how the content was vetted or evaluated for quality. Conclusions: There was wide variation in the amount and type of information available on different firefighter websites with limited diffusion of information across jurisdictions. Quality evaluation and coordination of resources should be considered to enhance firefighters’ access to quality health information to meet their specific needs. Mental health and cancer information aligned with high rates of these health problems in firefighters, whereas the lack of information on musculoskeletal health was discordant with their high rate of work injury claims for these problems

Qualitative assessment of Tongue Drive System by people with high-level spinal cord injury

The Tongue Drive System (TDS) is a minimally invasive, wireless, and wearable assistive technology (AT) that enables people with severe disabilities to control their environments using tongue motion. TDS translates specific tongue gestures into commands by sensing the magnetic field created by a small magnetic tracer applied to the user’s tongue. We have previously quantitatively evaluated the TDS for accessing computers and powered wheelchairs, demonstrating its usability. In this study, we focused on its qualitative evaluation by people with high-level spinal cord injury who each received a magnetic tongue piercing and used the TDS for 6 wk. We used two questionnaires, an after-scenario and a poststudy, designed to evaluate the tongue-piercing experience and the TDS usability compared with that of the sip-and-puff and the users’ current ATs. After study completion, 73% of the participants were positive about keeping the magnetic tongue-barbell in order to use the TDS. All were satisfied with the TDS performance and most said that they were able to do more things using TDS than their current ATs (4.22/5)

Erratum to: Methods for evaluating medical tests and biomarkers

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s41512-016-0001-y.]

Multicenter Diagnostic Evaluation of a Novel Coronavirus Antigen Lateral Flow Test among Symptomatic Individuals in Brazil and the United Kingdom

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the commercialization of many antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs), requiring independent evaluations. This report describes the clinical evaluation of the Novel Coronavirus 2019-nCoV Antigen Test (Colloidal Gold) (Beijing Hotgen Biotech Co., Ltd.), at two sites within Brazil and one in the United Kingdom. The collected samples (446 nasal swabs from Brazil and 246 nasopharyngeal samples from the UK) were analyzed by the Ag-RDT and compared to reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Analytical evaluation of the Ag-RDT was performed using direct culture supernatants of SARS-CoV-2 strains from the wild-type (B.1), Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2), Gamma (P.1), and Omicron (B.1.1.529) lineages. An overall sensitivity and specificity of 88.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 81.3 to 93.3) and 100.0% (95% CI, 99.1 to 100.0), respectively, were obtained for the Brazilian and UK cohorts. The analytical limit of detection was determined as 1.0 × 103 PFU/mL (Alpha), 2.5 × 102 PFU/mL (Delta), 2.5 × 103 PFU/mL (Gamma), and 1.0 × 103 PFU/mL (Omicron), giving a viral copy equivalent of approximately 2.1 × 104 copies/mL, 9.0 × 105 copies/mL, 1.7 × 106 copies/mL, and 1.8 × 105 copies/mL for the Ag-RDT, respectively. Overall, while a higher sensitivity was claimed by the manufacturers than that found in this study, this evaluation finds that the Ag-RDT meets the WHO minimum performance requirements for sensitivity and specificity of COVID-19 Ag-RDTs. This study illustrates the comparative performance of the Hotgen Ag-RDT across two global settings and considers the different approaches in evaluation methods.</p

Intellectual enrichment and genetic modifiers of cognition and brain volume in Huntington's disease

An important step towards the development of treatments for cognitive impairment in ageing and neurodegenerative diseases is to identify genetic and environmental modifiers of cognitive function and understand the mechanism by which they exert an effect. In Huntington’s disease, the most common autosomal dominant dementia, a small number of studies have identified intellectual enrichment, i.e. a cognitively stimulating lifestyle and genetic polymorphisms as potential modifiers of cognitive function. The aim of our study was to further investigate the relationship and interaction between genetic factors and intellectual enrichment on cognitive function and brain atrophy in Huntington’s disease. For this purpose, we analysed data from Track-HD, a multi-centre longitudinal study in Huntington’s disease gene carriers and focused on the role of intellectual enrichment (estimated at baseline) and the genes FAN1, MSH3, BDNF, COMT and MAPT in predicting cognitive decline and brain atrophy. We found that carrying the 3a allele in the MSH3 gene had a positive effect on global cognitive function and brain atrophy in multiple cortical regions, such that 3a allele carriers had a slower rate of cognitive decline and atrophy compared with non-carriers, in agreement with its role in somatic instability. No other genetic predictor had a significant effect on cognitive function and the effect of MSH3 was independent of intellectual enrichment. Intellectual enrichment also had a positive effect on cognitive function; participants with higher intellectual enrichment, i.e. those who were better educated, had higher verbal intelligence and performed an occupation that was intellectually engaging, had better cognitive function overall, in agreement with previous studies in Huntington’s disease and other dementias. We also found that intellectual enrichment interacted with the BDNF gene, such that the positive effect of intellectual enrichment was greater in Met66 allele carriers than non-carriers. A similar relationship was also identified for changes in whole brain and caudate volume; the positive effect of intellectual enrichment was greater for Met66 allele carriers, rather than for non-carriers. In summary, our study provides additional evidence for the beneficial role of intellectual enrichment and carrying the 3a allele in MSH3 in cognitive function in Huntington’s disease and their effect on brain structure

Searching for Heavy Dark Matter near the Planck Mass with XENON1T

Multiple viable theoretical models predict heavy dark matter particles with a mass close to the Planck mass, a range relatively unexplored by current experimental measurements. We use 219.4 days of data collected with the XENON1T experiment to conduct a blind search for signals from Multiply-Interacting Massive Particles (MIMPs). Their unique track signature allows a targeted analysis with only 0.05 expected background events from muons. Following unblinding, we observe no signal candidate events. This work places strong constraints on spin-independent interactions of dark matter particles with a mass between 1$\times$10$^{12}\,$GeV/c$^2$ and 2$\times$10$^{17}\,$GeV/c$^2$. In addition, we present the first exclusion limits on spin-dependent MIMP-neutron and MIMP-proton cross-sections for dark matter particles with masses close to the Planck scale.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n1⁄42,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n1⁄43,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombinedo5108) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine–cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist

Common, low-frequency, rare, and ultra-rare coding variants contribute to COVID-19 severity

The combined impact of common and rare exonic variants in COVID-19 host genetics is currently insufficiently understood. Here, common and rare variants from whole-exome sequencing data of about 4000 SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals were used to define an interpretable machine-learning model for predicting COVID-19 severity. First, variants were converted into separate sets of Boolean features, depending on the absence or the presence of variants in each gene. An ensemble of LASSO logistic regression models was used to identify the most informative Boolean features with respect to the genetic bases of severity. The Boolean features selected by these logistic models were combined into an Integrated PolyGenic Score that offers a synthetic and interpretable index for describing the contribution of host genetics in COVID-19 severity, as demonstrated through testing in several independent cohorts. Selected features belong to ultra-rare, rare, low-frequency, and common variants, including those in linkage disequilibrium with known GWAS loci. Noteworthily, around one quarter of the selected genes are sex-specific. Pathway analysis of the selected genes associated with COVID-19 severity reflected the multi-organ nature of the disease. The proposed model might provide useful information for developing diagnostics and therapeutics, while also being able to guide bedside disease management. © 2021, The Author(s)