scholarly journals Development of at-home sample collection logistics for large-scale seroprevalence studies

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258516
Author(s):  
Aishani V. Aatresh ◽  
Kate Cummings ◽  
Hilary Gerstein ◽  
Christopher S. Knight ◽  
Andreas Limberopolous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Serological Studies ◽  
High Engagement ◽  
At Home

Background Serological studies rely on the recruitment of representative cohorts; however, such efforts are specially complicated by the conditions surrounding the COVID19 pandemic. Methods We aimed to design and implement a fully remote methodology for conducting safe serological surveys that also allow for the engagement of representative study populations. Results This design was well-received and effective. 2,066 participants ≥18 years old were enrolled, reflecting the ethnic and racial composition of Massachusetts. >70% of them reported being satisfied/extremely satisfied with the online enrollment and at-home self-collection of blood samples. While 18.6% reported some discomfort experienced with the collection process, 72.2% stated that they would be willing to test weekly if enrolled in a long-term study. Conclusions High engagement and positive feedback from participants, as well as the quality of self-collected specimens, point to the usefulness of this fully remote, self-collection-based study design for future safer and efficient population-level serological surveys.

scholarly journals Development of at-home sample collection logistics for large scale SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aishani V. Aatresh ◽  
Kate Cummings ◽  
Hilary Gerstein ◽  
Christopher S. Knight ◽  
Andreas Limberopolous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Serological Studies ◽  
High Engagement ◽  
Future Population ◽  
At Home

AbstractIn the midst of a pandemic, serologic studies are a valuable tool to understand the course of the outbreak and guide public health and general pandemic management. However, given significant safety constraints including social distancing and stay-at-home orders, sample collection becomes more difficult given traditional phlebotomy protocols. For such studies, a representative sample of the underlying population is paramount to elicit meaningful insights that capture the spread of the infection, particularly when different sub-populations face varying disease burden. We aimed to address these challenges by conducting a fully remote study to investigate the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the state of Massachusetts. Leveraging electronic study engagement and at-home self-collection of finger-prick samples, we enrolled 2,066 participants representative of the ethnic and racial composition of Massachusetts. SARS-CoV-2 total IgG seropositivity was 3.15%, and follow-up measurements at days 7, 15, 45, and 90 indicate a generally durable antibody response. A higher risk of infection was observed for healthcare workers and their cohabitants and those with comorbidities, as well as lower-income, less educated, Hispanic, and those in the age groups of 18-29 and 50-59-years-old. High engagement and positive feedback from the participants and quality of self-collected specimens point to the usefulness of this design for future population-level serological studies that more effectively and safely reach a broad representative cohort, thus yielding more comprehensive insights into the burden of infection and disease in populations.Key pointsQuestionWe aimed to implement a fully remote seroprevalence study for SARS-CoV-2, leveraging electronic methods and at-home self-collection of specimens to engage a representative study population.FindingsThe population enrolled reflected the ethnic and racial composition of Massachusetts, revealing a SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence of 3.15% and higher risk of previous infection associated with healthcare workers/their cohabitants, those with comorbidities, lower-income, less educated, Hispanic, and those in age groups 18-29 and 50-59 years old.MeaningHigh engagement and positive feedback from participants as well as quality of self-collected specimens point to the usefulness of this design for future population-level serological studies.

scholarly journals Decline in the frequency and benefits of multiple brooding in great tits as a consequence of a changing environment

2009 ◽  
Vol 276 (1663) ◽  
pp. 1845-1854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arild Husby ◽  
Loeske E.B. Kruuk ◽  
Marcel E. Visser
Keyword(s):  
Life History Traits ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Double Brooding ◽  
First Clutch ◽  
Second Clutch ◽  
Reproductive Events

For multiple-brooded species, the number of reproductive events per year is a major determinant of an individual's fitness. Where multiple brooding is facultative, its occurrence is likely to change with environmental conditions, and, as a consequence, the current rates of environmental change could have substantial impacts on breeding patterns. Here we examine temporal population-level trends in the proportion of female great tits ( Parus major ) producing two clutches per year (‘double brooding’) in four long-term study populations in The Netherlands, and show that the proportion of females that double brood has declined in all populations, with the strongest decline taking place in the last 30 years of the study. For one of the populations, for which we have data on caterpillar abundance, we show that the probability that a female produces a second clutch was related to the timing of her first clutch relative to the peak in caterpillar abundance, and that the probability of double brooding declined over the study period. We further show that the number of recruits from the second clutch decreased significantly over the period 1973–2004 in all populations. Our results indicate that adjustment to changing climatic conditions may involve shifts in life-history traits other than simply the timing of breeding.

scholarly journals SOIL MANAGEMENT IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT: TODAY AND FUTURE

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-71
Author(s):  
Bogdan Stanescu ◽  
Adriana Cuciureanu
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Soil Protection ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Residential Areas

The present article presents the expertise realized by the Department of Environmental Monitoring Pollution Evaluation within the INCD ECOIND, in the evaluation of the quality of urban soils in the municipality of Bucharest and the main big cities in Romania. The current data available at the level of the 27 member states of the European Union show that annually over 100,000 hectares of land are introduced into the urban environment, a direct consequence of the development of cities. There are a number of legislative obstacles to strategic soil protection measures. Moreover, at the level of the local authorities there is a conflict regarding the measures of soil protection in the long term, on the one hand, and, the accelerated economic development in the short term, on the other. European environmental experts consider that the urban development, absolutely necessary for the economic growth, requires an adequate management of the natural resources in order for the development to be done on a sustainable basis, respectively to follow a series of strategic objectives. In our country, at least in the last decade, we find on a large scale the conversion of industrial areas into commercial or residential areas. The footprint of industrial activities can be found even after long periods of time present by identifying the remnant of soil pollution or in those areas known as historically polluted (for example the town of Copsa Mica). The conclusions stemming from the assessment of pollution in urban areas over large areas, in correlation with the potential sources of pollution, underline the need to monitor the quality of soils in the urban environment, but also to apply a performance management in order to protect this natural resource in the long term.

Acupuncture in Neurological Disorders: An Evidence-Based Overview

2020 ◽  
pp. 449-494
Author(s):  
Alexandra Dimitrova
Keyword(s):  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Tunnel Syndrome ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Common Misconceptions

Over the past 20 years acupuncture has been rapidly gaining in popularity both in clinical practice and in research. New evidence for the benefits of acupuncture in various disorders is emerging seemingly every week, and recent large-scale systematic reviews and meta-analyses have suggested that acupuncture’s benefits in pain conditions can be maintained long term. At present the strongest evidence for acupuncture in the treatment of neurological disorders is in the fields of migraine, tension headaches, diabetic neuropathy, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Bell’s palsy. Recent trials suggest that acupuncture may be used as an adjunct in stroke rehabilitation and in improving the quality of life in patients with Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Despite recent mechanistic research advances, much remains unknown about acupuncture’s mechanism of action and there are common misconceptions about the origins of modern-day acupuncture. As acupuncture is being rapidly integrated into mainstream medical practice and increasingly being sought by patients, healthcare providers and neurologists in particular need to be educated about its applications and benefits for various neurological disorders. Our hope is that this chapter will serve toward this educational goal.

Long-term study of the Quality of Life and Self-esteem in women submitted to immediate reconstruction after Breast Cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. e90-e91
Author(s):  
M.D.L.A. Gil-Olarte Marquez ◽  
G. Gines Moreno ◽  
P. Gil-Olarte Marquez ◽  
J. Garcia Schiever ◽  
A. Gil Rendo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Immediate Reconstruction ◽  
Long Term Study

Psoriatic Nail Disease: Quality of Life and Treatment

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. S102-S106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditya K. Gupta ◽  
Elizabeth A. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Psoriatic Arthritis ◽  
Plaque Psoriasis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Biologic Therapies ◽  
Nail Psoriasis ◽  
Psoriatic Nail Disease

Nail psoriasis is common among patients with plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis and has a detrimental effect on quality of life. However, there are currently no standardized therapeutic regimens for nail psoriasis. Traditional treatments for nail psoriasis, which include topical, intralesional, and oral therapies, may be time-consuming, painful, or unsafe when administered long term. Biologic therapies have demonstrated efficacy for plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis; these therapies may be particularly promising for the treatment of nail psoriasis as both groups of patients have an elevated incidence of nail dystrophy. The biologic therapies adalimumab, alefacept, efalizumab, etanercept, and infliximab have demonstrated clinically important nail psoriasis improvements using the Nail Psoriasis Severity Index, a helpful tool that, upon validation, will allow comparison across treatments and trials. Large-scale, long-term trials using standardized outcome measures are needed to further evaluate biologic therapies for the treatment of nail psoriasis.

A new bio-inspired, population-level approach to the socioeconomic evolution of dynamic spectrum access services

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (05) ◽  
pp. 1750062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Horvath ◽  
Juraj Gazda ◽  
Branislav Brutovsky
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Spectrum Access ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Efficient Market Hypothesis ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Dynamic Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Access ◽  
Socioeconomic Changes ◽  
Access Services

Evolutionary species and quasispecies models provide the universal and flexible basis for a large-scale description of the dynamics of evolutionary systems, which can be built conceived as a constraint satisfaction dynamics. It represents a general framework to design and study many novel, technologically contemporary models and their variants. Here, we apply the classical quasispecies concept to model the emerging dynamic spectrum access (DSA) markets. The theory describes the mechanisms of mimetic transfer, competitive interactions between socioeconomic strata of the end-users, their perception of the utility and inter-operator switching in the variable technological environments of the operators offering the wireless spectrum services. The algorithmization and numerical modeling demonstrate the long-term evolutionary socioeconomic changes which reflect the end-user preferences and results of the majorization of their irrational decisions in the same manner as the prevailing tendencies which are embodied in the efficient market hypothesis.

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