What vaccine product attributes do immunization program stakeholders value? Results from interviews in six low- and middle-income countries

Publication date: Available online 8 November 2016
Source:Vaccine
Author(s): Debra D. Kristensen, Kate Bartholomew, Shirley Villadiego, Kristina Lorenson
This study attempts to capture the opinions of stakeholders working in immunization programs in low- and middle-income countries to understand how vaccine products could be improved to better meet their needs and to obtain feedback on specific vaccine product attributes including the number of doses per container and ease of preparing a dose for administration. We also reviewed how procurement decisions are made within immunization programs. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 158 immunization stakeholders in Brazil, China, India, Peru, the Philippines, and Tanzania. Interviewees included national decision-makers and advisors involved in vaccine-purchasing decisions (n=30), national Expanded Programme on Immunization managers (n=6), and health and logistics personnel at national, subnational, and health-facility levels (n=122).Immunization stakeholders at all levels of the supply chain valued vaccine product attributes that prevent heat damage, decrease vaccine wastage, and simplify delivery. Minimizing the time required to prepare a dose is especially valued by those closest to the work of actually administering vaccines. Respondents appreciated the benefits of lower-multidose presentations on reducing wastage but seemed to prefer single-dose vials even more. They also expressed concern about the need for training and the potential for confusion and vial contamination if opened vials of liquid preservative-free vaccines are not handled properly. Procurement decision-making processes varied widely between countries, though most relied heavily on international agencies and vaccine manufacturers for information.



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Commentary on “Development of Collaterals to the Spinal Cord After Endovascular Stent Graft Repair of Thoracic Aneurysms”

Publication date: Available online 9 November 2016
Source:European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery
Author(s): E. Choke




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Functional coupling between frontoparietal and occipitotemporal pathways during action and perception

Publication date: Available online 9 November 2016
Source:Cortex
Author(s): R. Matthew Hutchison, Jason P. Gallivan
Several lines of evidence point to areas in the occipitotemporal pathway as being critical in the processes of visual perception and object recognition. Much less appreciated, however, is the role that this pathway plays in object-related processing for the purposes of visually guided action. Here, using functional MRI and functional connectivity measures, we examined interactions between areas in frontoparietal cortex (FPC) involved in grasping, reaching, eye movements, and tool use and areas in occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) involved in object-, face-, scene-, body-, tool-, and motion-related processing, both during the performance of sensorimotor and visual-perceptual tasks, as well as during passive fixation (resting-state). Cluster analysis of regional time course data identified correspondence in the patterns of FPC and OTC connectivity during the visual-perceptual tasks and rest that both tended to segregate regions along traditional dorsal/ventral pathway boundaries. During the sensorimotor tasks, however, we observed a notable separation in functional coupling between ventral-medial and ventral-lateral regions of OTC, with several of the latter areas often being clustered together with sensorimotor-defined areas in parietal cortex. These findings indicate that the functional coupling of ventral-lateral OTC areas to dorsal parietal and ventral-medial structures is flexible and task-dependent, and suggests that regions in lateral occipital cortex, in particular, may play an important role in mediating interactions between the dorsal and ventral pathways during tasks involving sensorimotor control.



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Experimental research on laser interference micro/nano fabrication of hydrophobic modification of stent surface

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) has become one of the important causes of human death, and coronary stent implantation is one of the most effective methods for the treatment of CAD. But the current clinical treatment has a high long-term restenosis rate and is easy to form late stent thrombosis. In order to solve these problems, coronary artery stent surface was directly modified by laser interference lithography and the highly ordered concave structures were fabricated. The morphology and contact angle (CA) of the microstructure were measured with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and CA system. The water repellent property of the stent was also evaluated by the method of contacting the water drop with the stent and then separating. The result showed that the close-packed concave structure with the period of about 12.194 μm can be fabricated on the stent surface under special parameters (laser energy density of 3.5 J/cm⁻², incident angles of 3°, exposure time of 80 s) by the three-beam laser interference of 1064 nm and the form structure has good water repellency with contact angle of 120°.

http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10103-016-2105-6

Corrigendum to “Paradigm shift redefining molecular, metabolic and structural events in Alzheimer’s disease involves a proposed contribution by transition metals. Defined lengthy preclinical stage provides new hope to circumvent advancement of disease- and age-related neurodegeneration” [Med. Hypotheses 84 (2015) 460–469]

Publication date: Available online 8 November 2016
Source:Medical Hypotheses
Author(s): Franco Cavaleri




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Cervical spine disorders and its association with tinnitus: The “TRIPLE” hypothesis

Publication date: Available online 9 November 2016
Source:Medical Hypotheses
Author(s): Bressi Federica, Manuele Casale, Papalia Rocco, Moffa Antonio, Di Martino Alberto, Miccinilli Sandra, Salvinelli Fabrizio, Denaro Vincenzo, Sterzi Silvia
Subjective Tinnitus and cervical spine disorders (CSD) are among the most common complaints encountered by physicians. Although the relationship between tinnitus and CSD has attracted great interest during the past several years, the pathogenesis of tinnitus induced by CSD remains unclear. Conceivably, CSD could trigger a somatosensory pathway-induced disinhibition of dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) activity in the auditory pathway; furthermore, CSD can cause inner ear blood impairment induced by vertebral arteries hemodynamic alterations and trigeminal irritation. In genetically -predisposed CSD patients with reduced serotoninergic tone, signals from chronically stimulated DCNs could activate specific cortical neuronal networks and plastic neural changes resulting in tinnitus. Therefore, an early specific tailored CSD treatments and/or boosting serotoninergic activity may be required to prevent the creation of 'tinnitus memory circuits' in CSD patients.



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Age equivalence in the benefit of repetition for speech understanding

Although repetition is the most commonly used conversational repair strategy, little is known about its relative effectiveness among listeners spanning the adult age range. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in how younger, middle-aged, and older adults were able to use immediate repetition to improve speech recognition in the presence of different kinds of maskers. Results suggest that all groups received approximately the same amount of benefit from repetition. Repetition benefit was largest when the masker was fluctuating noise and smallest when it was competing speech.

http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/140/5/10.1121/1.4966586?TRACK=RSS