What Works in Health Promotion for Older People

The primary purpose of the Cross-Border conference was the pooling of experience and expertise in relation to health promotion initiatives currently being implemented in Northern Ireland and in the Republic. The main focus of the conference was the identification of effective health promotion strategies and projects designed to achieve health gain and social gain for older people in both parts of the island Download the Report here

A Guide to What Works in Family Support Services for Vulnerable Families

This publication is part of research undertaken for the Springboard Family Support Initiative. Springboard is one of the most important initiatives of any Government in recent times to support vulnerable families. It aims to support families which are experiencing difficulties in providing adequate care and protection for their children through community based centres  which work in partnership not only with other local service providers but with the families themselves. Download the Report here

Triatoma rubrovaria (Blanchard, 1843) (Hemiptera, Reduviidae, Triatominae) II: trophic resources and ecological observations of five populations collected in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Triatoma rubrovaria has become the most frequently captured triatomine species after the control of T. infestans in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil. Isoenzymatic and chromatic studies indicate the existence of, at least, two distinct phenotypic patterns of T. rubrovaria in RS. The geographic variation noted through molecular tools may also result in distinct profiles of vectorial potentiality. In order to enhance our understanding of the bionomic knowledge of T. rubrovaria separate batches of the species were collected from different municipalities of RS distant from 72 to 332 km: Santana do Livramento (natural ecotope), Santana do Livramento (artificial ecotope), Santiago (natural ecotope), Canguçu (peridomicile) and Encruzilhada do Sul (natural ecotope). A total of 285 specimens were collected, 85 specimens kept sufficient fecal material in their guts for the precipitin analysis. The results indicated the food eclecticism for this species and the anti-rodent serum showed the highest positivity in most localities. From the total of analyzed samples, only 1.3% of unique positivity for human blood was registered, all of them for Santiago population. This reactivity to human blood may be associated to pastures activities in the field.

Creació d'un sistema de gestió d'averies en un Sistema d'Informació Geográfica de distribució d'aigües creat amb Geomedia Public Works

L'objectiu d'aquest document serà el de desenvolupar, progressivament des dels aspectes genèrics fins el detall, la realització pràctica requerida a l'elaboració del SIG.

Creació d'un sistema de gestió d'avaries en un sistema d'informació geogràfica de distribució d'aigües creat amb GEOMEDIA PUBLIC WORKS

Aquesta memòria representa la documentacó d'un treball de recerca i desenvolupament sobre un sistema d'informació geogràfica (SIG)

Monitoring of resistance to the pyrethroid cypermethrin in Brazilian Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) populations collected between 2001 and 2003

Resistance to cypermethrin of different Aedes aegypti Brazilian populations, collected at two successive periods (2001 and 2002/2003), was monitored using the insecticide-coated bottles bioassay. Slight modifications were included in the method to discriminate between mortality and the knock down effect. Although this pyrethroid was recently started to be used in the country to control the dengue vector, a decrease in susceptibility was noted between both periods analyzed, particularly in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The results indicate that resistance is due at least in part to a target site alteration.

Stratigraphic significance of siliceous microfossils collected during Nautiperc dives (Off Peru, 5°-6° S)

The geological evolution of the northern Peru convergent margin can be traced using samples collected during deep-sea dives of the submersible Nautile. In the Paita area (5 degrees-6 degrees S), the sedimentary sequence was intensively sampled along the main scarp of the middle slope area. It consists of Upper Miocene (7-9 Ma) to Pleistocene siltstone, sandstone and rare dolostone. The age distribution of these samples is the basis for a new geologic interpretation of the multichannel seismic line CDP3. Siliceous microfossils (both diatoms and radiolarians) show influence of both cold and temperate waters (local species mixed with upwelling ones). Diatom assemblages studied from the NP1-13 and NP1-15 dives bear a strong resemblance to assemblages from the Pisco Formation of southern Peru. Micropaleontological data from siliceous microfossils, provide evidence for two main unconformities, one is at the base of the Quaternary sequence and the other corresponds to a hiatus of 1 Myr, separating the Upper Miocene (7-8 Ma) sediments from uppermost Miocene (5-6 Ma) sediments. During the past 400 kyr, a wide rollover fold developed in the middle slope area associated with a major seaward dipping detachment fault. A catastrophic debris avalanche occurred as the result of an oversteepening of the landward flank of the rollover fold. The gravity failure of the slope, recognized by SeaBEAM and hydrosweep mapping, displaced enough material to produce a destructive tsunami which occurred 13.8 +/- 2.7 kyr ago.

Sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) collected on the banks of the Velhas River in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Leishmaniases are endemic to several Brazilian states, including Minas Gerais. As many cases of these diseases are diagnosed in Minas Gerais every year, this paper aimed to determine the diversity of the species of sandflies vector of leishmaniases, in Lassance and Corinto on the banks of the Velhas River. Over two years, 21,014 specimens of sandflies, belonging to 19 species were captured with light traps. Of these specimens, Nyssomyia neivai (Pinto 1926) (84.18%), Nyssomyia intermedia (Lutz & Neiva 1912) (13.41%), Evandromyia lenti(Mangabeira 1938) (0.99%) and Evandromyia sallesi (Galvão & Coutinho 1939) (0.48%) were the most represented. The former two species could be involved in the epidemiological chain of leishmaniasis in this region. No significant difference was found between the species compositions on the two river banks.

Treatment for congenital toxoplasmosis: finding out what works

Evidence for the effectiveness of prenatal or postnatal treatment for congenital toxoplasmosis will be critical to guide policy about prenatal and neonatal screening over the next 10 years, let alone the next 100. Randomised controlled trials are needed to address questions about treatment effectiveness, although cohort studies are also needed to provide information on prognosis, especially disability. Nowhere are such studies needed more than in South America where congenital toxoplasmosis is a major public health problem.

After Satan : Essays in Honour of Neil Forsyth

This volume is the result of a collective desire to pay homage to Neil Forsyth, whose work has significantly contributed to scholarship on Satan. This volume is "after" Satan in more ways than one, tracing the afterlife of both the satanic figure in literature and of Neil Forsyth's contribution to the field, particularly in his major books The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton University Press, 1987, revised 1990) and The Satanic Epic (Princeton University Press, 2003). The essays in this volume draw on Forsyth's work as a focus for their analyses of literary encounters with evil or with the Devil himself, reflecting the richness and variety of contemporary approaches to the age-old question of how to represent evil. All the contributors acknowledge Neil Forsyth's influence in the study of both the Satan-figure and Milton's Paradise Lost. But beyond simply paying homage to Neil Forsyth, the articles collected here trace the lineage of the Satan figure through literary history, showing how evil can function as a necessary other against which a community may define itself. They chart the demonised other through biblical history and medieval chronicle, Shakespeare and Milton, to nineteenth-century fiction and the contemporary novel. Many of the contributors find that literary evil is mediated through the lens of the Satan of Paradise Lost, and their articles address the notion, raised by Neil Forsyth in The Satanic Epic, that the literary Devil-figures under consideration are particularly interested in linguistic ambivalence and the twisted texture of literary works themselves. The multiple responses to evil and the continuous reinvention of the devil figure through the centuries all reaffirm the textual presence of the Devil, his changing forms necessarily inscribed in the shifting history of western literary culture. These essays are a tribute to the work of Neil Forsyth, whose scholarship has illuminated and guided the study of the Devil in English and other literatures.

Select works of the emperor Julian, and some pieces of the sophist Libanius, translated from the Greek, with notes from Petau, La Bleterie, Gibbon, etc., to which is added the History of the emperor Jovian from the French of the abbé de La Bleterie, by John Duncombe...

Comprend : The History of the emperor Jovien

Monitoring resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis in the field by performing bioassays with each Cry toxin separately

Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) is increasingly used worldwide for mosquito control and is the only larvicide used in the French Rhône-Alpes region since decades. The artificial selection of mosquitoes with field-persistent Bti collected in breeding sites from this region led to a moderate level of resistance to Bti, but to relatively high levels of resistance to individual Bti Cry toxins. Based on this observation, we developed a bioassay procedure using each Bti Cry toxin separately to detect cryptic Bti-resistance evolving in field mosquito populations. Although no resistance to Bti was detected in none of the three mosquito species tested (Aedes rusticus, Aedes sticticus and Aedes vexans), an increased tolerance to Cry4Aa (3.5-fold) and Cry11Aa toxins (8-fold) was found in one Ae. sticticus population compared to other populations of the same species, suggesting that resistance to Bti may be arising in this population. This study confirms previous works showing a lack of Bti resistance in field mosquito populations treated for decades with this bioinsecticide. It also provides a first panorama of their susceptibility status to individual Bti Cry toxins. In combination with bioassays with Bti, bioassays with separate Cry toxins allow a more sensitive monitoring of Bti-resistance in the field.

Good agreements between self and clinician-collected specimens for the detection of human papillomavirus in Brazilian patients

Women infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) are at a higher risk of developing cervical lesions. In the current study, self and clinician-collected vaginal and cervical samples from women were processed to detect HPV DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with PGMY09/11 primers. HPV genotypes were determined using type-specific PCR. HPV DNA detection showed good concordance between self and clinician-collected samples (84.6%; kappa = 0.72). HPV infection was found in 30% women and genotyping was more concordant among high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) than low-risk HPV (HR-HPV). HPV16 was the most frequently detected among the HR-HPV types. LR-HPV was detected at a higher frequency in self-collected; however, HR-HPV types were more frequently identified in clinician-collected samples than in self-collected samples. HPV infections of multiple types were detected in 20.5% of clinician-collected samples and 15.5% of self-collected samples. In this study, we demonstrated that the HPV DNA detection rate in self-collected samples has good agreement with that of clinician-collected samples. Self-collected sampling, as a primary prevention strategy in countries with few resources, could be effective for identifying cases of HR-HPV, being more acceptable. The use of this method would enhance the coverage of screening programs for cervical cancer.

Ecologia e rappresentazione dello spazio: Saviano, Tournier, DeLillo

Résumé: Great traveller and tireless observer, the Sicilian poet and writer Bartolo Cattafi was trying to escape from his land for his whole life, which was conducted paradoxically autour de sa chambre, but also travelling through islands and continents, where he found inspiration for his poetry and prose. For this reason, his literary contribution, which never betrayed his poetic nature and reporter character, gives an added value to the modern ulyssic dimension. The latter considers travelling as an essential life step and it is closely related to the concept of attachment to its own land. These two perspectives, often met in his different «isole lontane», define the career of this singular migrant figure. Initially he moves to Milan to fulfil the need to find a job. Later he will find in his own Sicily the harmony and the serenity he has been looking for in the course of his travels. The writings collected in 2008 and object of this study reveal interesting affinities to those published in the "Mondadori" series edited by his good friend Vittorio Sereni and that explain part of the works belonging to the Sicilian author, clarifying his topoi and obsessions.

A sensitive, specific and reproducible real-time polymerase chain reaction method for detection of Plasmodium vivaxandPlasmodium falciparum infection in field-collected anophelines

We describe a simple method for detection of Plasmodium vivaxand Plasmodium falciparum infection in anophelines using a triplex TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay (18S rRNA). We tested the assay on Anopheles darlingi and Anopheles stephensi colony mosquitoes fed withPlasmodium-infected blood meals and in duplicate on field collected An. darlingi. We compared the real-time PCR results of colony-infected and field collected An. darlingi, separately, to a conventional PCR method. We determined that a cytochromeb-PCR method was only 3.33% as sensitive and 93.38% as specific as our real-time PCR assay with field-collected samples. We demonstrate that this assay is sensitive, specific and reproducible.