Assessing the role of basic control measures, antivirals and vaccine in curtailing pandemic influenza: scenarios for the US, UK and the Netherlands

An increasing number of avian flu cases in humans, arising primarily from direct contact with poultry, in several regions of the world have prompted the urgency to develop pandemic preparedness plans worldwide. Leading recommendations in these plans include basic public health control measures for minimizing transmission in hospitals and communities, the use of antiviral drugs and vaccination. This paper presents a mathematical model for the evaluation of the pandemic flu preparedness plans of the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. The model is used to assess single and combined interventions. Using data from the US, we show that hospital and community transmission control measures alone can be highly effective in reducing the impact of a potential flu pandemic. We further show that while the use of antivirals alone could lead to very significant reductions in the burden of a pandemic, the combination of transmission control measures, antivirals and vaccine gives the most 'optimal' result. However, implementing such an optimal strategy at the onset of a pandemic may not be realistic. Thus, it is important to consider other plausible alternatives. An optimal preparedness plan is largely dependent on the availability of resources; hence, it is country-specific. We show that countries with limited antiviral stockpiles should emphasize their use therapeutically (rather than prophylactically). However, countries with large antiviral stockpiles can achieve greater reductions in disease burden by implementing them both prophylactically and therapeutically. This study promotes alternative strategies that may be feasible and attainable for the US, UK and the Netherlands. It emphasizes the role of hospital and community transmission control measures in addition to the timely administration of antiviral treatment in reducing the burden of a flu pandemic. The latter is consistent with the preparedness plans of the UK and the Netherlands. Our results indicate that for low efficacy and coverage levels of antivirals and vaccine, the use of a vaccine leads to the greatest reduction in morbidity and mortality compared with the singular use of antivirals. However, as these efficacy and coverage levels are increased, the use of antivirals is more effective.     

Category Norms as a Function of Culture and Age: Comparisons of Item Responses to 105 Categories by American and Chinese Adults.

Understanding how aging influences cognition across different cultures has been hindered by a lack of standardized, cross-referenced verbal stimuli. This study introduces a database of such item-level stimuli for both younger and older adults, in China and the United States, and makes 3 distinct contributions. First, the authors specify which item categories generalize across age and/or cultural groups, rigorously quantifying differences among them. Second, they introduce novel, powerful methods to measure between-group differences in freely generated ranked data, the rank-ordered logit model and Hellinger Affinity. Finally, a broad archive of tested, cross-linguistic stimuli is now freely available to researchers: data, similarity measures, and all stimulus materials for 105 categories and 4 culture-by-age groups, comprising over 10,000 fully translated unique item responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathway to health: Cluster-randomized trail to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among smokers in public housing.

Objectives: Examine the effectiveness of an intervention to increase fruits and vegetables (FV) consumption among smokers. Design: Cluster-randomized trial of 20 public housing developments; 10 randomly assigned to an FV intervention and 10 to a smoking cessation intervention. Main outcome measures: Usual (past 7 days) and past 30 days change in daily FV intake at 8 weeks and 6 months postbaseline. Results: Greater increases were seen in the FV group. At Week 8 and Month 6, the FV group had consumed 1.58 (p = .001) and 0.78 (p = .04), respectively, more daily FV servings in the past 7 days than the cessation group. At the same time points, the FV group had consumed 3.61 (p = .01) and 3.93 (p = .01), respectively, more FV servings in the past 30 days than the cessation group. Completing more motivational interviewing sessions (p = .02) and trying more recipes (p = .02) led to significantly greater increases at Month 6 among FV participants. Conclusions: Motivational interviewing counseling and lifestyle modification through trying out healthy recipes may be effective in helping a high-risk population increase their FV intake. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

电信运营的发展方向

亚洲电信业的市场正随着经济的蓬勃发展而迅速增大,然而大多数电信运营部门没能尽快更新设备以跟上商业需求增长的步伐。本文在分析用户业务需求的变化和对现有电信基础设施进行评估之后,提出应加强或采用叠加、并行的网络设施来为增长中的用户服务。同时认为通信资费应根据用户实际业务量的情况进行调整。这些做法将有助于电信经营部门处于更有竞争力的地位并从不断扩大的市场中赢得更多份额。     

农村电话用户市场调查与分析

受中国电信委托、原邮电部经济技术发展研究中心在全国进行一次农村电信市场调查，以了解当前农村通信市场发展潜力，本文公布了此次调查的结果，从经济能力、资费和潜在市场等方面提出了发展农话的建议 。     

Influence and adjustment goals: Sources of cultural differences in ideal affect.

Previous studies have found that in American culture high-arousal positive states (HAP) such as excitement are valued more and low-arousal positive states (LAP) such as calm are valued less than they are in Chinese culture. What specific factors account for these differences? The authors predicted that when people and cultures aimed to influence others (i.e., assert personal needs and change others' behaviors to meet those needs), they would value HAP more and LAP less than when they aimed to adjust to others (i.e., suppress personal needs and change their own behaviors to meet others' needs). They test these predictions in 1 survey and 3 experimental studies. The findings suggest that within and across American and Chinese contexts, differences in ideal affect are due to specific interpersonal goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Planning considerations for domestic replacement satellites

Several domestic satellite systems have been more than 10 years in operation. During this time, the world has experienced a dramatic growth in communication. While the demand for more telephony and data circuits and television channels is still on the rise, new methods of signal transmission and circuit compression have been developed which may balance or reduce the need for more satellite trunk capacity. And while whole national networks are converting to digital transmission, new transmission media like optical fibre, are finding application, and may take over some of the heavy traffic routes previously carried by satellite. On the other side, business data communication between roof-top terminals, thin route traffic to remote users, television distribution by direct satellite broadcasting are becoming more popular and satellite land mobile communication may soon be a reality. Thus the domestic satellite's role appears to be slowly changing towards thin route and mobile traffic and DBS-type distribution and perhaps even radio position determination. System planners are adapting to the new trends in satellite communication and are trying to accommodate the various service payloads on a single satellite. This article discusses some aspects of the emerging multi-purpose domestic satellite, which carries fixed and mobile services, TV direct broadcasting and radio position determination, in view of network digitalization, network expansion, circuit compression, synchronization. The discussion centres on transponder supply and demand, satellite replenishment, K_u-band vs. C-band for TV direct satellite broadcasting, choice of modulation/multiple access for mobile communication, and expected accuracy in radio position determination.     

中央预算内水利基建投资计划编制对策和建议

随着国家投资体制改革的不断深入，为进一步规范政府投资行为，提高投资效益，国家发展改革委对中央预算内基建投资计划的编制提出了一些新的、更加严格的要求。为尽快适应新要求，努力稳定中央水利基建投资计划规模，建议正确把握政策，界定公共财政投资的水利基建范畴；加快前期工作，增加政府投资项目储备：调整结构，把握中央水利基建投资的方向和重点；调整思路，努力稳定部门自身建设项目投资规模等。     

依靠弯道控导河势流路

在天然河道中，河势演变虽具有一定的随机性，但仍有一定的规律可循，在一个河段内，一般可归纳出2－3条基本流路，为控制河势变化，需要选择出一条基本流路进行河道整治，当连续发生枯水期或洪水期时，部分河段的河势可能出现大的变化，为防止不利河势向下游传播，可修建较长的龙头弯道工程，利用龙头弯道工程分段调整，控导河势，保持河势稳定。     

高炉鼓风机就地扩容改造方案及经济效益

介绍了利用高炉鼓风机基础实施不易地扩容改造的设计工艺方法，该方法不仅降低了设计、施工、安装费用，而且缩短了施工周期，降低了固定资产投资。