Search

Throughout the nineteenth century, U.S. Navy medical men, believing that airborne filth--miasmata--caused many of the diseases afflicting sailors and that humid air carries more filth than dry, sought to curtail the cleaning of the decks of warships with wet swabs. They met resistance to this reform from line officers who, from a variety of motives, were committed to keeping their ships clean. The medical reform movement attained its greatest intensity in the 1870s but quickly dissipated at the end of the century when steel hulls replaced wooden ones and the germ theory of disease replaced the theory of miasmata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the 1660s onwards, France tried to establish itself as a leading maritime and colonial power. The first French East India Company allowed a decisive penetration into the Indian Ocean, while the foundation of the Rochefort arsenal was the starting point of a great shipbuilding effort. The archives of the State Secretariat of the French Navy, ports, and learned societies, as well as printed scholarly literature, testify to an increasing mobilisation around the health of the "gens de mer." Most of the actors involved in this reflection, whether doctors or surgeons, naval officers or engineers, scholars or inventors, agreed in associating seamen's diseases with the poor air quality prevailing within ships. The environment of seafarers was thus definitely regarded as harmful. However, the atmosphere of a ship was also seen through the possibility to reshape it and reduce its dangerousness, with adapted behaviours, careful maintenance, or technical solutions. This was crucial to ensure the circulation of human beings and goods across the French overseas empire, but also to defend it from the threats associated with the major conflicts of the second half of the 18th century. This article highlights how environments regarded as "pathogenic" were conceived and reshaped during the second half of the early modern period in France, using the example of naval hygiene. It examines the strategies designed and implemented to combat the "noxious" air of French ships, in particular through the regulations introduced since the end of the 17th century, and considers how this issue has stimulated the search for technological solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess the behaviour of the elderly with regard to hygiene procedures for and maintenance of removable dentures.Materials and Methods: 243 elderly people were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire, which was applied in the coverage area of Family Health Strategy in Urlandia district in the city of Santa Maria, Brazil.Results: The majority of those interviewed were 60 to 69 years old, with a prevalence of women and incomplete primary school education. In general, the dentures had been worn for more than 10 years and 43.7% of them had been made by a dental prosthetic technician. More than half the study population had not received instructions on hygiene and maintenance of the dentures.Conclusion: This population was not aware of the importance of hygiene and maintenance of the removable dentures. It is worrying that a considerable number of elderly have sought dental prosthetic care from technicians who were not trained to promote and maintain health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal allocation of Distributed Generations (DGs) is one of the major problems of distribution utilities. Optimum locations and sizes of DG sources have profoundly created impact on system losses, voltage profile, and voltage stability of a distribution network. In this paper Quasi-Oppositional Swine Influenza Model Based Optimization with Quarantine (QOSIMBO-Q) has been applied to solve a multi-objective function for optimal allocation and sizing of DGs in distribution systems. The objective is to minimize network power losses, achieve better voltage regulation and improve the voltage stability within the frame-work of the system operation and security constraints in radial distribution systems. The limitation of SIMBO-Q algorithm is that it takes large number of iterations to obtain optimum solution in large scale real systems. To overcome this limitation and to improve computational efficiency, quasi-opposition based learning (QOBL) concept is introduced in basic SIMBO-Q algorithm. The proposed QOSIMBO-Q algorithm has been applied to 33-bus and 69-bus radial distribution systems and results are compared with other evolutionary techniques like Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), combined GA/PSO, Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) and Quasi-Oppositional Teaching Learning Based Optimization (QOTLBO). Numerical studies represent the effectiveness and out-performance of the proposed QOSIMBO-Q algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conduct mass screening and thereby reduce the spread of infection, a compact (13.5 cm × 8.5 cm × 2.5 cm), highly-mobile and hand-held infection-screening system was developed for rapid medical inspection in mass gathering places such as airports. The system is capable of non-contact vital-sign monitoring using two integrated sensors: a 24-GHz microwave radar for measuring heart and respiration rates and a thermopile array for capturing facial temperature. Subsequently, the system detects infected individuals using a linear discriminant function (LDA) from the derived vital-signs data. The system was tested on 10 subjects under two conditions (resting as normal and exercising as pseudo-infected, i.e. a 10-min bicycle ergometer at 100 W exercise); the normal and pseudo-infected conditions were classified successfully via LDA for all subjects ( p < 0.01; classification error rate < 5%). The proposed non-contact system can be applied for preventing secondary exposure of medical doctors at the outbreak of highly pathogenic infectious diseases such as the Ebola virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the nineteenth century, maritime quarantine officials often paid more attention to ships' cargo than they did to the health of passengers or crew members. Based on a close reading of the everyday practice of quarantine at Philadelphia's Lazaretto (1801-1895), this article suggests that the historical significance of quarantine has been distorted by its association with the etiological debate over contagion and with xenophobic responses to immigration. In fact, the practice of quarantine rested neither on contagionist medical doctrine nor on nativism. Rather, it was based on the danger of infection, an elusive but fundamental concept in nineteenth-century public health. The concern about cargo rather than people--and the logic of infection it reflects--bespeak a widely shared set of perceptions of illness and public health in the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century that is not captured by discussions of contagion or of anti-immigrant bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of the Phobos-Grunt mission, a classification of its phases in terms of planetary protection, and the main principles of activities management and definition of actions for fulfilling the planetary-protection requirements developed by Committee on Space Research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The light brown apple moth (LBAM), Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), is native to Australia but invaded England, New Zealand, and Hawaii more than 100 years ago. In temperate climates, LBAM can be a major agricultural pest. In 2006 LBAM was discovered in California, instigating eradication efforts and quarantine against Hawaiian agriculture, the assumption being that Hawaii was the source of the California infestation. Genetic relationships among populations in Hawaii, California, and New Zealand are crucial to understanding LBAM invasion dynamics across the Pacific. Methodology/Principal Findings: We sequenced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 1293 LBAM individuals from California (695), Hawaii (448), New Zealand (147), and Australia (3) to examine haplotype diversity and structure among introduced populations, and evaluate the null hypothesis that invasive populations are from a single panmictic source. However, invasive populations in California and New Zealand harbor deep genetic diversity, whereas Hawaii shows low level, shallow diversity. Conclusions/Significance: LBAM recently has established itself in California, but was in Hawaii and New Zealand for hundreds of generations, yet California and New Zealand show similar levels of genetic diversity relative to Hawaii. Thus, there is no clear relationship between duration of invasion and genetic structure. Demographic statistics suggest rapid expansion occurring in California and past expansions in New Zealand; multiple introductions of diverse, genetically fragmented lineages could contribute to these patterns. Hawaii and California share no haplotypes, therefore, Hawaii is not the source of the California introduction. Paradoxically, Hawaii and California share multiple haplotypes with New Zealand. New Zealand may be the source for the California and Hawaii infestations, but the introductions were independent, and Hawaii was invaded only once. This has significant implications for quarantine, and suggests that probability of invasion is not directly related to geographic distance. Surprisingly, Hawaiian LBAM populations have much lower genetic diversity than California, despite being older. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Norovirus infection outbreaks (NoVOs) occur frequently in closed populations, such as cruise ship passengers. Environmental contamination is believed to play an important role in NoVO propagation. Methods. Trained health care professionals covertly evaluated the thoroughness of disinfection cleaning (TDC) of 6 standardized objects (toilet seat, flush handle or button, toilet stall inner handhold, stall inner door handle, restroom inner door handle, and baby changing table surfaces) with high potential for fecal contamination in cruise ship public restrooms, by means of a previously validated novel targeting method. Results. Fifty-six cruise ships (~30% of 180 vessels operated by 9 large cruise lines) were evaluated from July 2005 through August 2008. Overall, 37% (range, 4%-100%; 95% confidence interval, 29.2%-45.4%) of 8344 objects in 273 randomly selected public restrooms were cleaned daily. The TDC did not differ by cruise line and did not correlate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vessel Sanitation Program inspection scores (r2P = 75 .002; ). More than half the vessels had overall TDC scores <30%, although several of these lowscoring ships had near-perfect CDC sanitation scores. The mean TDC of the 3 ships evaluated within 4 months before a NoVO (10.3%) was substantially less than the mean TDC of the 40 ships that did not experience NoVOs (40.4%) (P < .004). Conclusions. An objective evaluation of public restroom environmental hygiene on 56 cruise ships found that only 37% of selected toilet area objects were cleaned on a daily basis. Low TDC scores may predict subsequent NoVO-prone vessels. Enhanced public restroom cleaning may prevent or moderate NoVOs on cruise ships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the quarantine inspection of all seagoing vessels in Beirut, Lebanon between 1831-1840. In the said period, a European physician will inspect the mouth of traders with a stick and scanned their bare bodies for signs of plague. It highlights the quarantine measures of local merchants and major players in the market, as well as the benefits of the latter on free trade and commercial ties. It states that Beirut has been transformed from a backwater trading town to a major port city during the reign of Muhammad Ali.

Hong Kong went through a battle with a new respiratory disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), from March to June 2003. All clinical settings, including rehabilitative and infirmary setting, have actively involved in fighting against the infection. The intent of this paper was to reflect on the SARS precautionary measures that had been taken in a severe intellectual disabilities hospital in Hong Kong.A review on six SARS precautionary measures were conducted. They were assessment of risk, formulation of operational guidelines, implementation of infection control measures, education and training of staff, conducting audits and carrying out environmental improvement work.Patients were at risk of getting infected from carers, visitors, volunteers, and staff and patients of general hospitals. A SARS Quarantine Unit, isolation ward, was opened to isolate patients who might have had close contact with SARS patients during a stay in a general hospital or when they returned from home leave. Undoubtedly, both staff and relatives participated in preventing the patients from being infected. No day leave and home leave was reported and the number of hospitalization in general hospital was decreased during the critical period. Three infection control audits were conducted and improvement work was carried out subsequently.The practice of grouping within a standard isolation room is recommended to continue in the future. Moreover, intensive infection control training for all staff is of highest importance to safeguard the health of both staff and patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The hypothetical responsibility of sperm donation in cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission to recipients and precautions to prevent this transmission are widely discussed. The aim of this French CECOS Federation study was to evaluate both the reality and the importance of the CMV risk due to donor sperm and the relevance of measures used to screen it. METHODS: We conducted a prospective multicentric study. CMV was detected by rapid and conventional cultures and by PCR in the frozen sperm of donors who met the normal criteria required of semen donors, irrespective of their CMV serological status. RESULTS: 635 samples from 231 donors (39.4% IgG+) were obtained and tested by culture; 551 samples from 197 donors were also tested by PCR. From those samples, 0.78% were culture+, 1.57% culture+ and/or PCR+; 3.3% of seropositive donors and 0.72% of initially seronegative donors were culture+, but in the latter seroconversion occurred during the quarantine period; of the 197 PCR-tested donors, 3.5% (6.2/1.7) were PCR+, 3.3% (5.3/1.45) culture+ and/or PCR+. PCR+ samples can be culture and vice versa. The most strongly positive sample corresponded to an initially seronegative donor. CONCLUSION: The best strategy to prevent potential CMV risk is to test donors for CMV IgG and IgM antibody at the outset and after a 6 month period of quarantine and to reject initially IgM seropositive donors or donors who seroconvert during the quarantine period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hemp borer, Grapholita delineana, is newly described from feral hemp in Vermont, USA. It may pose a serious pest should hemp cultivation resume in the USA. A similar situation occurred in the 1960s, when G. delineana suddenly became a serious pest in southeastern Europe. Evidence suggests the pest was imported from its native range via infested hemp seed. Larvae of G. delineana bore into stalks and destroy fiber, or they infest flowering tops and destroy seed. The larvae and adults are described, along with their life history, geographic range, and host range. Careful phytosanitary measures can prevent the spread of G. delineana into quarantine areas, such as western Europe, Canada, and the entire southern hemisphere. Breeding hemp plants for resistance to G. delineana may prevent future epidemics. Vermont feral hemp appears to be more resistant to G. delineana than feral hemp growing in the Midwestern USA; the Vermont germplasm may have descended from plants imported in the 1830s, called “Smyrna” hemp, a western European landrace devoid of Chinese ancestry. Biological and chemical controls of G. delineana are described. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]