Monthly Archives: July 2017

Protecting the next generation from Hepatitis B

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Today, the 28th of July, is World Hepatitis Day and this year’s theme is ‘Eliminate Hepatitis’. One
critical aspect of the global strategy to eliminate viral hepatitis is protecting future generations from Hepatitis. In this piece we explore recent advances in the prevention of transmission of Hepatitis B from mother to infant.

A recently published article in BMC Gastroenterology provides insight into challenges and new strategies in eliminating maternal to infant transmission in the context of Hepatitis B.

Studies of safety and efficacy, such as that of Sun and colleagues, begin to establish the foundations of preventing disease transmission from mother to child, and highlights the challenges of establishing drug safety during pregnancy.

Developing World Health Medicine

Diet segregation in American bison of Yellowstone National Park

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Large mammals like bison often show substantial disparity in size between the sexes. These size differences can also result in other differences in behaviour. In this guest blog, John Berini and Catherine Badgley discuss their new research, recently published in BMC Ecology, that examines how differences in diet can cause male and female bison to become spatially segregated during certain times of the year.

Biology

Accelerating ethics review during disease outbreaks: what we can learn from West Africa’s Ebola Outbreak

Ebola virus

During public health emergencies, potential treatments must be studied in a timely manner while also maintaining ethical integrity. In an article recently published in BMC Medical Ethics, Emilie Alirol et al. discuss their experience with ethics review during the 2013-2016 Ebola Outbreak, and provide recommendations to accelerate the process in the future.

Health Medicine

A taxonomic revolution? A Q&A with Sandy Knapp on the impact of e-publications

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The often rather staid science of taxonomy was firmly shaken up six years ago when plant taxonomists voted at their International Botanical Congress to allow publications describing the naming of new species in online-only journals. This change (soon also implemented by animal taxonomists) was accompanied by a level of furious debate which may surprise outsiders. Six years on, as plant taxonomists meet in Shenzen, China for their 2017 Congress, we talk to Dr Sandra Knapp, a key advocate of these changes. She explains why the use of e-publications was so controversial and discusses her new research, recently published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, that examines the initial impact of this major change.

Biology Open Access Publishing

Cleaning up a public health threat – the River Ganges

Ganges

India’s Ganges river is one of the world’s most polluted bodies of water. A promise to clean India’s holiest river was made by prime minister Narendra Modi in his 2014 election campaign who stated this would be a national priority. However, to this day, there has been no indication of efforts made to reduce pollution to the river. Last week, the National Green Tribunal, India’s top environmental authority, issued strict regulations and has banned the dumping of waste within 500 metres of a heavily polluted stretch of the river.

Developing World Health

Adaptive reuse of buildings in the healthcare industry

Before WK

James K. Elrod and John L. Fortenberry Jr. discuss their new article on the practice of adaptive reuse and its application in the healthcare industry. This article is featured as part of a special supplement in BMC Health Services Research. Additional articles presented in the supplement focus on centers of excellence, the hub-and-spoke organization design, and innovation in healthcare institutions.

Health

Machine Learning to Predict Childhood PTSD

AI

More than 20% of children in the United States will experience a traumatic event before they are 16 years old, but some will go on to develop Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). How can we know which child is at risk for PTSD so that it can be prevented? An article published today in BMC Psychiatry, is the first of its kind to use machine learning to identify risk factors for childhood PTSD. In this blog, author Glenn Saxe tells us more about his research

Medicine
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