BACKGROUND Influenza and Influenza-like-illness (ILI) represents a substantial public health problem, but it is difficult to measure the overall burden as many cases do not access health care. Community cohorts have the advantage of not requiring individuals to present at hospitals and surgeries and therefore can potentially monitor a wider variety of cases. This study reports on the incidence ...

This paper explores adolescent preferences for the setting, timing, delivery format, provider and key elements of tobacco control programmes. The need for programme sensitivity towards urban/rural, gender and ethnic subgroups is also discussed. Schools were purposively selected from the Southern Cape-Karoo Region, South Africa. Twelve prevention and nine cessation focus group discussions were c...

BACKGROUND School closure is often considered as an option to mitigate influenza epidemics because of its potential to reduce transmission in children and then in the community. The policy is still however highly debated because of controversial evidence. Moreover, the specific mechanisms leading to mitigation are not clearly identified. METHODS We introduced a stochastic spatial age-specific...

The first wave of pandemic influenza A(H1N1) has subsided in New Zealand as in other southern hemisphere countries. This study aimed to estimate the effective reproduction number (R) of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) taking into account imported cases. It also aimed to show the temporal variation of R throughout the New Zealand epidemic, changes in age- and ethnicity-specific cumulative incide...

tions regarding potential plant poisonings, especially around the holidays, when festive plants may be placed in locations accessible to curious pets. This article will help you better recognize plants commonly encountered during winter and spring holidays and treat pets exposed to them. Remember, an owner may not know a plant’s name, and attempting to identify a plant from an owner’s descripti...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have reported an association between sun exposure and improved cutaneous melanoma (CM) survival. We analysed the association of UV exposure with prognostic factors and outcome in a large melanoma cohort. METHODS A questionnaire was given to 289 (42%) CM patients at diagnosis (Group 1) and to 402 CM patients (58%) during follow-up (Group 2). Analyses were carried ou...

OBJECTIVE Sun exposure is considered the single most important source of vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency has been suggested to play a role in the etiology of psychotic disorders. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between sun exposure and psychotic experiences (PEs) in a general population sample of Swedish women. METHODS The study population included participants fr...

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) is a common childhood disease with substantial disease burden in Asia. Mixed results were reported on the associations between HFMD incidence and meteorological factors or school holidays, while limited studies focused on their association on transmissibility. We aimed to measure the transmissibility of HFMD and to examine its potential driving factors in Hong...

Many cultures designate specific holidays to celebrate love and affection, such as Valentine’s Day in Western culture. Intuition would suggest that holidays like Valentine’s Day would enhance perceptions of romantic relationships for most people. However, few empirical studies have examined how relationship evaluations vary when assessed on such holidays. We found that reminders of relationship...

The authors have been developing the automatic scheduling systems for software development project, which deliver scheduling and worker assignment. Their earlier works were designed to draw on crashing and fast tracking to produce countermeasure plans against process delay. However, process delay can be recovered not only by crashing or fast tracking but also by using holiday works. Their earli...