This study estimates the overall effect of two influenza vaccination programs consecutively administered in a cluster-randomized trial in western Senegal over the course of two influenza seasons from ...2009-2011. We apply cutting-edge methodology combining social contact data with infection data to reduce bias in estimation arising from contamination between clusters. Our time-varying estimates reveal a reduction in seasonal influenza from the intervention and a nonsignificant increase in H1N1 pandemic influenza. We estimate an additive change in overall cumulative incidence (which was 6.13% in the control arm) of -0.68 percentage points during Year 1 of the study (95% CI: -2.53, 1.18). When H1N1 pandemic infections were excluded from analysis, the estimated change was -1.45 percentage points and was significant (95% CI, -2.81, -0.08). Because cross-cluster contamination was low (0-3% of contacts for most villages), an estimator assuming no contamination was only slightly attenuated (-0.65 percentage points). These findings are encouraging for studies carefully designed to minimize spillover. Further work is needed to estimate contamination, and its effect on estimation, in a variety of settings.
This study examines the effects of newsroom topic teams on news routines and newspaper quality. It is based on a census survey of journalists at the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) and the St. Paul ...Pioneer Press, which both instituted topic teams within six months of each other. Survey results are supplemented by focus group and written comments from journalists in these two Newspaper Guild newsrooms. The study finds that the effects of the team system on the news process and news quality have been mixed, but predominantly negative, in the assessment of these journalists.
Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus are the two most important causes of viral lower respiratory tract disease. The innate immune response to these viruses, determined by multiple cell types, ...creates a cytokine milieu that affects the adaptive immune response and disease manifestations. This review addresses the function of cytokines released from cells resident in the respiratory tract after infection with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, and how differences in early cytokine release may impact disease pathogenesis and host response.
