Rapid access to psychiatric care is a major public health issue. It may be reduced by social factors (homelessness), age or the disease itself (psychotic symptoms together with self-isolation, severe social phobia). Concerning the first two factors, mobile teams have been set up throughout Europe in recent years. In the third instance, people knowing the patient (often family, in psychological distress too) notify psychiatric authorities about a person not known to them. An early contact with patients increases their chances of improving, provided treatment can be organized quickly. This also prevents the family becoming exhausted, trying to cope with these psychiatric disorders. Over the past three years, a mobile intervention team (EMI) made home visits to unrecorded patients who were reclusive or had previously refused care. Specific protocolized psychiatric assessment and a clinical, contextualized approach in the patient's daily environment maximize access to care and allow for day-care treatment or hospitalization in better conditions. Organizing public psychiatric care in catchment areas has enabled patients to live outside institutions and has helped develop structures linked to a reference hospital, which allows for follow-up care after a hospital stay. However, entering the system may still be problematic, hence the home visits. Thanks to innovative organization at a time when French psychiatric departments are having their budgets cut, this team provides rapid treatment at home for psychiatric emergencies and facilitates access to care.

Are legislators responsive to the priorities of the public? Research demonstrates a strong correspondence between the issues about which the public cares and the issues addressed by politicians, but conclusive evidence about who leads whom in setting the political agenda has yet to be uncovered. We answer this question with fine-grained temporal analyses of Twitter messages by legislators and the public during the 113th US Congress. After employing an unsupervised method that classifies tweets sent by legislators and citizens into topics, we use vector autoregression models to explore whose priorities more strongly predict the relationship between citizens and politicians. We find that legislators are more likely to follow, than to lead, discussion of public issues, results that hold even after controlling for the agenda-setting effects of the media. We also find, however, that legislators are more likely to be responsive to their supporters than to the general public.

Under certain conditions, application of glyphosate to glyphosate-resistant (GR) cotton can lead to fruit shedding and yield reductions. Field studies were conducted at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station using GR cotton, cv. ‘DeltaPine 5690RR’, to determine if application method and timing affect cotton fruit retention. Glyphosate at 1.12 kg ai ha−1 was precisely postdirected (PD), postdirected with 25% foliage coverage (PDFC), or applied over the top (OT) at the 8- or 18-leaf stage after an initial topical application of 1.12 kg ha−1 glyphosate at the four-leaf stage. In one of the years of this study, 8 PD, 18 PDFC, and 18 OT reduced yield. In 1999 and 2000, 8 PDFC and 8 OT applications of glyphosate caused yield loss, mainly due to lower mean boll weight. Glyphosate applied topically at the eight-leaf stage also affected the Position 1 boll retention throughout the plant in both years. Glyphosate contact with leaves and stems should be avoided when applying glyphosate after the four-leaf stage to prevent possible yield loss.

A large-scale mass vaccination campaign was carried out in Java, Indonesia in an attempt to control outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in backyard flocks and commercial smallholder poultry. Sero-monitoring was conducted in mass vaccination and control areas to assess the proportion of the target population with antibodies against HPAI and Newcastle disease (ND). There were four rounds of vaccination, and samples were collected after each round resulting in a total of 27 293 samples. Sampling was performed irrespective of vaccination status. In the mass vaccination areas, 20–45% of poultry sampled had a positive titre to H5 after each round of vaccination, compared to 2–3% in the control group. In the HPAI + ND vaccination group, 12–25% of the population had positive ND titres, compared to 5–13% in the areas without ND vaccination. The level of seropositivity varied by district, age of the bird, and species (ducks vs. chickens).

A comprehensive review by Hibbing et al. establishes close links between physiological and psychological responses and ideological preferences. However, existing research cannot resolve the “chicken-and-egg problem” in political neuroscience: Which is cause and which is effect? We consider the possibility, which they reject, that general ideological postures, if consistently adopted, could shape psychological and physiological functioning.

Commercialized hunting and trade of wildlife are the largest threats to mammal populations and human livelihoods in the Congo Basin. It is widely recognized that the lives of humans and wildlife in this region are inextricably intertwined. However, few studies have attempted to integrate both human and wildlife dimensions using ethnographic data to better contextualize the trade and its ecological impacts. This paper outlines a methodological approach that combines ethnographic research, ecological line transects and market surveys in the Dzanga Sangha Reserve (Central African Republic). Results from each research component are reported separately in order to provide examples of how each would answer specific questions about the status of wildlife populations and the scale of hunting within a protected area. The integrated analysis of ethnographic, market and ecological datasets clarifies synergistic impacts operating in the region and provides a more nuanced understanding of changes in both the forest and the market based on information gleaned from hunting practices and hunter interviews. This research demonstrates the potential pitfalls of using a singular approach to make recommendations on complex human-environment issues. Such cross-disciplinary mixed-methods approaches will further understandings of dynamic wildlife populations and forge more informed environmental policy recommendations.

In a setting where potable water is contaminated with Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1, we performed two case control studies. The first case control study consisted of 17 cases of nosocomial Legionnaires' disease (LD) and 33 control (the patients who were admitted to the ward where the case was admitted immediately before and after the case) subjects. Cases had a higher mortality rate 65% vs 12% (P < 0.004); were more likely to have received assisted ventilation (P < 0.00001); to have nasogastric tubes (P < 0.0004) and to be receiving corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive therapy (P < 0.0001). Based on the results of this study, sterile water was used to flush nasogastric tubes and to dilute nasogastric feeds. Only 3 cases of nosocomial LD occurred during the next year compared with 12 the previous year (P < 0.0001). Nine cases subsequently occurred and formed the basis for the second case-control study. Eighteen control subjects were those patients admitted to the same unit where the case developed LD, immediately before and after the case. The mortality rate for the cases was 89% vs 6% for controls (P < 0.00003). The only other significant difference was that cases were more likely to be receiving corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive therapy 89% vs 39% ( < 0.01). We hypothesized that microaspiration of contaminated potable water by immunocompromised patients was a risk factor for nosocomial Legionnaires' disease. From 17 March 1989 onwards such patients were given only sterile potable water. Only two cases of nosocomial LD occurred from June 1989 to September 1990 and both occurred on units where the sterile water policy was not in effect. We conclude that aspiration of contaminated potable water is a possible route for acquisition of nosocomial LD in our hospital and that provision of sterile potable water to high risk patients (those who are receiving corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive drugs; organ transplant recipients or hospitalized in an intensive care unit) should be mandatory.

CIS based chalcopyrite absorber materials are usually substituted in the cation and anion lattice to yield mixed pentanary crystals with the general composition Cu(In,Ga)(Se,S)2 to achieve an optimised adaptation of the semiconductor bandgap to the terrestrial solar spectrum. Real-time investigations during the annealing of stacked elemental layers (SEL) of sputtered metals Cu and In and evaporated chalcogens S and Se with varying ratios were performed by angle-dispersive time-resolved XRD (X-ray diffraction) measurements. After qualitative phase analysis the measured powder diagrams were quantitatively analysed by the Rietveld method, the phases formed determined and their reaction kinetics obtained. Ternary indium and copper sulfoselenides form by the sulfoselenisation of the intermetallic alloy yielding different educts for the chalcopyrite formation with varying sulfur content. For S/(S+Se) ≥ 0.5 the formation of the chalcopyrite CuIn(S,Se)2 is similar to the crystallisation path of CuInS2. With increasing amount of selenium (S/(S+Se) = 0.25) different ternary sulfoselenides contribute to the semiconductor formation. For small amounts of sulfur, i.e. S/(S+Se) ≤ 0.1, the chalcopyrite crystallisation proceeds comparable to the one observed for sulfur-free Cu-In-Se precursors. The formation of CuIn(S,Se)2 is accelerated and proceeds mainly after the peritectic decomposition of Cu(S,Se) to Cu2(S,Se). The sulfur content determines the crystallisation temperature of the semiconductor because Cu(S,Se) decomposes at higher temperatures with increasing sulfur. Upon heating S ↔ Se exchange reactions take place in the Cu-S-Se and Cu-In-S-Se system.

As we write this paper in spring 2008, many are hopeful that November’s election will open the door to some form of comprehensive health care reform. In all likelihood, we will elect a president who has campaigned to a greater or lesser extent on promises of improving access to health care, improving quality, and reducing costs. Equally important, it seems likely that the 111th Congress is preparing to undertake meaningful health care reform. And perhaps most important, despite recent attention to energy issues and the economy, opinion polls consistently show that the American public continues to rank health care as one of the two or three most important domestic issues in the fall elections and supports comprehensive health care reform.