This systematic literature review aimed to provide an overview of the characteristics and methods used in studies applying the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) concept for infectious diseases within European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries and the United Kingdom. Electronic databases and grey literature were searched for articles reporting the assessment of DALY and its components. We considered studies in which researchers performed DALY calculations using primary epidemiological data input sources. We screened 3053 studies of which 2948 were excluded and 105 studies met our inclusion criteria. Of these studies, 22 were multi-country and 83 were single-country studies, of which 46 were from the Netherlands. Food- and water-borne diseases were the most frequently studied infectious diseases. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of burden of infectious disease studies was 1.6 times higher compared to that published between 2000 and 2014. Almost all studies (97%) estimated DALYs based on the incidence- and pathogen-based approach and without social weighting functions; however, there was less methodological consensus with regards to the disability weights and life tables that were applied. The number of burden of infectious disease studies undertaken across Europe has increased over time. Development and use of guidelines will promote performing burden of infectious disease studies and facilitate comparability of the results.

One hundred and ninety-five participants in the Cincinnati Lead Study were neuropsychologically evaluated in mid-adolescence. The neuropsychological measures yielded five factors labeled Memory, Learning/IQ, Attention, Visuoconstruction, and Fine-Motor. Prenatal, Average Childhood, and 78 month blood lead (PbB) levels were used in a series of multiple regression analyses. Following rigorous covariate pretesting and adjustment, a significant main effect of 78 month PbB on the Fine-Motor factor was found (p < .004). Significant interactions were also found between gender and lead exposure parameters for both Attention and Visuoconstruction indicating heightened risk in males. Finally, a trend toward significance was found for the PbB × SES interaction for Learning/IQ, consistent with previous evidence of increased educational and cognitive vulnerability for youth from more disadvantaged backgrounds. These results provide new evidence from the longest continuing prospective study of the remote effects of early lead exposure. They indicate the presence of selective neuropsychological effects in this population, and also that males and females are not uniformly affected. These results also underscore the complexity of models of neurobehavioral development, and the modest predictive power of any single determinant. (JINS, 2004, 10, 261–270.)

A novel microfluidic structure based on the electroosmotic guiding of reagent streams is presented that can be used as a fully adjustable diffusion based microreactor. The position and the width of two aqueous reactant streams entering a laminar-flow chamber can be controlled individually by changing the flow ratio of three parallel guiding streams containing buffer only. To control the intensity of product formation, the overlapping area between the diffusion regions of the two different reagent streams can be adjusted. This article describes the fabrication and experimental characterization of the device.

For the ATLAS and EURECA missions, we have used two identical instruments to measure the absolute solar spectral irradiance from 180 to 3200 nm. These instruments are calibrated by use of a blackbody and a set of lamp standards. The measurements are carried out with 1 nm bandpass up to 800 nm and 20 nm above. The instruments and calibration procedures are described by Thuillier et al. (1981). The platform capability of instruments retrieval after measurements allows a post-flight calibration which is essential for accurate measurements. The main results obtained up to now are:

- In the UV, the ATLAS-1 and EURECA-1 solar spectral irradiance are consistent with the SpaceLab 1 data obtained in 1983 (Labs et al. 1987). Figure 1 shows the ATLAS 1 and SL 1 spectra. The origin of the existing differences is presently under investigation.

- In the visible domain, our measurements agree with the solar spectrum from Neckel & Labs (1984) within a few percent difference at certain wavelength.

- In the IR domain, the preliminary processing shows a spectrum close to the one obtained by Thekaekara (1974).