StressFoot: Uncovering the Potential of the Foot for Acute Stress Sensing in Sitting Posture.

Stress is a naturally occurring psychological response and identifiable by several body signs. We propose a novel way to discriminate acute stress and relaxation, using movement and posture characteristics of the foot. Based on data collected from 23 participants performing tasks that induced stress and relaxation, we developed several machine learning models to construct the validity of our method. We tested our models in another study with 11 additional participants. The results demonstrated replicability with an overall accuracy of 87%. To also demonstrate external validity, we conducted a field study with 10 participants, performing their usual everyday office tasks over a working day. The results showed substantial robustness. We describe ten significant features in detail to enable an easy replication of our models.

[Discovery and follow-up of a lead-poisoning outbreak in a shantytown of Le Port, Reunion Island]. / Investigation et gestion d'un foyer de saturnisme infantile dans un quartier de la commune du Port, Île de la Réunion.

BACKGROUND: A national survey conducted in 2008-2009 by the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance for detection of lead impact in childhood identified a high blood lead level in a young boy living in the town of "Le Port", Reunion Island. Previously, cases of lead-poisoning on the island had been exceptional; only a dozen cases were reported in the 1980s in adults, related to the use of lead-containing instruments for food preparations. METHODS: The family of the index case was invited to participate in screening tests and an environmental investigation was conducted using a standardized questionnaire. Screening was then broadened to the neighborhood of the index case and samples of soil outside the home and in the immediate vicinity were taken. The environmental survey was then extended with soil samples taken from the entire geographical area. Information was then provided to local inhabitants (87 families and 287 people) in order to encourage lead blood testing for all children under six years and all pregnant women living in the area. RESULTS: The index case lived in the neighborhood of "The Oasis", a shantytown of Le Port. The results of soil analysis revealed heterogeneous pollution of superficial soils by lead throughout the area of the shantytown, the highest level recorded (5200mg/kg) reached more than 300 times the background level of the natural soils of the island. The screening identified 76 cases of childhood lead-poisoning (blood lead level greater or equal to 100µg/L) among 148 samples (51%). All cases of blood poisoning involved children under the age of 15 years. The median age of children with a positive test was 5.6 years; the median blood lead level was 196µg/L [102-392µg/L]. CONCLUSION: The main hypothesis to explain the contamination of the soil in the area of the shantytown is the presence of waste deposits (car batteries) and diffuse activities of metal recovery. The authorities managed to remove all the families from the environmental exposure to lead by rapidly ensuring rehousing outside the contaminated area.

[Control of malaria re-emergence in Reunion]. / Lutte contre la réintroduction du paludisme à la Réunion.

Réunion is currently posed with the operational problem of the last phase of the struggle against malaria, that is the consolidation and the maintenance of the state of cradication. The native parasite was eliminated, but the risk of resurgence of malaria remains on the island. This risk is even increasing from year to year because of the following: 1) the regular increase of the number of travellers originating from countries with malaria and consequently, the increase in the number of imported malaria cases; 2) the appearance of malaria strains resistant to amino-4-quinoleines, in the south-western regions of the Indian Ocean; 3) the persistence of the vector which cannot be eliminated because of its rapid evolutionary cycle and the multiplicity of its larval habitats. Furthermore, the reintroduction of malaria on the island would present serious consequences considering the disappearance of immunity in the population of Réunion. Thus it is necessary to maintain the struggle at a high level of intervention following a strategy based on: 1) the detection and the control of the malaria cases; 2) a targeted anti-vectorial activity based on a systematic anti-larval fight, eventually completed by the eradication of the adapted adult vectors. The reduction of personnel and the difficulties encountered in establishing a mechanization of the adapted tasks lead to a reduction of activities of insect eradication and endanger the existing strategy of the struggle. This strategy has been redefined during these last several years. The malaria situation in Réunion, satisfactory until today, rests on a careful epidemiological surveillance and on an optimized entomological surveillance. Currently, the treatments are abandoned in the least sensitive zones to the benefit of a better surveillance of priority zones (prospecting, entomological studies and treatments). Anopheles gambiae s.l. is present on the island and each year some parasites are imported to the Réunion territory. The requisite conditions for an eventual re-emergence of transmission of the native parasite would seem to be combined. However, this transmission is not observed. The role of the Applied Entomology Group is to evaluate the risk of malaria and to reorient, if necessary, the strategy of the antimalaria struggle in Réunion.

[The maintenance of malaria eradication in Reunion island (1979-1990)]. / Le maintien de l'éradication du paludisme dans l'île de la Réunion (1979-1990).

Malaria, which first occurred in Reunion in 1868, was eradicated from the island in 1979, as a result of eradication campaigns conducted since 1949. Reunion is now in a state of "anophelism without malaria". However, relations with nearby countries with a high malaria potential (Madagascar, Comoros) are responsible for a regular increase in the number of annual cases of imported malaria. This increase, associated with the appearance of chloroquine-resistance in the Indian Ocean area, illustrates the persisting risk of malaria re-appearance in La Réunion, and the need for maintaining a control programme. After describing the epidemiological situation and the ecology of Anopheles gambiae s.l. on the island, the authors give detail on the organisation of malaria control as adopted by the health services. Continuing eradication, which puts emphasis on antivector measures as Reunion is considered as an area with "unstable" malaria, implies an annual invest of US $3,350,000, of which 77% is exclusively used for vector control.