A measles outbreak occurred in a school in a small town in the South East of Ireland in September–November 2013. Most (and all early) cases had one dose of the measles-mumps- rubella (MMR) vaccination. All suspected cases were followed up, in order to advise on sampling and provide public health advice to them and their contacts. MMR vaccination control measures were instituted in the town. These included early second MMR in primary schools and childcare facilities, bringing forward the planned school MMR catch-up programme, early first MMR dose for children aged 6–12 months and targeted advice to unvaccinated children. There were 20 cases (17 confirmed) of measles associated with the outbreak. Fifteen cases occurred in the index school, with four in pre-school-age children (<4 years) who had clear epidemiological links with children at the school. This was a well-circumscribed outbreak occurring, unusually, in a well-vaccinated population. The outbreak came late to the attention of Department of Public Health staff but prompt action, once notified, and institution of control measures resulted in quick termination of the outbreak and prevention of cases in a neighbouring city.

A heuristic greedy algorithm is developed for efficiently tiling spatially dense redshift surveys. In its first application to the Galaxy and MassAssembly (GAMA) redshift survey we find it rapidly improves the spatial uniformity of our data, and naturally corrects for any spatial bias introduced by the 2dF multi-object spectrograph. We make conservative predictions for the final state of the GAMA redshift survey after our final allocation of time, and can be confident that even if worse than typical weather affects our observations, all of our main survey requirements will be met.

Clones of animal-infective bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei (stocks S.427 and LUMP 227) were made by transferring a single organism from bloodstream-form cultures into each well of Microtest II Tissue Culture Plates containing bovine fibroblast-like feeder cells. When the number of trypanosomes increased to 102–103/well on days 4–16, they were transferred into plastic T-25 culture flasks also containing feeder cells and fresh medium. Cultures were thereafter maintained by partially replacing the trypanosome suspension with the same volume of fresh medium (diluting the density to 2–5 × 105 trypanosomes/ml) every 24 h. Sub-cultivations could be made by transferring 1–2 ml of the trypanosome suspension to a new culture flask at 4–5 day intervals. A total of 42 clones in the 3 series TC221, TC52 and TC227, carrying variable antigen types (VATs) 221, 052 and ILTat 1·4, respectively, have been established. Average population doubling times for clones of TC221, TC52 and TC227 were 8·7, 14·5 and 15·5 h respectively. Of 35 populations examined, 34 clones retained the original specificity of their VATs for at least 8–32 days from cloning. One cloned population of TC52 consisted of 99·8% VAT 052 and 0·2% VAT 221 at the time when the first VAT test was made on day 18.

Eighteen clones of variable antigen type 052 of Trypanosoma brucei stock S. 427 were derived and maintained as animal-infective bloodstream forms in vitro for up to 60 days of cultivation. The antigenic composition of such clones was monitored weekly by immunofluorescent analysis of viable trypanosomes, using antisera raised to isolated variant-specific surface glycoproteins of both 052 and a variable antigen type (221) which consistently appeared in the first relapse population of type 052 in vitro. The appearance of new variants was detected in 9 of the 18 clones 18–46 days following initiation of the clone and variable antigen type 221 was found in all 9 clones. On one or more occasions in 8 of such clones, viable trypanosomes were found which did not react with either antiserum but were mouse-infective on the 4 occasions tested and probably represent other variable antigen types. The process of antigen, variation in vitro appears to resemble the process in vivo except that new variant types are detected earlier in vivo. This possibly results from different growth rates of the trypanosomes in vivo and in vitro, together with the fact that elimination of the initial variant population by the host's immune response facilitates the detection of newly arising variable antigen types in vivo.

Eleven percent of the U.K. population holds private health care insurance, and £2.2 billion are spent annually in the acute sector of private health care. Although isolated from policy discussions about new medical technology in the National Health Service, the private sector encounters these interventions regularly. During 18 months in one company, a new medical technology was encountered on average every week; 59 leading edge technologies were submitted for authorization (18 on multiple occasions). There are certain constraints on purchasers of health care in the private sector in dealing with new technology; these include fragmentation of the sector, differing rationalities within companies about limitations on eligibility of new procedures while competing for business, the role and expertise of the medical adviser, and demands of articulate customers. A proactive approach by the private sector to these challenges is hampered by its independence. Poor communication between the public and private sectors, and the lack of a more inclusive approach to policy centrally, undermine the rational diffusion and use of new medical technology in the U.K. health care system.

The effects of chemical etching, mechanical thinning, and ion milling on the low temperature photoluminescence spectra of MBE grown (001) CdTe films are reported. Line defects observed by TEM are correlated with photoluminescence. It is shown that X-ray D.C.R.C, measurements in these films are weighted averages over the whole thickness of the films and therefore weakly reflect the structural perfection of the samples near the surface as deduced by photoluminescence.

Thin film interactions between a-(Ni-Nb) and polycrystalline Au over-layers have been studied with high depth resolution (≤1.7nm) Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and TEM to obtain information on the early stages of reaction at the interface. The RBS spectra from Au indicated that the interdiffused samples consisted of two layers: an Au-Nb binary layer on the surface and a ternary Au-Ni-Nb compound layer beneath the binary layer. The growth kinetics of the ternary compound layer differed in samples which had been relaxed prior to Au deposition from the kinetics for unrelaxed samples. Furthermore, cross section TEM micrographs showed that relaxed and unrelaxed samples exhibit different microstructures after the early stages, of annealing. We interpret this result to indicate that the reaction stages in relaxed samples are not as advanced as those in the unrelaxed samples.

The main results of the paper give necessary and sufficient conditions as well as sufficient conditions that continuous bijections of a manifold onto itself be homeomorphisms. Such conditions include the embedding of manifolds, preserving ends, preserving closed half-rays and restrictions on boundary components. A number of counterexamples are given to likely conjectures.