Submited on: 01 Dec 2011 03:29:49 PM GMT
Published on: 02 Dec 2011 06:36:23 PM GMT
 
Eradication Scenario..
Posted by Dr. José Oliveira on 16 Jan 2012 11:06:55 PM GMT

1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Yes
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? No
3 Is this a new and original contribution? No
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? No
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? Yes
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? Yes
  • Other Comments:

    The authors base their proposal on the assumption that well-sick cycles are independent from external factors (other diseases, climate, health programs, ...). This way, the conclusion seems quite obvious although the formalization is interesting and valuable. 

  • Competing interests:
    No
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    computer science, bioinformatian

  • How to cite:  Oliveira J .Eradication Scenario..[Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;3(1):WMCRW001399
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1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Partly
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? Partly
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? Yes
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? Yes
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? No
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? Yes
  • Other Comments:

    It would be necessary to analyze more information of other geographical areas to validate the presented information. Also it would be important to compare the results obtained those who are obtained of using other herramioentas of Artificial Intelligence as the Artificial Neural Networks and, or, the Genetic Algorithms, etc.

  • Competing interests:
    No
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    I am PhD in Medicine and PhD in Computer Science Engineering working in biocompuatational área and artificial intelligence

  • How to cite:  Pazos A .On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A possible Eradication Scenario[Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;2(12):WMCRW001274
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precisions
Posted by Dr. Johan Hoebeke on 04 Dec 2011 09:34:57 AM GMT

1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Yes
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? Partly
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? Yes
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? Yes
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? Yes
  • Other Comments:

    Approaching pathogen-host relationship in a predator-prey model seems to me satisfactory. I should like to add following precisions :

    1. (sick) and (well) populations should be more precisely (infected) and (non-infected). Indeed, in the total population you also have (sick) people which are (non-infected) and must be excluded from the prey-predator model. 

    2. I have a problem with the parameter epsilon. The burial and eventually the cremation has a too indirect positive causality to add it as a direct proportional parameter. It should be the parameter describing the probability that (non-infected) becomes (infected). If that is the same as beta, how will that reflect itself in the subsequent equations? 

    3. Two real possibilities are evacuated : a) as for vaccinia, the possibility that the disease is eradicated by vaccination b) as known for certain pathogens, the possibility that it loses pathogenicity and becomes a commensal or even symbiont or in the case of viruses that is integrated in the genome of he host without deleterious effects. Can this probability be integrated in the equations?

     

    In the legend of figure 2 the authors mention 2 initial values for (well) and (sick) but only the first initial values are presented. How looks the figure when the second initial values are used?

  • Competing interests:
    No
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    I am no statistician or mathematician but, as an immunologist, I am interested in epidemiological modeling.

  • How to cite:  Hoebeke J .precisions[Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;2(12):WMCRW001200
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1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Partly
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? No
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? No
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? Yes
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? No
  • Other Comments:

    The authors based his model on assumption and referring the results on the situation of Pakistan, this paper could more logical if the authors can make use of the data available both globally and in his country as well. 

    this paper is providing a valuable insight about the cyclical and spatial trends in diseases especilly the infectious.

    more elborate models using inputs with regard to polio will enrich the paper. 

  • Competing interests:
    none
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    I am an epidemiolgist and biostatistician, Medical educator in the filed of statisitics and epidemiolgy.  

  • How to cite:  Amin T T.on the long term health care crisis. a possible eradication scenario [Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;2(12):WMCRW001192
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  • What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?

    The authors suggest a possible model to describe the worldwide healthcare crisis, where diseases that have been considered to be eradicated or under our control are re-emerging today.


  • Are these claims novel? If not, please specify papers that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.

    To some extent


  • Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?

    I hope the authors have gone through proper literature review


  • Do the results support the claims? If not, what other evidence is required?

    I am not an expert in mathematical modelling, but it seems interesting to me. I hope the experts in the field of statistical modelling should jugde it.


  • If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?

    NA


  • Is the methodology valid? Does the paper offer enough details of its methodology that its experiments or its analyses could be reproduced?

    Its an opinion of the authors and has been presented in the form of an essay.


  • Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper? How much better would the paper be if this extra work was done, and how difficult would such work be to do, or to provide?

    If they could present it in the form of a review paper, would have been better.


  • Is this paper outstanding in its discipline? (For example, would you like to see this work presented in a seminar at your hospital or university? Do you feel these results need to be incorporated in your next general lecture on the subject?) If yes, what makes it outstanding? If not, why not?

    I would not say outstanding, but it seems very interesting


  • Other Comments:

    I think experts in this field should comment on this model.

  • Competing interests:
    No
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Public Health

  • How to cite:  Joshi S K.Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario[Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;3(12):WMCRW002424
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Possible Eradication of Polio?
Posted by Dr. Thomas Herchline on 29 Nov 2011 08:58:22 PM GMT

1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Yes
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? Partly
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? Yes
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? No
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? No
  • Other Comments:

    This is an opinion paper based on mathematical modeling of epidemics.

     

    There is no abstract provided and no stated conclusions.

     

    The implied conclusion is that diseases naturally follow a cyclic pattern but may eventually settle into a steady equilibrium (between sick and well).

     

    The problem with the symbols used for coefficients (from the previous version) has been corrected.

  • Competing interests:
    None
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Medical Director, Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County

  • How to cite:  Herchline T .Possible Eradication of Polio?[Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;2(11):WMCRW001179
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Possible Eradication of Polio?
Posted by Dr. Thomas Herchline on 28 Nov 2011 03:31:19 PM GMT

1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Yes
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? Partly
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? Yes
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? No
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? No
  • Other Comments:

    This is an opinion paper based on mathematical modeling of epidemics.

     

    There is no abstract provided and no stated conclusions.

     

    The implied conclusion is that diseases naturally follow a cyclic pattern but may eventually settle into a steady equilibrium (between sick and well).

     

    There is a problem with the symbols used for coefficients - they do not appear in the text.

  • Competing interests:
    None
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Medical Director, Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County

  • How to cite:  Herchline T .Possible Eradication of Polio?[Review of the article 'On the Long-term Health Care Crisis. A Possible Eradication Scenario ' by Lonngren K].WebmedCentral 2011;2(11):WMCRW001167
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