Mapping of risk prone areas of kala-azar (Visceral leishmaniasis) in parts of Bihar state, India: an RS and GIS approach

Background & objectives: The kala-azar fever (Visceral leishmaniasis) is continuing unabated inIndia for over a century, now being largely confined to the eastern part of India mainly in Bihar stateand to some extent in its bordering states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Two study sites namelyPatepur block in Vaishali district with high endemicity in northern part and Lohardagga block inLohardagga district with absolute non-endemicity in southern part of Bihar were selected for thestudy with the following objectives : (i) to study the macro-ecosystem in relation to distribution ofvector —Phlebotomus argentipes; (ii) to identify/map the risk prone areas or villages in a block forquick remedial measures; and (iii) to make use of satellite remote sensing and GIS to demonstratethe utility for rapid assessment of landuse/landcover and their relation with the incidence of kalaazarleading to the mapping of risk prone areas.Methods: Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)-1D LISS III satellite data for the periods of March andNovember 2000 were analysed in Silicon graphic image processing system using ERDAS software.False color composites (FCC) were generated and landuse/landcover was assessed using Maximumlikelihood supervised classification techniques based on ground truth training sets. During the studythe GIS functions are used to quantify the remotely sensed landscape proportions of 5 km2 buffersurrounding each known group of villages of high occurrence of sandflies in endemic and nonendemicstudy sites. Instead of traditional ground based survey methods to vector surveillance, thepresent study used a combination of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS)approach to develop landscape predictors of sandfly abundance—an indicator of human vector contactand as a measure of risk prone areas.Results: Statistical analysis using the remotely sensed landscape variables showed that rural villagessurrounded by higher proportion of transitional swamps with soft stemmed edible plants and banana,sugarcane plantations had higher sandfly abundance and would, therefore, be at higher risk proneareas for man-vector contact.Interpretation & conclusion: The present study clearly brought out the usefulness of satellite remotesensing technology in generating the crucial information on spatial distribution of landuse/landcoverclasses with special emphasis on indicator landcover classes thereby helping in prioritising the areato identify risk prone areas of kala-azar through GIS application tools

Mapping of risk prone areas of kala-azar (Visceral leishmaniasis) in parts of Bihar state, India: An RS and GIS approach

Background & objectives: The kala-azar fever (Visceral leishmaniasis) is continuing unabated in India for over a century, now being largely confined to the eastern part of India mainly in Bihar state and to some extent in its bordering states like West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Two study sites namely Patepur block in Vaishali district with high endemicity in northern part and Lohardagga block in Lohardagga district with absolute non-endemicity in southern part of Bihar were selected for the study with the following objectives : (i) to study the macro-ecosystem in relation to distribution of vector -Phlebotomus argentipes; (ii) to identify/map the risk prone areas or villages in a block for quick remedial measures; and (iii) to make use of satellite remote sensing and GIS to demonstrate the utility for rapid assessment of landuse/landcover and their relation with the incidence of kala-azar leading to the mapping of risk prone areas. Methods: Indian Remote Sensing (IRS)-1D LISS III satellite data for the periods of March and November 2000 were analysed in Silicon graphic image processing system using ERDAS software. False color composites (FCC) were generated and landuse/landcover was assessed using Maximum likelihood supervised classification techniques based on ground truth training sets. During the study the GIS functions are used to quantify the remotely sensed landscape proportions of 5 km 2 buffer surrounding each known group of villages of high occurrence of sandflies in endemic and non-endemic study sites. Instead of traditional ground based survey methods to vector surveillance, the present study used a combination of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) approach to develop landscape predictors of sandfly abundance-an indicator of human vector contact and as a measure of risk prone areas. Results: Statistical analysis using the remotely sensed landscape variables showed that rural villages surrounded by higher proportion of transitional swamps with soft stemmed edible plants and banana, sugarcane plantations had higher sandfly abundance and would, therefore, be at higher risk prone areas for man-vector contact. Interpretation & conclusion: The present study clearly brought out the usefulness of satellite remote sensing technology in generating the crucial information on spatial distribution of landuse/landcover classes with special emphasis on indicator landcover classes thereby helping in prioritising the area to identify risk prone areas of kala-azar through GIS application tools

Chitosan-recombinamer layer-by-layer coatings for multifunctional implants

Producción CientíficaThe main clinical problems for dental implants are (1) formation of biofilm around the implant—a condition known as peri-implantitis and (2) inadequate bone formation around the implant—lack of osseointegration. Therefore, developing an implant to overcome these problems is of significant interest to the dental community. Chitosan has been reported to have good biocompatibility and anti-bacterial activity. An osseo-inductive recombinant elastin-like biopolymer (P-HAP), that contains a peptide derived from the protein statherin, has been reported to induce biomineralization and osteoblast differentiation. In this study, chitosan/P-HAP bi-layers were built on a titanium surface using a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly technique. The difference in the water contact angle between consecutive layers, the representative peaks in diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the changes in the topography between surfaces with a different number of bi-layers observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM), all indicated the successful establishment of chitosan/P-HAP LbL assembly on the titanium surface. The LbL-modified surfaces showed increased biomineralization, an appropriate mouse pre-osteoblastic cell response, and significant anti-bacterial activity against Streptococcus gordonii, a primary colonizer of tissues in the oral environmentMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project MAT2013-42473-R and MAT2015-68901R)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA244U13, VA313U14 and VA015U16

Performance of coiled tube ultraviolet reactors to inactivate Escherichia coli W1485 and Bacillus cereus endospores in raw cow milk and commercially processed skimmed cow milk

Two coiled tube reactors were designed to investigate the influence of Reynolds number (Re) and diameter of fluid carrying tube on UV-C inactivation of Escherichia coli W1485 and Bacillus cereus endospores in raw cow milk (RCM) and skimmed cow milk (SCM) at room temperature. UV reactors were constructed using perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) tubing having internal diameters of 1.6 and 3.2 mm and each had a residence time of 11.3 s. Four levels of Re were tested for each milk type, each tube size and each bacteria type. Inactivation efficiency increased as the Re increased in both the reactors for both types of milk. The inactivation of both bacteria was higher in the 1.6 mm UV reactor than the 3.2 mm UV reactor. Maximum reduction of 7.8 log10 CFU/ml of E. coli was achieved in SCM in the 1.6 mm UV reactor corresponding to the Re of 532 and higher, whereas the maximum reduction of E. coli in RCM was 4.1 log10 CFU/ml at the highest level of Re (713) tested. For B. cereus, the maximum reduction was 2.72 log10 CFU/ml in 1.6 UV reactor, in SCM at Re of 1024; whereas the maximum reduction of B. cereus in RCM was 2.65 log10 CFU/ml at Re value of 713. Inactivation efficiency of both bacteria was more in SCM than RCM. The coiled tube reactor design provided adequate mixing and UV-C dosage for efficient disinfection of E. coli cells in milk

The TIGRE gamma-ray telescope

TIGRE is an advanced telescope for gamma-ray astronomy with a few arcmin resolution. From 0.3 to 10 MeV it is a Compton telescope. Above 1 MeV, its multi-layers of double sided silicon strip detectors allow for Compton recoil electron tracking and the unique determination for incident photon direction. From 10 to 100 MeV the tracking feature is utilized for gamma-ray pair event reconstruction. Here we present TIGRE energy resolutions, background simulations and the development of the electronics readout system

Periodic Homogenization for Inertial Particles

We study the problem of homogenization for inertial particles moving in a periodic velocity field, and subject to molecular diffusion. We show that, under appropriate assumptions on the velocity field, the large scale, long time behavior of the inertial particles is governed by an effective diffusion equation for the position variable alone. To achieve this we use a formal multiple scale expansion in the scale parameter. This expansion relies on the hypo-ellipticity of the underlying diffusion. An expression for the diffusivity tensor is found and various of its properties studied. In particular, an expansion in terms of the non-dimensional particle relaxation time $\tau$ (the Stokes number) is shown to co-incide with the known result for passive (non-inertial) tracers in the singular limit $\tau \to 0$. This requires the solution of a singular perturbation problem, achieved by means of a formal multiple scales expansion in $\tau.$ Incompressible and potential fields are studied, as well as fields which are neither, and theoretical findings are supported by numerical simulations.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Physica D. Typos corrected. One reference adde

In vitro degradation and in vivo biocompatibility of chitosan-poly(butylene succinate) fiber mesh scaffolds

In tissue engineering, the evaluation of the host response to the biomaterial implantation must be assessed to determine the extent of the inflammatory reaction. We studied the degradation of poly(butylene succinate) and chitosan in vitro using lipase and lysozyme enzymes, respectively. The subcutaneous implantation of the scaffolds was performed to assess tissue response. The type of inflammatory cells present in the surrounding tissue, as well as within the scaffold, was determined histologically and by immunohistochemistry. In the presence of lipase or lysozyme, the water uptake of the scaffolds increased. Based on the weight loss data and scanning electron microscopy analysis, the lysozyme combined with lipase had a notable effect on the in vitro degradation of the scaffolds. The in vivo implantation showed a normal inflammatory response, with presence of neutrophils, in a first stage, and macrophages, lymphocytes, and giant cells in a later stage. Vascularization in the surrounding tissue and within the implant increased with time. Moreover, the collagen deposition increased with time inside the implant. In vivo, the scaffolds maintained the structural integrity. The degradation in vitro was faster and greater compared to that observed in vivo within the same time periods.Ana R Costa-Pinto was supported by the scholarship SFRH/24735/2005 from the Portuguese “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (FCT). This work was partially supported by the European Network of Excellence EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283) and FCT funded project Maxbone (PTDC/ SAU-ENB/115179/2009)

Order in driven vortex lattices in superconducting Nb films with nanostructured pinning potentials

Driven vortex lattices have been studied in a material with strong pinning, such as Nb films. Samples in which natural random pinning coexists with artificial ordered arrays of defects (submicrometric Ni dots) have been fabricated with different geometries (square, triangular and rectangular). Three different dynamic regimes are found: for low vortex velocities, there is a plastic regime in which random defects frustrate the effect of the ordered array; then, for vortex velocities in the range 1-100 m/s, there is a sudden increase in the interaction between the vortex lattice and the ordered dot array, independent on the geometry. This effect is associated to the onset of quasi long range order in the vortex lattice leading to an increase in the overlap between the vortex lattice and the magnetic dots array. Finally, at larger velocities the ordered array-vortex lattice interaction is suppresed again, in agreement with the behavior found in numerical simulations.Comment: 8 text pages + 4 figure