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

Evaluation of HPK n plus -p planar pixel sensors for the CMS Phase-2 upgrade

To cope with the challenging environment of the planned high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), scheduled to start operation in 2029, CMS will replace its entire tracking system. The requirements for the tracker are largely determined by the long operation time of 10 years with an instantaneous peak luminosity of up to 7.5 x 1034 cm-2 s-1 in the ultimate performance scenario. Depending on the radial distance from the interaction point, the silicon sensors will receive a particle fluence corresponding to a non-ionising energy loss of up to ?eq = 3.5 x 1016 cm-2. This paper focuses on planar pixel sensor design and qualification up to a fluence of ?eq = 1.4 x 1016 cm-2. For the development of appropriate planar pixel sensors an R&D program was initiated, which includes n+-p sensors on 150 mm (6") wafers with an active thickness of 150 mu m with pixel sizes of 100 x 25 mu m2 and 50 x 50 mu m2 manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK). Single chip modules with ROC4Sens and RD53A readout chips were made. Irradiation with protons and neutrons, as well was an extensive test beam campaign at DESY were carried out. This paper presents the investigation of various assemblies mainly with ROC4Sens readout chips. It demonstrates that multiple designs fulfil the requirements in terms of breakdown voltage, leakage current and efficiency. The single point resolution for 50 x 50 mu m2 pixels is measured as 4.0 mu m for non-irradiated samples, and 6.3 mu m after irradiation to ?eq = 7.2 x 1015 cm-2