Plasmodium species mixed infections in two areas of Manhiça District, Mozambique

We compared the distribution patterns of individual Plasmodium species and mixed-species infections in two geographically close endemic areas, but showing environmental differences. Comparisons concerned circulating Plasmodium infections in both human and mosquito vector populations in the dry and wet seasons, at a micro-epidemiological level (households). Both areas revealed a very high overall prevalence of infection, all year-round and in all age groups. Plasmodium falciparum was the predominant species, being found in the vast majority of infected individuals regardless of the presence of other species. Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale occurred almost exclusively in mixed infections. Seasonal variation in P. malariae prevalence was observed in one area but not in the other. A decrease in P. malariae prevalence concurred with a marked increase of P. falciparum prevalence. However this was strongly dependent on age and when analysing infections at the individual level, a different pattern between co-infecting species was unveiled. Regarding transmission patterns, in both areas, P. falciparum gametocytes predominated in single infections regardless of age and P. malariae gametocyte carriage increased when its overall prevalence decreased

Thermochemistry and kinetics of the trans-N2H2+N reaction

AbstractThermochemical and kinetics properties of the hydrogen abstraction and addition processes of the trans-N2H2+N reaction were computed using high-level ab initio and DFT approximation methods with aug-cc-pVXZ (X=T,Q) basis set. The CCSD (T)/CBS//BB1K/aug-cc-pVTZ results for classical barrier height are 13.1 and 15.0kcal/mol for the abstraction and addition reactions, respectively. The thermal rate constants were calculated using the dual-level direct dynamics by variational transition state theory with the BB1K potential energy surface and thermochemical properties corrected with the CCSD (T)/CBS//BB1K/aug-cc-pVTZ results. The rate constants calculated show that the variational and tunneling effects play a relevant role only for the abstraction reaction

Quasinormal modes of a Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by free static spherically symmetric quintessence: Electromagnetic perturbations

In this paper, we evaluated the quasinormal modes of electromagnetic perturbation in a Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by the static spherically symmetric quintessence by using the third-order WKB approximation when the quintessential state parameter $w_{q}$ in the range of $-1/3<w_{q}<0$. Due to the presence of quintessence, Maxwell field damps more slowly. And when at $-1<w_{q}<-1/3$, it is similar to the black hole solution in the ds/Ads spacetime. The appropriate boundary conditions need to be modified.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Flame retardants: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers

Para melhorar a qualidade de vida do Homem foram desenvolvidos durante as últimas décadas muitos produtos químicos, como por exemplo os retardantes de chama. Estes compostos são adicionados a uma grande variedade de materiais cuja finalidade é evitar ou retardar a propagação de incêndios.Os éteres difenílicos polibromados (PBDEs, Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers) pertencem ao grupo de retardantes de chama bromados. Estes compostos são misturados com os polímeros e tendem a libertarem-se por acção do tempo, do calor e da luz para o meio ambiente. Os PBDEs são compostos lipofílicos e são classificados como poluentes orgânicos persistentes (POPs, Persistent Organic Pollutants) por serem persistentes, tóxicos e bioacumuláveis. Por serem POPs, os PBDEs ganharam relevo nos estudos efetuados em diversas matrizes ambientais e no Homem (fluidos fsisiológicos, tecidos, órgãos), com o objetivo de estudar e identificar a sua ocorrência, assim como, evitar a sua dispersão.Este artigo tem como objetivo abordar o problema dos retardantes de chama, mais concretamente dos PBDEs, no que se refere à sua utilização, propriedades físico-químicas, toxicidade e ocorrência no meio ambiente, dando enfase aos estudos e problemas em Portugal. To improve the quality of life of people have been developed during the last decades many chemicals such as flame retardants. These compounds are added to a wide variety of materials whose purpose is to prevent or slow the spread of fire.Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) belong to the group of brominated flame retardants. These compounds are blended with polymers and tend to free themselves by weathering, heat and light to the environment. PBDEs are lipophilic compounds and are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to be persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. As belonging to the class of POPs, PBDE gained importance in the studies on various environmental matrices and in humans (physiological fluids, tissues, organs) in order to study and identify their occurrence, as well as to prevent its spread.This article aims to address the problem of flame retardants, in particular of PBDE in relation to its use, physico-chemical properties, toxicity and incidence on the environment, and studies focusing on the problems in Portugal

Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by quintessence: Null geodesics

We have studied the null geodesics of the Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by quintessence matter. Quintessence matter is a candidate for dark energy. Here, we have done a detailed analysis of the geodesics and exact solutions are presented in terms of Jacobi-elliptic integrals for all possible energy and angular momentum of the photons. The circular orbits of the photons are studied in detail. As an application of the null geodesics, the angle of deflection of the photons are computed.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures. typos corrected and some of the notation change

Duality Orbits, Dyon Spectrum and Gauge Theory Limit of Heterotic String Theory on T^6

For heterotic string theory compactified on T^6, we derive the complete set of T-duality invariants which characterize a pair of charge vectors (Q,P) labelling the electric and magnetic charges of the dyon. Using this we can identify the complete set of dyons to which the previously derived degeneracy formula can be extended. By going near special points in the moduli space of the theory we derive the spectrum of quarter BPS dyons in N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory with simply laced gauge groups. The results are in agreement with those derived from field theory analysis.Comment: LaTeX file, 22 page

Numerical simulations for performance optimization of a few-cycle terawatt NOPCPA system

We present a systematic numerical design and performance study of an ultra-broadband noncollinear optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (NOPCPA) system. Using a split-step Fourier approach, we model a three-stage amplifier system which is designed for the generation of 7 fs pulses with multi-terawatt peak intensity. The numerical results are compared with recent experimental data. Several important aspects and design parameters specific to NOPCPA are identified, and the values of these parameters required to achieve optimal working conditions are investigated. We identify and analyze wavelength-dependent gain saturation effects, which are specific to NOPCPA and have a strong influence on the parametric amplification process. © Springer-Verlag 2007

New Polynomial Cases of the Weighted Efficient Domination Problem

Let G be a finite undirected graph. A vertex dominates itself and all its neighbors in G. A vertex set D is an efficient dominating set (e.d. for short) of G if every vertex of G is dominated by exactly one vertex of D. The Efficient Domination (ED) problem, which asks for the existence of an e.d. in G, is known to be NP-complete even for very restricted graph classes. In particular, the ED problem remains NP-complete for 2P3-free graphs and thus for P7-free graphs. We show that the weighted version of the problem (abbreviated WED) is solvable in polynomial time on various subclasses of 2P3-free and P7-free graphs, including (P2+P4)-free graphs, P5-free graphs and other classes. Furthermore, we show that a minimum weight e.d. consisting only of vertices of degree at most 2 (if one exists) can be found in polynomial time. This contrasts with our NP-completeness result for the ED problem on planar bipartite graphs with maximum degree 3

Measurement of the Bs0→J/ψKS0B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0 branching fraction

The $B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0$ branching fraction is measured in a data sample corresponding to 0.41$fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC. This channel is sensitive to the penguin contributions affecting the sin2$\beta$ measurement from $B^0\to J/\psi K_S^0$ The time-integrated branching fraction is measured to be $BF(B_s^0\to J/\psi K_S^0)=(1.83\pm0.28)\times10^{-5}$. This is the most precise measurement to date

Model-independent search for CP violation in D0→K−K+π−π+ and D0→π−π+π+π− decays

A search for CP violation in the phase-space structures of D0 and View the MathML source decays to the final states K−K+π−π+ and π−π+π+π− is presented. The search is carried out with a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. For the K−K+π−π+ final state, the four-body phase space is divided into 32 bins, each bin with approximately 1800 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 9.1%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 6.5% observed. The phase space of the π−π+π+π− final state is partitioned into 128 bins, each bin with approximately 2500 decays. The p-value under the hypothesis of no CP violation is 41%, and in no bin is a CP asymmetry greater than 5.5% observed. All results are consistent with the hypothesis of no CP violation at the current sensitivity