Determination of suitable groundwater quality for agriculture by using GIS application in Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Province, Indonesia

irrigation purposes within Bantul area which is located on Yogyakarta Volcanic Groundwater Basin, 47 existing data points were used complementary with the results of 30 groundwater samples analysis which were collected from dug and tub wells in various locations of study area. ECw, TDS, pH and major cations: Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+,and anions: Cl, HCO 3 , SO2 4 , NO 3 were analyzed as evaluation index. The relative tendency of ion in epm shows Ca2+>K+>Na+>Mg2+ and HCO 3 >Cl>SO2 4 . Variations in groundwater composition by using Mg/Ca vs. Na/Ca molar ratio indicates that the groundwater is close to silicate rock with influence of clastic carbonate rock. Higher salinity approach to the west of the Bantul indicates that groundwater quality is controlled by clastic carbonate rock and expose limestone of Sentolo hills. Groundwater samples fall under class I suggested that groundwater is good and suitable for irrigation based on Doneen’s classification of permeability index and 78.37% is in excellent category by Wilcox classification on N%. According to the SAR values plotted in the USSL diagram, the majority of the groundwater samples belong to C2-S1 and C2-S2 class, indicating medium salinity and low sodium water which can be used for irrigation with little danger. The suitability of groundwater quality for agriculture is determined by thematic maps produced from ArcGIS Spatial Analyst based on FAO guideline. Salinity is the significant problem that has slight to moderate restriction effect on crops productivities in this area. The ECw map indicates that good groundwater quality for crops is at the middle to the east of study area close to Opak River, while at the western irrigation water is affected but yielding no reduction on rice productivity. However, it has slight to moderate restriction on sensitive crops indicated in thematic map of crops land with different yield potential. The agricultural land in which has yield potential of 100%, 90% and 75% is about 2727.90 ha (38.56%), 735.49 ha (10.39%) and 208.98 ha (2.95%) of the study area respectively. Key words: Irrigation groundwater quality, total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), evaluation index, ArcGIS Spatial Analyst, FAO guideline, yield potential

Creating and Sustaining customer value for UK luxury brands

The global market for luxury goods has witnessed a dramatic growth over the last 20 years. Traditionally bought by the Western elite they are now increasingly bought by middle- and lower-income earners as well as being sought by those in emerging Asian markets. For luxury brand owners there is a paradox inherent in the marketing of luxury goods, which reflects managers conflicting goals of striving to obtain high volume sales while maintaining exclusivity for their brands in the face of counterfeiting, parallel imports, overextensions and adoption of brands by inappropriate consumer groups. Little has been written by practitioners or academics on the marketing of luxury goods. Built on the strengths of existing theories (Smith and Colgate, 2007; Vigneron and Johnson, 1999) this study develops an understanding on the process of creating and sustaining customer value for luxury brands and provides a new framework for practitioners in order to develop more effective marketing strategies for British luxury brand owners

Positivity and Intensity of Gnathostoma spinigerum Infective Larvae in Farmed and Wild-Caught Swamp Eels in Thailand

From July 2008 to June 2009, livers of the swamp eels (Monopterus alba) were investigated for advanced third-stage larvae (AL3) of Gnathostoma spinigerum. Results revealed that 10.2% (106/1,037) and 20.4% (78/383) of farmed eels from Aranyaprathet District, Sa Kaeo Province and those of wild-caught eels obtained from a market in Min Buri District of Bangkok, Thailand were infected, respectively. The prevalence was high during the rainy and winter seasons. The infection rate abruptly decreased in the beginning of summer. The highest infection rate (13.7%) was observed in September and absence of infection (0%) in March-April in the farmed eels. Whereas, in the wild-caught eels, the highest rate (30.7%) was observed in November, and the rate decreased to the lowest at 6.3% in March. The average no. (mean±SE) of AL3 per investigated liver in farmed eels (1.1±0.2) was significantly lower (P=0.040) than those in the caught eels (0.2±0.03). In addition, the intensity of AL3 recovered from each infected liver varied from 1 to 18 (2.3±0.3) in the farmed eels and from 1 to 47 (6.3±1.2) in the caught eels, respectively. The AL3 intensity showed significant difference (P=0.011) between these 2 different sources of eels. This is the first observation that farmed eels showed positive findings of G. spinigerum infective larvae. This may affect the standard farming of the culture farm and also present a risk of consuming undercooked eels from the wild-caught and farmed eels

Imported Intraocular Gnathostomiasis with Subretinal Tracks Confirmed by Western Blot Assay

We report a case of intraocular gnathostomiasis diagnosed by western blot assay in a patient with subretinal tracks. A 15-year-old male patient complained of blurred vision in the right eye, lasting for 2 weeks. Eight months earlier, he had traveled to Vietnam for 1 week and ate raw wild boar meat and lobster. His best-corrected visual acuity was 20/20 in both eyes and anterior chamber examination revealed no abnormalities. Fundus examination showed subretinal tracks in the right eye. Fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography showed linear hyperfluorescence of the subretinal lesion observed on fundus in the right eye. Ultrasound examination revealed no abnormalities. Blood tests indicated mild eosinophilia (7.5%), and there was no abnormality found by systemic examinations. Two years later, the patient visited our department again for ophthalmologic evaluation. Visual acuity remained 20/20 in both eyes and the subretinal tracks in the right eye had not changed since the previous examination. Serologic examination was performed to provide a more accurate diagnosis, and the patient's serum reacted strongly to the Gnathostoma nipponicum antigen by western blot assay, which led to a diagnosis of intraocular gnathostomiasis. This is the first reported case of intraocular gnathostomiasis with subretinal tracks confirmed serologically using western blot in Korea

Semi-parametric modeling of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Orange County, California using tests, cases, deaths, and seroprevalence data

Mechanistic modeling of SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics and frequently estimating model parameters using streaming surveillance data are important components of the pandemic response toolbox. However, transmission model parameter estimation can be imprecise, and sometimes even impossible, because surveillance data are noisy and not informative about all aspects of the mechanistic model. To partially overcome this obstacle, we propose a Bayesian modeling framework that integrates multiple surveillance data streams. Our model uses both SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics test and mortality time series to estimate our model parameters, while also explicitly integrating seroprevalence data from cross-sectional studies. Importantly, our data generating model for incidence data takes into account changes in the total number of tests performed. We model transmission rate, infection-to-fatality ratio, and a parameter controlling a functional relationship between the true case incidence and the fraction of positive tests as time-varying quantities and estimate changes of these parameters nonparameterically. We apply our Bayesian data integration method to COVID-19 surveillance data collected in Orange County, California between March, 2020 and March, 2021 and find that 33-62% of the Orange County residents experienced SARS-CoV-2 infection by the end of February, 2021. Despite this high number of infections, our results show that the abrupt end of the winter surge in January, 2021, was due to both behavioral changes and a high level of accumulated natural immunity.Comment: 37 pages, 16 pages of main text, including 5 figures, 1 tabl

Essential role of GEXP15, a specific Protein Phosphatase type 1 partner, in Plasmodium berghei in asexual erythrocytic proliferation and transmission.

The essential and distinct functions of Protein Phosphatase type 1 (PP1) catalytic subunit in eukaryotes are exclusively achieved through its interaction with a myriad of regulatory partners. In this work, we report the molecular and functional characterization of Gametocyte EXported Protein 15 (GEXP15), a Plasmodium specific protein, as a regulator of PP1. In vitro interaction studies demonstrated that GEXP15 physically interacts with PP1 through the RVxF binding motif in P. berghei. Functional assays showed that GEXP15 was able to increase PP1 activity and the mutation of the RVxF motif completely abolished this regulation. Immunoprecipitation assays of tagged GEXP15 or PP1 in P. berghei followed by immunoblot or mass spectrometry analyses confirmed their interaction and showed that they are present both in schizont and gametocyte stages in shared protein complexes involved in the spliceosome and proteasome pathways and known to play essential role in parasite development. Phenotypic analysis of viable GEXP15 deficient P. berghei blood parasites showed that they were unable to develop lethal infection in BALB/c mice or to establish experimental cerebral malaria in C57BL/6 mice. Further, although deficient parasites produced gametocytes they did not produce any oocysts/sporozoites indicating a high fitness cost in the mosquito. Global proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses of GEXP15 deficient schizonts revealed a profound defect with a significant decrease in the abundance and an impact on phosphorylation status of proteins involved in regulation of gene expression or invasion. Moreover, depletion of GEXP15 seemed to impact mainly the abundance of some specific proteins of female gametocytes. Our study provides the first insight into the contribution of a PP1 regulator to Plasmodium virulence and suggests that GEXP15 affects both the asexual and sexual life cycle

Alternative splicing of hepatitis B virus: A novel virus/host interaction altering liver immunity

This work was supported by grants from Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (Inserm) – France, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) – France, Agence National de la Recherche sur le Sida et les Hepatites (ANRS) – France (n° N14015DR) and PHC-Tassili (11MDU826). MD was supported by ANRS (grant ASA14013DRA). YM was supported by French Ministry for Higher Education and Research and by the Ligue contre le Cancer (grant n° GB/MA/VSP-10504)

School-level factors associated with teacher connectedness: : A multilevel analysis of the structural and relational school determinants of young people’s health

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.ABSTRACT Background Conducting research on the antecedents of teacher connectedness (TC) is key to inform intervention and policy that can leverage the public health potential of teachers for young people’s well-being. As part of the EU-funded Teacher Connectedness Project, this study aims to examine the contribution of a variety of school-level factors (including type of school, school size, student–teacher ratio, students per class and teacher gender). Methods Sample consisted of 5335 adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 years that had participated in the HBSC study in England. Multilevel multinomial regression was used to examine the contributions of sociodemographic and school-level factors to TC. Results TC was lower in older adolescents and those from less affluent families, but similar in boys and girls. Regarding school-level factors, it was not the size of the school but the ratio of students per teacher which was significantly associated to TC, with higher student–teacher ratio being significantly associated with lower odds of medium-to-high TC. Some differences between mixed and all-girls schools were also found. Conclusions Health promotion strategies targeting student–teacher relationships need to consider how TC changes by age and SES and give attention to school-level factors, in particular the student–teacher ratio. Keywords educational settings, social determinants, young peoplePeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Case report: Lumpy skin disease in an endangered wild banteng (Bos javanicus) and initiation of a vaccination campaign in domestic livestock in Cambodia

We describe a case of lumpy skin disease in an endangered banteng in Cambodia and the subsequent initiation of a vaccination campaign in domestic cattle to protect wild bovids from disease transmission at the wildlife-livestock interface. Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) was first detected in domestic cattle in Cambodia in June of 2021 and rapidly spread throughout the country. In September 2021, a banteng was seen in Phnom Tnout Phnom Pok wildlife sanctuary with signs of lumpy skin disease. Scab samples were collected and tested positive for LSDV. Monitoring using line transect surveys and camera traps in protected areas with critical banteng and gaur populations was initiated from December 2021-October 2022. A collaborative multisector vaccination campaign to vaccinate domestic livestock in and around priority protected areas with banteng and gaur was launched July 2022 and a total of 20,089 domestic cattle and water buffalo were vaccinated with LumpyvaxTM. No signs of LSDV in banteng or gaur in Cambodia have been observed since this initial case. This report documents the first case of lumpy skin disease in wildlife in Cambodia and proposes a potential intervention to mitigate the challenge of pathogen transmission at the domestic-wildlife interface. While vaccination can support local livestock-based economies and promote biodiversity conservation, it is only a component of an integrated solution and One Health approach to protect endangered species from threats at the wildlife-livestock interface