The application of predictive modelling for determining bio-environmental factors affecting the distribution of blackflies (Diptera: Simuliidae) in the Gilgel Gibe watershed in Southwest Ethiopia

Blackflies are important macroinvertebrate groups from a public health as well as ecological point of view. Determining the biological and environmental factors favouring or inhibiting the existence of blackflies could facilitate biomonitoring of rivers as well as control of disease vectors. The combined use of different predictive modelling techniques is known to improve identification of presence/absence and abundance of taxa in a given habitat. This approach enables better identification of the suitable habitat conditions or environmental constraints of a given taxon. Simuliidae larvae are important biological indicators as they are abundant in tropical aquatic ecosystems. Some of the blackfly groups are also important disease vectors in poor tropical countries. Our investigations aim to establish a combination of models able to identify the environmental factors and macroinvertebrate organisms that are favourable or inhibiting blackfly larvae existence in aquatic ecosystems. The models developed using macroinvertebrate predictors showed better performance than those based on environmental predictors. The identified environmental and macroinvertebrate parameters can be used to determine the distribution of blackflies, which in turn can help control river blindness in endemic tropical places. Through a combination of modelling techniques, a reliable method has been developed that explains environmental and biological relationships with the target organism, and, thus, can serve as a decision support tool for ecological management strategies

Determination of composition and structure of spongy bone tissue in human head of femur by Raman spectral mapping

Biomechanical properties of bone depend on the composition and organization of collagen fibers. In this study, Raman microspectroscopy was employed to determine the content of mineral and organic constituents and orientation of collagen fibers in spongy bone in the human head of femur at the microstructural level. Changes in composition and structure of trabecula were illustrated using Raman spectral mapping. The polarized Raman spectra permit separate analysis of local variations in orientation and composition. The ratios of ν2PO43−/Amide III, ν4PO43−/Amide III and ν1CO32−/ν2PO43− are used to describe relative amounts of spongy bone components. The ν1PO43−/Amide I ratio is quite susceptible to orientation effect and brings information on collagen fibers orientation. The results presented illustrate the versatility of the Raman method in the study of bone tissue. The study permits better understanding of bone physiology and evaluation of the biomechanical properties of bone

Resilient cooling strategies – A critical review and qualitative assessment

The global effects of climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heatwaves and power outages, which have consequences for buildings and their cooling systems. Buildings and their cooling systems should be designed and operated to be resilient under such events to protect occupants from potentially dangerous indoor thermal conditions. This study performed a critical review on the state-of-the-art of cooling strategies, with special attention to their performance under heatwaves and power outages. We proposed a definition of resilient cooling and described four criteria for resilience—absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, restorative capacity, and recovery speed —and used them to qualitatively evaluate the resilience of each strategy. The literature review and qualitative analyses show that to attain resilient cooling, the four resilience criteria should be considered in the design phase of a building or during the planning of retrofits. The building and relevant cooling system characteristics should be considered simultaneously to withstand extreme events. A combination of strategies with different resilience capacities, such as a passive envelope strategy coupled with a low-energy space-cooling solution, may be needed to obtain resilient cooling. Finally, a further direction for a quantitative assessment approach has been pointed out

TURKISH JOURNAL OF HEMATOLOGY

We report two male cases (4- and 5-years-old) of intrathecal methotrexate overdose. The two boys with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were to receive intrathecal injection of methotrexate. Instead of the prescribed 12 mg, they both received a dose of 120 mg. The initial cerebrospinal fluid samples showed methotrexate concentration of 2.24x10(-2)M in case 1 and 1.32x10(-2)M in case 2. The cases were successfully treated with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) exchange and intravenous folinic acid rescue. The favorable outcome in our cases suggests that CSF exchange is safe and that folinic acid rescue may be adequate to prevent sequelae in patients subjected to intrathecal MTX overdoses up to 120 mg. We propose CSF exchange and intravenous folinic acid as the mainstay of treatment. In addition to the staff's failure to check the drug label carefully, the marked resemblance of the two dose preparations of MTX may have been contributory. (Turk J Hematol 2011; 28: 63-7

Effects of a silenced gene in Boolean network models

Gene regulation and their regulatory networks are one of the most challenging research problems of computational biology and complexity sciences. Gene regulation is formed by indirect interaction between DNA segments which are protein coding genes to configure the expression level of one another. Prevention of expression of any genes in gene regulation at the levels of transcription or translation indicates the gene silencing event. The present study examined what types of results in gene silencing would bring about in the dynamics of Boolean genetic regulatory mechanisms. The analytical study was performed in gene expression variations of Boolean dynamics first, then the related numerical analysis was simulated in real networks in the literature