1,636 research outputs found
Schistosoma mansoni Infection in Finchaa Sugar Estate: Public health Problem Assessment based on Clinical Records and Parasitological Surveys, Western Ethiopia
The survey of Schistosoma mansoni (S. mansoni) in Finchaa Sugar Estate, Western Ethiopia, was conducted to investigate the prevalence and health problems of schistosomiasis with some of the risk factors. The examination was undertaken based on the analysis of retrospective clinical data from the health center and a cross-sectional parasitological examinations using Kato-thick smear slides in April-June 2012/2013. Over the period 2008 to 2013 average prevalence among suspected patients at the health centre was 30.9%. Examination of double kato-thick smear slides from a random sample of 602 individuals from most schistosomiasis affected camp 7 revealed the prevalence of 37.5%. S. mansoni infection is become a year-round public health problem in Finchaa, Sugar Estate possibly due to permanent streams, water bodies and water contact behaviors and also reduced effectiveness of current control measures. Among the 7th camps, village A (camp 7) is the most schistosomiasis affected area (37.5%) followed by Kuyisa (25%). This is attributed to the presence of permanent stream (Fekerie stream) near camp 7. The present finding shows that the prevalence and intensity of schistosomiasis in the more affected camp 7 of Finchaa Sugar Estate was significantly higher among males than in females and its prevalence and intensity was found to be higher among study population within the age group of 11-20 years old. This study indicates that schistosomiasis is a major health problem in Finchaa Sugar Estate with moderate prevalence. The study results will provide an additional clinical and parasitological data on the current status of S. mansoni in Finchaa Sugar Estate and could serve as a guide in designing, developing and implementing intervention strategies to mitigate morbidity due to S. mansoni especially in highly risk groups under the Ethiopian health service system.Keywords: Egg per gram; Finchaa Sugar Estate; Kato-katz; Schistosomiasis; S. mansoni; Public healt
The effects of chest wall loading on perceptions of fatigue, exercise performance, pulmonary function, and muscle perfusion.
BACKGROUND: Load carriage (LC), which directly affects the chest wall and locomotor muscles, has been suggested to alter the ventilatory and circulatory responses to exercise, leading to increased respiratory muscle work and fatigue. However, studies exploring the impact of LC on locomotion increased internal work, complicating their interpretation. To overcome this issue, we sought to determine the effect of chest wall loading with restriction (CWL + R) on cycling performance, cardiopulmonary responses, microvascular responsiveness, and perceptions of fatigue. METHODS: In a randomized crossover design, 23 young healthy males (22 \ub1 4 years) completed a 5 km cycling time trial (TT) in loaded (CWL + R; tightened vest with 10% body weight) and unloaded conditions. After baseline pulmonary function testing (PFT; forced expiratory volume in 1 s, FEV1; forced vital capacity, FVC), cardiopulmonary indices (HR, heart rate; O2 uptake, VO2; ventilation, VE; tidal volume, VT; and breathing frequency, Bf), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), lactate (BLa), and microvascular responses (oxy-, deoxy-, total hemoglobin; and tissue saturation; StO2) of the vastus lateralis using near infrared spectroscopy were collected during the TT; and PFT was repeated post-exercise. RESULTS: Pre-exercise, CWL + R reduced (p < 0.05) FVC (5.6 \ub1 0.8 versus 5.5 \ub1 0.7 L), FEV1 (4.8 \ub1 0.7 versus 4.7 \ub1 0.6 L), and FEV1/FVC (0.9 \ub1 0.1 versus 0.8 \ub1 0.1). CWL + R modified power output (PO) over time (interaction, p = 0.02), although the 5 km time (461 \ub1 24 versus 470 \ub1 27 seconds), VT (3.0 \ub1 0.3 versus 2.8 \ub1 0.8 L), Bf, VE, HR, VO2, microvascular and perceptual (visual analog scale, or VAS, and RPE) responses were unchanged (p > 0.05). CWL + R increased (p < 0.05) the average BLa (7.6 \ub1 2.6 versus 8.6 \ub1 3 mmol/L). CONCLUSIONS: Modest CWL + R negatively affects pre-exercise pulmonary function, modifies cycling power output over time, and increases lactate production during a 5 km cycling trial, although the cardiorespiratory, microvascular, and perceptual responses were unaffected
COMPASS: a 2.6m telescope for CMBR polarization studies
COMPASS (COsmic Microwave Polarization at Small Scale) is an experiment devoted to measuring the polarization of the CMBR. Its design and characteristics are presented
A Limit on the Polarized Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background at Subdegree Angular Scales
A ground-based polarimeter, PIQUE, operating at 90 GHz has set a new limit on
the magnitude of any polarized anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background.
The combination of the scan strategy and full width half maximum beam of 0.235
degrees gives broad window functions with average multipoles, l = 211+294-146
and l = 212+229-135 for the E- and B-mode window functions, respectively. A
joint likelihood analysis yields simultaneous 95% confidence level flat band
power limits of 14 and 13 microkelvin on the amplitudes of the E- and B-mode
angular power spectra, respectively. Assuming no B-modes, a 95% confidence
limit of 10 microkelvin is placed on the amplitude of the E-mode angular power
spectrum alone.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letter
Temperature inversion symmetry in the Casimir effect with an antiperiodic boundary condition
We present explicitly another example of a temperature inversion symmetry in
the Casimir effect for a nonsymmetric boundary condition. We also give an
interpretation for our result.Comment: 4 page
New Measurements of Fine-Scale CMB Polarization Power Spectra from CAPMAP at Both 40 and 90 GHz
We present new measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
polarization from the final season of the Cosmic Anisotropy Polarization MAPper
(CAPMAP). The data set was obtained in winter 2004-2005 with the 7 m antenna in
Crawford Hill, New Jersey, from 12 W-band (84-100 GHz) and 4 Q-band (36-45 GHz)
correlation polarimeters with 3.3' and 6.5' beamsizes, respectively. After
selection criteria were applied, 956 (939) hours of data survived for analysis
of W-band (Q-band) data. Two independent and complementary pipelines produced
results in excellent agreement with each other. A broad suite of null tests as
well as extensive simulations showed that systematic errors were minimal, and a
comparison of the W-band and Q-band sky maps revealed no contamination from
galactic foregrounds. We report the E-mode and B-mode power spectra in 7 bands
in the range 200 < l < 3000, extending the range of previous measurements to
higher l. The E-mode spectrum, which is detected at 11 sigma significance, is
in agreement with cosmological predictions and with previous work at other
frequencies and angular resolutions. The BB power spectrum provides one of the
best limits to date on B-mode power at 4.8 uK^2 (95% confidence).Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Ap
Breaking the Redshift Deadlock - I: Constraining the star formation history of galaxies with sub-millimetre photometric redshifts
Future extragalactic sub-millimetre and millimetre surveys have the potential
to provide a sensitive census of the level of obscured star formation in
galaxies at all redshifts. While in general there is good agreement between the
source counts from existing SCUBA (850um) and MAMBO (1.25mm) surveys of
different depths and areas, it remains difficult to determine the redshift
distribution and bolometric luminosities of the sub-millimetre and millimetre
galaxy population. This is principally due to the ambiguity in identifying an
individual sub-millimetre source with its optical, IR or radio counterpart
which, in turn, prevents a confident measurement of the spectroscopic redshift.
Additionally, the lack of data measuring the rest-frame FIR spectral peak of
the sub-millimetre galaxies gives rise to poor constraints on their rest-frame
FIR luminosities and star formation rates. In this paper we describe
Monte-Carlo simulations of ground-based, balloon-borne and satellite
sub-millimetre surveys that demonstrate how the rest-frame FIR-sub-millimetre
spectral energy distributions (250-850um) can be used to derive photometric
redshifts with an r.m.s accuracy of +/- 0.4 over the range 0 < z < 6. This
opportunity to break the redshift deadlock will provide an estimate of the
global star formation history for luminous optically-obscured galaxies [L(FIR)
> 3 x 10^12 Lsun] with an accuracy of 20 per cent.Comment: 14 pages, 22 figures, submitted to MNRAS, replaced with accepted
versio
On the eigenproblems of PT-symmetric oscillators
We consider the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian H=
-\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+P(x^2)-(ix)^{2n+1} on the real line, where P(x) is a
polynomial of degree at most n \geq 1 with all nonnegative real coefficients
(possibly P\equiv 0). It is proved that the eigenvalues \lambda must be in the
sector | arg \lambda | \leq \frac{\pi}{2n+3}. Also for the case
H=-\frac{d^2}{dx^2}-(ix)^3, we establish a zero-free region of the
eigenfunction u and its derivative u^\prime and we find some other interesting
properties of eigenfunctions.Comment: 21pages, 9 figure
Measurements of Anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at 0.5 Degree Angular Scales Near the Star Gamma Ursae Minoris
We present results from a four frequency observation of a 6 x 0.6 degree
strip of the sky centered near the star Gamma Ursae Minoris during the fourth
flight of the Millimeter-wave Anisotropy eXperiment (MAX). The observation was
made with a 1.4 degree peak-to-peak sinusoidal chop in all bands. The FWHM beam
sizes were 0.55 +/- 0.05 degrees at 3.5 cm-1 and 0.75 +/-0.05 degrees at 6, 9,
and 14 cm-1. During this observation significant correlated structure was
observed at 3.5, 6 and 9 cm-1 with amplitudes similar to those observed in the
GUM region during the second and third flights of MAX. The frequency spectrum
is consistent with CMB and inconsistent with thermal emission from interstellar
dust. The extrapolated amplitudes of synchrotron and free-free emission are too
small to account for the amplitude of the observed structure. If all of the
structure is attributed to CMB anisotropy with a Gaussian autocorrelation
function and a coherence angle of 25', then the most probable values of
DeltaT/TCMB in the 3.5, 6, and 9 cm-1 bands are 4.3 (+2.7, -1.6) x 10-5, 2.8
(+4.3, -1.1) x 10-5, and 3.5 (+3.0, -1.6) x 10-5 (95% confidence upper and
lower limits), respectively.Comment: 16 pages, postscrip
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