Ecological model to predict potential habitats of Oncomelania hupensis, the intermediate host of Schistosoma japonicum in the mountainous regions, China

Schistosomiasis japonica is a parasitic disease that remains endemic in seven provinces in the People's Republic of China (P.R. China). One of the most important measures in the process of schistosomiasis elimination in P.R. China is control of Oncomelania hupensis, the unique intermediate host snail of Schistosoma japonicum. Compared with plains/swamp and lake regions, the hilly/mountainous regions of schistosomiasis endemic areas are more complicated, which makes the snail survey difficult to conduct precisely and efficiently. There is a pressing call to identify the snail habitats of mountainous regions in an efficient and cost-effective manner.; Twelve out of 56 administrative villages distributed with O. hupensis in Eryuan, Yunnan Province, were randomly selected to set up the ecological model. Thirty out of the rest of 78 villages (villages selected for building model were excluded from the villages for validation) in Eryuan and 30 out of 89 villages in Midu, Yunnan Province were selected via a chessboard method for model validation, respectively. Nine-year-average Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) as well as Digital Elevation Model (DEM) covering Eryuan and Midu were extracted from MODIS and ASTER satellite images, respectively. Slope, elevation and the distance from every village to its nearest stream were derived from DEM. Suitable survival environment conditions for snails were defined by comparing historical snail presence data and remote sensing derived images. According to the suitable conditions for snails, environment factors, i.e. NDVI, LST, elevation, slope and the distance from every village to its nearest stream, were integrated into an ecological niche model to predict O. hupensis potential habitats in Eryuan and Midu. The evaluation of the model was assessed by comparing the model prediction and field investigation. Then, the consistency rate of model validation was calculated in Eryuan and Midu Counties, respectively. The final ecological niche model for potential O. hupensis habitats prediction comprised the following environmental factors, namely: NDVI (≥ 0.446), LST (≥ 22.70°C), elevation (≤ 2,300 m), slope (≤ 11°) and the distance to nearest stream (≤ 1,000 m). The potential O. hupensis habitats in Eryuan distributed in the Lancang River basin and O. hupensis in Midu shows a trend of clustering in the north and spotty distribution in the south. The consistency rates of the ecological niche model in Eryuan and Midu were 76.67% and 83.33%, respectively.; The ecological niche model integrated with NDVI, LST, elevation, slope and distance from every village to its nearest stream adequately predicted the snail habitats in the mountainous regions

Revisiting B_s\to\mu^+\mu^- and B\to K^{(*)}\mu^+\mu^- decays in the MSSM with and without R-parity

The rare decays B_s -> \mu^+\mu^- and B -> K^{(*)}\mu^+\mu^- are sensitive to new particles and couplings via their interferences with the standard model contributions. Recently, the upper bound on B(B_s -> \mu^+\mu^-) has been improved significantly by the CMS, LHCb, CDF, and D{\O} experiments. Combining with the measurements of B(B-> K^{(*)}\mu^+\mu^-), we derive constraints on the relevant parameters of minimal supersymmetic standard model with and without R-parity, and examine their contributions to the dimuon forward-backward asymmetry in B-> K^{*}\mu^+\mu^- decay. We find that (i) the contribution of R-parity violating coupling products \lambda^{\prime}_{2i2}\lambda^{\prime*}_{2i3} due to squark exchange is comparable with the theoretical uncertainties in B-> K \mu^+\mu^- decay, but still could be significant in B-> K^{*}\mu^+\mu^- decay and could account for the forward-backward asymmetry in all dimuon invariant mass regions; (ii) the constrained mass insertion (\delta^{u}_{LL})_{23} could have significant contribution to dA_{FB}(B-> K^{*}\mu^+\mu^-)/ds, and such effects are favored by thr recent results of the Belle, CDF, and LHCb experiments.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, published versio

The Impact on Portfolio Credit Risk with Different Correlation Assumptions

The main idea of this paper is to apply default analysis to the Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS) fixed income portfolio, which contains 19 bonds. The portfolio credit risk analysis includes default probability, simulation of default time by using Gaussian copula and t copula, Economic Capital, Credit Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Tail Loss (ETL)

A device-level characterization approach to quantify the impacts of different random variation sources in FinFET technology

A simple device-level characterization approach to quantitatively evaluate the impacts of different random variation sources in FinFETs is proposed. The impacts of random dopant fluctuation are negligible for FinFETs with lightly doped channel, leaving metal gate granularity and line-edge roughness as the two major random variation sources. The variations of Vth induced by these two major categories are theoretically decomposed based on the distinction in physical mechanisms and their influences on different electrical characteristics. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed through both TCAD simulations and experimental results. This letter can provide helpful guidelines for variation-aware technology development

Intrinsic anomalous Hall effect in nickel: An GGA+U study

The electronic structure and intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity of nickel have been calculated based on the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) plus on-site Coulomb interaction (GGA+U) scheme. It is found that the intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity ($\sigma_{xy}^H$) obtained from the GGA+U calculations with $U = 1.9$ eV and $J=1.2$ eV, is in nearly perfect agreement with that measured recently at low temperatures while, in contrast, the $\sigma_{xy}^H$ from the GGA calculations is about 100% larger than the measured one. This indicates that, as for the other spin-orbit interaction (SOI)-induced phenomena in 3$d$ itinerant magnets such as the orbital magnetic magnetization and magnetocrystalline anisotropy, the on-site electron-electron correlation, though moderate only, should be taken into account properly in order to get the correct anomalous Hall conductivity. The intrinsic $\sigma_{xy}^H$ and the number of valence electrons ($N_e$) have also been calculated as a function of the Fermi energy ($E_F$). A sign change is predicted at $E_F = -0.38$ eV ($N_e = 9.57$), and this explain qualitatively why the theoretical and experimental $\sigma_{xy}^H$ values for Fe and Co are positive. It is also predicted that fcc Ni$_{(1-x)}$Co(Fe,Cu)$_x$ alloys with $x$ being small, would also have the negative $\sigma_{xy}^H$ with the magnitude being in the range of $500\sim 1400$ $\Omega^{-1}$cm$^{-1}$. The most pronounced effect of including the on-site Coulomb interaction is that all the $d$-dominant bands are lowered in energy relative to the $E_F$ by about 0.3 eV, and consequently, the small minority spin X$_2$ hole pocket disappears. The presence of the small X$_2$ hole pocket in the GGA calculations is attributed to be responsible for the large discrepancy in the $\sigma_{xy}^H$ between theory and experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Bis(2-amino­benzonitrile)tetra­aqua­cobalt(II) dichloride

In the crystal structure of the title compound, [Co(C7H6N2)2(H2O)4]Cl2, the CoII cation lies on an inversion center and is coordinated by two 2-amino­benzonitrile ligands and four water mol­ecules in a distorted octa­hedral geometry. The Cl− counter-anion links with the complex cations via O—H⋯Cl and N—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonding. Inter­molecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonding links the complex cations, forming supra­molecular chains running along the b axis

catena-Poly[[trimethyl­tin(IV)]-μ-phenyl­seleninato-κ2 O:O′]

In the title polymeric coordination compound, [Sn(CH3)3(C6H5O2Se)]n, the SnIV atom has a distorted trigonal–bipyramidal geometry, with two O atoms of two symmetry-related bridging phenyl­seleninate anions in axial positions and three methyl groups in equatorial positions. In the crystal, the complex exhibits a chain structure parallel to the b axis