Fecal contamination of drinking-water in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: access to safe drinking-water is a fundamental requirement for good health and is also a human right. Global access to safe drinking-water is monitored by WHO and UNICEF using as an indicator “use of an improved source,” which does not account for water quality measurements. Our objectives were to determine whether water from “improved” sources is less likely to contain fecal contamination than “unimproved” sources and to assess the extent to which contamination varies by source type and setting.Methods and findings: studies in Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish were identified from online databases, including PubMed and Web of Science, and grey literature. Studies in low- and middle-income countries published between 1990 and August 2013 that assessed drinking-water for the presence of Escherichia coli or thermotolerant coliforms (TTC) were included provided they associated results with a particular source type. In total 319 studies were included, reporting on 96,737 water samples. The odds of contamination within a given study were considerably lower for “improved” sources than “unimproved” sources (odds ratio [OR] = 0.15 [0.10–0.21], I2 = 80.3% [72.9–85.6]). However over a quarter of samples from improved sources contained fecal contamination in 38% of 191 studies. Water sources in low-income countries (OR = 2.37 [1.52–3.71]; p<0.001) and rural areas (OR = 2.37 [1.47–3.81] p<0.001) were more likely to be contaminated. Studies rarely reported stored water quality or sanitary risks and few achieved robust random selection. Safety may be overestimated due to infrequent water sampling and deterioration in quality prior to consumption.Conclusion: access to an “improved source” provides a measure of sanitary protection but does not ensure water is free of fecal contamination nor is it consistent between source types or settings. International estimates therefore greatly overstate use of safe drinking-water and do not fully reflect disparities in access. An enhanced monitoring strategy would combine indicators of sanitary protection with measures of water qualit

The Isolation of an Actinomycetes-Like Organism from Root Canals

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67354/2/10.1177_00220345410200030301.pd

The Minimally Tuned Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

The regions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with the minimal amount of fine-tuning of electroweak symmetry breaking are presented for general messenger scale. No a priori relations among the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters are assumed and fine-tuning is minimized with respect to all the important parameters which affect electroweak symmetry breaking. The superpartner spectra in the minimally tuned region of parameter space are quite distinctive with large stop mixing at the low scale and negative squark soft masses at the high scale. The minimal amount of tuning increases enormously for a Higgs mass beyond roughly 120 GeV.Comment: 38 pages, including 2 appendices, 8 figure

SDSU Calf Value Discovery 2011 Summary Report

The Calf Value Discovery Program (CVD) allows cow-calf producers to gain knowledge of the finishing segment of the beef cattle industry and the marketing of fed cattle. Specifically, CVD provides an opportunity for cow-calf producers to learn how their calves perform in a feedlot and their carcass value when sold in a value-based marketing system. Each producer taking part in the program could consign a minimum of 5 steers weighing between 500 and 800 pounds to the CVD program. Animals were finished in a calf-fed program using typical diets and management protocols at VanderWal Yards (Bruce, SD). Carcass and feedlot performance information from calves were returned to producers for use in making future management decisions to improve profitability

An integrated water balance model for assessing water scarcity in a data-sparse interfluve in Eastern India

The objective of this study is to measure the balance of water demand versus water resource availability in an interfluve of West Bengal, India to support water resource planning, particularly of inter-basin transfers. Surface water availability was modelled using the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) model, whilst groundwater availability was modelled based on water level fluctuations and the rainfall infiltration method. Water use was modelled separately for the agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors using a predominantly normative approach and water use to availability ratios calculated for different administrative areas within the interfluve. Overall, the approach suggested that the interfluve receives 327×106m3year?1 of excess water after satisfying these sectoral demands, but that the eastern part of the study area is in deficit. However, a sensitivity analysis carried on the approach to several assumptions in the model suggested changed circumstances would produce surplus/deficit ranging from -215×106m3year?1 to 435 ×106m3year?1 . The approach could have potential for localised water balance modelling in other Indian catchment

Laboratory capture, isolation and analysis of microparticles in aerogel: Preparation for the return of Stardust

We present observations from the laboratory capture of particles in aerogel. The paper focuses on a possible extraction technique and the bulk mineral characterization of the captured material using non-destructive analytical techniques

Drought and root herbivory interact to alter the response of above-ground parasitoids to aphid infested plants and associated plant volatile signals

Multitrophic interactions are likely to be altered by climate change but there is little empirical evidence relating the responses of herbivores and parasitoids to abiotic factors. Here we investigated the effects of drought on an above/belowground system comprising a generalist and a specialist aphid species (foliar herbivores), their parasitoids, and a dipteran species (root herbivore).We tested the hypotheses that: (1) high levels of drought stress and below-ground herbivory interact to reduce the performance of parasitoids developing in aphids; (2) drought stress and root herbivory change the profile of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) emitted by the host plant; (3) parasitoids avoid ovipositing in aphids feeding on plants under drought stress and root herbivory. We examined the effect of drought, with and without root herbivory, on the olfactory response of parasitoids (preference), plant volatile emissions, parasitism success (performance), and the effect of drought on root herbivory. Under drought, percentage parasitism of aphids was reduced by about 40–55% compared with well watered plants. There was a significant interaction between drought and root herbivory on the efficacy of the two parasitoid species, drought stress partially reversing the negative effect of root herbivory on percent parasitism. In the absence of drought, root herbivory significantly reduced the performance (e.g. fecundity) of both parasitoid species developing in foliar herbivores. Plant emissions of VOCs were reduced by drought and root herbivores, and in olfactometer experiments parasitoids preferred the odour from well-watered plants compared with other treatments. The present work demonstrates that drought stress can change the outcome of interactions between herbivores feeding above- and belowground and their parasitoids, mediated by changes in the chemical signals from plants to parasitoids. This provides a new insight into how the structure of terrestrial communities may be affected by drought

Combined heat and power from the intermediate pyrolysis of biomass materials:performance, economics and environmental impact

Combined heat and power from the intermediate pyrolysis of biomass materials offers flexible, on-demand renewable energy with some significant advantages over other renewable routes. To maximise the deployment of this technology an understanding of the dynamics and sensitivities of such a system is required. In the present work the system performance, economics and life-cycle environmental impact is analysed with the aid of the process simulation software Aspen Plus. Under the base conditions for the UK, such schemes are not currently economically competitive with energy and char products produced from conventional means. However, under certain scenarios as modelled using a sensitivity analysis this technology can compete and can therefore potentially contribute to the energy and resource sustainability of the economy, particularly in on-site applications with low-value waste feedstocks. The major areas for potential performance improvement are in reactor cost reductions, the reliable use of waste feedstocks and a high value end use for the char by-product from pyrolysis

Solving Large-Scale Optimization Problems Related to Bell's Theorem

Impossibility of finding local realistic models for quantum correlations due to entanglement is an important fact in foundations of quantum physics, gaining now new applications in quantum information theory. We present an in-depth description of a method of testing the existence of such models, which involves two levels of optimization: a higher-level non-linear task and a lower-level linear programming (LP) task. The article compares the performances of the existing implementation of the method, where the LPs are solved with the simplex method, and our new implementation, where the LPs are solved with a matrix-free interior point method. We describe in detail how the latter can be applied to our problem, discuss the basic scenario and possible improvements and how they impact on overall performance. Significant performance advantage of the matrix-free interior point method over the simplex method is confirmed by extensive computational results. The new method is able to solve problems which are orders of magnitude larger. Consequently, the noise resistance of the non-classicality of correlations of several types of quantum states, which has never been computed before, can now be efficiently determined. An extensive set of data in the form of tables and graphics is presented and discussed. The article is intended for all audiences, no quantum-mechanical background is necessary.Comment: 19 pages, 7 tables, 1 figur