Malaria vector control by indoor residual insecticide spraying on the tropical island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea

BACKGROUND: A comprehensive malaria control intervention was initiated in February 2004 on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. This manuscript reports on the continuous entomological monitoring of the indoor residual spray (IRS) programme during the first two years of its implementation. METHODS: Mosquitoes were captured daily using window traps at 16 sentinel sites and analysed for species identification, sporozoite rates and knockdown resistance (kdr) using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to assess the efficacy of the vector control initiative from December 2003 to December 2005. RESULTS: A total of 2,807 and 10,293 Anopheles funestus and Anopheles gambiae s.l. respectively were captured throughout the study period. Both M and S molecular forms of An. gambiae s.s. and Anopheles melas were identified. Prior to the first round of IRS, sporozoite rates were 6.0, 8.3 and 4.0 for An. gambiae s.s., An. melas and An. funestus respectively showing An. melas to be an important vector in areas in which it occurred. After the third spray round, no infective mosquitoes were identified. After the first spray round using a pyrethroid spray the number of An. gambiae s.s. were not reduced due to the presence of the kdr gene but An funestus and An. melas populations declined from 23.5 to 3.1 and 5.3 to 0.8 per trap per 100 nights respectively. After the introduction of a carbamate insecticide in the second round, An. gambiae s.s. reduced from 25.5 to 1.9 per trap per 100 nights and An. funestus and An. melas remained at very low levels. Kdr was found only in the M-form of An. gambiae s.s. with the highest frequency at Punta Europa (85%). CONCLUSION: All three vectors that were responsible for malaria transmission before the start of the intervention were successfully controlled once an effective insecticide was used. Continuous entomological surveillance including resistance monitoring is of critical importance in any IRS based malaria vector control programme. This paper demonstrates that sufficient resources for such monitoring should be included in any proposal in order to avoid programme failures

Bases of political judgments: the role of stereotypic and non-stereotypic information

Um den Gebrauch von Stereotypen bei Urteilen über politische Kandidaten zu prüfen, wurden drei Studien durchgeführt. Die erste Studie demonstriert den Effekt von physischer Attraktivität auf die Beurteilung eines Kandidaten, wenn keine anderen entscheidungsrelevanten Informationen verfügbar sind. Es zeigt sich, daß diese dann einen substantiellen Einfluß auf die Persönlichkeitseinschätzung hat. Daraus werden sowohl Schlußfolgerungen über persönliche Qualitäten und die politische Ideologie gezogen. Die weiteren Studien prüften den Zusammenhang von Attraktivität, Parteizugehörigkeit und persönlichen Standpunkten des Kandidaten. Hierbei übt die Attraktivität einen geringeren Einfluß aus. Sollten die Beteiligten nur einen Kandidaten einschätzen, verließen sie sich auf seine politische Vergangenheit und seinen Ruf. Bei der Entscheidung zwischen zwei Kandidaten ist dagegen die Parteizugehörigkeit entscheidender. (psz)'Three experiments investigated the role of stereotypic and nonstereotypic criteria in judgments of political candidates. The effects of physical attractiveness, political party and stands on specific issues on both absolute and comparative judgments of political candidats were examined to evaluate three hypotheses about stereotype and attribute use. In the absence of other information, candidates' physical attractiveness (conveyed through photographs) had a substantial influence on subjects' global evaluations of them and inferences of both their personal qualities and their political ideology. When other information about candidates' party membership and stands on specific issues were available, however, the candidate's attractiveness had no affect on the evaluations of them. When subjects were asked to make comparative judgements of two candidates, however, they based their judgments on each candidate's party membership and not their respective voting records. Implications of these results for the precesses that underlie political judgments and decisions are evaluated.' (authors' abstract

Identification and Exploitation of Inadvertent Spectral Artifacts in Digital Audio

We show that modulation products from local oscillators in a variety of commercial camcorders are coupled into the recorded audio track, creating narrow band time invariant spectral features. These spectral features, left largely intact by transcoding, compression and other forms of audiovisual post processing, can encode characteristics of specific camcorders used to capture the audio files, including the make and model. Using data sets both downloaded from YouTube and collected under controlled laboratory conditions we demonstrate an average probability of detection (Pd) approaching 0.95 for identification of a specific camcorder in a population of thousands of similar recordings, with a probability of false alarm (Pfa) of about 0.11. We also demonstrate an average Pd of about 0.93 for correct association of make and model of camcorder based on comparison of audio spectral features extracted from random YouTube downloads compared to a reference library of spectral features captured from known makes and models of camcorders, with a Pfa of 0.06. The method described can be used independently or synergistically with image plane-based techniques such as those based upon Photo Response Non-Uniformity

Prevalence of Novel Candidate Sjogren Syndrome Autoantibodies in the Dry Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) Study.

PurposeTo evaluate the prevalence of novel candidate Sjogren syndrome (SS) autoantibodies [salivary protein-1 (SP-1), parotid secretory protein, carbonic anhydrase 6] in the DRy Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) cohort, a study evaluating the effectiveness of omega-3 fatty acid supplements for the treatment of dry eye.MethodsParticipants underwent ocular surface examinations and serological testing for traditional and novel SS autoantibodies. Dry eye assessment and management participants were categorized into the following 3 groups: 1) no history of SS or other autoimmune diseases and negative traditional SS autoantibodies (n = 352); 2) no history of SS but a history of other autoimmune diseases (n = 66); and 3) those who met the 2012 American College of Rheumatology SS classification criteria (n = 52).ResultsEleven percent had a history of SS, and 6% of those without a history of SS most likely had undiagnosed SS. The SS group had a higher prevalence of SP-1 autoantibodies than the group without SS or other autoimmune diseases (33% vs. 19%; P = 0.02) but had no difference in carbonic anhydrase 6 (P = 0.31) or parotid secretory protein autoantibodies (P = 0.33). Participants who were positive for the traditional autoantibodies alone or positive for both traditional and novel autoantibodies had the highest scores for corneal (P = 0.002) and conjunctival staining (P < 0.001).ConclusionsData from this multicenter, prospective study demonstrated that one of the novel candidate autoantibodies, SP-1, is associated with underlying SS and that novel autoantibodies may be associated with worse ocular surface disease. Future longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate their utility in screening patients with dry eye for SS

Quantum State Protection in Cavities

We show how an initially prepared quantum state of a radiation mode in a cavity can be preserved for a long time using a feedback scheme based on the injection of appropriately prepared atoms. We present a feedback scheme both for optical cavities, which can be continuously monitored by a photodetector, and for microwave cavities, which can be monitored only indirectly via the detection of atoms that have interacted with the cavity field. We also discuss the possibility of applying these methods for decoherence control in quantum information processing.Comment: RevTex, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The local economic development processes in low-income countries: the case of the metropolis of Chegutu in Zimbabwe

Local authorities are widely regarded as catalysts accelerating localised processes of economic development in industrialised countries but in low-income countries they are perceived as dysfunctional, inefficient and ineffective in meeting and addressing societal demands. This abstract view is however, not grounded in empirical research. As such, utilising the case of the metropolis of Chegutu a survey was designed to empirically explicate the economic processes militating its economic development. The findings are useful to policy-makers, local government authorities and management scholars. The study's unique contribution lies in its examination of the processes of local economic development in a low-income country

Adiabatic population transfer via multiple intermediate states

This paper discusses a generalization of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in which the single intermediate state is replaced by $N$ intermediate states. Each of these states is connected to the initial state \state{i} with a coupling proportional to the pump pulse and to the final state \state{f} with a coupling proportional to the Stokes pulse, thus forming a parallel multi-$\Lambda$ system. It is shown that the dark (trapped) state exists only when the ratio between each pump coupling and the respective Stokes coupling is the same for all intermediate states. We derive the conditions for existence of a more general adiabatic-transfer state which includes transient contributions from the intermediate states but still transfers the population from state \state{i} to state \state{f} in the adiabatic limit. We present various numerical examples for success and failure of multi-$\Lambda$ STIRAP which illustrate the analytic predictions. Our results suggest that in the general case of arbitrary couplings, it is most appropriate to tune the pump and Stokes lasers either just below or just above all intermediate states.Comment: 14 pages, two-column revtex style, 10 figure

Squeezing arbitrary cavity-field states through their interaction with a single driven atom

We propose an implementation of the parametric amplification of an arbitrary radiation-field state previously prepared in a high-Q cavity. This nonlinear process is accomplished through the dispersive interactions of a single three-level atom (fundamental |g>, intermediate |i>, and excited |e> levels) simultaneously with i) a classical driving field and ii) a previously prepared cavity mode whose state we wish to squeeze. We show that, in the adiabatic approximantion, the preparation of the initial atomic state in the intermediate level |i> becomes crucial for obtaing the degenerated parametric amplification process.Comment: Final published versio

Studies of group velocity reduction and pulse regeneration with and without the adiabatic approximation

We present a detailed semiclassical study on the propagation of a pair of optical fields in resonant media with and without adiabatic approximation. In the case of near and on resonance excitation, we show detailed calculation, both analytically and numerically, on the extremely slowly propagating probe pulse and the subsequent regeneration of a pulse via a coupling laser. Further discussions on the adiabatic approximation provide many subtle understandings of the process including the effect on the band width of the regenerated optical field. Indeed, all features of the optical pulse regeneration and most of the intricate details of the process can be obtained with the present treatment without invoke a full field theoretical method. For very far off resonance excitation, we show that the analytical solution is nearly detuning independent, a surprising result that is vigorously tested and compared to numerical calculations with very good agreement.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Toward scalable quantum computation with cavity QED systems

We propose a scheme for quantum computing using high-Q cavities in which the qubits are represented by single cavity modes restricted in the space spanned by the two lowest Fock states. We show that single qubit operations and universal multiple qubit gates can be implemented using atoms sequentially crossing the cavities.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure