Rationalizing Historical Successes of Malaria Control in Africa in Terms of Mosquito Resource Availability Management.

Environmental management of mosquito resources is a promising approach with which to control malaria, but it has seen little application in Africa for more than half a century. Here we present a kinetic model of mosquito foraging for aquatic habitats and vertebrate hosts that allows estimation of malaria transmission intensity by defining the availability of these resources as the rate at which individual mosquitoes encounter and use them. The model captures historically observed responses of malaria transmission to environmental change, highlights important gaps in current understanding of vector ecology, and suggests convenient solutions. Resource availability is an intuitive concept that provides an adaptable framework for models of mosquito population dynamics, gene flow, and pathogen transmission that can be conveniently parameterized with direct field measurements. Furthermore, the model presented predicts that drastic reductions of malaria transmission are possible with environmental management and elucidates an ecologic basis for previous successes of integrated malaria control in Africa before the advent of DDT or chloroquine. Environmental management for malaria control requires specialist skills that are currently lacking in sub-Saharan Africa where they are needed most. Infrastructure and human capacity building in clinical, public health, and environmental disciplines should therefore be prioritized so that growing financial support for tackling malaria can be translated into truly integrated control programs

Global gene expression in endometrium of high and low fertility heifers during the mid-luteal phase of the estrous cycle

peer-reviewedBackground In both beef and dairy cattle, the majority of early embryo loss occurs within the first 14 days following insemination. During this time-period, embryos are completely dependent on their maternal uterine environment for development, growth and ultimately survival, therefore an optimum uterine environment is critical to their survival. The objective of this study was to investigate whether differences in endometrial gene expression during the mid-luteal phase of the estrous cycle exist between crossbred beef heifers ranked as either high (HF) or low fertility (LF) (following four rounds of artificial insemination (AI)) using the Affymetrix® 23 K Bovine Gene Chip. Results Conception rates for each of the four rounds of AI were within a normal range: 70–73.3%. Microarray analysis of endometrial tissue collected on day 7 of the estrous cycle detected 419 differentially expressed genes (DEG) between HF (n = 6) and LF (n = 6) animals. The main gene pathways affected were, cellular growth and proliferation, angiogenesis, lipid metabolism, cellular and tissue morphology and development, inflammation and metabolic exchange. DEG included, FST, SLC45A2, MMP19, FADS1 and GALNT6. Conclusions This study highlights, some of the molecular mechanisms potentially controlling uterine endometrial function during the mid-luteal phase of the estrous cycle, which may contribute to uterine endometrial mediated impaired fertility in cattle. Differentially expressed genes are potential candidate genes for the identification of genetic variation influencing cow fertility, which may be incorporated into future breeding programmes.Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Programm

Men and women from the STRIDE clinical trial: An assessment of stimulant abstinence symptom severity at residential treatment entry

Background and Objectives Gender‐specific factors associated with stimulant abstinence severity were examined in a stimulant abusing or dependent residential treatment sample (N = 302). Method Bivariate statistics tested gender differences in stimulant abstinence symptoms, measured by participant‐reported experiences of early withdrawal. Multivariate linear regression examined gender and other predictors of stimulant abstinence symptom severity. Results Women compared to men reported greater stimulant abstinence symptom severity. Anxiety disorders and individual anxiety‐related abstinence symptoms accounted for this difference. African American race/ethnicity was predictive of lower stimulant abstinence severity. Discussion and Conclusions Women were more sensitive to anxiety‐related stimulant withdrawal symptoms. Scientific Significance Clinics that address anxiety‐related abstinence symptoms, which more commonly occur in women, may improve treatment outcome. (Am J Addict 2015;XX:XX –XX

The flywheel effect: Ionospheric currents after a geomagnetic storm

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95263/1/grl5685.pd

Mathematical Evaluation of Community Level Impact of Combining Bed Nets and Indoor Residual Spraying upon Malaria Transmission in Areas where the main Vectors are Anopheles Arabiensis Mosquitoes.

Indoor residual insecticide spraying (IRS) and long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) are commonly used together even though evidence that such combinations confer greater protection against malaria than either method alone is inconsistent. A deterministic model of mosquito life cycle processes was adapted to allow parameterization with results from experimental hut trials of various combinations of untreated nets or LLINs (Olyset, PermaNet 2.0, Icon Life nets) with IRS (pirimiphos methyl, lambda cyhalothrin, DDT), in a setting where vector populations are dominated by Anopheles arabiensis, so that community level impact upon malaria transmission at high coverage could be predicted. Intact untreated nets alone provide equivalent personal protection to all three LLINs. Relative to IRS plus untreated nets, community level protection is slightly higher when Olyset or PermaNet 2.0 nets are added onto IRS with pirimiphos methyl or lambda cyhalothrin but not DDT, and when Icon Life nets supplement any of the IRS insecticides. Adding IRS onto any net modestly enhances communal protection when pirimiphos methyl is sprayed, while spraying lambda cyhalothrin enhances protection for untreated nets but not LLINs. Addition of DDT reduces communal protection when added to LLINs. Where transmission is mediated primarily by An. arabiensis, adding IRS to high LLIN coverage provides only modest incremental benefit (e.g. when an organophosphate like pirimiphos methyl is used), but can be redundant (e.g. when a pyrethroid like lambda cyhalothin is used) or even regressive (e.g. when DDT is used for the IRS). Relative to IRS plus untreated nets, supplementing IRS with LLINs will only modestly improve community protection. Beyond the physical protection that intact nets provide, additional protection against transmission by An. arabiensis conferred by insecticides will be remarkably small, regardless of whether they are delivered as LLINs or IRS. The insecticidal action of LLINs and IRS probably already approaches their absolute limit of potential impact upon this persistent vector so personal protection of nets should be enhanced by improving the physical integrity and durability. Combining LLINs and non-pyrethroid IRS in residual transmission systems may nevertheless be justified as a means to manage insecticide resistance and prevent potential rebound of not only An. arabiensis, but also more potent, vulnerable and historically important species such as Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles funestus

RFID in the production line for work flow improvement

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can be used in many different applications. There are numerous instances of RFID being used in everyday life. For instance, anyone who works in a secure office, goes to university, drives a car with an immobiliser or parks in a secure car park. Other scenarios include the tracking of animals in the farming industry when cattle and sheep need to be identified by the farmer. Another instance where RFID can be used, is in the manufacturing industry. Tags can be attached to items that are moving through the factory on conveyer belts or being moved around by staff on trucks or forklifts. As the tags move around the factory floor or the warehouse they pass by readers and the tags can be then tracked using intelligent software and database application. In fact, radio Frequency Identification systems are becoming more and more embedded in the supply chain. Tracking goods in the work place has been identified as one area where production can be improved. In fact, in almost all non “green field ” modern manufacturing facilities, there are work flow process systems that can be improved to reduce the overall work load and increase the total work throughput. This project will look at a “real life ” manufacturing facility, assess its current work flow process, evaluate them against industries best practices and seek to integrate RFID to help stream line work flow. After assessment, the RFID solution will be implemented to tackle the highlighted areas. This will be achieved by understanding the client‟s current situation, industrial best practices and how RFID technology can be implemented now and modified in the future to continue to maximize efficiency. The expected outcome o

Eliminating Malaria Vectors.

Malaria vectors which predominantly feed indoors upon humans have been locally eliminated from several settings with insecticide treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying or larval source management. Recent dramatic declines of An. gambiae in east Africa with imperfect ITN coverage suggest mosquito populations can rapidly collapse when forced below realistically achievable, non-zero thresholds of density and supporting resource availability. Here we explain why insecticide-based mosquito elimination strategies are feasible, desirable and can be extended to a wider variety of species by expanding the vector control arsenal to cover a broader spectrum of the resources they need to survive. The greatest advantage of eliminating mosquitoes, rather than merely controlling them, is that this precludes local selection for behavioural or physiological resistance traits. The greatest challenges are therefore to achieve high biological coverage of targeted resources rapidly enough to prevent local emergence of resistance and to then continually exclude, monitor for and respond to re-invasion from external populations

An event study to provide validation of TING and CMIT geomagnetic middle-latitude electron densities at the F2 peak

[1] The coupled thermosphere-ionosphere magnetosphere (CMIT) model and the Thermosphere Ionosphere Nested Grid (TING) model have been run to simulate the 15 May 1997 interplanetary coronal mass ejection\u27s (ICME) effects on the Earth\u27s ionosphere and thermosphere. Comparisons were made between these model runs, the IRI-2007 model, and geomagnetic middle-latitude ionosonde data (NmF2) from the World Data Center to determine how well the models simulated the event and to understand the causes of model-data disagreement. The following conclusions were drawn from this study: (1) skill scores were more often negative than positive on average; (2) the best and the worst skill scores occurred on the recovery day; (3) the line plots comparing models to data look better than the skill scores might suggest; (4) skill scores are significantly affected by timing issues and large, short-duration variability; (5) skill scores give an indication of the relative ability of one model relative to another, rather than an absolute statement of model accuracy; (6) the models capture negative storm effects better than they capture positive storm effects; (7) the TING model captured many short duration features seen in the data at high middle latitude stations that result from changes in the size of the auroral oval; (8) CMIT overestimates the energy driving changes in NmF2, whereas TING provides approximately the correct energy input as a result of the saturation effects on potential that are included in TING; and (9) both TING and CMIT electron densities decreased too rapidly after sunset

Large Enhancements in the O/N2 Ratio in the Evening Sector of the Winter Hemisphere During Geomagnetic Storms

In this paper, we have looked for enhancements of the O/N2 ratio in data measured by the Dynamics Explorer 2 (DE 2) satellite in the middle latitudes of the winter hemisphere, based on a prediction that was made by the National Center for Atmospheric Research thermosphere/tonosphere general circulation model (NCAR-TIGCM) that such increases occur. The NCAR-TIGCM predicts that these enhancements should be seen throughout the low latitude region and in many middle latitude locations, but that the enhancements in O/N2 are particularly strong in the middle-latitude, evening-to-midnight sector of the winter hemisphere. When this prediction was used to look for these effects in DE 2 NACS (neutral atmosphere composition spectrometer) data, large enhancements in the O/N2 ratio (approx. 50 to 90%) were seen. These enhancements were observed during the main phase of a storm that occurred on November 24, 1982, and were seen in the same region of the winter hemisphere predicted by the NCAR-TIGCM. They are partially the result of the depletion of N2 and, as electron loss is dependent on dissociative recombination at F(sub 2) altitudes, they have implications for electron densities in this area. Parcel trajectories, which have been followed through the NCAR-TIGCM history file for this event, show that large O/N2 enhancements occur in this limited region in the winter hemisphere for two reasons. First, these parcels of air are decelerated by the antisunward edge of the ion convection pattern; individual parcels converge and subsidence occurs. Thus molecular-nitrogen-poor air is brought from higher to lower heights. Because neutral parcels that are found a little poleward of the equatorial edge of the eveningside convection pattern are swept inward toward the center of the auroral oval, the enhancements occur only in a very limited range of latitudes. Second, nitrogen-poor air is transported from regions close to the magnetic pole in the winter hemisphere. During geomagnetic storms, enhanced meridional winds are driven by the increased pressure-gradient force that is associated with intensified Joule heating in the auroral oval. These pressure-driven winds decrease rapidly on the dayside beyond the auroral oval where the parcels originate, limiting the region into which the parcels can be transported. Thus these two processes drive values of O/N2 in a limited region of the winter hemisphere, and reinforce only in the evening sector, causing large changes in this region