Cosmological Constraints from Hubble Parameter versus Redshift Data

We use the Simon, Verde, & Jimenez (2005) determination of the redshift dependence of the Hubble parameter to constrain cosmological parameters in three dark energy cosmological models. We consider the standard $\Lambda$CDM model, the XCDM parameterization of the dark energy equation of state, and a slowly rolling dark energy scalar field with an inverse power-law potential. The constraints are restrictive, consistent with those derived from Type Ia supernova redshift-magnitude data, and complement those from galaxy cluster gas mass fraction versus redshift data.Comment: Minor changes, including an estimate for H_0. ApJL, in pres

Brucellosis in Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, Southern Sudan

Objectives: To identify factors associated with Brucellosis in patients attending Terekeka Health Facility, Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, Southern Sudan and to evaluate the utility of the rapid test kit Euracil®.Design: A facility based case-control study.Setting: Terekeka Health Facility, Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, Southern Sudan.Subjects: Cases were patients presenting at the Terekeka Health Facility with clinical symptoms suggestive of Brucellosis and tested positive for Brucellosis by rapid antigen test while controls were selected from individuals attending Terekeka Health facility with health problems unrelated to brucellosis or febrile illness.Results: A total of fifty eight cases with clinical symptoms suggestive of and tested positive for Brucellosis by rapid antigen test presented. A total of 116 consented controls were recruited into the study. Males accounted for 52% of the cases and 53% of the controls. The mean age was 31 years for both groups. Cases without formal education were 84% while 40% had no source of income, 20% of the cases and 14% of the controls were cattle keepers while 5% of the cases and 13% of the controls were students. In multivariate analysis there were many factors associated with Brucellosislike consumption of raw meat, living with animals at the same place, raising of goats, farm cleaning contact, eating of aborted and wild animals. Logistic regression revealed two factors associated with the disease; consumption of raw milk (OR=3.9, P-value 0.001, 95% CI 1.6666 - 9.0700) was a risk factor while drinking boiled milk was protective(OR= 0.09, p- value 0.000, 95% CI, 0.1 - 0.2).Conclusions: The main age-groups affected were 20 – 30 years with males being affected more than females. Drinking of raw milk was significantly associated with Brucellosis while drinking boiled milk was protective. There should be active public health education on the benefits of boiling milk before consumption. Further studies to elucidate the extent and epidemiology of brucellosis in humans and animals in Southern Sudan are recommended

Analisis Kebutuhan Taksi Gogo Di Kota Kupang Dengan Teknik Stated Preference

Taksi GOGO adalah taksi pertama yang dilengkapi argometer di Kota Kupang dengan jumlah armada 43 unit. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui karateristik pengguna Taksi, pengaruh permintaan Taksi GOGO dibandingkan dengan angkutan umum yang lain, kebutuhan Taksi GOGO di Kota Kupang. Berdasarkan data dari 100 responden, diketahui karateristik pengguna Taksi di Kota Kupang sebagian besar berumur 25-34 tahun, mempunyai 1 kendaraan pribadi, mempunyai penghasilan diatas Rp.3.000.000, dan menggunakan Taksi GOGO sekali seminggu. Kebutuhan Taksi GOGO adalah sebanyak 91 armada, maka perlu ditambah 48 unit. Hasil untuk model logit binomial selisih 83% orang memilih menggunakan Taksi GOGO meskipun dengan biaya yang sama dengan angkutan umum lainnya dan 78% orang memilih menggunakan Taksi GOGO meskipun dengan waktu tempuh yang sama. Untuk model logit binomial nisbah 68% orang memilih Taksi GOGO meskipun dengan biaya yang sama dengan angkutan umum lainnya dan 69% dan orang memilih Taksi GOGO meskipun dengan waktu tempuh yang sama

Special Issue on Smart Data and Semantics in a Sensor World

Introduction Since its first inception in 2001, the application of the Semantic Web [1, 2] has carried out an extensive use of ontologies [3–5], reasoning, and semantics in diverse fields, such as Information Integration, Software Engineering, Bioinformatics, eGovernment, eHealth, and social networks. This widespread use of ontologies has led to an incredible advance in the development of techniques to manipulate, share, reuse, and integrate information across heterogeneous data sources. In recent years, the growth of the IoT (Internet of Things) required to face the challenges of “Big Data” [6–10]. The cost of sensors is decreasing, while their use is expanding. Moreover, the use of multiple personal smart devices is an emerging trend and all of them can embed sensors to monitor the surrounding environment. Therefore, the number of available sensors is exploding. On the one hand, the flows of sensor data are massive and continuous, and the data could be obtained in real time or with a delay of just a few seconds. Then, the volume of sensor data is increasing continuously every day. On the other hand, the variety of data being generated is also increasing, due to plenty of different devices and different measures to record. There are many kinds of structured and unstructured sensor data in diverse formats. Moreover, data veracity, which is the degree of accuracy or truthfulness of a data set, is an important aspect to consider. In the context of sensor data, it represents the trustworthiness of the data source and the processing of data. The need for more accurate and reliable data was always declared, but often overlooked for the sake of larger and cheaper..

The development of the passé composé in lower-intermediate learners of French as a second language

In this study we tracked the development of the passe compose in second-language learners of French whose first language is English. Although the passe compose is a highly used tense among native speakers of French and it appears to present particular difficulty for first-language English speakers, its second-language development has been surprisingly under-researched. In order to trace developmental patterns of the passe compose we obtained a corpus of obligatory context use of this tense by 30 Year-12 (lower-intermediate) students at two time points six months apart and analysed the data both quantitatively and qualitatively. Our findings suggest that these students used remarkably few memorized formulas, that they passed through five distinct stages in their acquisition of the passe compose, that those early stages were characterized by transfer errors, and that the presence of the auxiliary, whether correct or incorrect, formed a crucial stage in the development of the tense. Theoretical explanations for the findings are presented together with some tentative pedagogical implications

Evaluation of community-based surveillance for Guinea worm, South Sudan, 2006

Background: Guinea worm disease (dracunculiasis) is an ancient parasitic disease and is set to be the next disease eradicated from the world and the first to be overcome without a vaccine or treatment. South Sudan and Ghana account for more than 95% of global dracunculiasis.Methods and Materials: We used the Students field guide for surveillance evaluation to assess surveillance objectives, usefulness of the system, operation procedures, costs, and attributes of the South Sudan community based surveillance system.Results: The guinea worm surveillance system has met its objectives; it is active, simple, flexible, sensitive, stable, and moderately acceptable. The data source is slightly biased; the system costs $2,006,610 U.S. dollars a year to operate.Conclusion: Community-based surveillance for guinea worm is a good example of a surveillance system on which an integrated disease surveillance system can be based in countries with poor surveillance capacity. This makes its potential value to public health practice very high.Keywords: Guinea worm, endemic-villages, community-based-surveillance, village volunteers, Integrated Disease surveillance, South Suda

Self-assembly mechanism in colloids: perspectives from Statistical Physics

Motivated by recent experimental findings in chemical synthesis of colloidal particles, we draw an analogy between self-assembly processes occurring in biological systems (e.g. protein folding) and a new exciting possibility in the field of material science. We consider a self-assembly process whose elementary building blocks are decorated patchy colloids of various types, that spontaneously drive the system toward a unique and predetermined targeted macroscopic structure. To this aim, we discuss a simple theoretical model -- the Kern-Frenkel model -- describing a fluid of colloidal spherical particles with a pre-defined number and distribution of solvophobic and solvophilic regions on their surface. The solvophobic and solvophilic regions are described via a short-range square-well and a hard-sphere potentials, respectively. Integral equation and perturbation theories are presented to discuss structural and thermodynamical properties, with particular emphasis on the computation of the fluid-fluid (or gas-liquid) transition in the temperature-density plane. The model allows the description of both one and two attractive caps, as a function of the fraction of covered attractive surface, thus interpolating between a square-well and a hard-sphere fluid, upon changing the coverage. By comparison with Monte Carlo simulations, we assess the pros and the cons of both integral equation and perturbation theories in the present context of patchy colloids, where the computational effort for numerical simulations is rather demanding.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, Special issue for the SigmaPhi2011 conferenc