Tanzania Malaria Indicator Surveys 2001 - 2008:\ud Morbidity Indicators and Coverage of Major\ud Malaria Prevention and Control Interventions

Background\ud \ud Malaria continues to be a major public health problem in Africa. In Tanzania alone, thereare an estimated 17 to 20 million malaria cases per year resulting in approximately100,000 deaths. The main strategies to control malaria are vector control through insecticide treated nets (ITNs) and idoor residual spraying (IRS), intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) and early diagnosis and prompt and effective treatment of cases. In 2001, the first Malaria Mid-Term Strategic Plan (MMTSP) was launched in Tanzania followed by the second MMTSP implemented in 2008. In order to evaluate the MMTSP, the NMCP conducted 4 cross-sectional community-based surveys in the years 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2008, as well as one survey collecting only malaria biomarkers in 2006. The findings of the latest survey are presented and analyzed in the present work.\ud \ud Methods\ud The NMCP 2008 malaria indicator survey was carried out in 21 malaria sentinel districts, one per region, in Mainland Tanzania. Demographic data of all household members and information on mosquito net availability and use was collected, as well as data on use of IPTp and prompt and effective treatment of fever in children. Further, malaria prevalence and haemoglobin levels were tested in children under the age of five years and in currently pregnant women. In the analysis, logistic regressions with the outcome variables net use, prevalence of malaria and anaemia, and linear regressions with the outcome haemoglobin level were conducted, using location, altitude, distance to health facility, sex and age group as explanatories.\ud \ud Data found in this work was compared with both, the Tanzania HIV/AIDS and Malaria Indicator Survey (THMIS) and the Tanzania National Insecticide Treated Nets Programme (NATNETS) survey (both conducted in 2008). Principle findings 8377 households were interviewed with a total population of 40,135. 65% of the households owned at least one mosquito net and 40% owned at least one ITN. Household net ownership was associated with location, altitude and distance to health facility. 42% of the population slept under a net the night before the survey and 27% under an ITN.\ud \ud Location, distance to health facility, sex and age group were significant determinants for net use. Among children under the age of five years, net use was found to be 49% for any net and 33% for ITN, while among pregnant women it was 47% for any net and 31% for ITN. Overall, household net ownership and personal net use increased over the survey years.\ud \ud Malaria and anaemia prevalence among children was 16.1% and 5.6%, respectively. Malaria prevalence was associated with location, altitude, age group and use of ITN, while anaemia prevalence was associated with altitude and age group. Both, prevalence of anaemia and malaria among children under five decreased between 2006 and 2008. 26% of the children reported to have had a fever during the past two weeks. 15% of these children received the first line antimalarial drug within 24 hours from onset. 76% of the women who had delivered during the two years prior to the survey used IPTp and 44% took at least two doses of SP as IPTp.\ud \ud Discussion\ud It was shown that increasing coverage of malaria prevention and control interventions is negatively correlated with malaria and anaemia prevalences, hence lower prevalences for both conditions. The results of the NMCP survey were similar to those of the THMIS and the NATNETS survey and were as well externally confirmed by other studies.\ud \u

The Fermionic Entanglement Entropy of the Vacuum State of a Schwarzschild Black Hole Horizon

We define and analyze the fermionic entanglement entropy of a Schwarzschild black hole horizon for the regularized vacuum state of an observer at infinity. Using separation of variables and an integral representation of the Dirac propagator, the entanglement entropy is computed to be a prefactor times the number of occupied angular momentum modes on the event horizon.Comment: 60 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures, minor changes (published version

Banach Manifold Structure and Infinite-Dimensional Analysis for Causal Fermion Systems

A mathematical framework is developed for the analysis of causal fermion systems in the infinite-dimensional setting. It is shown that the regular spacetime point operators form a Banach manifold endowed with a canonical Fr\'echet-smooth Riemannian metric. The so-called expedient differential calculus is introduced with the purpose of treating derivatives of functions on Banach spaces which are differentiable only in certain directions. A chain rule is proven for H\"older continuous functions which are differentiable on expedient subspaces. These results are made applicable to causal fermion systems by proving that the causal Lagrangian is H\"older continuous. Moreover, H\"older continuity is analyzed for the integrated causal Lagrangian.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX, minor improvements (published version

The Fermionic Entanglement Entropy and Area Law for the Relativistic Dirac Vacuum State

We consider the fermionic entanglement entropy for the free Dirac field in a bounded spatial region of Minkowski spacetime. In order to make the system ultraviolet finite, a regularization is introduced. An area law is proven in the limiting cases where the volume tends to infinity and/or the regularization length tends to zero. The technical core of the paper is to generalize a theorem of Harold Widom to pseudo-differential operators whose principal symbols develop a specific discontinuity at a single point.Comment: 34 pages, LaTe

The Fermionic Entanglement Entropy of the Vacuum State of a Schwarzschild Black Hole Horizon

We define and analyze the fermionic entanglement entropy of a Schwarzschild black hole horizon for the regularized vacuum state of an observer at infinity. Using separation of variables and an integral representation of the Dirac propagator, the entanglement entropy is computed to be a prefactor times the number of occupied angular momentum modes on the event horizon

Photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) : the potential of excited-state d-block metals in medicine

The fields of phototherapy and of inorganic chemotherapy both have long histories. Inorganic photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) offers both temporal and spatial control over drug activation and has remarkable potential for the treatment of cancer. Following photoexcitation, a number of different decay pathways (both photophysical and photochemical) are available to a metal complex. These pathways can result in radiative energy release, loss of ligands or transfer of energy to another species, such as triplet oxygen. We discuss the features which need to be considered when developing a metal-based anticancer drug, and the common mechanisms by which the current complexes are believed to operate. We then provide a comprehensive overview of PACT developments for complexes of the different d-block metals for the treatment of cancer, detailing the more established areas concerning Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Re, Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Rh, Pt, and Cu and also highlighting areas where there is potential for greater exploration. Nanoparticles (Ag, Au) and quantum dots (Cd) are also discussed for their photothermal destructive potential. We also discuss the potential held in particular by mixed-metal systems and Ru complexes

Elliptic methods for solving the linearized field equations of causal variational principles

The existence theory is developed for solutions of the inhomogeneous linearized field equations for causal variational principles. These equations are formulated weakly with an integral operator which is shown to be bounded and symmetric on a Hilbert space endowed with a suitably adapted weighted L2-scalar product. Guided by the procedure in the theory of linear elliptic partial differential equations, we use the spectral calculus to define Sobolev-type Hilbert spaces and invert the linearized field operator as an operator between such function spaces. The uniqueness of the resulting weak solutions is analyzed. Our constructions are illustrated in simple explicit examples. The connection to the causal action principle for static causal fermion systems is explained

The Fermionic Entanglement Entropy of Causal Diamonds in Two-Dimensional Minkowski Space

The fermionic R\'enyi entanglement entropy is studied for causal diamonds in two-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. Choosing the quasi-free state describing the Minkowski vacuum with an ultraviolet regularization, a logarithmically enhanced area law is derived.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 1 figur

Trends of European research and development in district heating technologies

There is a considerable diversity of district heating (DH) technologies, components and interaction in EU countries. The trends and developments of DH are investigated in this paper. Research of four areas related to DH systems and their interaction with: fossil fuels, renewable energy (RE) sources, energy efficiency of the systems and the impact on the environment and the human health are described in the following content. The key conclusion obtained from this review is that the DH development requires more flexible energy systems with building automations, more significant contribution of RE sources, more dynamic prosumers׳ participation, and integration with mix fuel energy systems, as part of smart energy sustainable systems in smart cities. These are the main issues that Europe has to address in order to establish sustainable DH systems across its countries.This research was conducted in collaboration between Wrocław University of Technology (Poland) and Brunel University London (UK). The support for the Polish team was by the Ministry of Science and HigherEducationunderGrantno.50532