Predicting Distribution of Aedes Aegypti and Culex Pipiens Complex, Potential Vectors of Rift Valley Fever Virus in Relation to Disease Epidemics in East Africa.

The East African region has experienced several Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreaks since the 1930s. The objective of this study was to identify distributions of potential disease vectors in relation to disease epidemics. Understanding disease vector potential distributions is a major concern for disease transmission dynamics. DIVERSE ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODELLING TECHNIQUES HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR THIS PURPOSE: we present a maximum entropy (Maxent) approach for estimating distributions of potential RVF vectors in un-sampled areas in East Africa. We modelled the distribution of two species of mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens complex) responsible for potential maintenance and amplification of the virus, respectively. Predicted distributions of environmentally suitable areas in East Africa were based on the presence-only occurrence data derived from our entomological study in Ngorongoro District in northern Tanzania. Our model predicted potential suitable areas with high success rates of 90.9% for A. aegypti and 91.6% for C. pipiens complex. Model performance was statistically significantly better than random for both species. Most suitable sites for the two vectors were predicted in central and northwestern Tanzania with previous disease epidemics. Other important risk areas include western Lake Victoria, northern parts of Lake Malawi, and the Rift Valley region of Kenya. Findings from this study show distributions of vectors had biological and epidemiological significance in relation to disease outbreak hotspots, and hence provide guidance for the selection of sampling areas for RVF vectors during inter-epidemic periods

Social and content hybrid image recommender system for mobile social networks

One of the advantages of social networks is the possibility to socialize and personalize the content created or shared by the users. In mobile social networks, where the devices have limited capabilities in terms of screen size and computing power, Multimedia Recommender Systems help to present the most relevant content to the users, depending on their tastes, relationships and profile. Previous recommender systems are not able to cope with the uncertainty of automated tagging and are knowledge domain dependant. In addition, the instantiation of a recommender in this domain should cope with problems arising from the collaborative filtering inherent nature (cold start, banana problem, large number of users to run, etc.). The solution presented in this paper addresses the abovementioned problems by proposing a hybrid image recommender system, which combines collaborative filtering (social techniques) with content-based techniques, leaving the user the liberty to give these processes a personal weight. It takes into account aesthetics and the formal characteristics of the images to overcome the problems of current techniques, improving the performance of existing systems to create a mobile social networks recommender with a high degree of adaptation to any kind of user

Research productivity and academics’ conceptions of research

This paper asks the question: do people with different levels of research productivity and identification as a researcher think of research differently? It discusses a study that differentiated levels of research productivity among English and Australian academics working in research-intensive environments in three broad discipline areas: science, engineering and technology; social science and humanities; and medicine and health sciences. The paper explores the different conceptions of research held by these academics in terms of their levels of research productivity, their levels of research training, whether they considered themselves an active researcher and a member of a research team, and their disciplinary differences

Nonlinear structural response in jet fire in association with the interaction between fire loads and time-variant geometry and material properties

For safety design of structures against fire loads, time-variant geometry and material properties depending on the temperature should be considered with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis. One-way FSI analysis is generally applied due to a time consuming task. But, it has big difference of structural response between conducting oneway and two-way FSI analysis. And two-way analysis is also affected by time increment of analysis for updating the geometry, and fire loads. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of time increments on two-way FSI analysis of structures subjected to jet fire, and to suggest a proper time increment for two-way FSI analysis. In the present study, geometries and material properties are updated at every time increments, and kinds of two-way FSI analysis are performed with different time increments by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA) and an interface program between CFD and NLFEA

En bloc Extended Total Thymectomy and Extrapleural Pneumonectomy in Masaoka stage IVA Thymomas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Surgical excision is the primary treatment for a thymoma. However, for advanced thymoma that extends to within the thoracic cavity and for recurrent cases with pleural dissemination (Masaoka stage IVA), the appropriate treatment is controversial. We evaluated the safety of surgery and outcomes of seven patients that underwent an en bloc extended total thymectomy and extrapleural pneumonectomy for stage IVA thymomas.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From 1994 to 2009, five patients initially diagnosed with pleural dissemination and two patients with recurrent tumors in the pleura and lungs after a total thymectomy, were identified. Seven patients had an extrapleural pneumonectomy performed. For the first operation, five patients underwent additional en bloc extended total thymectomy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two recurrent cases were identified 55.2 and 12.3 months after first operation. Two patients had WHO type B1-B2 tumors, two had B2, two had B2-B3, and one had a B3 tumor. The mean hospital stay was 15.3 days (range: 7-29). There was no operative mortality. Four patients had neoadjuvant chemotherapy and five were treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. The median survival was 30.6 months and the Kaplan-Meier 2-year survival was 100% (95% confidence interval: 24.6-36.6 months). One patient, who did not receive induction chemotherapy, had distant metastases after surgery.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>En bloc extended total thymectomy and extrapleural pneumonectomy can be safely performed on selected patients with stage IVA thymomas and is expected to achieve complete local control. Although the treatment strategy has yet to be standardized, complete resection with appropriate systemic therapy may improve survival in otherwise fatal disease.</p

The interferon gamma gene polymorphism +874 A/T is associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome

BACKGROUND: Cytokines play important roles in antiviral action. We examined whether polymorphisms of IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-10 affect the susceptibility to and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). METHODS: A case-control study was carried out in 476 Chinese SARS patients and 449 healthy controls. We tested the polymorphisms of IFN-γ,TNF-α and IL-10 for their associations with SARS. RESULTS: IFN-γ +874A allele was associated with susceptibility to SARS in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.001). Individuals with IFN-γ +874 AA and AT genotype had a 5.19-fold (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 2.78-9.68) and 2.57-fold (95% CI, 1.35-4.88) increased risk of developing SARS respectively. The polymorphisms of IL-10 and TNF-α were not associated with SARS susceptibility. CONCLUSION: IFN-γ +874A allele was shown to be a risk factor in SARS susceptibility

A Measurement of Rb using a Double Tagging Method

The fraction of Z to bbbar events in hadronic Z decays has been measured by the OPAL experiment using the data collected at LEP between 1992 and 1995. The Z to bbbar decays were tagged using displaced secondary vertices, and high momentum electrons and muons. Systematic uncertainties were reduced by measuring the b-tagging efficiency using a double tagging technique. Efficiency correlations between opposite hemispheres of an event are small, and are well understood through comparisons between real and simulated data samples. A value of Rb = 0.2178 +- 0.0011 +- 0.0013 was obtained, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. The uncertainty on Rc, the fraction of Z to ccbar events in hadronic Z decays, is not included in the errors. The dependence on Rc is Delta(Rb)/Rb = -0.056*Delta(Rc)/Rc where Delta(Rc) is the deviation of Rc from the value 0.172 predicted by the Standard Model. The result for Rb agrees with the value of 0.2155 +- 0.0003 predicted by the Standard Model.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX, 14 eps figures included, submitted to European Physical Journal

Phloroglucinol Inhibits the Bioactivities of Endothelial Progenitor Cells and Suppresses Tumor Angiogenesis in LLC-Tumor-Bearing Mice

Background: There is increasing evidence that phloroglucinol, a compound from Ecklonia cava, induces the apoptosis of cancer cells, eventually suppressing tumor angiogenesis. Methodology/Principal Findings: This is the first report on phloroglucinol’s ability to potentially inhibit the functional bioactivities of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and thereby attenuate tumor growth and angiogenesis in the Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC)-tumor-bearing mouse model. Although Phloroglucinol did not affect their cell toxicity, it specifically inhibited vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) dependent migration and capillary-like tube formation of EPCs. Our matrigel plug assay clearly indicated that orally injected phloroglucinol effectively disrupts VEGF-induced neovessel formation. Moreover, we demonstrated that when phloroglucinol is orally administered, it significantly inhibits tumor growth and angiogenesis as well as CD45 2 /CD34 + progenitor mobilization into peripheral blood in vivo in the LLC-tumorbearing mouse model. Conclusions/Significance: These results suggest a novel role for phloroglucinol: Phloroglucinol might be a modulator of circulating EPC bioactivities, eventually suppressing tumorigenesis. Therefore, phloroglucinol might be a candidat