Pulse vaccination in the periodic infection rate SIR epidemic model

A pulse vaccination SIR model with periodic infection rate $\beta (t)$ have been proposed and studied. The basic reproductive number $R_0$ is defined. The dynamical behaviors of the model are analyzed with the help of persistence, bifurcation and global stability. It has been shown that the infection-free periodic solution is globally stable provided $R_0 < 1$ and is unstable if $R_0>1$. Standard bifurcation theory have been used to show the existence of the positive periodic solution for the case of $R_0 \to1^+$. Finally, the numerical simulations have been performed to show the uniqueness and the global stability of the positive periodic solution of the system.Comment: 17pages and 3figures, submmission to Mathematical Bioscience

Inspections and emissions in India : puzzling survey evidence about industrial pollution

Industrial plants face pressure to abate water pollution from many sources, national and local, through formal government regulation and through more informal pressure from consumer groups and concern for the firm's reputation. Formal regulation tends to reflect the bargaining power of local communities and is not as uniform or blind as the law would imply. Regulators are not immune to the pulls and pushes of powerful community interests. Studies of enforcement in the U.S. steel industry, for example, find that it is weaker at plants that are major employers in the local labor market. Using survey data from India, the authors examine whether themonitoring and enforcement efforts of provincial pollution control authorities are affected by local community characteristics (which serve as proxies for political power). They also test for evidence that informal pressure on plants results in negotiated reductions in emissions. They find that high levels of pollution in India elicit a formal regulatory response: inspections. But inspections are ineffective in bringing about changes in behavior, probably because of bureaucratic or other problems in follow-through. Moreover, poorly-paid inspectors with low morale may be susceptible to"rent-seeking."They find little evidence to support the hypothesis that better-educated and higher-income communities are better able to pressure plants to reduce emissions than are poorer communities, although there are significantly more inspections in more developed districts. In India, whatever community pressure exists is probably channeled through formal regulatory mechanisms. Larger plants in India, as in the rest of the world, tend to be"cleaner"than smaller plants. Indian policymakers and regulators may want to explicitly recognize the tradeoff in environmental quality of the existing regulatory bias toward the small- and medium-scale sector.Sanitation and Sewerage,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water Conservation,Public Health Promotion,Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Sanitation and Sewerage,TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2,500/AL

Bending the rules : discretionary pollution control in China

Industry compliance with pollution regulations is far from universal, even in North America. In developing countries, compliance rates are often quite low, particularly where budgets for regulation are low or inspectors are corrupt. And strictness of enforcement varies. Regulators are reluctant to impose stiff penalties on financially strapped plants that are major employers, and in many developing countries state-owned plants are treated more leniently than their private-sector counterparts. But research on determinants of compliance and enforcement is rare, even in industrial societies. The authors use new plant-level data for China to analyze variations in both compliance and enforcement, with a focus on regulation of water pollution. They look at the mechanics of official regulation, the economics of compliance, and regulatory discretion. They find: Cost-sensitive plants will try to adjust emissions to the point where the marginal levy equals the marginal cost of abatement. In practice, local regulators have considerable discretion in judging both compliance and appropriate penalties for noncompliance. China's regulators play by the rules, but often bend them. Underreporting and underassessment are common in China. But variable regulation is systematic, not random, and seems to reflect important environmental and social concerns. Old factories pay more, state-owned factories pay higher rates, and big employers get a discount. And regulators give little or no slack to heavy dischargers.Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2,500/AL,Sanitation and Sewerage

Health effects and pesticide perception as determinants of pesticide use : evidence from Bangladesh

In a recent survey of 820 Boro (winter rice), potato, bean, eggplant, cabbage, sugarcane, and mango farmers in Bangladesh, over 47 percent of farmers were found to be overusing pesticides. With only 4 percent of farmers formally trained in pesticide use or handling, and over 87 percent openly admitting to using little or no protective measures while applying pesticides, overuse is potentially a threatening problem to farmer health as well as the environment. To model pesticide overuse, the authors used a 3-equation, trivariate probit framework, with health effects and misperception of pesticide risk as endogenous dummy variables. Health effects (the first equation) were found to be strictly a function of the amount of pesticides used in production, while misperception of pesticide risk (the second equation) was determined by health impairments from pesticides and the toxicity of chemicals used. Pesticide overuse (the third equation) was significantly determined by variation in income, farm ownership, the toxicity of chemicals used, crop composition, and geographical location. The results highlight the necessity for policymakers to design effective and targeted outreach programs that deal specifically with pesticide risk, safe handling, and averting behavior. Ideally, the approach would be participatory in nature to address key informational gaps, as well as increasing a farmers'awareness retention. The results also point to specific crops and locations experiencing a higher prevalence of overuse-bean and eggplant in general-and overall production in the districts of Chapainawabganj, Chittagong, Comilla, Jessore, Narshingdi, Rajshahi, and Rangpur. Focusing efforts in these crop and geographical areas may have the most measurable effects on pesticide overuse.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems,Pest Management

Does environmental regulation matter? Determinants of the location of new manufacturing plants in India in 1994

The cost of complying with environmental regulations has been cited as a major burden on businesses. Is it enough of a burden to influence where businesses locate new plants, which are not restricted to their choice of location? The authors examine a unique establishment level dataset to find out whether the stringency of environmental regulation affects where firms locate new plants. Using a conditional logit model, they estimate the importance of difference variables in plant location choice. After controlling for the impact of factor price differentials, infrastructure and agglomeration, they find that the number of new plans commissioned in different states of India in 1994 does not appear to be adversely affected by more stringent environmental enforcement at the state level. In other words, and environmental"race to the bottom"is unlikely. They find that the level of existing business activity overwhelms all other factors affecting location decision. Reliable infrastructure and factors of production are also critical.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,National Governance,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Public Sector Economics&Finance

Why paper mills clean up : determinants of pollution abatement in four Asian countries

The authors find strong evidence that despite weak or nonexistent formal regulation and enforcement of environmental standards, many plants in South and Southeast Asia are clean. At the same time, many plants are among the world's worst polluters. To account for the extreme variation among plants, the authors review evidence from a survey of pollution abatement by 26 pulp and paper plants in four countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. They incorporate 3 sets of factors affecting pollution intensity: plant characteristics, economic considerations, and external pressure from the government and private stakeholders. They find that the level of pollution abatement is positively associated with scale and competitiveness, negatively associated with public ownership, and unaffected by foreign links (in ownership or financing). Informal regulation, or community pressure on plants works to abate pollution, with high income being a powerful predictor of effectiveness. Privatization, to the extent that it increases plant efficiency, can significantly improve environmental performance. To prevent environmental injustice in poor or marginalized communities, the authors conclude, governments may want to consider strategies for improving their participation, and may want to target regulation to address pollution problems among them.Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water Conservation,Pollution Management&Control,Sanitation and Sewerage,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Pollution Management&Control,Sanitation and Sewerage,TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2,500/AL

Future Medical Doctors Are Ready to Prescribe Antimicrobials Safely and Rationally

Therefore, the answer remains in improving clinical pharmacology teaching and learning in undergraduate curriculum [40, 41]with necessary assessment program regarding prescribing skill [40]need to incorporate with the hope situation will improve to provide better health care for common people of this planet.Â

X-ray Radiation Enabled Cancer Detection And Treatment With Nanoparticles

Despite significant improvements in medical sciences over the last decade, cancer still continues to be a major cause of death in humans throughout the world. Parallel to the efforts of understanding the intricacies of cancer biology, researchers are continuously striving to develop effective cancer detection and treatment strategies. Use of nanotechnology in the modern era opens up a wide range of possibilities for diagnostics, therapies and preventive measures for cancer management. Although, existing strategies of cancer detection and treatment, using nanoparticles, have been proven successful in case of cancer imaging and targeted drug deliveries, they are often limited by poor sensitivity, lack of specificity, complex sample preparation efforts and inherent toxicities associated with the nanoparticles, especially in case of in-vivo applications. Moreover, the detection of cancer is not necessarily integrated with treatment. X-rays have long been used in radiation therapy to kill cancer cells and also for imaging tumors inside the body using nanoparticles as contrast agents. However, X-rays, in combination with nanoparticles, can also be used for cancer diagnosis by detecting cancer biomarkers and circulating tumor cells. Moreover, the use of nanoparticles can also enhance the efficacy of X-ray radiation therapy for cancer treatment. This dissertation describes a novel in vitro technique for cancer detection and treatment using X-ray radiation and nanoparticles. Surfaces of synthesized metallic nanoparticles have been modified with appropriate ligands to specifically target cancer cells and biomarkers in vitro. Characteristic X-ray fluorescence signals from the X-ray irradiated nanoparticles are then used for detecting the presence of cancer. The method enables simultaneous detection of multiple iv cancer biomarkers allowing accurate diagnosis and early detection of cancer. Circulating tumor cells, which are the primary indicators of cancer metastasis, have also been detected where the use of magnetic nanoparticles allows enrichment of rare cancer cells prior to detection. The approach is unique in that it integrates cancer detection and treatment under one platform, since, X-rays have been shown to effectively kill cancer cells through radiation induced DNA damage. Due to high penetrating power of X-rays, the method has potential applications for in vivo detection and treatment of deeply buried cancers in humans. The effect of nanoparticle toxicity on multiple cell types has been investigated using conventional cytotoxicity assays for both unmodified nanoparticles as well as nanoparticles modified with a variety of surface coatings. Appropriate surface modifications have significantly reduced inherent toxicity of nanoparticles, providing possibilities for future clinical applications. To investigate cellular damages caused by X-ray radiation, an on-chip biodosimeter has been fabricated based on three dimensional microtissues which allows direct monitoring of responses to X-ray exposure for multiple mammalian cell types. Damage to tumor cells caused by X-rays is known to be significantly higher in presence of nanoparticles which act as radiosensitizers and enhance localized radiation doses. An analytical approach is used to investigate the various parameters that affect the radiosensitizing properties of the nanoparticles. The results can be used to increase the efficacy of nanoparticle aided X-ray radiation therapy for cancer treatment by appropriate choice of X-ray beam energy, nanoparticle size, material composition and location of nanoparticle with respect to the tumor cell nucleus

Forecast of Total Electron Content over Europe for disturbed ionospheric Conditions

A general picture of the occurrence of ionospheric storms as function of local time, season and location is known from numerous studies over the past 50 years. Nevertheless, it is not yet possible to say how the ionosphere will actually respond to a given space weather event because the measurements of the onset time, location of maximum perturbation, amplitude and type of storm (positive or negative) deviate much from the climatology. However, statistical analyses of numerous storm events observed in the Total Electron Content (TEC) since 1995 enable to estimate and predict a most probable upcoming perturbed TEC over Europe based on forecasts of geomagnetic activity. A first approach will be presented here. The forecast of perturbed TEC is part of the Forecast System Ionosphere build under the umbrella of the FP7 project AFFECTS∗ (Advanced Forecast For Ensuring Communication Through Space). It aims to help users mitigating the impact on communication system