Analysis of DNA and recombinant viral vaccines against <i>P. falciparum</i> in malaria-naïve and malaria-exposed humans

The hypotheses under test were as follows. Firstly that sequential immunisation of humans with two candidate vaccines recombinant for the same malarial DNA sequence would be safe, would produce higher frequencies of antigen-specific T cells in peripheral blood and greater efficacy than repeated immunisation with one vaccine. Secondly that recombinant viral malaria immunization would be more immunogenic in malaria-exposed than malaria-naive individuals. The third hypothesis was contingent on the conduct of a field efficacy trial; liver-stage specific T cells induced by the regimen with greatest immunogenicity would provide protection against natural infection. Three delivery systems were evaluated - a circular plasmid DNA molecule (DNA), modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) and fowlpox strain 9 (FP9); each recombinant for the multiple epitope - thrombospondin related anonymous (or adhesion) protein (ME-TRAP) P. falciparum DNA sequence. DNA ME-TRAP and MVA ME-TRAP were safe but poorly immunogenic when given alone in both UK and Gambian adults. Two doses of 1mg DNA ME-TRAP administered intramuscularly followed by one dose of 3 x 107 plaque forming units (pfu) MVA ME-TRAP administered intradermally induced higher effector T cell frequencies as measured by ex vivo γ-interferon ELISPOT (enzyme-linked immunospot) assay than three doses of either alone. A second MVA ME-TRAP immunisation did not increase immunogenicity above that after a single immunisation. At these doses the DNA/MVA regimen was more immunogenic in malaria-experienced Gambian adults than in malaria-naive British adults. Increasing the dose of DNA to 2mg and MVA to 1.5 x 108 pfu increased immunogenicity further. Two doses of FP9 ME-TRAP showed a trend towards to being less immunogenic than two doses of DNA ME-TRAP prior to a single MVA immunisation. The heterologous DNA/MVA regimen afforded protection manifested by delay in time to parasitaemia in a clinical challenge model in the UK. Therefore a randomised double-blind controlled trial was conducted in men aged 15 45 in The Gambia. This trial confirmed safety and high immunogenicity but there was 10.3% (95%CI -22% to +34%) efficacy for the time to infection primary endpoint. Potential reasons for failure of the intervention include an unfavourable CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio, inadequate TRAP expression in infected hepatocytes, inadequate cross-reactivity and the duration or magnitude of the peak T cell immunogenicity

Better sanitation in Bihar through empowerment of women

Bihar is a backward state with 90% of rural population. Only 20% of the families have toilets. Men give least priority for sanitation. Culturally and socially it is a patriarchal society. Total Sanitation Campaign programme was launched in the year 2000 to facilitate and provide sanitary facilities, to every family and to promote hygiene practices. One of the key strategies adopted to increase sanitation coverage is to empower women folks to take responsibility in their hands. The key steps taken for women empowerment includes facilitating and supporting their access, participation, conscientisation and control leading to social change. Strategic partnership was developed with Mahila Samakhaya, Milk Union, Women Development Corporation and NGOs working for women’s issues. 136000 families constructed toilets in Bihar in year 2005-06, mainly through women self help groups. The key lesson learnt is that women participation in decision making can help in sustaining water and sanitation programmes

Vallalar's Ethical Principles for Social Renaissance

Even if they are capable of doing all things by infinite divine power, the attainment of perfection by living beings is designed to be self-contained, to lose itself, to hate itself, and to desire that every living being desires to receive its own ascents. There are moral scriptures to give us a shoulder in that endeavour. Thus, there is a lot of evidence that Vallalar has explained clearly in the six Thirumarais of Thiruvarutpa the ethical ideas of Vallalar, which indicates that it is very good to have a renaissance in the society if morality is followed in the way of life of the individual. Such ethical principles can be seen in detail in the article

An Exploratory Study of Pre-service Primary Teachers’ Understanding of Uncertainty in Measurements in Singapore

This study was set in the context of a reform agenda for Singapore’s science curriculum to adopt inquiry in teaching and learning science (MOE, 2008). Teachers, including pre-service primary teachers (PSTs) who were subjects of this study, are expected to engage their students with scientific evidence including measurements taken during science investigations. The inherent nature of measurements is that they are always affected by errors that caused uncertainty. Understanding this, as well as other procedural ideas underpinning uncertainty would be important for understanding evidence before looking at data that are subjected to uncertainties in measurements. Such understandings would be important for the PSTs when they teach their future students how to obtain valid and reliable data, and to evaluate the methods of investigation or scientific conclusions based on evidence. This study, therefore, was aimed at exploring such understandings using the Concepts of Evidence (Gott, Duggan, and Roberts, 2008) as a theoretical framework. The lack of a research instrument customised to such a need motivated this study to develop one. The study was carried out in two phases. The first involved fifty-five PSTs and directed towards getting an accurate interpretation of procedural ideas underlying uncertainty by triangulating the evidence from questionnaire and interviews and iteratively refining the “probes” as the study progressed. The second phase focused on developing a questionnaire based on findings from the first and testing it on twenty PSTs. The results revealed that most PSTs could recognise uncertainties in measurements and suggest the right actions to deal with them, but they generally had difficulties explaining their actions implying shallow understanding of concepts underpinning uncertainty, and reliance on routine knowledge. This has strong implications for teacher preparatory programmes as well as the teaching of procedural understanding

The role of low-frequency intraseasonal oscillations in the anomalous Indian summer monsoon rainfall of 2002

We analyze the dynamical features and responsible factors of the low-frequency intraseasonal time scales which influenced the nature of onset, intensity and duration of active/break phases and withdrawal of the monsoon during the anomalous Indian summer monsoon of 2002 - the most severe drought recorded in recent times. During that season, persistent warm sea surface temperature anomalies over the equatorial Indian Ocean played a significant role in modulating the strength of the monsoon Hadley circulation. This in turn affected the onset and intense break spells especially the long break during the peak monsoon month of July. Strong low-frequency intraseasonal modulations with significant impact on the onset and active/break phases occurred in 2002 which were manifested as a good association between low-frequency intraseasonal oscillations and the onset and active/break spells. Further, SST anomalies over the equatorial Indo-Pacific region on low-frequency intraseasonal time scales were found to affect the equatorial eastward and thereby off-equatorial northward propagations of enhanced convection over the Indian region. These propagations in turn modulated the active/break cycle deciding the consequent severity of the 2002 drought

Aerosol properties and BC mass mixing ratios over the Arabian Sea during ARMEX 2004

This article does not have an abstract

Aerosol spectral optical depths over the Bay of Bengal: role of transport

Recent experiments have shown the potential role of air masses in transporting aerosols to locations far away from source regions. Despite the importance of the Bay of Bengal to Indian climate and monsoon, no serious aerosol observations are available for this region. Extensive aerosol optical depth estimates, made for the first time from an island location, Port Blair (11.63°N; 92.71°E) in the Bay of Bengal, during the Indian winter of 2002, are used to examine the impact of air trajectories in modifying the optical depths and their spectral dependences. The results are examined for their distinctiveness with respect to the origin as well as transport. It is seen that the trajectories arriving from the regions east of the station (South China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma) are richer in aerosol abundance, more in the sub micron size range, than those arriving from the west, across the Indian landmass