Examining environmental drivers of spatial variability in aflatoxin accumulation in Kenyan maize: potential utility in risk prediction models

Maize, a staple food in most African countries, is prone to contamination by aflatoxins, toxic secondary metabolites mainly produced by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. Aflatoxins are known to cause liver cancer, and chronic exposure has been linked to other adverse health outcomes including growth faltering in children. To mitigate exposure in maize-dependent populations, there is need to identify the factors associated with aflatoxin contamination. This is difficult, however, because of high sampling cost and lack of affordable and accurate analytical methods. Publicly available, remotely-sensed data on vegetation, precipitation, and soil properties could be useful in predicting locations at risk for aflatoxin contamination in maize. This study investigates the utility of publicly available remotely-sensed data on rainfall, vegetation cover (indicated by normalized difference vegetation index or NDVI), and soil characteristics as potential predictors of aflatoxin contamination in Kenyan maize. Aflatoxin was analyzed in maize samples (n=2466) that were collected in 2009 and 2010 at 243 local hammer mills in eastern and western Kenya. Overall, 60% of maize samples had detectable aflatoxin. Global positioning system coordinates of each mill location were linked to remotely-sensed, spatially explicit indicators of average monthly NDVI, total monthly rainfall, and soil properties. Higher rainfall and vegetation cover during the maize pre-flowering period were significantly associated with higher prevalence of aflatoxin contamination. Conversely, higher rainfall and vegetation cover during the maize flowering and post-flowering periods (not including harvest) were associated with lower prevalence of aflatoxin contamination. Water stress throughout the growing season may cause increased plant susceptibility to fungal colonization and aflatoxin accumulation. Soil organic carbon content, pH, total exchangeable bases, salinity, texture, and soil type were significantly associated with aflatoxin. In conclusion, this study shows that remotely-sensed data can be regressed on available aflatoxin data highlighting important potential predictors that could reduce the cost of data collection and the cost of aflatoxin risk forecasting models.Keywords: Aflatoxin, GIS, NDVI, soil characteristics, rainfall, mycotoxins, East Africa, Keny

Approximation of excitonic absorption in disordered systems using a compositional component weighted CPA

Employing a recently developed technique of component weighted two particle Green's functions in the CPA of a binary substitutional alloy $A_cB_{1-c}$ we extend the existing theory of excitons in such media using a contact potential model for the interaction between electrons and holes to an approximation which interpolates correctly between the limits of weak and strong disorder. With our approach we are also able to treat the case where the contact interaction between carriers varies between sites of different types, thus introducing further disorder into the system. Based on this approach we study numerically how the formation of exciton bound states changes as the strengths of the contact potentials associated with either of the two site types are varied through a large range of parameter values.Comment: 27 pages RevTeX (preprint format), 13 Postscript figure file

Mental Health Problems in Girls Who Committed Sexual Offenses: Similarities and Differences Compared to Girls With Non-sex Offenses and Boys With Sex Offenses

Female juvenile offenders have only recently shifted into the focus of research. Moreover, a specific subgroup, female juveniles who sexually offended (JSO) are greatly overlooked. Therefore, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding the characteristics of female JSOs. The aim of the current study was to explore mental health problems (MHP) of female JSOs in more detail. Moreover, we compared their mental health with female juveniles who committed non-sexual offenses (JNSOs) and male JSOs. The sample comprised 33 female JSOs (Mean age 14.5, SD 1.8), 33 age-matched female JNSOs, and 33 age-matched male JSOs. We used the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-version 2 to examine MHP. Although both internalizing and externalizing MHP were not uncommon in female JSOs, they reported fewer problems than female JNSOs. No differences were found between female and male JSOs. With regard to their mental health profile, female JSOs resemble male JSOs more than female JNSOs. These results should be taken into account in the assessment and treatment of this group. However, more research is needed

Steady-State Properties of Single-File Systems with Conversion

We have used Monte-Carlo methods and analytical techniques to investigate the influence of the characteristic parameters, such as pipe length, diffusion, adsorption, desorption and reaction rate constants on the steady-state properties of Single-File Systems with a reaction. We looked at cases when all the sites are reactive and when only some of them are reactive. Comparisons between Mean-Field predictions and Monte-Carlo simulations for the occupancy profiles and reactivity are made. Substantial differences between Mean-Field and the simulations are found when rates of diffusion are high. Mean-Field results only include Single-File behavior by changing the diffusion rate constant, but it effectively allows passing of particles. Reactivity converges to a limit value if more reactive sites are added: sites in the middle of the system have little or no effect on the kinetics. Occupancy profiles show approximately exponential behavior from the ends to the middle of the system.Comment: 15 pages, 20 figure

The Strong CP Problem and Axions

I describe how the QCD vacuum structure, necessary to resolve the $U(1)_A$ problem, predicts the presence of a P, T and CP violating term proportional to the vacuum angle $\bar{\theta}$. To agree with experimental bounds, however, this parameter must be very small $(\bar{\theta} \leq 10^{-9}$). After briefly discussing some possible other solutions to this, so-called, strong CP problem, I concentrate on the chiral solution proposed by Peccei and Quinn which has associated with it a light pseudoscalar particle, the axion. I discuss in detail the properties and dynamics of axions, focusing particularly on invisible axion models where axions are very light, very weakly coupled and very long-lived. Astrophysical and cosmological bounds on invisible axions are also briefly touched upon.Comment: 14 pages, to appear in the Lecture Notes in Physics volume on Axions, (Springer Verlag

Associations between blood sex steroid concentrations and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in healthy older women in Australia: a prospective cohort substudy of the ASPREE trial

Background: Blood testosterone concentrations in women decline during the reproductive years and reach a nadir in the seventh decade, after which concentrations increase and are restored to those of reproductive-aged women early in the eighth decade. We aimed to establish the association between the concentration of testosterone in the blood and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all-cause mortality in healthy older women. Methods: SHOW was a prospective cohort substudy of the longitudinal randomised ASPREE trial. Eligible participants were women aged at least 70 years from Australia with unimpaired cognition, no previous MACE, and a life expectancy of at least 5 years. Participants who were receiving hormonal or steroid therapy were ineligible for inclusion. We measured serum concentrations of sex steroids with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and of SHBG with immunoassay. We compared lower concentrations of sex hormones with higher concentrations using four quartiles. Primary endpoints were risk of MACE and all-cause mortality, the associations of which with sex steroid concentrations were assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression that included age, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, impaired renal function, and treatment allocation in the ASPREE trial (aspirin vs placebo). ASPREE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01038583. Findings: Of the 9180 women recruited to the ASPREE trial between March 10, 2010, and Dec 31 2014, 6358 participants provided sufficient biobank samples at baseline and 5535 were included in the final analysis. Median age at entry was 74·0 years (IQR 71·7–77·7). During a median 4·4 years of follow-up (24 553 person-years), 144 (2·6%) women had a first MACE (incidence 5·9 per 1000 person-years). During a median 4·6 years of follow-up (3·8–5·6), 200 women died (7·9 per 1000 person-years). In the fully adjusted models, higher concentrations of testosterone were associated with a lower incidence of MACE (quartile 4 vs quartile 1: hazard ratio 0·57 [95% CI 0·36–0·91]; p=0·02), as were higher concentrations of DHEA (quartile 4 vs quartile 1: 0·61 [0·38–0·97]; p=0·04). For oestrone, a lower risk of MACE was seen for concentrations in quartile 2 only, compared with quartile 1 (0·55 [0·33–0·92]; p=0·02). In fully adjusted models, no association was seen between SHBG and MACE, or between any hormone or SHBG and all-cause mortality. Interpretation: Blood concentrations of testosterone and DHEA above the lowest quartile in older women were associated with a reduced risk of a first-ever MACE. Given that the physiological effects of DHEA are mediated through its steroid metabolites, if the current findings were to be replicated, trials investigating testosterone therapy for the primary prevention of ischaemic cardiovascular disease events in older women would be warranted. Funding: The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, US National Institute on Aging, the Victorian Cancer Agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and Monash University

Folding transition of the triangular lattice in a discrete three--dimensional space

A vertex model introduced by M. Bowick, P. Di Francesco, O. Golinelli, and E. Guitter (cond-mat/9502063) describing the folding of the triangular lattice onto the face centered cubic lattice has been studied in the hexagon approximation of the cluster variation method. The model describes the behaviour of a polymerized membrane in a discrete three--dimensional space. We have introduced a curvature energy and a symmetry breaking field and studied the phase diagram of the resulting model. By varying the curvature energy parameter, a first-order transition has been found between a flat and a folded phase for any value of the symmetry breaking field.Comment: 11 pages, latex file, 2 postscript figure

Effects of columnar disorder on flux-lattice melting in high-temperature superconductors

The effect of columnar pins on the flux-lines melting transition in high-temperature superconductors is studied using Path Integral Monte Carlo simulations. We highlight the similarities and differences in the effects of columnar disorder on the melting transition in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ (YBCO) and the highly anisotropic Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ (BSCCO) at magnetic fields such that the mean separation between flux-lines is smaller than the penetration length. For pure systems, a first order transition from a flux-line solid to a liquid phase is seen as the temperature is increased. When adding columnar defects to the system, the transition temperature is not affected in both materials as long as the strength of an individual columnar defect (expressed as a flux-line defect interaction) is less than a certain threshold for a given density of randomly distributed columnar pins. This threshold strength is lower for YBCO than for BSCCO. For higher strengths the transition line is shifted for both materials towards higher temperatures, and the sharp jump in energy, characteristic of a first order transition, gives way to a smoother and gradual rise of the energy, characteristic of a second order transition. Also, when columnar defects are present, the vortex solid phase is replaced by a pinned Bose glass phase and this is manifested by a marked decrease in translational order and orientational order as measured by the appropriate structure factors. For BSCCO, we report an unusual rise of the translational order and the hexatic order just before the melting transition. No such rise is observed in YBCO.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, revte