The Global Burden of Alveolar Echinococcosis

Human alveolar echinococcosis (AE), caused by the larval stage of the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis, is amongst the world's most dangerous zoonoses. Transmission to humans is by consumption of parasite eggs which are excreted in the faeces of the definitive hosts: foxes and, increasingly, dogs. Transmission can be through contact with the definitive host or indirectly through contamination of food or possibly water with parasite eggs. We made an intensive search of English, Russian, Chinese and other language databases. We targeted data which could give country specific incidence or prevalence of disease and searched for data from every country we believed to be endemic for AE. We also used data from other sources (often unpublished). From this information we were able to make an estimate of the annual global incidence of disease and disease burden using standard techniques for calculation of DALYs. Our studies suggest that AE results in a median of 18,235 cases globally with a burden of 666,433 DALYs per annum. This is the first estimate of the global burden of AE both in terms of global incidence and DALYs and demonstrates the burden of AE is comparable to several diseases in the neglected tropical disease cluster

Joint routing, gateway selection, scheduling and power management optimization in wireless mesh networks

The third generation (3G) wireless communications technology delivers user traffic in a single step to the wired network via base station; therefore it requires all base stations to be connected to the wired network. On the other hand, in the fourth generation (4G) communication systems, it is planned to have the base stations set up so that they can deliver each other's traffic to a small number of base stations equipped with wired connections. In order to improve system resiliency against failures, a mesh structure is preferred. The most important issue in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) is that the signals that are simultaneously transmitted on the same frequency channel can interfere with each other to become incomprehensible at the receiver end. It is possible to operate the links at different times or at different frequencies, but this also lowers capacity usage. In this paper, we tackle the planning problems of WMN, using 802.16 (Wi-MAX) protocol, such as deploying a given number of gateway nodes along with operational problems such as routing, management of power used by nodes and scheduling while maximizing the minimum service level provided. In order to be able to apply our results to real systems, we work with optimization models based on realistic assumptions such as physical interference and single path routing. We propose heuristic methods to obtain optimal or near optimal solutions in reasonable time. The models are applied to some cities in Istanbul and Ankara provinces

Evaluation of human chaperonin 10 and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels of infertile women who underwent ovulation induction and intra-uterine insemination

Introduction: The implantation of embryo is one of the crucial steps of a successful pregnancy. The foetus should be protected from maternal immune system, for the appropriate implantation and modification in maternal immunity is crucial. We investigated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs CRP), which is an indicator of low-grade inflammation and Cp10 that has immunosuppressant and growth-promoting capabilities at embryo levels in ovulation induction and intra-uterine insemination (IUI) applied in infertile women. The ovulation induction was maintained by clomiphene citrate or gonadotropins for 42 infertile patients. After successful ovulation induction, IUI was carried out. The blood samples were taken 2 and 8 days after IUI to evaluate Cp10 and hs CRP levels. The pregnant and non-pregnant groups' results were analyzed. The Cp10 levels 8 days after IUI were higher in pregnant group, whereas there was no difference for the 2 days after levels between pregnant and non-pregnant group. The hs CRP levels were similar for both 2nd and 8th days when we compared pregnant and non-pregnant groups. The Cp10 levels increased from day 2 to day 8 in pregnant group. In contrast, the Cp10 levels decreased in non-pregnant group. The change in hs CRP levels from day 2 to day 8 was not significant in pregnant and non-pregnant groups. The Cp10 levels were higher in early phases of fertilisation and elevated through the preceding days of conception in pregnant patients, while it decreased in non-pregnant patients with failed cycles.Namik Kemal University, Scientific Research Project ProgrammeNamik Kemal University [NKUBAP.00.20.AR.11.02]The study was funded by Namik Kemal University, Scientific Research Project Programme. (NKUBAP.00.20.AR.11.02