On norm preserving conditions for local automorphisms of commutative banach algebras

The history of commutative algebra first appeared in 1890 by David Hilbert which was then followed by Banach spaces in 1924 since localization reduces many problems of geometric special case into commutative algebra problems of local ring. So far, many studies on preserver problems have been focusing on linear preserver problems (LPPs) especially LPPs in matrix theory. Also in consideration has been the characterization of all linear transformation on given linear space of matrices that leave certain functions, subsets and relations invariant. Clearly, we also have spectrum preserver problem or transmission. Kadison and Sourour have also shown that the derivation of local derivation of Von Neumann algebra R are continous linear maps if it coincides with some derivation at each point in the algebra over C. We employ the concept of 2-local automorphisms introduced by Serml that if we let A be an algebra, then the transformation  is called a 2-local automorphism if for all x, y  A there is an automorphism (xy) of A for which x,y(x) and x,y(y). In this paper, we characterize commutativity of local automorphism of commutative Banach algebras, establish the norm preserver condition and determine the norms of locally inner automorphisms of commutative Banach algebras. We use  Hahn-Banach extension theorems and the great ideas developed by Richard, and Sorour to develop the algebra of local automorphisms, then integrate it with norm preserver conditions of commutative Banach algebras. The results of this work have a great impact in explaining the theoritical aspects of quantum mechanics especially when determining the distance of physical quantities

Norms and numerical radii inequalities for ( ) - normal transaloid operators

The studies on Hilbert spaces for the last decade has been of great interest to many mathematicians and researchers, especially on operator inequalities related to operator norms and numerical radii for a family of bounded linear operators acting on a Hilbert spaces. Results on some inequalities for normal operators in Hilbert spaces for instance numerical ranges W(T), numerical radii w(T) and norm ||.|| obtained  by Dragomir and Moslehian among others due to some classical inequalities for vectors in Hilbert spaces. The techniques employed to prove the results are elementary with some special vector inequalities in inner product spaces due to Buzano, Goldstein, Ryff and Clarke as well as some reverse Schwarz inequalities. Recently, the new field of operator theory done by Dragomir and Moslehian on norms and numerical radii for ( ) - normal operators developed basic concepts for our Statement of the problem on normal transaloid operators. M. Fujii and R. Nakamoto characterize transaloid operators in terms of spectral sets and dilations and other non-normal operators such as normaloid, convexoid and spectroid. Furuta did also characterization of normaloid operators. Since none has done on norms and numerical radii inequalities for ( ) – normal transaloid operators, then our aim is to characterize ( )- normal  transaloid  operators, characterize norm inequalities for ( )- normal transaloid operators and to characterize numerical radii for ( )- normal transaloid operators.  We use the approach of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequalities, parallelogram law, triangle inequality and tensor products. The results obtained are useful in applications in quantum mechanics

Why is it some households fall into poverty at the same time others are escaping poverty? Evidence from Kenya

Presents study carried out to evaluate how different households have fared over time in the communities. The aim of the study was to determine the proportions of households that Why is it some households fall into poverty at the same time others are escaping poverty? The study presents results from a study of poverty dynamics across Kenya using a participatory poverty assessment methodology known as the ‘Stages of Progress Methodology.’ This method is a relatively rapid, effective and participatory way to learn about poverty processes at both community and household levels. The approach generates very useful information for identifying the poor, and for understanding the factors that push people into and pull them out of poverty. Using this methodology, the typical stages through which people progress out of poverty were elicited for 71 Kenyan communities and 4773 households. The discussion of the different stages, and the order in which they occur, provoked lively debate among assembled villagers. The findings show that in virtually all 71 communities, house-holds progress out of poverty first by acquiring food, followed by obtaining adequate clothing, making improvements in their shelter, securing primary education for their children, starting small businesses. The paper presents the results of recent investigations, carried out specifically to gain knowledge about the reasons underlying poverty. Reasons for escape and reasons for descent operating in each livelihood region of Kenya were identified through a careful examination of poverty dynamics

Brucellosis in Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, Southern Sudan

Objectives: To identify factors associated with Brucellosis in patients attending Terekeka Health Facility, Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, Southern Sudan and to evaluate the utility of the rapid test kit Euracil®.Design: A facility based case-control study.Setting: Terekeka Health Facility, Terekeka County, Central Equatoria State, Southern Sudan.Subjects: Cases were patients presenting at the Terekeka Health Facility with clinical symptoms suggestive of Brucellosis and tested positive for Brucellosis by rapid antigen test while controls were selected from individuals attending Terekeka Health facility with health problems unrelated to brucellosis or febrile illness.Results: A total of fifty eight cases with clinical symptoms suggestive of and tested positive for Brucellosis by rapid antigen test presented. A total of 116 consented controls were recruited into the study. Males accounted for 52% of the cases and 53% of the controls. The mean age was 31 years for both groups. Cases without formal education were 84% while 40% had no source of income, 20% of the cases and 14% of the controls were cattle keepers while 5% of the cases and 13% of the controls were students. In multivariate analysis there were many factors associated with Brucellosislike consumption of raw meat, living with animals at the same place, raising of goats, farm cleaning contact, eating of aborted and wild animals. Logistic regression revealed two factors associated with the disease; consumption of raw milk (OR=3.9, P-value 0.001, 95% CI 1.6666 - 9.0700) was a risk factor while drinking boiled milk was protective(OR= 0.09, p- value 0.000, 95% CI, 0.1 - 0.2).Conclusions: The main age-groups affected were 20 – 30 years with males being affected more than females. Drinking of raw milk was significantly associated with Brucellosis while drinking boiled milk was protective. There should be active public health education on the benefits of boiling milk before consumption. Further studies to elucidate the extent and epidemiology of brucellosis in humans and animals in Southern Sudan are recommended

Mapping climate vulnerability and poverty in Africa

The world’s climate is continuing to change at rates that are projected to be unprecedented in recent human history. Some models are now indicating that the temperature increases to 2100 may be larger than previously estimated in 2001. The impacts of climate change are likely to be considerable in tropical regions. Developing countries are generally considered more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than more developed countries, largely attributed to a low capacity to adapt in the developing world. Of the developing countries, many in Africa are seen as being the most vulnerable to climate variability and change. High levels of vulnerability and low adaptive capacity in the developing world have been linked to factors such as a high reliance on natural resources, limited ability to adapt financially and institutionally, low per capita GDP and high poverty, and a lack of safety nets. The challenges for development are considerable, not least because the impacts are complex and highly uncertain. The overall aims of DFID’s new research programme on climate change and development in sub-Saharan Africa are to improve the ability of poor people to be more resilient to current climate variability as well as to the risks associated with longer-term climate change. The programme is designed to address the knowledge implications of interacting and multiple stresses, such as HIV/AIDS and climate change, on the vulnerability of the poor, and it will concentrate on approaches that work where government structures are weak. To help identify where to locate specific research activities and where to put in place uptake pathways for research outputs, information is required that relates projected climate change with vulnerability data. ILRI undertook some exploratory vulnerability mapping for the continent in late 2005 and early 2006, building on some livestock poverty mapping work carried out in 2002. The work described here is a small piece of a larger activity that involved the commissioning of several studies on climate change and the identification of the critical researchable issues related to development. A project inception meeting was held with research collaborators, to discuss analytical approaches and assess data availability. Over the succeeding few months, data were assembled and analysis undertaken. This involved the downscaling of outputs from several coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (GCMs) for four different scenarios of the future, and possible changes in lengths of the growing period were estimated for Africa to 2050 for several different combinations of GCM and scenario (we used the SRES scenarios of the IPCC). Results are presented on the basis of agricultural system types by country, using a systems classification as a proxy for the livelihood options available to natural resource users. From this, we identified areas that appear to be particularly prone to climate change impacts. These include arid-semiarid rangeland and the drier mixed systems across broad swathes of the continent, particularly in southern Africa and the Sahel, and coastal systems in eastern Africa. The next stage was to consider the biophysical and social vulnerability of these and other areas. To characterise sub-Saharan Africa in terms of vulnerability, on the same country-by-system basis as was done for the climate change impacts, a set of proxy indicators developed at the workshop was pragmatically assessed in relation to data sources, while being guided by the experiences of others in the area. A final set of fourteen indicators was used; three are associated with natural capital, one with physical capital, two with social capital, six with human capital, and two with financial capital. We carried out statistical analysis and reduced this set of fourteen proxy indicators to four components, which were then used to construct an “overall” indicator of vulnerability, and systemsby- countries were then classified in quartiles. These results were then qualitatively combined with the climate change hotspot analysis. The results should be treated as indicative only, and we would caution strongly against their over-interpretation, particularly because the uncertainty associated with them is not yet known. Results do indicate, however, that many vulnerable regions are likely to be adversely affected in sub-Saharan Africa. These include the mixed arid-semiarid systems in the Sahel, arid-semiarid rangeland systems in parts of eastern Africa, the systems in the Great Lakes 4 region of eastern Africa, the coastal regions of eastern Africa, and many of the drier zones of southern Africa. There are several limitations to the analysis and to the availability of data for such work. For the future, considerable emphasis needs to be placed on collaborative efforts to collect and greatly improve the store of baseline information, on understanding very well the needs of potential users, on developing more flexible and generic frameworks for assessing vulnerability, taking advantage of the experiences of others in vulnerability assessment work in developing-country contexts through southsouth collaboration, and on incorporating scenario analysis into the impact assessment framework. The project also involved a study of the potential uses of information concerning climate variability and climate change for effective decision-making. A small survey of potential users was carried out. Findings of the survey confirm the results of other scoping studies: there are broad needs across many different sectors in terms of capacity building and opportunities for research in the future, including vulnerability mapping at different levels. The report concludes with a discussion of the feasibility of expanding the methods and tools used here to develop a tool box that could be used for cross-sectoral ex-ante assessment of interventions related to climate change and coping mechanisms. There are several challenges that have to be addressed, but there are good prospects for developing a useful framework. The work has highlighted two other key points. First, even allowing for the technical problems and uncertainties associated with the analysis, it is clear that macro-level analyses, while useful, can hide enormous variability concerning what may be complex responses to climate change. There is considerable heterogeneity in households’ access to resources, poverty levels, and ability to cope. Vulnerability and impact assessment work can certainly be usefully guided by macro-level analyses, but ultimately this work has to be done at regional and national levels. Second, these results have underlined that local responses to climate change through time are not necessarily linear. In terms of adaptation strategies, far more work is needed on the dynamics of change through time and on the dynamics of household responses. If adaptation itself has to be seen as an essentially dynamic, continuous and non-linear process, this has considerable implications for the tools and methods needed to guide it, and for the indicators and threshold analyses that will be needed. The sciences of climate modelling and vulnerability assessment are developing rapidly, and over time some of the key technical issues that remain are likely to be resolved. At the same time, there are several other issues that have to be addressed. One is the necessity of communities starting to take centre stage in conducting vulnerability analysis and implementation to enhance their long-term capacities for adaptation. Another is the organisational changes that are needed to face the threat that climate change poses to development: climate change is inevitable, and it will add burdens to those who are already poor and vulnerable. A third issue is that Africa appears to have some of the greatest burdens of climate change impacts, certainly from the human health and agricultural perspectives; it is a region with generally limited ability to cope and adapt; and it has some of the lowest per capita emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. The likely impacts of climate change thus present a global ethical challenge as well as a development and scientific challenge, and this challenge has to be addressed by all of us

Background paper on mainstreaming gender into National Adaptation Planning and implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Climate change adaptation is dependent on access to a number of resources, including information, land, financing, and mobility. Successful climate change adaptation, therefore, will need to integrate an understanding of gender and take action on it, including an appreciation for the importance of women in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. This paper undertakes a review of the policies and legal frameworks for gender and climate change, including key UNFCCC decisions on gender and climate change and gender mainstreaming in National Adaptation Planning process. An analysis of resiliency is also included by examining gender inequalities in the ownership, access, and control over natural resources, and seeking to understand how gender inequalities shape, and are shaped by, priorities, experiences, and adaptive capacity in the wake of system shocks. The paper also provides examples of best practices at the policy, institutional, and programme level as well as throughout planning processes

Arm-in-cage testing of natural human-derived mosquito repellents

BACKGROUND: Individual human subjects are differentially attractive to mosquitoes and other biting insects. Previous investigations have demonstrated that this can be attributed partly to enhanced production of natural repellent chemicals by those individuals that attract few mosquitoes in the laboratory. The most important compounds in this respect include three aldehydes, octanal, nonanal and decanal, and two ketones, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone [(E)-6,10-dimethylundeca-5,9-dien-2-one]. In olfactometer trials, these compounds interfered with attraction of mosquitoes to a host and consequently show promise as novel mosquito repellents. METHODS: To test whether these chemicals could provide protection against mosquitoes, laboratory repellency trials were carried out to test the chemicals individually at different concentrations and in different mixtures and ratios with three major disease vectors: Anopheles gambiae, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti. RESULTS: Up to 100% repellency was achieved depending on the type of repellent compound tested, the concentration and the relative composition of the mixture. The greatest effect was observed by mixing together two compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone in a 1:1 ratio. This mixture exceeded the repellency of DEET when presented at low concentrations. The repellent effect of this mixture was maintained over several hours. Altering the ratio of these compounds significantly affected the behavioural response of the mosquitoes, providing evidence for the ability of mosquitoes to detect and respond to specific mixtures and ratios of natural repellent compounds that are associated with host location. CONCLUSION: The optimum mixture of 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone was a 1:1 ratio and this provided the most effective protection against all species of mosquito tested. With further improvements in formulation, selected blends of these compounds have the potential to be exploited and developed as human-derived novel repellents for personal protection

Motives for khat use and abstinence in Yemen - a gender perspective

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Khat consumption is widespread in Yemeni society and causes problems both in economic development and public health. Preventive measures have been largely unsuccessful and the cultivation continues to proliferate. The gender-specific motives for khat use and abstinence were studied to create a toe-hold for more specific interventions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In a quota sample with equal numbers of males, females, abstainers and consumers, 320 subjects were interviewed on their specific opinions about khat and its impact on subjective and public health, and on social and community functioning. Strata were compared in their acceptance and denial of opinions. Notions that could predict abstinence status or gender were identified with multivariate logistic regression analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Male khat users had a strong identification with khat use, while females were more ambivalent. The notion that khat consumption is a bad habit (odds ratio (OR) 3.4; p < 0.001) and consumers are malnuorished (OR 2.2; p = 0.046) were associated with female gender among khat users. Among the females worries about health impact (OR 3.2; p = 0.040) and loss of esteem in the family (OR 3.1; p = 0.048) when using khat predicted abstinence. Male abstainers opposed khat users in the belief that khat is the cause of social problems (OR 5.1, p < 0.001). Logistic regression reached an accuracy of 75 and 73% for the prediction of abstinence and 71% for gender among consumers. (All models p < 0.001.)</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Distinct beliefs allow a differentiation between males, females, khat users and abstainers when targeting preventive measures. In accordance to their specific values female khat users are most ambivalent towards their habit. Positive opinions scored lower than expected in the consumers. This finding creates a strong toe-hold for gender-specific public health interventions.</p

Epistasis between FLG and IL4R genes on the risk of allergic sensitization: results from two population-based birth cohort studies

Immune-specifc genes as well as genes responsible for the formation and integrity of the epidermal barrier have been implicated in the pathogeneses of allergic sensitization. This study sought to determine whether an epistatic efect (gene-gene interaction) between genetic variants within interleukin 4 receptor (IL4R) and flaggrin (FLG) genes predispose to the development of allergic sensitization. Data from two birth cohort studies were analyzed, namely the Isle of Wight (IOW; n=1,456) and the Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study (MAAS; n=1,058). In the IOW study, one interaction term (IL4R rs3024676×FLG variants) showed statistical signifcance (interaction term: P=0.003). To illustrate the observed epistasis, stratifed analyses were performed, which showed that FLG variants were associated with allergic sensitization only among IL4R rs3024676 homozygotes (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.27–3.05; P=0.003). In contrast, FLG variants efect was masked among IL4R rs3024676 heterozygotes (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.22–1.32; P=0.175). Similar results were demonstrated in the MAAS study. Epistasis between immune (IL4R) and skin (FLG) regulatory genes exist in the pathogenesis of allergic sensitization. Hence, genetic susceptibility towards defective epidermal barrier and deviated immune responses could work together in the development of allergic sensitization

Tracking the Feeding Patterns of Tsetse Flies (Glossina Genus) by Analysis of Bloodmeals Using Mitochondrial Cytochromes Genes

Tsetse flies are notoriously difficult to observe in nature, particularly when populations densities are low. It is therefore difficult to observe them on their hosts in nature; hence their vertebrate species can very often only be determined indirectly by analysis of their gut contents. This knowledge is a critical component of the information on which control tactics can be developed. The objective of this study was to determine the sources of tsetse bloodmeals, hence investigate their feeding preferences. We used mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (COI) and cytochrome b (cytb) gene sequences for identification of tsetse fly blood meals, in order to provide a foundation for rational decisions to guide control of trypanosomiasis, and their vectors. Glossina swynnertoni were sampled from Serengeti (Tanzania) and G. pallidipes from Kenya (Nguruman and Busia), and Uganda. Sequences were used to query public databases, and the percentage identities obtained used to identify hosts. An initial assay showed that the feeds were from single sources. Hosts identified from blood fed flies collected in Serengeti ecosystem, included buffaloes (25/40), giraffes (8/40), warthogs (3/40), elephants (3/40) and one spotted hyena. In Nguruman, where G. pallidipes flies were analyzed, the feeds were from elephants (6/13) and warthogs (5/13), while buffaloes and baboons accounted for one bloodmeal each. Only cattle blood was detected in flies caught in Busia and Uganda. Out of four flies tested in Mbita Point, Suba District in western Kenya, one had fed on cattle, the other three on the Nile monitor lizard. These results demonstrate that cattle will form an integral part of a control strategy for trypanosomiasis in Busia and Uganda, while different approaches are required for Serengeti and Nguruman ecosystems, where wildlife abound and are the major component of the tsetse fly food source