Spatio-temporal cluster analysis of county-based human West Nile virus incidence in the continental United States

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>West Nile virus (WNV) is a vector-borne illness that can severely affect human health. After introduction on the East Coast in 1999, the virus quickly spread and became established across the continental United States. However, there have been significant variations in levels of human WNV incidence spatially and temporally. In order to quantify these variations, we used Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic and Anselin's Local Moran's I statistic to uncover spatial clustering of human WNV incidence at the county level in the continental United States from 2002–2008. These two methods were applied with varying analysis thresholds in order to evaluate sensitivity of clusters identified.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The spatial scan and Local Moran's I statistics revealed several consistent, important clusters or hot-spots with significant year-to-year variation. In 2002, before the pathogen had spread throughout the country, there were significant regional clusters in the upper Midwest and in Louisiana and Mississippi. The largest and most consistent area of clustering throughout the study period was in the Northern Great Plains region including large portions of Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, and significant sections of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. In 2006, a very strong cluster centered in southwest Idaho was prominent. Both the spatial scan statistic and the Local Moran's I statistic were sensitive to the choice of input parameters.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Significant spatial clustering of human WNV incidence has been demonstrated in the continental United States from 2002–2008. The two techniques were not always consistent in the location and size of clusters identified. Although there was significant inter-annual variation, consistent areas of clustering, with the most persistent and evident being in the Northern Great Plains, were demonstrated. Given the wide variety of mosquito species responsible and the environmental conditions they require, further spatio-temporal clustering analyses on a regional level is warranted.</p

Ecological Niche Modeling of Potential West Nile Virus Vector Mosquito Species in Iowa

Ecological niche modeling (ENM) algorithms, Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modeling (Maxent) and Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP), were used to develop models in Iowa for three species of mosquito — two significant, extant West Nile virus (WNV) vectors (Culex pipiens L and Culex tarsalis Coquillett (Diptera: Culicidae)), and the nuisance mosquito, Aedes vexans Meigen (Diptera: Culicidae), a potential WNV bridge vector. Occurrence data for the three mosquito species from a state-wide arbovirus surveillance program were used in combination with climatic and landscape layers. Maxent successfully created more appropriate niche models with greater accuracy than GARP. The three Maxent species' models were combined and the average values were statistically compared to human WNV incidence at the census block group level. The results showed that the Maxent-modeled species' niches averaged together were a useful indicator of WNV human incidence in the state of Iowa. This simple method for creating probability distribution maps proved useful for understanding WNV dynamics and could be applied to the study of other vector-borne diseases

Online Single Window Group Action System

The project title is “online single window group action system” The authentic users are wise to of this just one occasion positive identification on his signed. Though security researchers have created nice strides in fighting these threats by protective systems, individual users and digital assets, sadly the threats still cause issues. The principle space of attack is authentication that is after all the method of crucial the accessibility of a user to a specific resource or system. Today, passive or active users are the key thought of security mechanisms. The passive user is simply fascinated by understanding the system. The active user, on the opposite hand, can think about and mirror on easy use, efficiency, note ability, effectiveness and satisfaction of the system. The banking resolution for the users United Nations agency has multiple bank accounts in multiple banks. This interface integrates all existing banks and provides business solutions for each retail and company. The most focus of the applying is maintaining multiple bank accounts a user has. An individual will have checking account in any variety of banks. However it’s exhausting to recollect each bank logins. Thus we've developed an online application wherever an individual will handle all his bank accounts in an exceedingly secure manner

Effect of Different Processing Methods on the Physicochemical Properties and Sensory Evaluations of Sweet Potatoes Chips

Sweet potatoes is a popular root vegetable and highly nutritious. It is highly perishable and the need of processing required to enable it to be shelf stable. However, some processing methods have been degrading nutrient content of the sweet potatoes while increasing the fat content. Hence, the main aim of this research is to identify sweet potato chips which are nutritious and have acceptable organoleptic properties. Thus, the research also conducted to compare the physicochemical and sensory analysis on two types of sweet potatoes based on different processing methods. The processing methods used were deep-fry, freeze-dry, sun dry, air-fry and oven bake methods. The results obtained comparing both types of sweet potatoes mostly did not show statistical significant difference. The physicochemical analysis which shows the nutrition value of sweet potatoes based on different processing methods produced results where the freeze-dried samples tend to have the highest values of ash (1.77 g/100 g), crude protein (5.65 g/100 g) and crude fiber content (3.56 g/100 g). Adversely, freeze-dried samples provided small amount of fat content for both type of sweet potato which are 1.51 g/100 g compared to other samples. However for the sensory acceptance, deep-fried was most acceptable by the panelist with the score of range 5 to 6 in the seven-hedonic scale test. Whereas, the deep-fried sample showed lowest value for the chemical analysis where for ash both type of sweet potatoes (1.19 g/100 g), crude protein (3.74 g/100 g) and crude fiber content (1.62 g/100 g). However, the deep-fried samples had highest fat content for both type of sweet potatoes which are 45.85 g/100 g. Concerning the physical attributes, the sun dried samples had the highest hardness value whereas the freeze-dried samples had the lowest fracturability value which made it least sensory acceptance. Color analysis indicated that orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) retained its colour, but purple-fleshed sweet potato&nbsp; (PFSP) leached its color. Overall, the oven baked samples had moderate amount of ash, crude fiber and crude protein. Besides, it consist lower fat content compared to deep-fried samples. Moreover, oven baked samples obtained similar sensory attributes score of range 5 to 6 as deep-fried samples

Landscape, demographic, entomological, and climatic associations with human disease incidence of West Nile virus in the state of Iowa, USA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>West Nile virus (WNV) emerged as a threat to public and veterinary health in the Midwest United States in 2001 and continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality annually. To investigate biotic and abiotic factors associated with disease incidence, cases of reported human disease caused by West Nile virus (WNV) in the state of Iowa were aggregated by census block groups in Iowa for the years 2002–2006. Spatially explicit data on landscape, demographic, and climatic conditions were collated and analyzed by census block groups. Statistical tests of differences between means and distributions of landscape, demographic, and climatic variables for census block groups with and without WNV disease incidence were carried out. Entomological data from Iowa were considered at the state level to add context to the potential ecological events taking place.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Numerous statistically significant differences were shown in the means and distributions of various landscape and demographic variables for census block groups with and without WNV disease incidence. Census block groups with WNV disease incidence had significantly lower population densities than those without. Landscape variables showing differences included stream density, road density, land cover compositions, presence of irrigation, and presence of animal feeding operations. Statistically significant differences in the annual means of precipitations, dew point, and minimum temperature for both the year of WNV disease incidence and the prior year, were detected in at least one year of the analysis for each parameter. However, the differences were not consistent between years.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The analysis of human WNV disease incidence by census block groups in Iowa demonstrated unique landscape, demographic, and climatic associations. Our results indicate that multiple ecological WNV transmission dynamics are most likely taking place in Iowa. In 2003 and 2006, drier conditions were associated with WNV disease incidence. In a significant novel finding, rural agricultural settings were shown to be strongly associated with human WNV disease incidence in Iowa.</p

Simplifying syntactic and semantic parsing of NL-based queries in advanced application domains

The paper presents a high level query language (MDDQL) for databases, which relies on an ontology driven automaton. This is simulated by the human-computer interaction mode for the query construction process, which is driven by an inference engine operating upon a frames based ontology description. Therefore, given that the query construction process implicitly leads to the contemporary construction of high level query trees prior to submission of the query for transformation and execution to a semantic middle-ware, syntactic and semantic parsing of a query with conventional techniques, i.e., after completion of its formulation, becomes obsolete. To this extent, only, as meaningful as possible, queries can be constructed at a low typing, learning, syntactic and semantic parsing effort and regardless the preferred natural (sub)language. From a linguistics point o view, it turns out that the query construction mechanism can easily be adapted and work with families of natural languages, which underlie another type order such as Subject-Object-Verb as opposed to the typical Subject-Verb-Object type order, which underlie most European languages. The query construction mechanism has been proved as practical in advanced application domains, such as those provided by medical applications, with an advanced and hardly understood terminology for naive users and the public

Landscape, demographic and climatic associations with human West Nile virus occurrence regionally in 2012 in the United States of America

After several years of low West Nile virus (WNV) occurrence in the United States of America (USA), 2012 witnessed large outbreaks in several parts of the country. In order to understand the outbreak dynamics, spatial clustering and landscape, demographic and climatic associations with WNV occurrence were investigated at a regional level in the USA. Previous research has demonstrated that there are a handful of prominent WNV mosquito vectors with varying ecological requirements responsible for WNV transmission in the USA. Published range maps of these important vectors were georeferenced and used to define eight functional ecological regions in the coterminous USA. The number of human WNV cases and human populations by county were attained in order to calculate a WNV rate for each county in 2012. Additionally, a binary value (high/low) was calculated for each county based on whether the county WNV rate was above or below the rate for the region it fell in. Global Moran’s I and Anselin Local Moran’s I statistics of spatial association were used per region to examine and visualize clustering of the WNV rate and the high/low rating. Spatial data on landscape, demographic and climatic variables were compiled and derived from a variety of sources and then investigated in relation to human WNV using both Spearman rho correlation coefficients and Poisson regression models. Findings demonstrated significant spatial clustering of WNV and substantial inter-regional differences in relationships between WNV occurrence and landscape, demographic and climatically related variables. The regional associations were consistent with the ecologies of the dominant vectors for those regions. The large outbreak in the Southeast region was preceded by higher than normal winter and spring precipitation followed by dry and hot conditions in the summer

Effect of the degree of high power impulse magnetron sputtering utilisation on the structure and properties of TiN films

TiN films were deposited using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) enabled four cathode industrial size coating system equipped with HIPIMS power supplies. The standard version of this system allows control over the ion bombardment during coating growth by varying the strength of the electromagnetic field of the unbalancing coils and bias voltage applied to the substrate. The coatings were produced in different coating growth conditions achieved in combined HIPIMS — direct current (dc) unbalanced magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS/UBM) processes where HIPIMS was used as an additional tool to manipulate the ionisation degree in the plasma. Four cathode combinations were explored with increasing contribution of HIPIMS namely 4UBM (pure UBM), 1HIPIMS + 3UBM, 2HIPIMS + 2UBM and 2HIPIMS (pure HIPIMS) to deposit TiN coatings. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) measurements were carried out to examine the plasma generated by the various combinations of HIPIMS and UBM cathodes. The micro-structural study was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique was used to calculate the residual stress and texture parameter. It has been revealed that the residual stress can be controlled in a wide range from − 0.22 GPa to − 11.67 GPa by intelligent selection of the degree of HIPIMS utilisation, strength of the electromagnetic field of the unbalancing coils and the bias voltage applied to the substrate while maintaining the stoichiometry of the coatings. The effect of the degree of HIPIMS utilisation on the microstructure, texture and residual stress is discussed. Combining HIPIMS with dc-UBM sputtering is also seen as an effective tool for improving the productivity of the deposition process