Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to avian influenza among poultry workers in Nepal: a cross sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Avian influenza is a considerable threat to global public health. Prevention and control depend on awareness and protective behaviours of the general population as well as high risk-groups. This study aims to explore the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to avian influenza among poultry workers in Nepal.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was based on a cross-sectional study design, using a structured questionnaire administered in face-to-face interviews with 96 poultry workers age 15 and above from the Rupandehi district in Nepal.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The majority of respondents were male (80%), mean age was 35 (SD = 11.6). Nearly everybody was aware that AI cases had been detected in Nepal and that poultry workers were at risk for infection. The major sources of AI information were radio, TV and newspapers. Knowledge about preventive measures was high with regard to some behaviours (hand washing), but medium to low with regard to others (using cleaning and disinfecting procedures or protective clothing). Poultry workers who got their information from TV and newspapers and those who were more afraid of contracting AI had higher knowledge than those who did not. Being employed as compared to being an owner of a poultry farm as well as having a high level of knowledge was associated with practising more preventive behaviours. While on one hand many specific government control measures found a high degree of acceptance, a majority of study participants also thought that government control and compensation measures as a whole were insufficient.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study provides information about knowledge and practices regarding avian influenza among poultry workers in Nepal. It highlights the importance of targeting lack of knowledge as well as structural-material barriers to successfully build preparedness for a major outbreak situation.</p

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at √s = 7TeV

arXiv:1206.4071v2.-- Chatrchyan, S. et al.The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 pb -1 of data collected in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV/c is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeVc is higher than 90% over the full η range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100GeV/c and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV/c. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.This work was supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research; the Belgium Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, and Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek; the Brazilian Funding Agencies (CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, and FAPESP); the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science; CERN; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, and National Natural Science Foundation of China; the Colombian Funding Agency (COLCIENCIAS); the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport; the Research Promotion Foundation Cyprus; the Estonian Academy of Sciences and NICPB; the Academy of Finland, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, and Helsinki Institute of Physics; the Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules / CNRS, and Commissariat á l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives/CEA, France; the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Germany; the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece; the National Scientific Research Foundation, and National Office for Research and Technology, Hungary; the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology, India; the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Iran; the Science Foundation, Ireland; the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the World Class University program of NRF, Korea; the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; the Mexican Funding Agencies (CINVESTAV, CONACYT, SEP, and UASLP-FAI); the Ministry of Science and Innovation, New Zealand; the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; the State Commission for Sci- entific Research, Poland; the Fundaçao para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal; JINR (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan); the Ministry of Science and Technologies of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research; the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of Serbia; the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, and Programa Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Spain; the Swiss Funding Agencies (ETH Board, ETH Zurich, PSI, SNF, UniZH, Canton Zurich, and SER); the National Science Council, Taipei; the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, and Turkish Atomic Energy Authority; the Science and Technology Facilities Council, U.K.; the US Department of Energy, and the US National Science Foundation. Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie programme and the European Research Council (European Union); the Leventis Foundation; the A. P. Sloan Foundation; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office; the Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium); the Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium); and the Council of Science and Industrial Research, India.Peer Reviewe

Search for quark compositeness in dijet angular distributions from pp collisions at √s̅ = 7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions of Z bosons in pp collisions at √(s)=7 TeV

Measurements of the normalized rapidity (y) and transverse-momentum (qT) distributions of Drell–Yan muon and electron pairs in the Z-boson mass region (60<Mℓℓ<120  GeV) are reported. The results are obtained using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36  pb-1. The distributions are measured over the ranges |y|<3.5 and qT<600  GeV and compared with quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations using recent parton distribution functions to model the momenta of the quarks and gluons in the protons. Overall agreement is observed between the models and data for the rapidity distribution, while no single model describes the Z transverse-momentum distribution over the full range

Measurement of the differential cross section for isolated prompt photon production in pp collisions at 7 TeV

A measurement of the differential cross section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb(-1) recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. The measurement covers the pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5 and the transverse energy range 25 < E-T < 400 GeV, corresponding to the kinematic region 0.007 < x(T) < 0.114. Photon candidates are identified with two complementary methods, one based on photon conversions in the silicon tracker and the other on isolated energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter. The measured cross section is presented as a function of E-T in four pseudorapidity regions. The next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with the measured cross section

Transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions of charged hadrons in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

This is the pre-print version of the Published Article which can be accessed from the link below.Charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions in proton-proton collisions at √s=7  TeV are measured with the inner tracking system of the CMS detector at the LHC. The charged-hadron yield is obtained by counting the number of reconstructed hits, hit pairs, and fully reconstructed charged-particle tracks. The combination of the three methods gives a charged-particle multiplicity per unit of pseudorapidity dNch/dη||η|<0.5=5.78±0.01(stat)±0.23(syst) for non-single-diffractive events, higher than predicted by commonly used models. The relative increase in charged-particle multiplicity from √s=0.9 to 7 TeV is [66.1±1.0(stat)±4.2(syst)]%. The mean transverse momentum is measured to be 0.545±0.005(stat)±0.015(syst)  GeV/c. The results are compared with similar measurements at lower energies

Search for supersymmetry in events with b jets and missing transverse momentum at the LHC

A search for supersymmetry is presented using a sample of events with b jets and missing transverse momentum. The search uses a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35 pb(-1), collected with the CMS detector. A total of 0.33(-0.33)(+0.43) (stat.) +/- 0.13 (syst.) events is predicted, using control samples in the data, to arise from standard model processes, and one event is observed in the data. Upper limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the cross sections of benchmark supersymmetric models