Experimental hut comparisons of nets treated with carbamate or pyrethroid insecticides, washed or unwashed, against pyrethroid-resistant mosquitoes.

The efficacy against mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) of a bednet treated with carbamate insecticide [carbosulfan capsule suspension (CS) 200 mg/m(2)] was compared with four types of pyrethroid-treated nets in veranda-trap huts at Yaokoffikro near Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire, where the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae Giles carries the kdr gene (conferring pyrethroid resistance) at high frequency and Culex quinquefasciatus Say is also pyrethroid resistant. Pyrethroids compared were lambdacyhalothrin CS 18 mg/m(2), alphacypermethrin water dispersible granules (WG) 20 mg/m(2), deltamethrin 50 mg/m(2) (Permanet) and permethrin emulsifiable concentrate (EC) 500 mg/m(2). Insecticidal power and personal protection from mosquito bites were assessed before and after the nets were used for 8 months and hand washed five times in cold soapy water. Before washing, all treatments except permethrin significantly reduced blood-feeding and all had significant insecticidal activity against An. gambiae. The carbosulfan net gave significantly higher killing of An. gambiae than all pyrethroid treatments except the Permanet. Against Culex spp., carbosulfan was more insecticidal and gave a significantly better protective effect than any of the pyrethroid treatments. After washing, treated nets retained various degrees of efficacy against both mosquito genera - but least for the carbosulfan net. Washed nets with three types of pyrethroid treatment (alphacypermethrin, lambdacyhalothrin, permethrin) gave significantly higher mortality rates of Culex than in huts with the same pyrethroid-treated nets before washing. After five washes, the Permanet, which is sold as a long-lasting insecticidal product, performed no better than the other nets in our experimental conditions

From campus to communities: evaluation of the first UK-based bystander programme for the prevention of domestic violence and abuse in general communities

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author under reasonable request.BACKGROUND: Violence against women and girls is a public health epidemic. Campus-based research has found bystander programmes show promise as effective primary prevention of sexual violence. However, evidence regarding domestic violence and abuse bystander prevention specifically, and in community settings generally, is still in development. Further, research has predominantly emanated from the US. Examining proof of concept in differing cultural contexts is required. This study evaluates the feasibility and potential for effectiveness of a domestic violence and abuse bystander intervention within UK general communities-Active Bystander Communities. METHODS: Participants recruited opportunistically attended a three-session programme facilitated by experts in the field. Programme feasibility was measured using participant attendance and feedback across nine learning objectives. Myth acceptance, bystander efficacy, behavioural intent and bystander behaviours were assessed using validated scales at baseline, post-intervention, and four-month follow-up. Results were examined for potential backlash. Analyses used a paired sample t-test and effect size was quantified with Cohen's d. RESULTS: 58/70 participants attended all programme sessions. Participant feedback consistently rated the programme highly and significant change (p ≤ 0·001) was observed in the desired direction across behavioural intent, bystander efficacy, and myth acceptance scores at post and follow-up. Effect size was generally large and, with the exception of Perception of Peer Myth Acceptance, improved at follow-up. Backlash was minimal. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge this is the first UK-based study to examine the potential of bystander intervention as a community-level intervention for domestic violence and abuse. Findings are promising and indicate the translatability of the bystander approach to domestic violence and abuse prevention as well as community contexts. This is likely to be of great interest to policymakers and may help shape future community-based interventions. Further research is now needed using experimental designs engaging diverse community audiences.Bristol City Counci

Random Surfing Without Teleportation

In the standard Random Surfer Model, the teleportation matrix is necessary to ensure that the final PageRank vector is well-defined. The introduction of this matrix, however, results in serious problems and imposes fundamental limitations to the quality of the ranking vectors. In this work, building on the recently proposed NCDawareRank framework, we exploit the decomposition of the underlying space into blocks, and we derive easy to check necessary and sufficient conditions for random surfing without teleportation.Comment: 13 pages. Published in the Volume: "Algorithms, Probability, Networks and Games, Springer-Verlag, 2015". (The updated version corrects small typos/errors

Non-destructive evaluation of reclaimed asphalt cement concrete

Reclaimed asphalt (RA) has been increasingly used as an alternative aggregate in the manufacture of low to medium strength cement concrete. It is the aim here to investigate the behaviour and properties of concrete made with RA, using ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). Most previous investigations using UPV have been into gravel concrete starting between 1–7 days and up to 28 days. In this research, the application of UPV has been extended to cement concrete made with RA aggregate at the very early age, taken here as the period starting immediately after concrete mixing and up to 28 days. An early age test system for continuous ultrasonic monitoring of fresh concretes has been used to assess important properties, such as early age strength, using UPV measurements. Concrete mixes with different water/cement ratios (.4–.7) were used. Empirical models have been produced relating compressive strength and UPV for early age RA concrete

Minimizing the postoperative complications of severe hypospadias using a simple technique

Background The aim of this study was to decrease complication rates in proximal hypospadias surgery.Methods A simple method of stenting using a polypropylene stent has been developed for the most severe form of hypospadias during the period from January 2008 to January 2011 in the Department of Pediatric Surgery. The total number of patients was 46. The patients were classified into group 1 (n= 23), in which a polypropylene stent was used, and group 2 (n= 23), in which a polypropylene stent was not used.Results In group 1, complications occurred in three patients (13.04%), whereas in group 2 it occurred in 12 patients (52.2%). The difference in the total number of complications between groups was highly significant (P < 0.001). In group 1, no patient needed redo surgery, and in group 2 four patients (17.39%) needed redo surgery (P < 0.05). All other patients responded to repeated dilatation in the follow-up.Conclusion Although the sample size was small, this simple modification can decrease the complication rate significantly in the most severe form of hypospadias. Keywords: polypropylene stent, proximal hypospadias, surgical complications, urethroplast

Similarities and differences of pumping conventional and self-compacting concrete

In Practice, Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) is Considered as a Simple Extension of Conventional Vibrated Concrete (CVC) When Pumping is Concerned. the Same Equipment, Materials, Pumping Procedures and Guidelines Used for CVC Are Applied When Pumping SCC. on the Other Hand, It Has Been Clearly Shown that the Rheological Properties and the Mix Design of SCC Are Different Than CVC. Can the Same Pumping Principles Employed for CVC Be Applied for SCC? This Paper Compares the Some Published Results of Pumping of CVC with Those for SCC. a First Striking Difference between Pumping of CVC and SCC is the Flow Behaviour in the Pipes. the Flow of CVC is a Plug, Surrounded by a Lubricating Layer, While during the Flow of SCC, Part of the Concrete Volume itself is Sheared Inside the Pipe. as a Result, the Importance of Viscosity Increases in Case of SCC. Due to the Low Yield Stress of SCC, the Behaviour in Bends is Different, But Quite Complex to Study. Due to the Lower Content of Aggregate and Better Stability of SCC, as It is Less Prone to Internal Water Migration, Blocking is Estimated to Occur at Lower Frequency in Case of SCC. © RILEM 2010

ACE inhibitor and angiotensin receptor-II antagonist prescribing and hospital admissions with acute kidney injury: A longitudinal ecological study

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Background: ACE Inhibitors (ACE-I) and Angiotensin-Receptor Antagonists (ARAs) are commonly prescribed but can cause acute kidney injury (AKI) during intercurrent illness. Rates of hospitalization with AKI are increasing. We aimed to determine whether hospital AKI admission rates are associated with increased ACE-I/ARA prescribing. Methods and Findings: English NHS prescribing data for ACE-I/ARA prescriptions were matched at the level of the general practice to numbers of hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of AKI. Numbers of prescriptions were weighted for the demographic characteristics of general practices by expressing prescribing as rates where the denominator is Age, Sex, and Temporary Resident Originated Prescribing Units (ASTRO-PUs). We performed a mixed-effect Poisson regression to model the number of admissions for AKI occurring in each practice for each of 4 years from 1/4/2007. From 2007/8-2010/11, crude AKI admission rates increased from 0.38 to 0.57 per 1000 patients (51.6% increase), and national annual ACE-I/ARA prescribing rates increased by 0.032 from 0.202 to 0.234 (15.8% increase). There was strong evidence (p<0.001) that increases in practice-level prescribing of ACE-I/ARA over the study period were associated with an increase in AKI admission rates. The increase in prescribing seen in a typical practice corresponded to an increase in admissions of approximately 5.1% (rate ratio = 1.051 for a 0.03 per ASTRO-PU increase in annual prescribing rate, 95%CI 1.047-1.055). Using the regression model we predict that 1,636 (95%CI 1,540-1,780) AKI admissions would have been avoided if prescribing rates were at the 2007/8 level, equivalent to 14.8% of the total increase in AKI admissions. Conclusion: In this ecological analysis, up to 15% of the increase in AKI admissions in England over a 4-year time period is potentially attributable to increased prescribing of ACE-I and ARAs. However, these findings are limited by the lack of patient level data such as indication for prescribing and patient characteristics. © 2013 Tomlinson et al.Cambridge Biomedical Research InstituteBritish Heart Foundatio

Fast Two-Robot Disk Evacuation with Wireless Communication

In the fast evacuation problem, we study the path planning problem for two robots who want to minimize the worst-case evacuation time on the unit disk. The robots are initially placed at the center of the disk. In order to evacuate, they need to reach an unknown point, the exit, on the boundary of the disk. Once one of the robots finds the exit, it will instantaneously notify the other agent, who will make a beeline to it. The problem has been studied for robots with the same speed~\cite{s1}. We study a more general case where one robot has speed $1$ and the other has speed $s \geq 1$. We provide optimal evacuation strategies in the case that $s \geq c_{2.75} \approx 2.75$ by showing matching upper and lower bounds on the worst-case evacuation time. For $1\leq s < c_{2.75}$, we show (non-matching) upper and lower bounds on the evacuation time with a ratio less than $1.22$. Moreover, we demonstrate that a generalization of the two-robot search strategy from~\cite{s1} is outperformed by our proposed strategies for any $s \geq c_{1.71} \approx 1.71$.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Combinatorics of BB-orbits and Bruhat--Chevalley order on involutions

Let $B$ be the group of invertible upper-triangular complex $n\times n$ matrices, $\mathfrak{u}$ the space of upper-triangular complex matrices with zeroes on the diagonal and $\mathfrak{u}^*$ its dual space. The group $B$ acts on $\mathfrak{u}^*$ by $(g.f)(x)=f(gxg^{-1})$, $g\in B$, $f\in\mathfrak{u}^*$, $x\in\mathfrak{u}$. To each involution $\sigma$ in $S_n$, the symmetric group on $n$ letters, one can assign the $B$-orbit $\Omega_{\sigma}\in\mathfrak{u}^*$. We present a combinatorial description of the partial order on the set of involutions induced by the orbit closures. The answer is given in terms of rook placements and is dual to A. Melnikov's results on $B$-orbits on $\mathfrak{u}$. Using results of F. Incitti, we also prove that this partial order coincides with the restriction of the Bruhat--Chevalley order to the set of involutions.Comment: 27 page