Prevention and control of Zika fever as a mosquito-borne and sexually transmitted disease

The ongoing Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic poses a major global public health emergency. It is known that ZIKV is spread by \textit{Aedes} mosquitoes, recent studies show that ZIKV can also be transmitted via sexual contact and cases of sexually transmitted ZIKV have been confirmed in the U.S., France, and Italy. How sexual transmission affects the spread and control of ZIKV infection is not well-understood. We presented a mathematical model to investigate the impact of mosquito-borne and sexual transmission on spread and control of ZIKV and used the model to fit the ZIKV data in Brazil, Colombia, and El Salvador. Based on the estimated parameter values, we calculated the median and confidence interval of the basic reproduction number R0=2.055 (95% CI: 0.523-6.300), in which the distribution of the percentage of contribution by sexual transmission is 3.044 (95% CI: 0.123-45.73). Our study indicates that R0 is most sensitive to the biting rate and mortality rate of mosquitoes while sexual transmission increases the risk of infection and epidemic size and prolongs the outbreak. In order to prevent and control the transmission of ZIKV, it must be treated as not only a mosquito-borne disease but also a sexually transmitted disease

Investigation of flame stretch in turbulent lifted jet flame

DNS data of a laboratory-scale turbulent lifted hydrogen jet flame has been analysed to show that this flame has mixed mode combustion not only at the flame base but also in downstream locations. The mixed mode combustion is observed in instantaneous structures as in earlier studies and in averaged structure, in which the predominant mode is found to be premixed combustion with varying equivalence ratio. The nonpremixed combustion in the averaged structure is observed only in a narrow region at the edge of the jet shear layer. The analyses of flame stretch show large probability for negative flame stretch leading to negative surface averaged flame stretch. The displacement speed-curvature correlation is observed to be negative contributing to the negative flame stretch and partial premixing resulting from jet entrainment acts to reduce the negative correlation. The contribution of turbulent straining to the flame stretch is observed to be negative when the scalar gradient aligns with the most extensive principal strain rate. The physics behind the negative flame stretch resulting from turbulent straining is discussed and elucidated through a simple analysis of the flame surface density transport equation.The authors are grateful for the inspiring discussion with Prof. K.N.C. Bray, and financial support from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is gratefully acknowledged. A part of this work is performed under the collaborative research between Cambridge University and JAXA.This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Combustion Science and Technology on 24 February 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00102202.2013.877335

Identifying network communities with a high resolution

Community structure is an important property of complex networks. An automatic discovery of such structure is a fundamental task in many disciplines, including sociology, biology, engineering, and computer science. Recently, several community discovery algorithms have been proposed based on the optimization of a quantity called modularity (Q). However, the problem of modularity optimization is NP-hard, and the existing approaches often suffer from prohibitively long running time or poor quality. Furthermore, it has been recently pointed out that algorithms based on optimizing Q will have a resolution limit, i.e., communities below a certain scale may not be detected. In this research, we first propose an efficient heuristic algorithm, Qcut, which combines spectral graph partitioning and local search to optimize Q. Using both synthetic and real networks, we show that Qcut can find higher modularities and is more scalable than the existing algorithms. Furthermore, using Qcut as an essential component, we propose a recursive algorithm, HQcut, to solve the resolution limit problem. We show that HQcut can successfully detect communities at a much finer scale and with a higher accuracy than the existing algorithms. Finally, we apply Qcut and HQcut to study a protein-protein interaction network, and show that the combination of the two algorithms can reveal interesting biological results that may be otherwise undetectable.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. 1 supplemental file at http://cic.cs.wustl.edu/qcut/supplemental.pd

Compressive behavior of luffa sponge material at high strain rate

The strain rate effect of luffa sponge material is an indispensable property for it to be used for acoustic, vibration, and impact energy absorption. Compressive tests at different strain rates on cylindrical column specimens of luffa sponge material were conducted over a wide density ranging from 24 to 64 kg/m3. A photographic technique was applied to measure the section area of the specimen with irregular shape. The mechanical properties of luffa sponge material at various strain rates were obtained based on this measurement. The dynamic data were compared to those of quasi-static experiments. It was found that compressive strength, plateau stress and specific energy absorption of luffa sponge material were sensitive to the rate of loading. Empirical formulae were developed for strength, densification strain and specific energy absorption at various strain rates in the macroscopic level by considering the luffa fiber as base material

Inertia effect on buckling-induced auxetic metamaterials

Auxetic metamaterials have enhanced indentation and penetration resistance due to their high shear strength and modulus. Its auxetic performance under dynamic loading cases is an important property for shields and armour applications. In the present study, compressive tests at different impact velocities on buckling-induced auxetic metamaterials were conducted for two different initial geometries. A photographic technique was applied to measure the Poisson's ratio. When the dynamic data were compared with those of quasi-static experiments, it was found that the negative Poisson's ratio for the buckling-induced metamaterial is sensitive to the rate of loading, while the negative Poisson's ratio for the metamaterial with initial auxetic behaviour is insensitive to the loading rate. It was also found that the deformation pattern is similar to that in the quasi-static loading condition when the impact force measured by the test machine is dominated by the inertia force of the metamaterials

Magnetothermoelectric transport in modulated and unmodulated graphene

We draw motivation from recent experimental studies and present a comprehensive study of magnetothermoelectric transport in a graphene monolayer within the linear response regime. We employ the modified Kubo formalism developed for thermal transport in a magnetic field. Thermopower as well as thermal conductivity as a function of the gate voltage of a graphene monolayer in the presence of a magnetic field perpendicular to the graphene plane is determined for low magnetic fields (~1 Tesla) as well as high fields (~8 Tesla). We include the effects of screened charged impurities on thermal transport. We find good, qualitative as well as quantitative, agreement with recent experimental work on the subject. In addition, in order to analyze the effects of modulation, which can be induced by various means, on the thermal transport in graphene, we evaluate the thermal transport coefficients for a graphene monolayer subjected to a periodic electric modulation in a magnetic field. The results are presented as a function of the magnetic field and the gate voltage.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Tunable subpicosecond electron bunch train generation using a transverse-to-longitudinal phase space exchange technique

We report on the experimental generation of a train of subpicosecond electron bunches. The bunch train generation is accomplished using a beamline capable of exchanging the coordinates between the horizontal and longitudinal degrees of freedom. An initial beam consisting of a set of horizontally-separated beamlets is converted into a train of bunches temporally separated with tunable bunch duration and separation. The experiment reported in this Letter unambiguously demonstrates the conversion process and its versatility.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in PR

Composite-fermion crystallites in quantum dots

The correlations in the ground state of interacting electrons in a two-dimensional quantum dot in a high magnetic field are known to undergo a qualitative change from liquid-like to crystal-like as the total angular momentum becomes large. We show that the composite-fermion theory provides an excellent account of the states in both regimes. The quantum mechanical formation of composite fermions with a large number of attached vortices automatically generates omposite fermion crystallites in finite quantum dots.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure