Seropositivity and awareness of Toxoplasmosis among University students

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite that is infecting about one-third of the world population. Awareness about toxoplasmosis and its transmission can help reduce its prevalence. We examined the degree of awareness about toxoplasmosis among female university students. A total of 127 samples were collected, including 44 samples from health colleges students and 83 samples from other colleges. A questionnaire was used to measure the level of awareness about Toxoplasma gondii. Serum samples were analyzed for the presence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody using ELISA technique. Ninety-four (74%) participants were 18-20 years, 27 (21%) were 21-24 years, and 6 (5%) were above 24 years. Only 11 (9%) students eat raw meat and 21 (17%) students had a tendency to eat undercooked meat. Furthermore, only 6 (5%) students received blood transfusion and 33 (26%) students owned a cat at home. Forty-two (33%) students answered that they know about the disease. The majority of participants (n=121, 95%) used bottled water as a source of drinking water. Among the 127 samples collected, only 6 (4.7%) had IgG anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibody. There was statistically significant positive correlation between the level of awareness about toxoplasmosis and the participant's answers about previous knowledge about the disease and a statistically significant negative correlation between the level of awareness about toxoplasmosis and the student's faculty. We recommend that this study is repeated with a larger sample size and a modified questionnaire to include more detailed questions to reveal the true level of awareness

Supervised methods of image segmentation accuracy assessment in land cover mapping

Land cover mapping via image classification is sometimes realized through object-based image analysis. Objects are typically constructed by partitioning imagery into spatially contiguous groups of pixels through image segmentation and used as the basic spatial unit of analysis. As it is typically desirable to know the accuracy with which the objects have been delimited prior to undertaking the classification, numerous methods have been used for accuracy assessment. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of image segmentation accuracy assessment in land cover mapping applications. First the literature published in three major remote sensing journals during 2014–2015 is reviewed to provide an overview of the field. This revealed that qualitative assessment based on visual interpretation was a widely-used method, but a range of quantitative approaches is available. In particular, the empirical discrepancy or supervised methods that use reference data for assessment are thoroughly reviewed as they were the most frequently used approach in the literature surveyed. Supervised methods are grouped into two main categories, geometric and non-geometric, and are translated here to a common notation which enables them to be coherently and unambiguously described. Some key considerations on method selection for land cover mapping applications are provided, and some research needs are discussed

Factors Influencing the Absorption of Textile Dye Dylon Burlesque Red on Activated Carbon

Challenges in cleaning wastewaters from textile industry arise from difficulties faced in removal of dyes found in these wastewaters. This is because the chemical stability of the dyes precludes their removal using typical treatment approaches. Need for better approaches for treatment thus exist to decontaminate such wastewaters so that their disposal in the environment does not pose health and environmental hazards. An approach that can be used to remove these dyes is by adsorbing them onto the surfaces of activated carbon. In this study, the efficiency of commercial activated carbon to adsorb Dylon Burlesque Red was assessed, and the effects of factors such as pH, type of carbon, type of dye, contact time, salinity, and hardness were evaluated. The evaluations were made by testing the absorbance of the prepared dye solutions using a Uv-Vis spectrophotometer after varying the variables that were of interest. The results of the study showed that carbon was effective in adsorbing the dyes used as was seen in the reduction in absorbance in the dye solutions where the carbon was added compared to the solutions where there was not carbon added. Evaluation of the effects of the other factors indicated that pH, salinity, and hardness of water were not significant determinants of dye absorption on water. However, contact time, type of the dye, and type of carbon were shown to affect adsorption of the dyes evaluated. These findings indicated that choice of carbon, allowing adequate contact time, and amount of carbon used could influence the effectiveness of use of carbon in treating dye-containing wastewaters

Beyond pan-sharpening: Pixel-level fusion in remote sensing applications

Abstract—The field of remote sensing is associated with an increasing amount of imagery data, mission after mission. Such an increase makes the application of image fusion techniques in remote sensing important. However, the interrelationship between the two fields is not well-understood. In fact, the term “image fusion ” in remote sensing has usually been limited to one application only, that is pan-sharpening. Image fusion, however, is much broader and can be applied to serve different purposes within the field of remote sensing. This paper aims to show where pan-sharpening fits within the image fusion paradigm, to present some other applications of image fusion in remote sensing, and to highlight the advantages that image fusion can provide. Index Terms—Pixel-level image fusion, image fusion, data fusion, pan-sharpening, remote sensing, image processing, signal processing. I